Cheap Tricks

UPDATE: This post was originally about an outfit called TryTheWorld and a special offer they featured at holiday time. Apparently I misunderstood the offer, and it’s not online any more to verify. The deal is that you get shipped a box of gourmet goods from a different country every two months, for which you pay $39 shipped. The link above should get you a 15% discount, and you also get a free box with your first order so it may be worth checking out. A negative is that their online support is quite difficult; if you have a problem it will take a lot of back and forth to resolve it.

While on the subject of cheapness, which you know is near and dear to my heart, here are a couple of other strategies:

1. When you’re shopping online, fill your cart and set up an account with your email address, then “abandon” it by just leaving the order there. Very often the retailer will email you with an extra incentive to complete the order. This will not work in all cases, but it can’t hurt to try it, EXCEPT with the daily specials on Amazon where if you don’t buy right away they will sell out and disappear.
2. Want to subscribe to a magazine? Go to the library and find an issue from several years back then shake it so the blow-in subscription card falls out. Very often it will be at a much lower price. Write a check and send it in and see if the magazine honors it. They may because they get most of their revenue from advertising, which depends on paid subscriptions. Won’t always work but you can’t hurt to try it.

That’s it for now. Have a cheap and happy weekend.