Obviously being on Jeopardy! for six months (the fifth anniversary of the final game is coming up in a week and a half!) is a pretty cushy gig. Even after paying taxes, tithing, etc., we don’t worry about money as much as we used to. Sometimes this changes behavior: I’m an across-the-board 20% tipper now, for example. Not a cheap-college-student-15% tipper anymore, or an I-hate-minimum-wage-workers 10% tipper like my friend Ted. (Shout out!)

But sometimes it doesn’t. I still like feeling I got a deal when I buy something, even if the $5 difference has no effect on my family’s finances. Even if I spent six hours of my “work day” online looking for that $5 savings.

Which brings us to…this week’s sale at Barnes & Noble! All Criterion Collection DVDs are on sale for 50% until Sunday. Are you a B&N member? I’m usually not, but I happen to be this year, because of a big purchase I made a few months ago. That means I get an extra 10% off. It also means I get to use this coupon. Bottom line: all $40 Criterions are now $13 to me. The $30 ones are $8! The Blu-Rays are the same prices as the standard DVDs! (It’s still a pretty good deal even if you don’t have a membership, but not that good. If you are a real unscrupulous bastard, you can buy a membership for the duration of the sale and then cancel for no charge anytime in the first month.)

I have yet to find a B&N cashier that’ll let me use multiple coupons in the same visit, though. Luckily, there are six Seattle-area Barnes & Nobles area with CD/DVD counters, and all have multiple employees. Many of whom I now recognize! (“Uh oh, gotta wait until short girl goes on break. I haven’t tried guy-with-ill-advised-beard since Friday!”) Yeah, that’s right. I’ve spent all week driving around Seattle abusing coupons, one store at a time. When I should have been working on my book. So cost-effective!

One more DVD public service announcement for you: I have mentioned the great John Huston’s last movie, The Dead, a couple of times on this website. Once as a Christmas movie (which it isn’t) and once as an example of great movies not out on DVD (which it now is). But wait! Lionsgate finally released this a couple weeks ago…only to have viewers discover they’d left out almost an entire reel! Yup, ten minutes is just gone from the movie. The DVD was quickly recalled and a corrected version is supposed to come out next week. But buyer beware is all I’m saying. I saw The Dead at quite a few Barnes & Nobles during Coupon Abuse Week, and they didn’t even know about the recall.

How do you recall tens of thousands of DVDs? I am imagining a Lionsgate employee walking from DVD store to DVD store across this great land, beating a gong and yelling, “Bring out The Dead!”