Welcome to Smuggle Me

I have a friend that is really good at scouring the internet to find all sorts of ways to save money or even make money in many cases. His wife would always make fun of him for how much time he spends online looking for deals and ways to make money.

My favorite is when he combined a whole bunch of deals from credit cards and ended up with a stack of cash, miles and other benefits. Although, the funniest one was when he made his wife wait 30 minutes to go to dinner so that he could get a discount which would save him $0.80. Shows you how serious he is about saving money.

Well, I was talking to him the other day and told him he should start a blog about all the various deals he finds. After our discussion, I helped him out and setup Mound of Money. He’s already created a post talking about getting discount hotels and Obama’s Cash for Clunkers program. Watch that site and I think you’re going to really like what he posts.

Also, if you like what he’s written do him a favor and stumble some of his posts. Thanks!

Do you like clearance sales? Well I just found out about a great one! Sears is having a HUGE clearance sale until Saturday, April 18, 2009. They are offering 75-80% off original prices on most fall and winter apparel.

I know that fall has been over for a while now and we are at the end of winter, but now is a great time to buy clothes for the next fall and winter seasons, especially when the clearance sale is this huge. The apparel can also be a great birthday present for someone who has an early fall/winter birthday.

I was quite impressed as I was looking through the online catalog. Every time I have shopped at a huge clearance sale, there was never a wide variety of clothing. However Sears is offering a “Clearance Clothing for the Family.” Their featured categories are for women, women’s plus, men, juniors, young boys and girls, and infants.

My favorite outfit was the Apostrophe Tunic top and pants.

It is on sale for $5.99 each, but is normally $36.00 each. This was my favorite outfit because it can be a casual outfit, yet it can also be considered business attire too. It also has a squareneck design and fits loosely, so it could possibly be worn during the summer as well. My wife will love it.

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There are a ton of great Las Vegas shows that have plenty of tickets available for those interested in catching some of the best entertainment in the world. Check out just a few of the most popular shows on the strip. Ticket prices start at $35 for a Las Vegas show. Click on one of the shows to buy your tickets now.

Penn and Teller (Las Vegas Shows Only)

Blue Man Group (Las Vegas Shows ONLY)

Jersey Boys (Las Vegas Shows ONLY)

Phantom – the Las Vegas Spectacular

Wayne Brady (Las Vegas Shows Only)

Comedy Pet Theater (Las Vegas Shows Only)

Fab Four Live (Las Vegas Shows Only)

Scarlett- Princess of Magic (Las Vegas Shows Only)

American Storm (Las Vegas Shows Only)

Mesmerized (Las Vegas Shows Only)

I’ve personally seen Blue Man Group and Phantom and they are both spectacular experiences. I’ll give the edge to Blue Man Group, because it’s so unique and different. Plus, it hits all of your senses in such a variety of ways. The ending of Blue Man Group also just can’t be described. I’ll leave it at that so I don’t give too much away.

The comedy pet theatre is done by a guy named Popovich that I first saw on America’s Got Talent. Nice to see he’s making a living with a show on the las vegas strip.

Anyone else have Las Vegas shows that they like on the list?

As I’ve done in 2006 and 2007, I’m going to list again all the rare McDonald’s monopoly pieces for all to enjoy. This time I’m also going to list the prize that is associated with the McDonald’s monopoly piece. Lots of good prizes out there if you find the rare monopoly piece which is used to determine the odds of winning.

As always, if you’re missing the monopoly pieces that aren’t the rare ones, you can go and purchase the McDonald’s Monopoly pieces on eBay. This way you only have to look for the rare pieces and then purchase the rest of them on eBay if you happen to get one of the rare ones.

Golden Avenue is code number 271 and wins a prize of $100,000
Water Works is code number 279 and wins a prize of $50
Mediterranean Avenue is code number 251 and wins a prize of $100
Vermont Avenue is code number 254 and wins a prize of $1,000
Virginia Avenue is code number 258 and wins a prize of $2,000
Tennessee Avenue is code number 260 and wins a prize of $5,000
Kentucky Avenue is code number 262 and wins a prize of $10,000
Ventnor Avenue is code number 266 and wins a prize of $25,000
Pennsylvania Avenue is code number 270 and wins a prize of $50,000
Boardwalk is code number 274 and wins a prize of $1,000,000 (annuity)
Short Line is code number 278 and wins a prize of $500

Let me know if you find one of the rare ones. I have a feeling this year one of my readers is going to win one of the big McDonald’s monopoly prizes. I just wish they had a monopoly piece on their sausage egg mcmuffins. Then, I’d have a great shot at winning.

Today I saw a tweet that linked to GIMPShop. I’ve been a big fan of GIMP for obvious reasons. It’s free. However, I have been disappointed with certain things that I liked much better in Photoshop, but was unwilling to pay for. I’m going to try out Gimpshop when I next have to edit an image (that would be tonight I think) and see how it goes. Looks like a nice free alternative to GIMP.

I’ve always been about free calls ever since about 2000 when I first saw the free phone call service which I used extensively as a poor college student who couldn’t pay long distance costs. It’s become less of an issue these days with cell phones, but there are a number of times that I’ve wanted to make a call on my computer and not have/use a cell phone. Techcrunch just posted about IconDial being a new free service.

The best part of IconDial is that you can call any number in the world for free. I’m hoping to try my friends cell phone in Italy which is usually really expensive to call from the US. Too bad he’s probably in bed right now.

The sad part is that I think Techcrunch is probably right. However, my guess is that a new VC will fund the next startup to see if they can do it again. So, we should have a perpetual supply of free phone call websites until the costs of the phone call are free. Someone’s going to do it sooner or later and if they don’t VCs will continue funding it until it does happen.

Today I was notified that Chase users can get $100 off the Amazon Kindle. Here’s the message:

Thanks to Chase, your readers may be eligible to receive $100 off the regular Kindle price. Amazon.com’s revolutionary wireless reading device now has more than 160,000 books plus top newspapers and blogs available and is more affordable than ever with this limited time offer from Chase.

I’m sure this is a way for Chase to be able to get more people using them, but what’s Amazon doing? Is Amazon helping to subsidize the cost of Kindle so that it can sell other Amazon products? Either way, if you’ve been looking at a Kindle and use Chase, then this deal is worth taking a look at.

As a person working in technology I have tons of people at work that come up to me and ask me for some help in purchasing a computer. Generally I find this a painful experience because there are a zillion options and people don’t generally know what they want. However, if it is someone I like then I usually pull up my big girl panties and help them out, because I know that if I don’t then they are going to get ripped off and pay twice what I could find for them.

Even for people I don’t really care to help I always direct them to a site I’ve been using since I was in college called Tech Bargains. My favorite addition to their site was their easy link to Dell Deals. I love purchasing a dell computer and using various tricks that Tech Bargains has to get the best discount. My wife recently bought a digital camera on a whim. I wish she would have checked out the cheap digital camera list that Tech Bargains has. I think we could have saved some money, but oh well. At least she got a good discount where she got it and it looks like it should be a pretty nice camera.

I highly recommend watching tech bargains for good deals on computers. That’s what I’ve used for buying my computers and many of my friends. Sometimes you have to watch for the deals to come around, but I’ve been able to find some good ones.

UPDATE: Here’s a link to the 2008 Rare McDonald’s Monopoly Pieces

I’m sure that most of you that are reading this already know that you really only need to find one of the set of McDonald’s Monopoly pieces. If you get the rare McDonalds Monopoly piece, then you are essentially a winner. Find the rare piece and I’ll find you the rest of the pieces if you need them. In fact, you can just go and purchasedthe McDonald’s Monopoly pieces on eBay if you need them.

Either way, I still love McDonald’s monopoly game. Mostly because of the free food that you can win. I just love McDonald’s sausage egg mcmuffins. So good!!

Here’s the list of McDonald’s monopoly pieces for 2007 and the ones that are rare are in bold. Good luck!

#801 – Mediterranean Avenue
#802 – Baltic Avenue

#823 – Reading Railroad
#824 – Pennsylvania Railroad
#825 – B&O Railroad
#826 – Short Line

#803 – Oriental Avenue
#804 – Vermont Avenue
#805 – Connecticut Avenue

#806 – St Charles Place
#807 – States Avenue
#808 – Virginia Avenue

#809 – St James Place
#810 – Tennessee Avenue
#811 – New York Avenue

#812 – Kentucky Avenue
#813 – Indiana Avenue
#814 – Illinois Avenue

#815 – Atlantic Avenue
#816 – Ventnor Avenue
#817 – Marvin Gardens

#818 – Pacific Avenue
#819 – North Carolina Avenue
#820 – Pennsylvania Avenue

#821 – Park Place
#822 – Boardwalk

Looking for free McDonald’s monopoly pieces? Send a hand-printed, self-addressed stamped envelope to The Monopoy 2007 Game at McDonalds, Game Piece Request, PO Box 49308, Strongville, OH 44149-0308.

I have to confess that I personally have been a huge slacker in proper use of a savings account. I’m an idiot for doing it, but I fall in the same boat as the most of you. It’s just so convenient for me to have my money in the same bank as my checking account. Who cares if I’m not earning crap for interest. Well, I think I’ve had about enough of that. Look at this offer from SavingsAccount.com

Compare high yield online savings accounts and find a new savings account or checking account and earn more interest today with SavingsAccounts.com

SavingsAccounts.com is a new site on the internet, but they have all the big name banks right there. It’s not like they are trying to have you sign up with Bank of Nigerian Scam Artist. These are big name banks. I’m an idiot for not switching my savings over earlier. The interest rates for online savings accounts really is a great deal and 6% is much better than the banks less than 1%. It’s nice to have a teller, but it’s nicer to have more money in my savings account.

This post sponsored by SavingsAccounts.com