Saturday, November 27, 2010

Christmas Came Early...

... and right in time for Thanksgiving.

Neither one of us is big on surprises, so when it comes time for gift giving we usually just tell each other what we want or agree to get one big awesome thing we can both enjoy. We did the latter this year.

I had been stalking Amazon for a couple of weeks after I found this beauty on Rue La La for about $250 w/ shipping. I became obsessed.

KitchenAid KSM500PSWH Pro 500 Series 10-Speed 5-Quart Stand Mixer, White
KitchenAid Pro 500 Series Stand Mixer
After a little research I decided to skip the Pro 500 series and set my eyes on the Professional 600 series in Empire Red. I figured with the holidays nearing it was bound to go on sale so I carefully placed it in my Amazon shopping cart and continued to stalk Rue La La, Gilt Groupe, and One King's Lane on a daily basis. About a week later the clouds parted and the skies opened up. The stand mixer I wanted dropped from $380 to $275. I proceeded through the Amazon checkout process faster than you can say Amazon checkout process.

KitchenAid Professional 600 Series 6-Quart Stand Mixer, Empire Red

We've already used her twice! He used her to make zucchini bread (which is delicious by the way) and I used her to make garlic mashed potatoes for Thanksgiving. She works like a beaut!

<3I'm in love<3

A quick note on Amazon stalking: In case you didn't already know this... you add an item to your shopping cart and just leave it there and each time you return to your shopping cart Amazon will tell you if the price has changed. It looks something like this:

Courtesy of GetElastic.com

 

Friday, November 12, 2010

I've been a bad girl!

Well, sort of. I've been a bad blogger, a bad housewife, a bad house remodeler, but a good nursing student. As my instructors keep saying... prioritize your actions!

Thanksgiving is right around the corner and we're hosting this year. And by hosting I mean 10+ people will be staying at our house for the week[end]. Let me paint you a picture of how ready we are to play host to a baker's dozen - we only have one fully functioning bathroom. Oh and the water temperature in the shower sucks so don't even think about showering after someone else.

On a related note, I got a pretty sweet deal on a bed for the basement bedroom! I don't know if you've heard of Groupon.... but Groupon is awesome! If you haven't joined the action yet, you can join by clicking this referral link (it's a deal-of-the-day website that offers special deals at select stores and restaurants in your area and at times they offer nationwide deals). One of the Washington DC area Groupons for this past weekend was $95 for $200 worth of Roomstore furniture. After conferring with Mr. Boss Man, I immediately hit BUY NOW!!!!

I hurriedly typed Roomstore in my browser and began scanning their mattress selection. I'm pretty sure the basement guestroom is too small for a queen bed so I made the executive decision to make our guests sleep on a full size bed. I also made the executive decision to buy a mattress without test driving it at the store because frankly, I ain't sleeping on it so I don't give a damn how uncomfortable it is. Maybe that makes me a bad house host, but whatever... I do what I want.

I settled on the cheapest better quality Hartwick mattress/boxspring set. We opted to pick up the mattress and boxpring ourselves to save us a cool $100 on delivery charges. Hm, hopefully I can add mattress to the list of things that fit in my Prius. I moseyed on over to Amazon and purchased this bed frame to go with the mattress set.

Are you ready for the grand total??

TOTAL COST
Mattress/Boxspring Set @ Roomstore     $349.99
Cost of Groupon    $95
 Picking it up ourselves     FREE
Bed Frame from Amazon (w/ free "Prime" shipping)     $52.99 
Minus the coupons ....
10% off coupon from Roomstore     -$35
Groupon Coupon       -$200
TOTAL = $269.88 (including tax)

Compared to the original full price of $475.93 (including mattress, boxspring, delivery, bed frame, 's and tax) I think I got a pretty sweet deal! 

I just checked and today's Baltimore Groupon is $99 for $300 worth of Ethan Allen furniture. I was sitting next to Mr. Boss Man as I checked out the deal, but before I could even finish saying "Ooooooh" he shot me down. Has anyone else had any sweet deals lately?