The seafood restaurant McCormick and Schmick’s is giving veterans a free lunch or dinner on Sunday, Nov. 8, 2009. The special menu includes cashew-crusted tilapia, grilled Atlantic salmon, seafood fettuccini alfredo and cedar-planked salmon. Sounds tasty.
Anyone who served in the active military, naval, or air service, and who was discharged or released under conditions other than dishonorable is eligible for the free meal. Bring proper identification – a VA card, VFW card, American Legion card, discharge papers, DD214 or other Veterans ID – and show it to your server when you are seated.
To accommodate as many Veterans as possible, the restaurant will not seat parties larger than 6. The list of participating McCormick and Schmick’s includes dozens of restaurants in AL, AZ, CA, CO, DC, FL, GA, IL, IN, MA, MD, MI, MN, MO, NJ, NV, NY, NC, OH, OR, PA, RI, TX, VI, WA, WI.
Thanks to Free Fun Guides for letting me know that all military families can get in free to all National Parks, Forests, Reserves, Monuments Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2009 in honor of Veterans Day!
The fee waiver applies to entrance fees only. The deal applies to national forests, public recreation lands managed by Interior’s National Park Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Land Management and Bureau of Reclamation and Agriculture’s U.S. Forest Service. Many National Parks have military significance, including these.
The National Parks Traveler blog posted this list of parks having special events on Veterans Day:
World War II Memorial, Washington, DC – 8 a.m. color guard from the
Military District of Washington, special speakers, wreath-laying, and taps.
Contact: Friends of the National World War II Memorial, (202) 747-4258.Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Washington, DC – 1 p.m. annual Veterans Day
Observance at the Wall. Contact: Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund at (202)
393-0090.Valley Forge National Historical Park, Pennsylvania – 10:30 a.m. wreath
laying at the National Memorial Arch with the Friends of Valley Forge Park
and the Korea DMZ Veterans Association. Contact: Ann Marie Maher at (610)
783-1006 or maher@valleyforge.org.General Grant National Memorial, New York – 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. living history
displays and demonstrations of the evolution of the American Army during
the 19th century. Contact: Mindi Rambo at (212) 668-2208 or
mindi_rambo@nps.gov.
Thanks to the Miltiary Finance Network blog for a few Veteran’s Day discounts that I missed.
Lowe’s and Home Depot often give military members and veterans a 10 percent discount on military holidays such as Memorial Day, Veteran’s Day, and around the 4th of July. Be sure to ask and bring your ID!
The Golden Corral restaurant is serving a free meal on Monday, November 16, 2009, from 5 to 9 p.m. to anyone who served in the US Military. The deal is open to all veterans, retirees, active duty military members, and members of the National Guard or Reserves. Find a location near you. Because this freebie is not on Veteran’s Day it means you can get a second free meal – assuming you also got on one Veteran’s Day.
Looking for a restaurant coupon in your neighborhood? Then consider CouponMap.com, a website that primarily offers deals for eating out.
The site maps out more than 100,000 coupons across the country from sources like Restaurant.com and ValPak. The site also lists local gas station prices, though it’s unclear where they are getting their pump prices.
Enter your city or zip code and a map pops up with tiny red deal markers. You can also scroll down the right side for deals.
The coupons are not especially distinctive – many require you to sign up for an email list or buy a gift certificate to get a discount. But it’s not a bad place to make a quick check before you go out. Most of the coupons can be printed from home.
Examples include:
A $25 gift certificate to Pacific Grille in Los Angeles for $10
A free entree at TGI Friday’s in Austin, TX when you buy one entree
A one-day free pass to Crunch Fitness in New York City
$1 off a burrito at Pancho Villa Tacqueria in San Francisco
There are shoes. And then there are sole mates. On my way home from New York City I found the perfect pair of pink shoes – but I’m not sure if I should buy them.
I had time to kill before meeting a friend who had my car keys so I walked into O’My Sole in Marina Del Rey. A store employee immediately asked if I was looking for anything in particular.
“Nope, just browsing,” I said, dropping my heavy bags in the nearest corner.
“If you need anything, let me know.”
I nodded and began my slow dance around the room, ogling the beautiful leather footwear. I was on the last table when I saw them.
Adorable pink heels. Perfect for work but sassy enough for going out. Covered toes so I don’t have to worry about grubby toenails. And the moderate heel meant comfort was a possibility. Unfortunately, I couldn’t take a picture because I lost my iPhone in New York.
As soon as I picked them up, the salesman sounded disappointed.
“That’s our last pair,” he said.
“Oh, darn.”
“You aren’t a size 10 are you?”
Since when does the last pair ever come in my size?!! Like, never.
“I am!”
“I’ll give you 20 percent off if you take them,” he said before fetching the match.
“Really?”
“You don’t know how hard it is to find a woman in size 10 you wears heels. I’ve been trying to get rid of these for six months.”
I knew a bargain was in the offing. But if they weren’t comfortable, it wouldn’t matter.
I sat down, took off my sweaty socks and boots. Slid the heels on. Please be comfy, I thought. Inhaled and stood up.
The leather rubbed against my right big toe in two places. Not good. But God, were they gorgeous.
I strolled around the floor. Rolled up my jeans and took a good look in the mirror. Possibly the best most perfect pair of shoes ever.
“I love these shoes,” I said.
“I’ll give you 30 percent off,” he offered.
“But they are too tight in the right foot.”
“How uncomfortable are they?”
“I’m trying to decide,” I said, taking a few more laps around the store. “The thing is as soon as I saw them I thought these shoes were made for me. AND I have someplace I can wear them this week.”
“I’ll give you 40 percent off,” he said. “With tax that comes to $111, marked down from $170.” (The shoe brand, El Natura Lista is European and earth-friendly.)
Still a lot of money. I kept pacing the store. He was offering me a great deal on a high quality pair of shoes that I loved and that would go perfect with jeans, skirts, and especially my pink Bargain Babe T-shirt that I wear to business events. I’ve been wanting to replace my business-y heels for a few months, and these could double as going out shoes.
But the toe nagged. “Does the leather stretch?”
“I can stretch them overnight and you can come back tomorrow,” he said.
“Is there an extra charge for that?”
“No, and if that doesn’t help you don’t have to buy them,” he said.
“Deal.”
So my (perhaps) perfect pink shoes await me. I’m going back to the store on Wednesday to try them on again. If you were me, would you buy them?
UPDATE: The overwhelming consensus is that I should buy the pink shoes.
Reader Jill says:
Heck yeah! Try em on, do your laps, hem and ha a little, then work him for 50% off. You know how to work it girl!
Do you disagree? Speak up now! And for the record, I asked if he could make it $100 even and he looked at his computer and shook his head. But I’ll ask him again tomorrow.
Amazon continues to take advantage of falling magazine circulation (everyone’s going online, you know) by offering great subscription discounts to those of us who want glossies delivered to our door – or want to give them as gifts. A slew of mags are just $10 per year, including Parents, Maxim, GQ, Wired, and House Beautiful. Amazon also has magazines that are eligible for an instant $3, $5 or $10 off at checkout.
Their deal of the day is a $5 subscription to Vegetarian Times, which is $7 lower than their usual price. For this price you get 9 issues over 12 months.
I’m trying to eat vegetarian more often and am excited to try my sister’s grated beet salad. (If you think beets are scary, they are! But their taste is quite mild compared to their potent color.)
1-2 beets, peeled and grated
1-2 carrots, peeled and grated
Plenty of crushed garlic – as much as you can handle
2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
Toasted ground sesame seeds
Dash of olive oil
Salt to taste
Refrigerate leftovers.
Buying magazines through Amazon.com supports BargainBabe.com!
Get a free one night rental at one of Blockbusters’ new rental kiosks (i.e. a Redbox rival). Use code 9pm, good through Nov. 30, 2009. You can also try code GER9A2, which is good through Nov. 11, 2009. The machines are called Blockbuster Express and you can find one near you.
Get 30 percent off regular-priced jackets, coats and sweaters at MyShape.com, a site that takes your measurements before making size recommendations. Use code 24WARMUP. Valid Nov 3, 2009 only. Buy $150 or more and get a $50 credit toward a purchase in December.
Get 30 percent off the list price of one item at Borders Nov 3 and 4, 2009. Borders coupon here. Online use code BSL6887A.
Bed Bath and Beyond has some great prices in their clearance section. Shop by brand or category.
Thanks, Tina!
Jacqueline won my review copy of In Good Times and Bad: Strengthening Your Relationship When the Going Gets Tough and the Money Gets Tight with the following comment. Seems like she is exactly who the authors had in mind!
Thanks so much for sharing this book. I just recently got married in September and as much as we are trying to enjoy our newlywed period- we are completely struggling financially. We’re trying to keep smiling faces, but I am looking for new ideas to stay positive during this time while I look for job. I would love your copy of the book! Thanks.
If you didn’t win a copy, you can buy it for $18.68 from Amazon. If you have a book about saving money that you’d like me to consider for a review, email me.
Reader Natalie pointed out how easy it is to combine coupons – even though most people don’t use this technique to save money – in her comment on my post about extreme couponing from last week. (The best reader comment usually runs Friday but I took the day off.)
a lot of stores like walgreens will allow you to use their coupons combined with the manufacturers coupons.
also, have you ever looked on couponmom.com? they were on oprah last year. their site details how to use coupons effectively. the best support they have is their page that allows you to type in what you are looking for and it will tell you if there is a available coupon and when it was published. check it out.
If don’t use coupons, I’ll fill you in. Many stores, like Walgreens, Rite Aid, and others allow you to use more than one coupon on a single item. For example, you can cut a coupon from the Walgreens circular (available at the store entrance) with a manufacturer coupon cut from the Sunday newspaper inserts. Using more than one coupon for an item is called stacking.
If the item also happens to be on sale – score! You may get the item free or for a fraction of the original cost. It sounds simple and it is, except for the fact that you have to clip and organize all the coupons.
If you are a regular stacker, what techniques work well for you? If you have never clipped coupons, what’s holding you back?
I took some fabulous pictures of my sexy librarian costume Saturday night with my iPhone but only one of them survived. The next day I lost my iPhone with all the pictures. The only one that survived (because I emailed it to my sister) is um, not appropriate for the blog. Sorry, folks.
Hope you had a great holiday and found a fun and frugal costume to dress up in!
Julia
aka Bargain Babe
I just learned a bunch of new shopping tricks from the latest issue of ShopSmart magazine, one of my favorite reads.
- Sam’s Club gives college students a $15 gift card when they become a member ($40/year).
- BJ’s (an East Coast warehouse chain) accepts manufacturers coupons.
- Sears has brick and mortar outlets with steep markdowns. Find one near you on their outlet page.
- Best Buy auctions stuff on Overstock.com and Zappos unloads shoes at 6pm.com.
- Ask about the return policy. Walmart and JCPenney “often have more restrictive return policies for electronics and jewelry than for other merchandise,” the story says.
- At Sam’s Club, items with a “C” at the end of the price have been canceled and won’t be restocked.
- Women are more likely to impulsively buy something from the end of the aisle than men are.
- A word of caution. Costco offers a 2 percent rebate on almost everything in the warehouse if you upgrade to a $100/year membership. Regular membership is $50/year so you have to spend an additional $2,500 to get your $50 back through a 2 percent rebate. Sounds like a crummy deal to me!
Every Monday I like to highlight some of the interesting blog posts I’ve read on other blogs.
Man Vs. Debt has a guest post from a woman who made $15,000 selling her stuff on eBay
Want to make money from your hobbies? Free Money Finance has suggestions.
Bargaineering has some great ideas to get the lowest international calling rate.
Unlucky days create travel deals, notes California Consumer. The next Friday the 13th is in November.
Wealth Pilgrim gave up cable. It’s been four days and so far, he’s okay.
Costco is starting to accept food stamps, reports Smart Spending. By Thanksgiving more than half the warehouses will be equipped to take them.
