Coffee Break: Amazon Prime Day

75 Comments

1. With compliments to my coworker who found these: if you want a quick smile, try looking up “askew” or “anagram” on the ubiquitous search engine. Specifically THAT search engine. But maybe we’re just easily amused around here.

   1. Even better, type “do a barrel roll” into same search engine…

      1. This just made my afternoon!

      2. i love that. but it makes me nauseous

2. My husband got a Fit Bit that is $30 off on Prime Day. I didn’t see anything I needed.

   Question: I’m going to take Thursday off and spend the day with my mom, who is from out of town. She loves nature and the outdoors (she has already done the touristy stuff in DC many times and isn’t into museums). Where should I take her? We live in northwest DC but I would be fine going outside the city, as long as it wasn’t too far of a drive.

   Great Falls? Somewhere else?

   1. Have you visited the arboretum or the Kenilworth aquatic gardens? They are both pretty neat, though it will be really hot Thursday so it might not be the best time to go.

   2. Great Falls! I prefer the VA side because the hiking is a little more manageable (we’ve taken my in-laws). We usually do a 3 mile loop. But if she’s pretty rugged you can do the Billy Goat Trail in MD. The lakes in NOVA are nice too – Burke Lake, Lake Accotink, or Huntley Meadows park in Alexandria.

   3. Yay Kat! My dad is an Amazon prime member, and he sits in front of his 70″ flat screen and watches MOVIES all day. It keeps him busy.

      As for the OP, You should go to Mount Vernon–it is where George Washington lived. He was the first president of the USA and is on the $1 bill. I am sure she will be impressed. She probably does NOT know that George Washington had wooden teeth and also owned slaves, b/c this was BEFORE the emancipation procleamation by President Lincoln. YAY!!!

3. The instant pot 8 quart is marked down to $90. I bought one for my mother.

4. I bought a seeder for my yard (we call it a yard now, but soon it will become a lawn!)… now my journey to the suburban dark side will be complete! Next thing you know I’ll be taking soil samples.

5. I got a Fire HD tablet to replace my ancient one, a dust buster, a bluetooth earpiece, shoes for the toddler, and lots of baby shower gifts to give.

6. On the topic of thank you notes from earlier. I’m a minimalist environmentalist. I ask no gifts because I dont want stuff, I am a-okay with email thank yous but paper is just so bad for the environment. A few older family members have gotten into the habit of sending gifts I expressly tell them not to send and then get huffy if I don’t reciprocate a paper thank you (always an email thank you though). My most recent move I actually didn’t tell anyone my address but it got leaked accidentally to them. I just don’t know what to do at this point since they clearly arent giving gifts out of personal joy, but just to be bitter. I dont want stuff and I don’t want the family politics.

   1. I am very sympathetic to not wanting stuff, but it’s worth considering that some people just. give. gifts. It’s how they say they care about the people in their lives. Is it ideal? For so many reasons, no. But maybe you’d have a better relationship with the gifters in your life and a happier time over all if you were to redirect them kindly. Like “you’re so kind to remember my birthday, but my little house is so full! Next time I’d love it if you’d consider [something else that suits your lifestyle: a consumable you need and use, yoga classes, restaurant gift card, etc.]”

   2. This just can’t be the case. Gift-giving is a really weird way to express bitterness/passive aggression.

   3. Gifting is a love language for a lot of people, and I doubt they’re going out of their way to spend money/pick out a gift just because they are bitter. Like that’s a little crazy (which hey, maybe they are). This is not a hill I would want to die on, so I would just say thank you for the gift, donate it, and email/text a thank you note.

   4. Send a thank you note! What is wrong with you?!? Your handful of thank you cards a year do not matter to the environment.

   5. Send a thank you note, donate the gift, move on.

   6. I get it, but this seems a little overboard. A paper thank you card is not going to kill the environment. And paper is a renewable resource! Trees grow back! (Trust me; I grew up in a place with lots of logging and you can’t even tell now where the clearcuts were.)

      You are not going to change these people, just like they are not going to change you. Accept that and get over it.

   7. Paper is “so bad for the environment”? A thank you note plus envelope is literally comprised of two pieces of paper. My office has thousands, perhaps millions of pieces of paper in it right now. There is no way a paper thank you note is going to break the environmental bank. Plus, as Anon noted, paper is a renewable resource. There MAY be reasons not to send paper thank you notes (although I’m not convinced), but that sure isn’t one of them.

      1. The environmental impact of paper is not really in the paper “itself” (biodegradable, renewable resource) it is on the paper production process, which is heavy on water usage and chemicals.

         Ever been in a city with pull mills? The smell is unbelievable.

         1. *pulp mills

   8. I guess the consensus is roll over and f*ck my morals.

      1. So you never, ever use paper? I’m honestly curious.

         1. With the exception of government things where I can’t avoid it, I do.

            1. Don’t**

      2. Or maybe ease up a little tiny bit and be more reasonable. That’s an option, too.

      3. Yup. Roll over and buy recycled paper and try to be less sanctimonious and unpleasant.

      4. The actions of other people are not causing YOU to roll over and f* your morals.

         Keep sending emailed thank you notes. Maybe this morning’s poster will write them lovely hand written note telling them how you feel and advising they stop sending you gifts as punishments for your sins.

      5. Or donate the gift, send an email thank you, and stop caring that people don’t like that you do this. You can’t control their reactions, but you can control yours. You’ve decided not to use paper; you can’t make other people like it but you can NGAF that they don’t.

      6. Or call to say thank you, instead of the card/email.

      7. What about a “thank you” phone call? Is that an option? I know a lot of my older relatives don’t use email though a surprising amount are on FB and use FB messenger and most are happy to get a phone call. This sounds bad, but if the relationship is difficult, you could even try calling when there’s a good chance that they won’t pick up and have a prepared “thank you note” to read as a voicemail. Or what about recycling something you have at home? The post office will accept photos as postcards, for example, or you could make your own note cards and envelopes from mail and other flyer-type things that you get. It’s certainly more work but it avoids contributing economically to the paper creation process. I agree with the other commenters that some people are just gift givers and you’re unlikely to be able to get them to stop if you’ve already told them that you don’t need gifts. Regift or donate!

   9. I think email thank yous are perfectly acceptable, except in the case of weddings or maybe baby showers (formal written invitation should translate to formal written thank you). But a thank you for a birthday gift, job interview, or unexpected baby gift? I do email for everyone except my 90 year old Grandma who doesn’t have email. And I could call her to say thank you instead of writing but she’s a miserable person so a written thank you is more painless for me.

7. Banks? I’m so mad at Citibank for a bunch of dumb, “what did you expect from Citibank?” reasons.

   So I’m looking for somewhere new! I do *not* have a boatload of money so somewhere that doesn’t charge for non-Bank ATMs? I am happy to do all my banking online, and would love something with a good, simple online interface.

   Do any of you have a favorite?

   1. USAA, if it’s possible for you. We do everything through them and love it (other than being slightly mad about a mortgage issue, but it was resolved eventually). I’ve been banking with them for 15 years and they have never scr3wed me over.

      1. +1

      2. Also USAA fan for all banking.

         On the mortgage note, my real estate agent actually advised against using USAA for financing during a purchase during an intense sellers market. She said that realtors will often tell clients not to accept a USAA backed offer when there are two equal ones in other respects because USAA is notorious for “issues” in the mortgage process. Once I started asking around to other people who are generally raving fans of USAA, I found that many had had mortgage issues with them that made the buying process very stressful. I picked another lender with comparable rates.

      3. +1

      4. Chiming in to say *Stay Away* from USAA for mortgage. Terrible experience. How can you lose documents uploaded to your portal? Listed the wrong spouse as the veteran. Wrong age of the house. Couldnt get the correct wire amount. Had a get to the supervisor’s supervisor and still ended up wiring more money than necessary to close and in was a pain getting it back after closing. If I did as poor a job as their closer did, I would be fired. Also, they’ve messed up paying the insurance from escrow 2 years in a row. The second year after I preemptively called 3 weeks early to ask them to pay.

         Car insurance and banking is great with them. No idea what’s wrong with the mortgage department.

         1. I think they outsourced it a few years back, actually.

   2. Our local credit union refunds up to 3 ATM withdrawals a month. Great customer service (the person answering the phone is at their headquarters 5 miles from me).

   3. I like our Ally accounts. You don’t have unlimited ATM fees, but they reimburse up to around $10/month, which is good enough for us. Their app is very clean, and they allow you to set up multiple savings accounts very easily.

      1. oh, and savings accounts get >1% interest, which is always nice and can be hard to find.

      2. +1 to Ally

         I have once in like 5 years gone over the monthly reimbursement limit for ATMs. $10 is usually more than enough. Their customer service is as responsive as advertised, their app and website are easy to use, their interest rates are decent, and they don’t charge any fees. I’m a fan.

         1. Agree 100% with the recommendations for Ally. I also like Capital One 360 and the bonus of CapitalOne 360 is that in some cities they have ATMs where you can make cash deposits (which can be helpful on occasion).

            1. To add to my above recommendations. I use Ally for my personal accounts and then CapitalOne 360 for joint accounts with my significant other. CapitalOne 360 has been useful because you can open a number of savings accounts and give them nicknames. Aside from the basic emergency fund, we’ve set up temporary savings accounts for vacations, bigger purchases, etc.

               To contrast the two. Capital One’s app is a bit easier to navigate and the check deposit function is easier to use. Capital One doesn’t reimburse ATM fees like Ally does, but they also have a number of in-network ATMS. It used to be that all the 7eleven ATMs were fee free but I think they just changed that in the last month and I haven’t explored where the fee free ATMs are now. Customer service for both Ally and Capital One is great.

   4. I’ve been happy with Ally Bank. Only downside is they put a hold on deposits most of the time (not my payroll deposits, obvi, but the random checks we all deposit from time to time). But they refund ATM fees and I like the web site.

   5. Do you have credit unions in your area? I’ve had the same one since undergrad and do all my banking online. I get physical checks at my current job, so opened a new credit union account in my area. I’ve been happy with both credit unions.

   6. Just bandwagoning for USAA. We didn’t use them for our mortgage (not for any reason – just didn’t), but everything else is stellar: customer service (my name change took 2 minutes vs 8 hours at the DMV), they refund ATM charges, immediate transfers from savings to checking, their car buying service is also stellar. You get the idea.

   7. Thanks, all. Unfortunately no USAA option…

      But Ally looks good. Someone was recommending Schwab, which sounds similar? You *really* don’t get screwed with sneaky fees from Ally? I like to have one checking account and a few savings accounts (like, one really-to-save and one this-just-isn’t-in-checking etc.) so that’s appealing…

      1. I *really* have never been hit with a fee from Ally. The hold on checks can be kind of annoying, but I very rarely receive checks (finally got my parents on Venmo, prayer hands emoji) and never exceed the reimbursement amount for ATM fees. Like you, I like to have several savings accounts – I have three with them, an emergency account, an account to set aside car funds (insurance, maintenance, etc.), and one for travel. It takes like five seconds to set up the new accounts and you can transfer money between them instantly. Also, I had to call their customer service once because I was really stupidly blanking on my password and they were super friendly and didn’t even mock me, haha.

      2. I have also really truly never been hit with a fee from Ally.

      3. The only time I had a fee from Ally was when I had too many withdrawals from my savings account — this was years ago. So now I have multiple savings accounts and no problem at all.

      4. I have Schwab and love it but the interest rate is not good. I like their international ATM no fee feature so I keep a little cash in my Schwab account.

   8. SCHWAB. Holy cow, Schwab is the best. I’ve never paid a fee and have all ATM fees reimbursed (up to like $50/month or something, but I’ve never come close to hitting that limit).

      1. Yes, we love Schwab! Spouse and I having been using Schwab since 2009. Great customer service if you ever have to call. I’ve called to notify them of travel (when I remember), get a replacement card for one I lost, update an address, arrange a wire transfer when we were buying a house. All greatn–non-stressful and speedy–experiences. I think we had to open a brokerage account with the checking but we have nothing in it and we’ve never paid a fee or penalty or anything like that. Besides the reimbursed ATM fees, they give a good rate if you’re taking out money internationally. We almost never use our credit card internationally and just take out money from ATMs as needed.

8. On the Amazon Prime clothing – I just want to note that some of those prices for Maggy London are no better than normal on Amazon, and a couple of the dresses I have on a watch list went up _$30_ since yesterday!!! I agree with others who have warned to be wary of whether the marked “deal” is actually a deal.

   1. Amazon definitely marked certain things up just to mark them down. I had a pair of kids new balance running shoes in my cart for the past week or so at $36. Last night I got on to buy and just out of luck, they were a prime day deal. But, while the shoes were marked down 30%, the price before discount had jumped up to $42. At the end of the day, I still saved a couple of dollars, but it still seems a bit deceptive.

9. I’m disappointed because I was watching a deal, clicked on it the minute it became available, and I was waitlisted! What did they have 10 available or something?

   1. yep. I swear something I clicked on said said “1 available” and sent me straight to the waitlist. and also a bunch of things that always show up to “buy again” were twice the price they usually are. I bought nothing.

   2. Also had this happen, with of all random things, the OXO freezer cubes for baby food. I was in the deal literally 30 seconds after it went live. How many people could really have been jumping on those?

      1. Yes! Mine was twinkle LED lights. Like who was watching that deal??

10. Good deal in the Rusk W8less hair dryer at $47. I like it better than Babyliss and it is much less than the T3.

11. if you buy books and spend over 15$ you can get 5$ off with a coupon code (google it). if you buy a 25$ gc you can get an additional 5$ credit free so i did that as well.

    1. And if you buy an eBook you get a credit for 50% of the price towards another eBook.

12. I’m thinking of refreshing my wardrobe with a few of new outfits. Are there any silhouettes that feel current and aren’t too overly twee? I was thinking of a skirt and couple of tops, maybe one pair of pants, and one or two dresses. I am an extreme hourglass size 12/14, mid forties, and while happy with my current wardrobe, would like to try and refresh some of my looks. Any suggestions would be so welcome! Thank you.

    1. This is just me, and I have a ton of skirts from a couple of years back so it’s not a skirt bias, but I feel like skirts are not having a moment right now. The looks seem to be either dresses or pants. I particularly like ankle pants right now (as in both this moment in time and in the summer in general).

       1. I agree that it is perhaps not a ‘skirt’ season…I have skirts more to solve the issue of my top being a different size from bottom half…even with alteration, and knowing how to sew, dresses that are more fitted/ skim my body are hard to find…the flowy shift dresses sometimes work, but with a big bust can make me look rather frumpy…sigh.

13. I’m feeling ridiculous because I sent my annual email to my awesome neighborhood daycare asking if this will be the year my daughter gets off the waiting list and into a class. Wish me luck. I put her on the list back in early 2015, and I’m still waiting. The kicker is that this daycare is at THE CHURCH THAT I BELONG TO (and donate time and money t0), and she still can’t get in because the list is so long.

    We really like our current center, but having both of my kids attending school/daycare in the same neighborhood would simplify our logistics soooo much.

    1. I feel ya. I sign my slightly pleading check-ins with my address below my e-mail signature in case it helps that I am ONE BLOCK AWAY. (Spoiler: It doesn’t seem to.) We’ve been on since early 2015 too. Sigh. Good luck!

14. Paging Anon for this who posted at 2:31 pm in this morning’s thread about looking for a career coach in Philadelphia. Although I haven’t worked with her or utilized her services, I met Gail Cummings at a Philly Bar event and liked her – so much so that I made a note to myself for if I was ever in need of this type of service.

    https://sites.google.com/site/gjcwebsitev1/

15. A whole bunch of random things during the day. Super hero art for our son’a room, dog treats, granola bars, birthday gifts for kids, cosmetics. Pretty much things that we were already familiar with.

16. I realize no one is able to give investment advice here, but I have no idea where to start. I have around 20k that I had to roll out of my employer plan so I rolled it to Charles Shwab but now it is sitting there like cash. This is to start my retirement investing (I am a teacher so will also have a pension). Do I pick mutual funds? Do I pick something else? I am completely lost at what particular thing to do, their website is greek to me. thank you in advance!

    1. I had a employer plan thru Schwab and hated it – I thought the website interface was really confusing regarding how to purchase funds. I ended up rolling my funds to Vanguard (where I had an account) and did my IRA there.

    2. Warren Buffet advises putting your money into a low fee market fund like vanguard’s s&p 500.

    3. bogleheads.org forum– tons of knowledge and will help educate you on what to look for to maximize your money and minimize advisor fees. So yes to Vanguard and low expense ratio funds.

       Also, please be careful with “rolling out” funds from one plan to another; make sure it is a true rollover and not seen as a cash-out which gets taxed differently. This depends on the type of account you have set up and are rolling from/to; ie 401k vs IRA.

       Congrats on getting started! that is a nice chunk of change to start building your retirement financial security.

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