I’ll admit I haven’t even STARTED shopping for the $50 fashion challenge against blogger SDBargainMama. We each have $50 to spend to get the best outfit we can, basically.
This weekend I’m hitting the thrift stores with one of my favorite frugal fashionista – you know who you are!
My hot spots in Los Angeles are Lucky You Resale, Crossroads, and the FIDM Scholarship store. I’m hoping to get a dress, maybe a hat, and perhaps some vintage jewelry. We’ll see!
If you’re joining us on the challenge, email me pics of what you buy for $50. The new deadline is Sept. 17!
CVS and Walgreens are giving free flu shots to those without jobs and health insurance. CVS will administer 100,000 free shots at on-site flu clinics, at One-Stop Career Centers, and distribute vouchers for free flu shots at CVS/pharmacy or MinuteClinics. Get details here or call 1-888-FLU-SHOT. Find a clinic near you.
Walgreens is giving away vouchers for free flu shots as part of a nine-city Wellness Tour across the country that is good through November 30, 2009 at any Walgreen pharmacy or Take Care Clinic. Call 1-866-484-TOUR for details.
It is National Bowling Week and that means you can get a voucher for a free game (up to $6) when you register on their site with your name and email (though you can opt out of receiving emails from them). The coupon can be redeemed this Saturday, Sept. 5 at participating bowling centers. No age restrictions.
Find if there are any participating centers near you. I found four in the Los Angeles area, including Pasadena, Anheim, Santa Monica and El Monte. Then consider joining to get your free game.
Caveats: limit one free game of bowling per person, per valid email address, per coupon. Valid when lanes are available and unreserved. Not valid for shoe rental or concessions, and not to be combined with any other bowling offer.
Thanks, Cindy!
Today only (Wednesday, Sept. 2) get $10-$15 tickets to almost 50 concerts across the country without paying any service fees through Live Nation. The $10 tickets are for the lawn and the $15 tickets are for reserved seats. Check out the list of eligible concerts, including shows by Creed, Motley Crue and Def Leppard, above. Venues include The House of Blues (various locations), The Fillmore (various locations) and The Wiltern in Los Angeles.
Caveats: subject to availability at participating venues and select shows. Includes print at home and US mail delivery, parking where applicable. Cannot be combined with any other offer or discount.
This is a guest post that originally appeared on Common Sense Money.
I have mentioned Swagbucks a few of times here on this blog. But for those of you who are new, this is the skinny on Swagbucks:
Swagbucks is a search and win search engine. You earn Swagbucks when you search the web through them. I will be honest and admit that I am huge Google search user. I use it several times a day. At first I was a bit skeptical about Swagbucks. However, that soon changed when I found out that Swagbucks is powered by Google and Ask.com. So far I have been satisfied with my search results and have even compared search results side by side and they are very similar. Then I was afraid about the change, after all, typing Google.com on my browser bar was a habit for me. But I don’t even have to worry about that anymore thanks to the search toolbar Swagbucks has for Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari and Opera. Searching and earning Swagbucks while I do that has never been so easy.
I use Swagbucks every single day! I am accumulating any Swagbucks I earn to help buy gifts for this Holiday season and lower how much cash I spend. I regularly use the search bar I downloaded for Firefox, the browser I regularly use, and it makes it so much easier. Swagbucks is introducing THREE new features:
1) BRAND NEW Swag Bucks toolbar: the new toolbar will be released on Sept 1st and is compatible with IE, Firefox and Safari. Members will be able to log into to their account through the new toolbar in addition to being able to track their points through the toolbar. Additionally, in September, EVERY SINGLE DAY, we will release a special “Swag Code” through the toolbar. The only way to get the code is by having the toolbar installed. By the end of the month, those that have installed the toolbar should be able to rack up 30 FREE SWAG BUCKS!
2) SWAGGO! - Swaggo is Swagbucks’ answer to BINGO! During the month of September when you order selected prizes through the Swag Store you will be sent a special SWAGGO piece. If you collect all the pieces in a row, you will let us know and will be awarded 1000 Swag Bucks! This is a fun promotion that will only be held from Sept 1st – Sept 31st. We will have a complete list of prizes that will award Swaggo pieces by the end of this week.
3) A new “Back to School” section in the Swag Store: This section will feature everything your child may need as they get ready for the new school year. The “Back to School” section will feature an assortment of items for elementary schoolers up to high schoolers!
If you are already a Swagbucks member, download the new toolbar right here. I am excited about the 30 Swagbuck codes as just 45 Swagbucks get you a $5 Amazon Gift Card. I love those!
If you are not a Swagbucks member I have an exclusive offer for you: This week and through Sept. 10 you can become a Swagbucks member and earn up to five Swagbucks right off the bat. All you need to do is use the code swagsense (case sensitive) when you register. In addition to earning three Swagbucks for becoming a new member you will earn an additional two Swagbucks because you used my special code. Go here to become a new member.
Thanks, Mercedes!
Sign up for my free email list and you are automatically eligible to win a set of 3-reusable totes OR two tickets to a Broadway show in New York City. The giveaway starts today and ends Sept. 14, 2009.
Here are the rules for the prize giveaway.
1. One new reader who signs up between today and Sept. 14 to receive my daily OR weekly emails will receive a set of uber light and durable Joey Totes, above, OR tickets to a Broadway show, courtesy of Season of Savings, a hot new site that sells discounts theater tickets.
2. One existing reader who already receives my weekday OR weekly emails will win a set of Joey Totes or tickets to a Broadway show. If you already receive my emails, you are automatically entered to win. You do not need to do anything to be eligible. You do not need to email me to double check.
3. If I am in your RSS feed, you are not eligible to win. You must sign up to receive my emails to be entered in the giveaway.
4. The drive ends Sept 14, 2009 so sign up now!
5. Winners will be chosen at random on Sept. 15. I will email those readers to make sure the email address is valid. Readers will have 48 hours to respond. If readers do not respond, alternates will be notified. Winners will be announced on the blog. Prizes will be mailed to the winners.
A friend tipped me off to StudentBuyingGuide.com, a cool site that is devoted to helping students save money through retailer discount programs. Here are a few of the discounts I saw on the site.
If you just graduated, you can get 10,000 miles free on United. Flash your student ID at Pier 1 Imports and get 15 percent off. Buying a new computer? Get a coupon for $250-$500 off an HP laptop.
The site also explains how to get a 6 percent discount at Target online (holy cow!) using Edhance, a new site that is like eBates for college students. Edhance verifies you are a student (you’ll need an email that ends in .edu and be taking classes) before crediting discounts back to your credit card. Edhance has discount deals with Barnes & Noble, Target, Apple, Toshiba and others.
Between these two sites, students and their families can save a lot of money.
Thanks Ellyn!
Receiving coupons via mobile devices is becoming more popular, according to a story in the NY Times.
“Mobile coupons — usually text messages with discount codes sent to a cellphone — are becoming the blue-light specials for the digital age, promoting last-minute clothing sales, two-for-one entrees and cheap tickets to the theater,” the story says.
To get a mobile discount you pull up the coupon bar code or promo code as you make your purchase.
There are two ways to get mobile coupons. You can sign up to receive discounts with individual retailers or join a website that aggregates coupons and sends you ones that fit your chosen preferences.
On CellFire you can sign up for grocery or non-grocery mobile coupons. When I plugged in my zip code I got coupons for groceries, Payless, Sears photos, Hollywood Videos, Extreme Pita, 1-800-Flowers, and a BOGO free admission to the Aquarium of the Pacific.
On Zavers you can find coupons by category, brand, and retailer (they have four so far).
Yowza is a coupon application that only works with the iPhone or iPod Touch. 8coupons.com focuses only on New York City.
I would start with CellFire and Zavers and see what works for you.
Thanks, Wendy!
BargainBabe.com is ranked No. 35 on a list of the top 100 personal finance blogs. Yipee!
We jumped SEVENTEEN spots up from the last ranking on Fire Finance, which uses a number of stats to create the rankings.
You are what has made BargainBabe.com so popular! Thank you for your readership and support. The biggest compliment you can give us is to tell a friend about BargainBabe.com.
Julia
You may have heard about the Los Angeles wildfires, which, at 122,000 acres, is the largest ever in LA County since 1897, according to KPCC radio host Larry Mantle. This video compresses the smoke clouds that have been mushrooming over Los Angeles into a few minutes.
Thanks, Amy!
Hi folks,
I changed the time the email blast goes out every weekday to give myself an extra hour to write more blog posts for you. For some reason, that change lead to the email blast going out super late last night. I apologize for the delay.
You *should* receive my email tips early afternoon from now on.
Thanks,
Julia
aka Bargain Babe
