And the Kodak winner is…
May 20, 2009 Product Giveaway
I really love giving stuff away, and this was a big one: the Kodak ESP-7 All-In-One Printer. I had the most entries I’ve ever had for a giveaway, and there were some great comments. But alas, only one of you could win, and thank goodness it was random, because I would not have been able to choose a winner from the comments. But here are a few of my favorites anyway (with my comments in brackets, because, you know, it’s all about me):
I would save $152.15. That’s crazy. I have an HP and if I was lucky enough to win I would give it to my mom and keep the kodak. [You know I have a soft spot for people who are a little selfish.]
I would put the $110 towards a MUCH needed massage/mani/pedi for a very tired mom! [Always worth the money!]
I would put the $110 towards a vacation for myself and my husband – with the 2 kids we need some fun reconnect time!! [The Ass and I have managed to go on a few vacations sans kids and they've recharged us like you wouldn't believe.]
I stand to save $204.59! I can’t stand it, but I would definitely splurge and buy these $250 metallic orange gladiator sandals I saw in the world’s most expensive store. I dream about those sandals. Who knew I couldn’t afford the sandals because I spend too much on ink? Crappy man that is just crappy! [That's totally something I would do: save money on one thing only to blow it on something I don't really need.]
The $110 that I would save would make me feel less guilty for the money I’m spending on going to BlogHer this summer. [I hear you, conferences are expensive. I'm going to BlogHer too. But as Kyra Sedgewick told me (and a room full of other people, lest you think we were having lunch or something): guilt is a useless fucking emotion.]
I really hope that I win. I would spend the money on a pair of new sandals from easy spirit and then get a pedicure. [As someone who got a pedicure last night and whose four-sandal Piperlime order came today, I hear you!]
I would use the $73 I could save by going out on more date nights with my husband. [Sing it sister! I need me some more of those!]
But anyway, random.org picked the winner, and it was…Jill C., from Cool Photo Ideas! How apropos! She said she’d use her savings towards her Disney trip this summer, and I just love Disney (I found out today that they’re giving me a $300 scholarship for BlogHer, so I’m loving them extra right now). Besides getting the printer, Jill C. now gets entered into a Kodak drawing to win one of five full scholarships to BlogHer. Good luck Jill!
Thanks to all who entered, thanks to Kodak for letting me do this giveaway, and remember: even if you didn’t win, you could still save money on ink with this Kodak printer.
Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.
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Tags: BlogHer 09 Chicago, Disney, Kodak ESP-7 All-in-One Printer
Kodak ESP-7 printer review, plus more ways to win!
May 12, 2009 Product Giveaway, Product Review
Kodak ESP-7 All-in-One Printer review
This is going to be a short review – for now – because I’ve only been using this printer for a few days. I’ll do a more in-depth one after I have more experience with it. But here are the highlights:
The good:
- Setting the printer up to print via USB was very quick and easy.
- The Kodak ESP-7 All-in-One Printer comes with a duplexer (for automatically printing on both sides). Of all of the printers I’ve ever had, this was the first one where I didn’t have to buy a duplexer separately.
- Pretty much any printer can make good document copies, and the ESP-7 is no exception. But where this Kodak printer really shines is in copying and printing photos. When printed on Kodak photo paper they look like they were processed in a photo machine.
- There are two paper trays – one for regular paper and one for photo paper. You don’t have to change paper to print pictures!
- The printing options interface is very easy to navigate and understand. Each screen shows not only the ink level, but also the paper level for each paper tray. This is so useful I can hardly stand it.
- It accepts all sorts of memory cards, plus PictBridge.
- The buttons are clearly marked and the menu screens are easy to use.
- It’s really nice looking – you won’t feel the need to hide it in office furniture.
The bad:
- Despite double-sided printing being very easy, I wasn’t able to find double-sided copying in the menu. It may very well be in there, but if it is it’s well hidden. This is a very handy feature, and especially since the duplexer is included, I hope the printer is capable of doing this automatically. I’ll keep looking.
The I-don’t-know
- After about an hour of trying, I was not able to print wirelessly. However, the reason I’m not putting this in the “bad” column is that I don’t think it’s the printer’s fault. The printer found my wireless network immediately and accepted my WEP key, and all of the little lights that were supposed to be on went on. But my computer still can’t “see” the printer no matter what I do. Wi-Fi is a huge feature of this printer, but I can’t judge it yet. I’m going to get on the phone with tech support tomorrow. And hey, I can then review customer support as well!
Two more ways to try to win this printer
As promised, here are more ways to try and win a Kodak ESP-7 All-in-One printer. There are two other blogs giving away these printers this week as part of this campaign. So, you can go to these other blogs and enter to win:
In all, Kodak is giving away over twenty of these printers, and as an added bonus, each printer winner will be entered to win a full scholarship to BlogHer ‘09 in Chicago!
Good luck, and if you haven’t entered my ESP-7 printer giveaway yet, what are you waiting for?
Originally posted on Selfish Mom
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Happy Mother’s Day, now get the hell out!
May 11, 2009 Amy in the Morning
Originally posted on Selfish Mom
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Win a Kodak ESP-7 Printer
May 11, 2009 Product Giveaway
Kodak wants me to save money
I’m a weird person, in many ways. Too many to go into here. So we’ll just concentrate on this one: I’m an inherently cheap person with expensive tastes. What does that mean? Well, I’ll insist on free shipping for a luxury item that I don’t need. I’ll spend days researching the cheapest way to buy a new and expensive electronic gadget that I just HAVE to have. I like saving money, but at the same time, I want the best stuff. I think I’ve found a printer that fulfills both sides of that coin.
Last month I went to a really interesting event held by Kodak about saving money. There were some other great bloggers there (forgive me if I’ve forgotten one or two of you, I’m a nightmare with names and faces and am stealing this info from other bloggers who were at the same event, so really you should blame them for getting it wrong): Kim from Mom in the City (whom I run into at every event – we must share a social secretary), Amanda from goodyblog, Katja from Skimbaco Lifestyle (and the Disney Wonder cruise), Kelcey from the Mama Bird Diaries (who hooked Fiona and me up with the almost-private Barenaked Ladies concert last year), Nicole from Momtrends, and Wendy from Babies Gotta Have It. There were also some great bloggers conferencing in by phone, but if you think I’m bad about names in person…
Anyway, Laura Rowley (whose book I have sitting right here – she gave each of us one at the event) led us in a discussion on how we can all save money, room-by-room. I was Tweeting like mad during the event, and I’ve summarized some of my best money-saving Tweets from the discussion (the advice I can’t take credit for, just the reporting of it):
Save money on basics:
- Always ask your doctor for a generic prescription.
- Call your insurance agent and make sure that you’re getting all of the discounts you’re entitled to. Some common ones you might be missing out on: combining auto and home insurance; discounts for home alarm systems; auto safety discounts such as airbags, anti-lock breaks, etc.; auto discounts for taking defensive driving classes (I did that one!).
- Give your kids an allowance equal to their ages and then make them responsible for paying for certain things (that one was mine!).
Save money on entertainment and travel:
- Use your local library to borrow movies and videos, instead of renting. Some of them even let you reserve the next available copy online.
- Sign up at RedBox.com to get movie codes delivered to you each week. (UPDATE: I just saw over on Consumerist that RedBox is phasing out its free movie Monday codes. Too bad.)
- Have a “staycation” and act like a tourist in your own town (my kids LOVE IT when we do this stuff).
- Use HomeAway.com to negotiate a price on someone else’s vacation home.
- Call the Chamber of Commerce before heading to a place on vacation – they’ll be able to give you all sorts of coupons and discounts for local attractions.
- Take your kids to visit a local firehouse, and bring the firemen some brownies. Your kids will have a great time and the firemen will really appreciate it.
Save money around your house:
- Avoid “vampire power drain” by unplugging your appliances when you’re not using them. Even when off they’re still using electricity. (OK, I admit it, I included this one for all of you, but there’s not a chance I’m going to do it. That’s just way too much work for me. I know that it saves tons of money though, so if you’ve got it in you, go for it.)
- Spruce up a room with decals instead of paint or wallpaper.
- Save money on lots of stuff, from kitchen items to vacations, at school and charity silent auctions (I just chaired one, and can vouch for the fact that there were some GREAT deals to be had).
- Fax for free at faxzero.com. They put an ad on the cover page, and you can only send two three-page faxes per day, but still, it’s free.
- And of course, save lots of money on ink with the Kodak ESP-7 All-in-One Printer!
You can save an average of $110 a year on ink costs with the Kodak ESP-7 All-in-One Printer. Kodak even has a handy overpayment calculator that figures out for you just how much you’d save on ink with a Kodak printer compared to other printers. I found out that I would save about $120 per year on ink costs! And I know that in the big scheme of things that might not sound like a ton of money, but look at the savings list above: this is all about making small, manageable cuts that add up! And, saving money on ink doesn’t mean that you pay an arm and a leg for the printer (it retails for under $200!), or give up features (it has Wi-Fi, two paper trays, a built-in duplexer, and produces borderless pictures that look like they came from a high-end photo processing machine).
Enter to win your own Kodak ESP-7 Printer
Kodak was nice enough to send me one of these printers to review, plus they’re giving a Kodak ESP-7 All-in-One Printer to one of you! To enter, you can do one of two things: either go to Kodak’s overpayment calculator and then leave a comment on this post telling me how much you would save, or leave a comment telling me what you would do with an extra $110 (the average savings for switching to this printer).
You can also get an extra entry by Tweeting about this contest, with a link back to this post and #PrintProsper at the end (leave a separate comment with a link to your Tweet). You can even just copy this and Tweet it if you want to be super lazy conserve your own energy:
Selfish Mom and Kodak are giving away a Kodak ESP-7 All-in-One Printer! Come on over and enter to win: http://twurl.nl/17rhzj #PrintProsper
(UPDATE: A couple of you have asked how to link to an individual Twitter post. Here’s how: Once you’ve Tweeted, click on your Tweet where it tells you when you’ve Tweeted. On TweetDeck it says the actual time you Tweeted, on Twitter it says something like “one minute ago.” Clicking on that should take you to your individual Tweet and you can copy and paste that link. If that’s not working for you, then leave a comment with your Twitter name and I’ll find it.)
That’s two entries per household please (yes, I do check). The winner will be chosen from all eligible entries by random.org. Contest ends around 6pm eastern on Sunday, May 17th. Printer can be shipped to U.S. addresses only. For full giveaway rules please go to the giveaway rules page.
I hope you found some of these money-saving tips helpful. Stop back tomorrow for my review of the Kodak ESP-7 All-in-One Printer. Plus, as a bonus, in tomorrow’s review post I’ll tell you how you can get another couple of entries!
Good luck.
Originally posted on Selfish Mom
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