Tuesday, July 31, 2007

4012

A pricey week at home in Columbus

Yesterday when I was at Meijer's buying groceries I stopped at the camera counter and bought a Canon Selphy CP720. I'd never even considered buying a printer for photos, but when my niece Cindy was here last week she showed me some views on her digital camera and asked which I'd like to have (of the family when she visited in Illinois). She pulled out a small, padded 6-pack cooler, and inside was a little 8 x 6 printer and she also had room for her camera and all the cords and instruction books in it (plus a soft drink on top). She said it was a lot handier than trying to remember later what people wanted. It probably isn't as cheap (about $.28 a print) as taking it to Wal-Mart or CVS, but for traveling as they had been doing for a month, it worked well. Hers was an early model with a docking station. The one I bought just needs to have the photo card inserted and you can select from the viewer on the top. The clerk at Meijer's was very helpful and also explained the Kodak Easy Share in detail, but they didn't have any.
Then this morning the wallet started to leak again around 8 a.m. at Kohl's with the 15% senior discount. I bought a pair of KEDS that I think will work for our trip to Ireland--I really wanted the taupe color but there were none in my size. I took my walk in them today to start breaking them in.
Then I went to Staples to pick up my laptop which I had left for a tune up and a software re-install. It had failed 2 weeks ago when I was at Lakeside (big blog withdrawal). The re-install removes all the files I had, but they were primarily photos and I think I'd captured most on disk. I had a nice comforting chat with Mike the tech; he told me which stuff was outdated and what he replaced it with and it did all the software security updates which I hadn't bothered with. I had a $29 Staples reward check, and $6.00 for returning ink cartridges, so my total with tax was only $26.43. I haven't turned it on yet. Fingers are crossed for a happy ending and more blogging at Lakeside.

I stopped at the American Cancer Society Discovery Shop and bought 7 china soup bowls that almost match my good china. I'd waited months for them to break up the set (didn't want the whole thing, only the bowls), and finally got them for $4 a piece. They are not the fine quality of my Syracuse china (now discontinued), but if I turn down the lights, who will know? Although I am in trouble if I invite 6 for dinner. If I tried to buy replacement china to match my set now, I think I'd pay about $70 per soup bowl, if I could find them (Countess pattern).
The cheap china bowl with the expensive china plate. Pretty good match.

Then it was back to Staples to look for the Easy Share digital camera I couldn't get at Meijer's. I had a $30 coupon for a $150 purchase. The camera was $129, a 2 gig card about $19, and a box of paper for my new little printer brought the price tag up. But as it turned out, they were also out of the Easy Share. The clerk called the Hilliard store (didn't know there was one), so I went there for my next purchase.When I got home I mentioned to my husband that gasoline was $2.51 across the river, but within the hour when he went back, it had gone up to $2.69. Now I have a couch full of boxes, equipment, instructions, software, paper and a shoe box.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh, you are as frugal as I am. Perhaps it is a librarian thing.

I wish you had sent me your comptuer, as most of the places are an arm and a leg for simple file installations. Heck, they want $39 to jam a stick of memory in a slot. A third grader with a phillips screwdriver could do it in 30 seconds. I think I can equal a third grader if only I could find that phillips. It seems like you came out unscathed.

If you find the wallet leaking again you might want to try woot.com, fatwallet.com and ProBarginHunter.com, sites I regularly visit.

Norma said...

What I really need is a 10 year old grandchild, but I don't think they come in those sizes right out of the box. Also, in the long run, it is probably cheaper to pay a tech. The last one who reinstalled my software was a guy I met at the coffee shop.

JAM said...

Looks like some really nifty deals. And for mostly fun stuff too. Shopping isn't fun when you're buying replacement parts to stop the leak in your toilet.

Now buying a camera and a photo printer, THAT kind of shopping is fun.

You'll have to give us a report on how long the ink cartriges last. Do those things use the same ink as an inkjet printer?

Inquiring minds want to know.

Norma said...

JAM--these cartridges sort of look like unborn offspring from my old 4L HP. Those would last a couple of years. I have no such hope for these. Ink is by far the worst buy in the technology field.