Best Price on Medela Freestyle pump

After playing ping-pong with the insurance company, my benefits coordinator, and the medical equipment provider, turns out, my healthcare insurance doesn't fall under the new Affordable Healthcare Act. Meaning, my breast pump has to come out of pocket. (Unless deemed medically necessary following the birth, which would then require a prescription to be covered at 80%.)

Since I know adding another insurance claim to the to-do list once Baby arrives ain't gonna happen, I sought out the best deal I could find on my pump of choice, the Medela Freestyle.

Today, Walgreens has the pump on sale for $319 (including free shipping), which I thought was the best price I've ever seen of the usual $399+ retail price. Then, I clicked on one of those silly sidebar ads and was reminded of an email a friend sent me when she bought her pump. Lactation Care offers the Medela Freestyle for $295 (including free 3-5 day UPS shipping, no tax outside Massachusetts). They can't advertise their price online for some reason, so shhh....it's my secret to you. Call 'em up! It was nice to actually use the phone to purchase something for once.

animal house

** update 11/16/11: i saw that Sears will have a Black Friday special on the DC25 animal, priced at just $399. (see page 13 of the scanned flyer) that's a $200 savings! if you've been waiting for it, now is the time. it looks like it's good fri & sat while supplies last. costco will also have it for $100 off the listed price of $469, so an even better deal if you're a costco member.  sears also has a deal on the non-animal dc24 for $299. **

yes, folks. we are now officially an animal house. not in the sense of keg stands + panty raids, but in the sense of the dyson. 

we held a garage sale a few weeks ago with an end goal in mind: the dyson dc25 animal!!

i love my husband. and i love that my husband loves to vacuum. it makes us a good pair.

so i don't know much about our old vacuum except that i bought it 5+ years ago & it had an awesome pet hair attachment. it wasn't anything top of the line, by any means. but it worked very well and kept Lula from ruining my new "grown up" furniture. after a few years, the sucking power, well, sucked. and not in the way is was supposed to.

these days, cricket prefers the shop vac to our vacuum cleaner, so it gets awfully loud on cleaning days. but at least it works.

so sears had them on sale online, so away we went. we made just enough in the yard sale to cover the sale price of $439.99 (regularly $599.99). of course, when we got to the store, it was listed at full price. the handy-dandy iphone came to the rescue and the clerk confirmed the sale price. apparently, each register has a little flyer, but they haven't marked anything in the store--weird.

i guess it goes to show the value of shopping (or researching) online. i wonder what other deals may have been in the store that were invisible to the uninformed eye?

[cricket assembling his new toy. what's not to love about a man so excited over a vacuum?]

so of course we he used it immediately. i even took her for a spin. the ball's swivel steering took some getting used to, but it picked up everything in its path. the foot mechanism is kinda funky, but that's no big deal.

and here's the little hair monster, not sure what she's got coming.

["i will conquer you, dyson."]

we are dog-hair-free!! at least until Lula scratches. but i furminated her this weekend, so hopefully there's a little life left to the fur-free zone. i'm crossing my fingers that this means we can return the shop vac to the basement. otherwise, i may need some creative ideas for how to turn it into a nightstand in our guest room.

our couch has never looked newer (even when it was delivered), and it's sucked up SOOOOO much hair from the jute rug--which is a pain to clean. it's a winner winner chicken dinner.

30 day resolution

so i never shop at sears. we went specifically for the dyson sale a few weeks ago. as we walked into the store, i think i said "the last time i was here i was considering buying an elliptical machine." cricket laughed.

cricket wanted to check out the free weights as we passed that section en route to the vacuums. and there's a nordictrack elliptical on clearance. originally $800, now $240. what? so i played on it and it didn't feel cheap. i didn't worry that i'd tip over. i could actually use it at a normal pace without thinking i'd fly off of the wheel thingy. hmmm...

so yeah, we went home with it. it was missing the battery pack cover, but the associate said we could call for the replacement part. (for now, there may be a duck tape solution.) we loaded it up (love having a truck!) & brought it home. i was even able to help get it up the stairs (maybe i don't need to work out afterall, i'm buff. hah, right.)

we have the space for it, and it's literally the ONLY piece of gym equipment i like to use. with winter coming, i expect it will be very useful. we have an awesome new gym at work, but well, it's still a pain to get there, work out, and then get dressed for work there. and working out with co-workers is a little odd to me still. i'd rather do it all in the comfort of my own home, right as i roll out of bed. and i can still take advantage of the free gym classes (and YOGA!!) at the office to mix up my routine a little.

we have 30 days to decide if it's a keeper. cricket says i have to use it 3x/week or it's going back. our decision period ends this week. so far, i've been really good about using it--usually in the mornings. the time change has helped me motivate, too. it's not the prettiest thing in our master bedroom, but i love rolling out of bed onto it. i mean, it's hard to ignore it en route to the bathroom. no excuses.