I Suppose I'll Have To Go Shopping...

...sooner rather than later for items for the Soldiers' Holiday Care Package for which I have been accepting donations. So far I have collected $25 from me (I'll also throw in whatever I pay for shipping the package(s) to the soldiers) $50 in a check, and $150 of donations sent to me via PayPal 150. Those bastards at PayPal would not waive their fees on my received into my account relative to money donated toward this effort for a mere three weeks. Their explanation laid out the rules, which apparently they would not budge on, regardless of the fact that I am collecting for a care package and that every penny more we collect means all so much better contents inside the box. So far the fees I asked them to waive have amounted to an astronomical $5.87. Can you imagine that they would not waive those fees when it really could mean adding something nice to one of the care packages. My bet is that the fees will not amount to more than $10 to $20 for all the donations I receive toward this effort; and they are apparently too tight to want to help that effort by waiving those fees. Certainly has me considering whether or not I should keep using PayPal. I will make up the fees out of my own pocket, screw them. I digress from the original idea of this post, sorry bout that...

Okay, so I now actually have received $225.00 in donations. Some of it has already been spent, but not much of it. I bought the cigars, a box of Tootsie Roll pops, a package of ChapSticks, and another thing or two I cannot recall right now. I am probably left with about $165 to $170. I had been planning on buying including some flashlights in the care package like i did last year. too bad Streamlight has not gotten back to me on my inquiry about whether or not they could sell me some tactical lights at a discount. Last year they donated a dozen of those lights, very nice of them. This year not a peep from them, but I'll keep hoping. I also was going to buy ear plugs directly from the manufacturer - E.A.R. Inc. since they offered a 10% discount off of their online pricing. I have discovered that many retailers sell them online for even less than that - much less. I suppose they get em less expensive because they buy in bulk - so I'll be looking to an online dealer for them. The manufacturer was asking $42.00 for a box of 200 TaperFit 2 earplugs. I found them as low as $27.90 plus shipping per box of 200. Wait a few minutes here, I'll be right back. I am going to order them right now...

Five minutes or so later I am back at the blog, the ear plugs have been ordered from Cooper Safety at a total cost of: $35.04. That was a pretty good price. I probably could have found them at an even lower price but the Cooper Safety website looked real business website as opposed to something from a fly by night company, that is one that flies away at night with our money.

Okay, let me take a look at the receipts:

$35.04 - 200 pairs of Ear Plugs

$29.23 - Costco for Tootsie Roll Pops, 12 decks of playing cards, and 10 pack of ChapSticks

$34.90 - A Cigar Sampler, box of 25 cigars

That makes it $99.17 spent so far; and that leaves us with $125.83, and hopefully with at least a few more nice donations to add to that later since $125 and change will not go far. If I do not get enough for 6 tactical flashlights (about $40 each not including), then I will just buy some decent pocket knives to include in the package. I'll see what I can do. I may have to shop for them now, and you guessed it, that means from right here where I sit via O.M. (online magic, if only all the gurus of old who chanted "om" while meditating could have guessed how important that word would become).

Later for you, I need to get shopping.

All the best,
Glenn B