In fact, many of these scams are run from Romania.  And if you send the scammers money, you will never see any of it back.

Unlike sites such as eBay where you can check the reputation of a seller, on Craigslist it’s the wild wild west.  Anything goes, and the crooks just change their names and keep posting.

To avoid falling for one of those online scams, be sure to educate yourself before you go shopping online.

Well Mr. Cheap is no dummy, ten bucks is ten bucks after all, so we signed up for the offer on FreeShipping.com.

Of course you can get free shipping on other sites, such as Amazon, by spending a certain amount each time you order. Even on eBay, many merchants are now providing free standard shipping when you order. But for most other sites, you still have to pay shipping on each and every order.  That is where FreeShipping.com comes in.

This is their deal:

• They give you a free month, and after 30 days you pay $13 each month to be a member
• If you buy from any of the 1,800 merchants they have listed, they either give you free shipping on the purchase or rebate you the first $10 of the shipping costs.
• You can get up to 12 of these rebates per year per merchant. There’s no limit to the free shipping offers you can redeem, but only about 200 merchants participate in the free-shipping program.  For the rest, you’ll have to apply for a rebate.
• If you return something that you ordered through their site, they will rebate up to $10 of the return shipping cost, if that was not covered by the merchant you ordered from.
• You can cancel membership at any time

The way to get your rebate is to fill out a screen telling them who you bought the stuff from, what it cost, and the order number. Then they give you a rebate number and tell you to email them the order or shipping receipt from the merchant.  They claim you will get the rebate in 3 to 6 weeks.

They work with some pretty well-known sites, including 1-800-Contacts, eBay, Best Buy, and Macy’s, so it’s probably a legit service.  We’ll keep an eye on our mailbox and let you know if the rebates come through OK.

The winner and 7 friends will have a free one week stay at the lakefront vacation home.  We’re assuming you have to pay for your own travel and meals.  More details are available at the VacationHomeRentals.com site.

While high-end vehicles usually offer an entertainment system option, that leaves out the rest of us cheapskates. Well some poking around revealed that you can have a TV in your car, even if you have to install it yourself.

First some caveats:  In many states it is illegal to install a video player or TV where the driver can see the screen.  So this means that entertainment systems are for the passengers only.

The other downside is the antenna.  You can’t mount a large antenna on top of the car, or it will blow off as you’re riding down the highway.  So the portable car TVs mostly come with smaller-type antennas.

Also, don’t expect great reception.  Digital TV, which all TV is these days, requires a fairly stable, non-moving antenna.  So rolling down the highway at speed is likely to leave your TV picture rolling up and down the screen.

But that said, if TV in the car is your goal, check out this Phillips 7″ car TV at Amazon, only $79 with free shipping. Not bad for a portable system, plus it plays DVDs too.  That’s good for when the TV reception is less than stellar.

Happy Motoring!

It’s their way of saying Thank You to their loyal customers.

Be sure to stop in between 12 Noon and 8 PM on Tuesday to get your free cone.

What’s your favorite B&J ice cream flavor?

Let us know in the comments.

In honor of leap day Google Music is offering 29 albums for $2.99. The 29 albums include many of our pop music favorites – from Maroon 5 to Rihanna to the Rolling Stones – current hits and classic favorites. This sale is for one day only, so act fast!

Artists include Drake, The Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, Van Halen, Jay Z, LMFAO, Taylor Swift, Amy Winhouse, Dr Dre, Lady Antebellum and many more.

When mega-retailer Target decided that they needed to know what was inside shopper’s bellies, they really meant inside, even trying to find out when female shoppers were pregnant:

“We knew that if we could identify them in their second trimester, there’s a good chance we could capture them for years,” Pole told me. “As soon as we get them buying diapers from us, they’re going to start buying everything else too. If you’re rushing through the store, looking for bottles, and you pass orange juice, you’ll grab a carton. Oh, and there’s that new DVD I want. Soon, you’ll be buying cereal and paper towels from us, and keep coming back.”

Merchants have learned that shoppers have predictable shopping patterns, they tend to do the same thing time and again. So the key is to get them to break out of the pattern, to try something new. And knowing who you are helps Target target you.

Experiments on rats showed that animals do a lot of thinking trying to figure out how to get to something they really want.  But the next time they went to that same place, they didn’t need to do a lot of thinking, because their pattern had already been established.

Retailers and consumer products companies have learned from those poor rats.  They now use rat patterns to try and figure out people patterns. That means they really study the heck out of us. Proctor and Gamble’s clever marketing strategy for Febreze was figured out by watching how normal consumers cleaned their houses:

Cleaning has its own habit loops that already exist. In one video, when a woman walked into a dirty room (cue), she started sweeping and picking up toys (routine), then she examined the room and smiled when she was done (reward). In another, a woman scowled at her unmade bed (cue), proceeded to straighten the blankets and comforter (routine) and then sighed as she ran her hands over the freshly plumped pillows (reward). P.& G. had been trying to create a whole new habit with Febreze, but what they really needed to do was piggyback on habit loops that were already in place. The marketers needed to position Febreze as something that came at the end of the cleaning ritual, the reward, rather than as a whole new cleaning routine.

Marketers now look at all the personal data they can get their hands on to see when your patterns are likely to change.  They know where you live, what credit cards you carry, how much you make, and much much more about their customers.  And they use it all to target you at these ‘change points’:

Consumers going through major life events often don’t notice, or care, that their shopping habits have shifted, but retailers notice, and they care quite a bit. At those unique moments, Andreasen wrote, customers are “vulnerable to intervention by marketers.” In other words, a precisely timed advertisement, sent to a recent divorcee or new homebuyer, can change someone’s shopping patterns for years.

So next time you’re in a big box store, don’t be surprised if the coupons that print out when you check out seem eerily related to some recent life event.

Because they know.  All. About. You.

Many companies will offer discounts to seniors, match competitors pricing, or even give an introductory low rate to new customers.

Even if you’re not a senior, it still pays to call around. According to the NY Times, an Arizona man found that his current insurance company was more than willing to cut the price of his auto insurance in half! And it only took one call to find this out.

Insurance companies have many different rate plans.  Nearly all will give you discounts if you insure both your home and autos with the same company. They are also aware of what their competitors are charging. This can benefit you if you first call or go online to check other company’s rate quotes.

Two other areas where you can easily save money are phone and cable TV service. Companies that offer ‘bundle’ plans that combine phone service, Internet service, and cable TV, will often give substantial discounts for people to sign up with them.  They may also give you a lower introductory rate for an initial period when you sign up for a new service.

Before you call your current phone or cable company, be sure to check what their competitors are offering. Your existing provider may offer to match a competitor’s rates in order to keep you as a customer.

Other Ways To Save

If you own a home, mortgage rates are down below 4%, something that hasn’t happened in a long time.  Refinancing now would allow you to lower your monthly payments or take needed cash out for repairs or consolidating other bills.  Mr. Cheap was able to drop his interest rate by 2 points and go from a 30 year mortgage to a 15 year one, all without increasing his monthly payment.

If you switch to a 15 year mortgage, the total amount you pay in interest over the life of the loan drops dramatically. In addition, we now pay our mortgage twice a month instead of monthly.  By making half your mortgage payment every two weeks, you may be able to cut an extra month off your loan each year.  This means you will repay the loan early, saving even more in interest fees.

• Go to Walmart and Pickup that Big screen TV, Today
• Start Cooking some yummy Stuff, get Recipes @ Cookmethis.com, Hungry Girl or the Food Channel
• Stop off @ Market Basket, Aldi, BJs, Sams, Trader Joe’s, or you favorite store for ingredients, snacks or premade party platters
• Pre-order your Takeout,  Your Favorite Chinese, Pizza or better yet Ribs, how about That KFC $11 bucket or Wings,
• Get the Libations. Remember Connecticut no Sunday Liquor Sales.  Trader Joe’s  Two Buck Chuck Wine, is maybe Three Bucks now, but still CHEAP.
• Set up  the 2nd TV with  movies for the kids. Send the non-football-obsessed Spouse on a Shopping Spree or to the Movies
• Get The Family Room Ready, Set Up the Buffet Table, Extra chairs… Extra Trash Receptacles, and recycling bins
• Set The DVR to record, it may be  memorable!

You have the outline. First Shop Game Day Top-Brand Electronics at Blowout Prices at Walmart.com! Pickup the big folding table for your buffet of snacks and party foods there too.

Make the Grocery List of the important foods, Chips, Dips, Salsa, Taco shells, salad fixins, Frozen or fresh-made- heat-n-eat Pizza.

Gourmet the way you want to go? Head over to Trader Joe’s freezer aisle for a Rack of Lamb, Swordfish for the Grill or Lots of gourmet cheeses and Crackers. They have the best snacks. Gourmet on the Cheap.

#2 cheapster, is going to set up those pulled pork sliders, and a taco bar from cookmethis.com, Go Pats, Go Giants!

Got my Football Jersey from Fanbuzz. New York Giants Sweatshirts and Tom Brady Jerseys