rwking75

Other than getting my teenage son a new smartwatch, experiences. Renewing Disney Passes, booking vacation, maybe booking him a Lightsaber building experience at Hollywood Studios.

Hobby Lobby is a necessary Evil and you should be able to find trees there at 50% off.

Anyone else who has teenagers that do NOT have any big ticket items on their wish list this year? My kid has had some very fortunate Xmas in recent years and all of his big ticket items have been checked off already. While this is good for the wallet, it's bad for the Xmas tree...

How about giving away a Nvidia 4090??? LOL

Like many people, money is tight and I'm doing all I can to bank some extra $$$ for the holidays. Many rewards sites, like Disney Movie Insiders, are shutting down. I've used Swag Bucks in the past and recently signed up for Survey sites like Respondant and User Interviews but I've only completed 1 survey survey since I signed up like 3 months ago. What are some other effective "side hustles" you are using?

Your setup is something I'd like to achieve some day! Looks great! I particularly love the 1/2 round table with the tree and the train set.

For the Home Alone house, we separate the levels into large storage bags. There are 5 separate sections which includes the "basement/Kitchen" that's in the back of the house and the Treehouse and Van. There is always some breakage but usually easy to fix. The Xmas Tree easily comes apart in 2 pieces. Most of the brickheads stay in 1 piece. The "Santa's Visit" blue house is new to us this year and it is NOT in sections. This will be a challenge to store without it being a total disaster next Xmas.

Yes, it's this https://www.lego.com/en-us/product/pickup-truck-10290

2 Turtle Doves....migrating to Florida like the rest of the snowbirds

As previously promised, my Lego Xmas Decor

Here is our "Grinchmas Tree" and as I posted on a previous thread, my Lego Xmas decor

If you're trying for a laptop between these 2 brands, go Lenovo. If you're buying a tablet, Samsung all the way!

You're not going to see games released in the past 2-3 months go on sale. This includes the 2 Mario games (Wonder and RPG). You're best bet is to take advantage of a Buy 2 get 1 free deal like Best Buy is having as long as you have their $50 Annual Membership plan. Target has a $15 off $75 offer as of today on video games and toys. This would force you into buying 2 games for roughly $105 with this deal.

I really don't see the need for a desktop anymore unless it was a very high end gaming desktop with all of the bells and whistles with lights, fans, and enough power consumption to shut down a nuclear reactor. If this is not meant for gaming, consider a decent specced laptop and a USB-C/Thunderbolt 4 docking station. I'm considering building a high end desktop right now as a father/son project. But never would buy this prebuilt.

I wish BB would match Dell's PSVR2 deal but their not on their eligible retailers list.

Wood Soffit. Good to know about the U Clips. However, Im a little more concerned about the longevity of these lights. I know LEDs are supposed to last forever, but I'm a little more skeptical since I seem to need to replace the LED Can lights in my kitchen at least once a year.

I had a dilemma going into this holiday and that was with hanging Xmas lights. Traditionally, I use warm white C9s that wrap around the whole house, going for that Home Alone house vibe. I get all of the peaks and easements as well since my home is a corner lot and over 3/4 of it is visible to all neighbors. But with the 2 storms FL got hit with in 2022, we had to get a new roof. The typical single hooks that slide under the front shingle were no longer an option. I settled for these cheaper clips that I was able to mostly secure on the soffit but def not as straight and secure as the shingle hooks. Had a very hard time putting them up because of this thing called "gravity". Had to use nails in places that I did not want to. So I've been seeing the Govee Permanent Outlook Lights for a few months and seriously considering these. But unsure about them since they stick up with 3M strips. No matter how "permanent" something is advertised, these things should have an asterisk next to them "does not apply to Florida". But I've always like Govee products, was thinking about waiting a year and seeing people's review after the 1st year. Does anyone have any experience with this product? I would need 3 150' kits in order to get this completely around my house and this would've been a $1000 expense I just wasn't willing to spend this year.

I swear it looks like the same "Early BF Deals" are the same as the actual BF deals! Not impressed so far this year....

Or playing for peanuts at some dive bar

Lights on the house went up this past Sunday. Usually I have them up BEFORE Halloween, I just don't turn them on until the last piece of candy is handed out on Halloween night. I love it when neighbors drive by in October and see me on the roof and scream "Already!" or "Too Soon!" We're only about 25% done with the inside of the house. Tree will go up this week.

It's so hard to spend any money on Nintendo hardware, espicially Joy-Cons. The Stick Drift issue seems to only get worse the older this current generation's hardware exists. If anyone knows of aftermarket Joy-Cons that do not get Stick Drift on sale for BF, please post it somewhere on this forum.

Share some of your funniest White Elephant gift stories! I'll go 1st. Someone gift wrapped a pound of bacon with an ice pack wrapped in aluminum foil. For my dept's White Elephant this year, I plan on bundling a 4 pack of toilet paper with a bottle of Poo Pourrie, a pack of Dude Wipes, and a $10 Taco Bell gift card.

Excluded items from sales! Things like consoles, Legos, amongst others are not part of Sales....ahem Target and your 25% off any toy BS!

2008 or 2009, Walmart had a "secret" pre-BF sale on HDTVs. My (at the time 17 year old nephew) and I walked into the Walmart several times the night before to scout what TVs they had, inventory, etc but the store manager refused to acknowledge the sale. I kept on coming here to read updates on the sale. It was a 24 hour Walmart with a McDs inside of it in Tampa so we deciced to go up again around 11PM and wait it out. Finally at midnight, the mgr came to us and told us all of the details but warned it was first come, 1st served and no reservations. Sales begins at 8am. They only had 4 in stock....so my nephew and I literally "camped" inside walmart all night. We even grabbed folding chairs from sporting goods and hung out all ngiht and just ordered McDs. After we bought the TVs, my bank called me to verify these strange charges at McDs throughout the night. I explained to the bank rep that we camped inside of Walmart and she literally laughed at me. Such a funny moment!

Did anyone actually find anything worthwhile to use the 25% coupon on? The exclusions is literally 85% of all of their toys!