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!
This is as GREAT idea – I never thought about this for people! I’ve used it a few times for myself… but they would work so great as gifts! I was actually going around different sites and blogs looking for something to get my boyfriend for our first Christmas together… and all I have come up with so far is a personalized ornament (kind of like these http://www.ornamentsandmore.com/1st-christmas-ornaments.aspx ) … but I think paired with some groupon coupons to some new places to eat at in Vancouver would be awesome!!!
Thanks for commenting Danielle! Another good place to get half-price gift cards is through local radio and TV stations (at least around here). Many of them have started offer “meal deals” and other half-priced gift cards.