Just when I had lost all hope in Future Shop’s marketing team, they come up with a pretty decent deal on the last days of deals. Today’s deal is the Kingston 1GB Data Traveler USB Flash Drive (DTI-1GBCR) for $39.99 $12.99.

Pros:

– $12.99 is a good price for a 1GB USB flash drive.
– This is a high quality and reliable device. When it comes to storing data this is one of the most important features to look for. You don’t want to store a presentation on the device to find that it has malfunctioned right before you start your presentation!
– 1GB is large enough to store a bunch of mp3s or even a movie file 🙂

Cons:

– Future Shop now charges shipping. Make sure the shipping isn’t too large to ruin the deal. Shouldn’t be a problem for most provinces.
– It’s not a very fast device. This shouldn’t be a problem for the regular user. Unless your time is ultra-precious (but then you shouldn’t be reading this in the first place ;-)), don’t worry about it.
– Not very easy to attach to your key chain (small slot).
– The white looks ugly.
– Cover may get lost if you don’t handle it with care.

All the cons are really minor and I’m personally buying one of these.

Click here for to buy this from Future Shop online

Robert D. Gibb is posting a stunning series of articles on Air Miles on the forum. I found the series very useful and enlightening so I’m posting it on the blog as well.

Robert D. Gibb is a Contributing Editor (DRIPs) at the Canadian MoneySaver Magazine. You can read his articles at CanadianMoneySaver.ca. Here’s one of his most recent articles.

Thanks Robert 🙂

Based on my recent post on the “Buy 5 Get 50 Air Miles” this week at Safeway there’s been some interest after the post was placed on the Blog.

There were several questions and I spent a good hour composing a post answering them in depth. Not realizing I had to include my e-mail it was lost into hyperspace.

So I recomposed (and we all know how painful that can be) a shorter reply, filled in all the boxes and it seems to have disappeared as well. Ah! the mysteries of the Internet.

So I’m going to post several threads (over several days) on the forum instead regarding Air Miles. The first will explain my logic (insert your own joke here!) at deriving a value of $0.12/AM.

I know many people use a “dollars spent per Air Mile system” to derive value. E.g. 2 products in the same 10 Get 50 offer but with different prices: A = $2 B = $4

$20 of A gets 50 AMs while it takes $40 of B.

Clearly A accumulates AMs quicker.

But what if item B is what you use and it’s on sale while perhaps item is something you rarely use? It’s something to consider.

However, I also think it’s important to know what an AM can get you. This is where I place a value of $0.12/AM.

How this is derived:

(Note: the value of an AM can be much higher than this but I’ll explain later.)

To value an AM use this formula:

Total Cost of Item/Number of AMs = Value/AM

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The best way to print the coupon is to have Kelsey’s email it to you.

Click here to have Kelsey’s email you the coupon

This isn’t the referral event; Just a regular 20x event, For your info the referral events take place at the beginning of each season, so the next one will be at the beginning of summer.

As for the 20x the points event on March 24, here are the details:

ONE DAY ONLY! Saturday, March 24th

GET 20x THE POINTS ON ALMOST EVERYTHING WHEN YOU SPEND $50 OR MORE*

Points are issued according to the net pretax purchase total of eligible products after redemptions and discounts and before taxes using a valid Shoppers Optimum Card(TM). Excludes prescriptions, bonus points, products that contain codeine, non-pointable items, stamps, transit tickets and passes, event tickets, electronic gift cards, prepaid phone cards, Life Experiences packages and Shoppers Home Health Care locations. Offer applies to photofinishing services that are picked up and paid for on Saturday, March 24, 2007. Offer valid Saturday, March 24, 2007 only. See cashier for details.

Click here for more details on these HP Canada deals

Click here for more details on these HP Canada deals

– Aluratek 250GB External USB Hard Drive $150 $89
– Garmin StreetPilot C530 Portable GPS Navigator $549 $449
– Phillips SHN9500 Noise Cancelling Headphones w/ Travel Case $120 $69

Shipping is free

Click here for more details on today’s Dell deals

Click here for more details on these HP Canada deals

Click here for to buy this from Future Shop online

– Sanyo 5.8GHz Digital Multi-Cordless Telephone w/ CID & Two Handsets $139 $59
– Dell Ultrasharp 2407WFP 24″ Widescreen LCD Monitor $849 $649
– Targus Toploading Topflight Notebook Case & Optical Wireless Mouse $248 $79

Shipping is free

Click here for more details on today’s Dell deals

Click here for the Costco Canada East coupons

Click here for the Costco Canada West coupons

Earn:

– 5,000 Shoppers Optimum Points when you complete a no cost hearing test

– 100,000 Optimum Points when you purchase a set of hearing aids.

You must be over 45 years of age to take the free hearing test and get your 5000 points. Maybe convince your granny to take the hearing test… it’s worth 5000 points 😉

For more information and hearing healthcare centre locations click here

Thanks to operabob for taking the time and effort to post this wonderful info on the forum 🙂

OK, so here’s this week’s update from/for the AirMiles Fanatic.

Safeway usually runs each “Buy 5 Get 50 Airmiles” promo on house products for two weeks. Sometimes though items that are also on sale in the first week are not on sale in the second week.

The “wacko” offer on no-namr Mac & Cheese is still good:

Buy 5 @ $0.59 and get 50 AMs

I call it wacko because about twice a year it is possible to actually get more in AMs than the cost of the product. In this case:

$2.95 in product cost gets $6.00 (approx.) equivalency on physical products at AirMiles.

This oddity has occurred on sponges a couple of times in the past.

Familiar elligible products on sale this week 5 for 50 House Brands:

Pie Filling-Reg. 3.99 Sale. 3.59

Tortilla Chips 900 gram- Reg. 3.99 Sale 3.39

Herbal Shampoo 355ml-Reg. 2.89 Sale $2.50

For those unfamiliar with the Buy 5 Get 50 you can mix & match. Any combination of 5 elligible products gets 50 AMs.

Best Name Brand Offer of the Week:

Kellogg’s 2 Scoops of Raisins/Mini-Wheats Cereals 475gram box

Safeway claims to sell these regularly @ $5.99 each. This week only (until Saturday) they are $2.50 with a Club Card. Buy 10 get 60 AMs (approx. $7.20).

So 10 boxes = $25 + $7.20 bonus AMs.

How does this stack up against larger sizes & house brands at the moment?

Safeway’s price on Jumbo box (1,475 gram) 2 Scoops Kellogg’s is $10.99 with no AirMiles.

Three 475g boxes = 1,425 g (50g less = approx. same) = $7.50 = 31% less and you get AMs.

So buying the small boxes in bulk is better this time.

Compared to the House Brand:

1 Kg House Brand Reg. 5.22 On Sale $4.72 and part of the Buy 5 Get 50 this week.

1 KG equivalent on the Kelloggs 475g offer is about $5.22 but you do get more AMs for less volume.

In this case, if you’re like me and willing to buy bulk and store I’d opt for the Kellogg’s offer.

Also take into account that Safeway’s prices are often higher but in combination with this deeply reduced price and accompanying AirMiles I think it’s a good’un!

OB

Click here for more details on this Black’s promotion

Here’s a story by James R. on how far the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) has gone to stop people from taking camcorders – or any video recording device – into the theaters. This not only happens in the US… this event took place in Toronto. What bothers me personally is not the bad theatre experience, but how easily we’re giving up our privacy rights.

This was posted on politechbot (it was not emailed to me)

By James R:

My girlfriend and I are writers here in Toronto and I thought I’d share this, as if you needed evidence that privacy abuses are out of hand, here’s our completely insane experience with the MPAA from last night.

I wonder what kind of dystopian cyberpunk future we live in when you are physically searched before entering a movie theatre.

Last night (November 3rd), my girlfriend brought me along to see a screening of Derailed at the Paramount theatre in Toronto, which she had to review for a magazine she works for. The lineup for the screening was unusually long, as I think they also fill seats at press screenngs with radio call-in winners, who in hindsight, might have accepted such poor treatment in exchange for the ostensible privilege of paying for $30 worth of parking and fast food at a free $13 movie.

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