I had been debating on getting a cricut cake, trying to justify the price after I preached to my husband about us watching our spending... BUT- when I got home from work, I had my new Joann's circular in the mail with it 50% off- I took it as a sign! And DH is totally on board after I showed him a demonstration about it online. This machine will come with Basic Cakes cartridge and blade. No mat, but to me, getting it a la carte is still going to be cheaper than me getting it with the hsn bundle. also, someone else posted on here that cartridges are on sale at cricutmachine.com I just got two cartridges for 16.95 each. Just wanted to share. Oh, and sale on Joann's stuff starts Sunday. Have a great day!

I got the Cricut Cake from JoAnns for Christmas and it does come with the mat. It was $199.00 then also. I also hit the cartridge sale and purchased 5 cartridges for $14.95 each. Cartridges should be here today, so I am super excited.

check the fine print on that coupon though, i've seen most store coupons exclude the cricut items (cutting machines and cartridges.)

This is the best cricut cake bundle i've seen so far. It comes out to $199 for the cricut cake and $20 for each additional cartridge (which is the best prices on all of them i've found)

http://www.cricutmachine.com/product_info.php?products_id=598

something to consider if you're planning on buying the other cartridges.

ooh, i was wrong... they have the cricut cake for $199, then each of the cake cartridges for $17, so it only comes to $250.99 instead of the $252.99 in the bundle. And it's free shipping on orders over $200, so you save gas money too!

http://www.cricutmachine.com/index.php?cPath=53

yeah, it's set as the sale price at 199- i know unfortunately the coupons don't apply to the machine or cartridges. Hopefully the customer service rep was wrong about the mat not being included- that would be a bonus, but I called the 800 number last night and she told me no on that one.... but i hope you are right!