Free Stuff! (almost)

I got my rebates today, significantly reducing the out-of-pocket cost of maintaining my antivirus stuff. Instead of purchasing a renewal license for my existing Symantec Norton AntiVirus 2007 installation, I got a whole new one, Symantec Norton AntiVirus 2008 from Buy.com, because, of course, it was cheaper (eventually). I’m always looking for deals on stuff I get anyway, so when it comes time to get hardware or software, I shop around a bunch. At the time of this writing, one can buy Symantec Norton AntiVirus 2008 from Symantec for $39.95 (plus shipping of $7.00+, no tax unless you’re in CA, MN, or WA); shopping around, you can find it for a few bucks cheaper with free shipping. Back in June, a few weeks before my subscription expired, Buy.com was running a deal that basically got it to me for $6.41. Pay $35.57 for it at the time of purchase (no tax, free budget shipping) and get two rebates: a $20 “competitive/upgrade” rebate if you can prove you own a previous version or a competitor’s product, and a $10 “if you get it from Buy.com” rebate. So that comes to $5.57 + two 42¢ stamps = $6.41. Not bad for keeping my antivirus software up to date for a year.

I say all this not to congratulate myself on saving $29.16, but to extol the virtues of being patient enough to take advantage of deals when you can. I’m not a big fan of buying seasons 1-4 of The Muppet Show just because you have a 20% off coupon, but if you’re going to get something anyway, deals abound.

A sampling of deals I’ve taken advantage of from this year:

• My QuickBooks 2001 that I had been using to make invoices and keep track of financials for my business was having problems – some related to being too old to get updates, features not working because of their dependence on Microsoft Internet Exploder Explorer version 5. So in March I bought Peachtree Pro Accounting 2008 by Sage for 41¢. Well, it was $145.00 from Buy.com again (free shipping, no tax), with a $145.00 rebate. Total Cost: one stamp to send in the rebate form.
• Ginger’s notebook’s hard drive crashed, so we got her a replacement computer (it was old and slow enough that it made sense enough to replace the whole thing rather than just the hard drive) – a Lenovo ThinkCentre M55e desktop PC from PC Mall for $294.99 ($344.63 including tax & shipping). We saved about $150 because it was an “open box” product but still brand new).
• Our soccer team has taken to going to Buon Giorno after our games on Saturday nights, so when they offered 10% extra on gift card purchases, I was all over it. For $20 down, I got a $22 gift card, which I’m using for my regular purchases.
• At various times, our local Tom Thumb store runs specials on meat. Specifically, it’s great to get Certified Angus top sirloin steaks for $4.99/lb instead of $7.99/lb!

Yeah, you can say I’m cheap. But I prefer “frugal” or “smart”.