A few weeks ago I decided that it was time to change my "public" phone number, meaning the one I give to people or organizations who demand my phone number to have on file, but to whom I have no desire nor intent of ever speaking. This includes retailers, government agencies, financial institutions, ex-significant others, family members whom I don't like very much, and really pretty much everyone other than those family members whom I do like and very close friends.
My public number is a MagicJack number because it's cheap and easy to change when it gets too polluted by telemarketers, spammers, scammers, and other miscreants, most of whom presumably got it either from one of the times my PII was hacked, or from one of the companies that swore they'd never share it with anyone. I change it every two to four years, on average. They hit me up for $10.00 every time I change it, and the change is effective about 30 seconds later.
MagicJack's voice quality used to absolutely suck, which didn't bother me because I almost never answer it anyway. But it's gotten a lot better over the past few years. With a bit of diddling with the QOS settings in DD-WRT, it actually works pretty well nowadays. So when I changed the number this most recent time, I also decided to purchase a new phone for it with a cordless handset for the living room, this way my guests whose cell phones have no signal here can use it.
I wanted a halfway decent phone with a built-in answering machine and at least one cordless remote handset; but because I'm a tightwad, I also wanted to spend less than $30.00 on it. So I scoured my usual sources and found that Wally World had a VTech CS6829-26 on sale for, at the time I checked their site, $27.76. Their regular online price was $39.99.
Better yet, that purchase gave me a third reason to go to Kingston. I try to have at least three reasons to make the trip, and I already had two. I wanted to put some money on my AT&T prepaid cell phone (for some reason, they don't tack on sales tax when you use the in-store kiosks), and I also wanted to get gas in an Exxon or Mobil station so I could use my CarCare1 card to pay for it and keep the card alive (they cancel zero-balance accounts for inactivity if you don't use them at least once or twice a year).
I printed up the page with the sale price from Walmart's site and set out on my journey. Walmart will honor their Web site prices in-store even if the store price is higher, but you have to ask for the lower price. They'll actually look it up on the site if you ask them to, but I usually print up the page anyway. In this case, the in-store price was a whopping $44.99, $5.00 more than the regular online price. So I presented the page from the site with the sale price of $27.76.
But something had happened between my checking the item online and actually arriving at Walmart: The price had been further reduced to $25.70!
"Woo-hoo!" I exclaimed, "I'll take it!" The bored clerk's face took on an expression of amusement at my excitement, and she rang me up. For a committed tightwad, saving money becomes something like a sport, and I was glad to share the thrill of victory with a spectator. But it gets better: With the 1.5 percent back from the plastic I used, the final cost was $25.32, which comes out to a $19.67 discount on a regularly $44.99 item. That's pretty decent even by tightwad standards.
The phone is now all set up and works very well. The call quality using the MagicJack is somewhere is okay, meaning that the the dynamic range and overall tone are merely adequate, but there are no problems with static, echos, or breaking up. It's more than adequate for the mission, which is mainly as a black hole for incoming calls from people I don't care to talk to and the occasional outgoing call.
My mission also saved me $3.60 on the sales tax I didn't pay on my cell phone by paying at the kiosk; plus it kept the CarCare1 card alive for at least another six months, which should result in at least $100.00 in rebates when I replace my tires this coming September. So I calculate my total current and prospective savings from yesterday's mission to be a whopping $123.27.
Life is good.
Rich
My public number is a MagicJack number because it's cheap and easy to change when it gets too polluted by telemarketers, spammers, scammers, and other miscreants, most of whom presumably got it either from one of the times my PII was hacked, or from one of the companies that swore they'd never share it with anyone. I change it every two to four years, on average. They hit me up for $10.00 every time I change it, and the change is effective about 30 seconds later.
MagicJack's voice quality used to absolutely suck, which didn't bother me because I almost never answer it anyway. But it's gotten a lot better over the past few years. With a bit of diddling with the QOS settings in DD-WRT, it actually works pretty well nowadays. So when I changed the number this most recent time, I also decided to purchase a new phone for it with a cordless handset for the living room, this way my guests whose cell phones have no signal here can use it.
I wanted a halfway decent phone with a built-in answering machine and at least one cordless remote handset; but because I'm a tightwad, I also wanted to spend less than $30.00 on it. So I scoured my usual sources and found that Wally World had a VTech CS6829-26 on sale for, at the time I checked their site, $27.76. Their regular online price was $39.99.
Better yet, that purchase gave me a third reason to go to Kingston. I try to have at least three reasons to make the trip, and I already had two. I wanted to put some money on my AT&T prepaid cell phone (for some reason, they don't tack on sales tax when you use the in-store kiosks), and I also wanted to get gas in an Exxon or Mobil station so I could use my CarCare1 card to pay for it and keep the card alive (they cancel zero-balance accounts for inactivity if you don't use them at least once or twice a year).
I printed up the page with the sale price from Walmart's site and set out on my journey. Walmart will honor their Web site prices in-store even if the store price is higher, but you have to ask for the lower price. They'll actually look it up on the site if you ask them to, but I usually print up the page anyway. In this case, the in-store price was a whopping $44.99, $5.00 more than the regular online price. So I presented the page from the site with the sale price of $27.76.
But something had happened between my checking the item online and actually arriving at Walmart: The price had been further reduced to $25.70!
"Woo-hoo!" I exclaimed, "I'll take it!" The bored clerk's face took on an expression of amusement at my excitement, and she rang me up. For a committed tightwad, saving money becomes something like a sport, and I was glad to share the thrill of victory with a spectator. But it gets better: With the 1.5 percent back from the plastic I used, the final cost was $25.32, which comes out to a $19.67 discount on a regularly $44.99 item. That's pretty decent even by tightwad standards.
The phone is now all set up and works very well. The call quality using the MagicJack is somewhere is okay, meaning that the the dynamic range and overall tone are merely adequate, but there are no problems with static, echos, or breaking up. It's more than adequate for the mission, which is mainly as a black hole for incoming calls from people I don't care to talk to and the occasional outgoing call.
My mission also saved me $3.60 on the sales tax I didn't pay on my cell phone by paying at the kiosk; plus it kept the CarCare1 card alive for at least another six months, which should result in at least $100.00 in rebates when I replace my tires this coming September. So I calculate my total current and prospective savings from yesterday's mission to be a whopping $123.27.
Life is good.
Rich
and I actually read the whole thing. 
