I know I make a lot of posts about finding deals online. What can I say? I’m a bargain girl. But lately, the subject of glasses has come up a lot. The necessary evil. Glasses are one of those things you have to have in order to see but they cost a lot. Most people will simply purchase the most affordable/nicest looking pair from their doctor’s office and then be stuck with them for years — until their next appointment and they get a new prescription or until they break. This sucks.

First of all, glasses are a fashion accessory besides being a necessity. You should be able to have multiple pairs to wear in different situations/with different outfits.

Don't get stuck with a pair of these for the next four years because you paid $180 for them and thought they looked ironically cool at the time you tried them on.

Second, you should always have a back up pair in case of the inevitable: You sit on them, you step on them, you drop them, you lose them behind the mattress in a night of passion, whatever.

A few months back, I had a major prescription overhaul. I apparently went from astigmatism but basically able to see without glasses to oh my God why are you driving you’re totally blind you’re going to kill us all. Anyway, after the doc gave me the little paper saying I have broken eyeballs, I skipped out of there, waving goodbye to the sad glasses sales lady.

From the warm glow of my monitor, I then purchased these bad boys:
How much? $100? No. $60? No. $35? No. $20? No, no, no. Wait for it…$8 (plus a little shipping). I get compliments and am asked a lot about where I got them (and the pair I had before) and people seem surprised I got them online. A lot of people have heard of the good deals on glasses online but I think they feel it’s too good to be true and stick with the old school methods. But I am here today to tell you that I have used two different online sites and have been completely satisfied and completely not scammed.

The site I bought this most recent pair from is http://www.zennioptical.com/. Their glasses range in price from $8 to about $30 and that includes the prescription. There are extra charges for bifocals, adding tint, transitions and other special things but who needs that stuff.

I know the site looks a bit sketch, I mean what’s up with this guy?

Sup, guys? Don't mind me I'm just a throwback to Geocities.

continue reading "You buy your glasses at the eye doctor? That’s so 1999."

Many people who know me know I love legit ways of winning things and making money on the Internet — the trouble is finding the legitimate sites. For the most part, you can’t go wrong on sweepstakes and contests sponsored by corporations. For instance, I won the Razer Carcharias headset from Mountain Dew when they were running their Game Fuel competition with Blizzard Entertainment. By watching videos and clicking around the site you made points each day. Those points were essentially like raffle tickets that you could use on their hourly drawings for lots of gamer and Mt. Dew loot — e.g. entering 200 points put your name in the drawing 200 times.

On Twitter, I have won free domain names from NameCheap (yes, this very site is a result of that) and a World of Warcraft prize pack from Blizzard, although it took its sweet time showing up.

MyLikes, formerly Likaholix which I posted about before, has been pretty sweet to me. I’ve won a lot of money (that’s right, cash) through their contests, which simply require that you make a list of likes for specific categories in the contest like “favorite beaches” or “best beer.” The webmasters choose the best lists, usually the most diverse and with the most detailed comments, and send money by Paypal or Amazon gift cards to the winner. 
continue reading "Winning online … this is not a scam … I think."

You think you get a lot of spam e-mails? Try being an editor for a newspaper.

The amount of spam I receive is astounding, and most of it is written like a press release trying to entice me into thinking their product is awesome enough to let the entire population of Hugo, Okla. know about through our fair publication.

Needless to say, I check my e-mails with one finger over the delete button. I read in the Oklahoma Press Association publication awhile back that one paper decided to start sending e-mails back asking to send a sample of their product. Surprisingly, this method has worked and the paper has received items like coffee pots and make up. They then review the items, good or bad. This is a fun idea, but I just don’t have the patience right now.

One junk e-mail has stuck out for me as I have received it about three times now and the product just sort of blows my mind.

Meet the SPIbelt:

Look at that handy little pack. She can fit so many things in it, too! A phone, a wallet, some keys … And it fits right on your hips, one might even say it fits snugly above the fanny. Oh wait, I’ve seen this before:

It’s a fanny pack, people! I’m only an assistant editor not a miracle worker, I cannot bring the ’80s back for you.

Every year, for the past 24, PNC does a Christmas Price Index that calculates the cost of goods for every item in the song 12 Days of Christmas. This is surprisingly a good measure of the economy for the year and inflation. This year, the price is the highest ever at a whopping total of $21,080.10 for 2008, which is $1,573 more than 2007. Of course, if your true love is an online shopper, it’s going to cost them $31,957. If you buy all 364 gifts you will pay $86,608.

Here’s a helpful breakdown for the interested lovers out there:

continue reading "12 Days of Christmas: Gifting your true love is pricey this year!"

Word definitely gets around these days. I was intrigued as I followed an interesting story that came up on the local Craigslist Rants & Raves Web site. When people aren’t bickering and racial profiling, sometimes some interesting conversation comes up.

It all started when one poster pasted a forward he/she had received, on to the board:

“Just passing this info on to others.

I had an interesting situation with the Factory Card Outlet over the weekend that I wanted to share with others. I really bothered me and if you feel the same way, I hope you will pass this story along. My daughter is on the Rock Bridge softball team, and they try to do some community service work when possible. Today they are going to the VA Hospital for a belated Valentine’s Day visit. The coach asked that they each bring as many valentine cards as possible. This had the potential to be a bit expensive, since you can’t really take a box of 40 Power Ranger cards. . . so on Saturday, February 16, Abby and I went out to look for cards at the Factory Card Outlet over by Sam’s Club. I thought I might be able to buy several at a reasonable price. There was no sign indicating any discount on the Valentine card display, so I asked a clerk if they were on sale. She said they weren’t, so I explained I was buying cards to take to the VA and asked if they would make me a deal if I bought a large number. She sent me to talk to the manager. The manager laughed and told me they wouldn’t discount them. As I was talking to him at the counter, another clerk was systematically busting already-blown-up Valentine balloons with scissors and throwing them away. So I asked if they would consider donating these balloons to the veterans instead of throwing them away. He said, “No, we have to destroy them.” I told him that didn’t make any sense to me, since they were already blown up and they obviously weren’t going to sell them and were throwing them away.
continue reading "Word Gets Around"