I know I probably overuse the term “hustle” these day, but frankly, I can’t think of  a better verb. Really. I mean, I guess my coach says I’m “in action,” but I dunno, that doesn’t have enough punch and street cred to it, you know? Semantics. Anyway, I’ve been getting back into the bargain/deals transactions mode again… I know, as if I ever really went out of that mode. Whatever.

For our 11th wedding anniversary last month, John got me an iPad mini. I hate when he spends so money on things that I don’t really need, but in his defense, he had his reasons and he was very thoughtful: he was thinking that the light, small device would be handy, especially since I’m riding the train into SF so frequently to attend all these professional development events and trainings. So fine. I actually opened the box and broke the seal. I proceeded to set it up, and then well, when I went to the T-mobile site to register for the data plan, holy shit, T-mobile was running a promo, selling the device with wifi + cellular for the price of the device with wifi only!! Maybe that doesn’t sound like a big deal, but the difference is $130!! For reals.

So then, I went to the Apple store: I mean, who knew prices would vary so much from store to store, right?? I thought Apple was all about the uniform pricing!! So I talked to the reps, their higher ups: back and forth, back and forth (practicing my negotiation skills). They couldn’t accommodate me AT ALL. Not even store credit for the difference. Ugh. I was so annoyed.

Finally, one of the reps just said: If I were you, I’d just return the device to Apple and buy it again from T-mobile, because that’s a huge price difference. Ugh. Fine, so I did that; thankfully, the T-mobile store was the next block over. Except that they didn’t have the 32 GB version in stock: so they had to ship it out to me. Long story short, I got the same spec device… but a week later. Incidentally, T-mobile is running a promo for the remainder of 2014 where the tablet data plan is free. So John insists that I had to go through a gabillion steps with returning and then waiting…  but I still think it’s worth the price difference. Guess my time is a lot cheaper than his.

In other news, I just sold our old iPad on Ebay. Amazon was offering about $200 via trade-in, but the same device sold on Ebay for between $300-400! So of course, I got back on the Ebay wagon. Our item sold for $345, so better than Amazon, but not stellar. And again, it definitely involved more steps. Now I’m thinking: I’ve already re-entered the Ebay world of selling, so maybe setting up future bids won’t take as long since I’m now re-familiarized with everything. Who knows. Next possible contenders: my old iPod nano and my old laptop.

In related transactions news, I finally scored a pair of black wedges today, after searching for low-heel black shoes for weeks. I had scoured everywhere online and even ordered two pairs from Amazon. Goddamn, those shoes were butt ugly in real life. Today, I went into a DSW-type store after my training in the city, and voila, these patent black wedges are going to work beautifully. And unlike my leopard-print pumps, these babies should get pretty regular use, especially for all my city events.  I’m breaking them in this weekend, and then I’ll have an official verdict come Monday!