Deal of the day

Greetings on this fine Saturday night. It's been a week since the last post, but I won't get into how this week has been. I'll just say it's been good, but boy... I cannot wait until Friday again when I start my vacation. I love my job, but I haven't had a string of days off since Alyssa was born in February. It's time.

Today was a relaxing day. The females of the house went to Macon to see a friend, and I did basically nothing. That is, until I went shopping shortly after 10:00 a.m.

I have wanted a DVD recorder for the last four years. We were living in Tuscaloosa when they first hit the shelves. I drooled over them, but I wasn't ready to jump at the $800 price tag they were commanding.

Since that time, I have adapted and overcome. We've had TiVo for more than a year, and it's set up with a wireless connection to my computer. I download the shows and transfer them to DVD with my PC's burner.

Needless to say, it's a lengthy process when a two-hour show takes about three hours to transfer through the air. I'm keeping a lot of my reports and newscasts on TiVo, but space is becoming a precious item. I needed a way to get them onto DVD more quickly.

All that's been said to talk about my "deal of the day." The recorder I've been looking into costs $170 at Best Buy (which I'm a proud "Reward Zone" member). The last three weeks have been good to me concerning BB.

My "Reward Zone" membership landed me some gift certificates, and it also gave me a 12 percent off coupon in the mail. Throw in a couple of gift cards from the station Christmas party, and I'm in good shape.

Today, I bit the bullet. I marched in there, picked up the recorder and headed to the cashier. Poor girl never knew what was coming as I whipped out two WTVM Visa gift cards, a gift certificate, the 12 percent coupon, cash and a check card. Yes, you counted correctly: Six forms of payment.

She just looked at me, and I immediately apologized. She laughed about it and told me it was the funniest thing she'd seen all day (glad I could make her smile). I watched with delight as she knocked all the "free money" off the price.

I thought I would still wind up with paying a bit out-of-pocket, but the total of my hard-earned cash came out to $0.76. I bought a $170 DVD recorder for less than a dollar. Even Amy was amazed to see what I pulled off when she got home.

So, I now have that recorder, and I've put it to good use. I've already burned nine stories off the TiVo, and it's breathing easier with the extra room. However, the funniest part of the deal is I ran off from home and forgot my change on the kitchen counter.

I had to put the $0.76 on my check card.