If you follow frugal blogs I’m sure you’ve probably heard about Groupon. Just in case you haven’t, it’s a site that allows you to buy gift cards, entertainment tickets, etc at a discounted price. One caveat – it’s not in every city yet but they seem to be adding cities pretty quickly.
I’ve been a little late jumping on board because at first the deals in our are didn’t seem that great or anything we would use. The past few weeks however I’ve found two ways it can really help my family save money – vacation & Christmas.
To help us save on our summer vacation I’ve started getting the Groupon daily deal updates for the area we will be traveling to. I’ve been watching for half-price restaurant deals and discounted attraction/entertainment tickets. We are also planning an anniversary getaway in the fall so I’ve signed up for that area’s daily deal updates as well.
Today was the first day I had the “aha” moment of using Groupon for Christmas. A deal came up for a local wine shop offering a batch of DIY wine with personalized labels for $59. The batch makes 30 bottles so it’s only $2 per bottle! I’m thinking these will make great personalized Christmas presents and a fun date night for me and the hubby.
Another great thing is you can get referral bucks for referring friends. After you refer a friend and they make their first purchase you get $10 in Groupon bucks. Yes, the links in this article are my referral links, but feel free to not click them because that’s not my motivation for writing this, I just love the good deals!!
Check it out to see if it’s in your area and if not suggest it to them! If you’ve already gotten great deals on Groupon please share your stories!
Tags: Christmas, Gifts, Holidays
Posted in Holidays | 2 Comments »
At Zenni Optical, they claim you can get a complete pair or prescription eyeglasses starting at $8, and they aren’t kidding! I saw this a few different places, and the website looks a little corny, so it took me a little while to warm up to the idea. Last summer I really needed a pair of prescription sunglasses, but our insurance doesn’t cover them, so I decided to give Zenni a try.
It was quick, easy and the glasses were much better quality than I expected. All you need is your latest prescription, including the pupillary distance, from your optometrist. You’ll also want to measure the width of your current frames and the length of the arms. Then go to ZenniOptical.com and pick out a frame you like. It walks you through all of the steps for ordering and entering your prescription information.
I chose one of the $8 frames and added sunglass tinting for $4.95. Shipping is a flat rate of $4.95, so we decided to order my husband a pair while we were at it. Our total for two pairs of prescription sunglasses was just over $30. It took about 2 weeks for the glasses to arrive. My husband and I have been very happy with the quality of the frames and lenses. The next time we need regular glasses, we will most likely be ordering them through Zenni because it’s cheaper than our insurance co-pay!
Tags: frugal life, glasses
Posted in The Frugal Life | 4 Comments »
We fly through loaves of bread in our house with both my husband and son eating a PB & J sandwich almost everyday. To save money we have started buying our bread at the local Nickels Bakery Outlet. We can get day old bread (still 3 days from the sell by date) for half the price it is in stores.
The bread outlet is a few miles from our house and out of our way, to go for one or two loaves at a time would not be a savings. So instead of buying a loaf or two, we buy eight or ten loaves (6-8 wk supply for us) and freeze them.
You might be surprised that in addition to loaves of bread, hot dog and hamburger buns by the local bakery you might also find national brand baked goods. For example, on our last trip we found Weight Watchers English Muffins and Arnold Sandwich Thins for only $0.50 a package!
Tags: food savings, frugal life
Posted in The Frugal Life | 3 Comments »
