Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Quick deal at Rite Aid






Oh those delicious Lindt Chocolate Bars...on sale at Rite Aid 2 for $3, usual price $3.99, use your coupon from this weekend's paper ($1.00 off 2) and get them for a buck a piece...I stocked up on some very delicious dark chocolate!

Saturday, April 25, 2009

Quick deals...

Sorry to be so slack in posting but there are a handful of really good deals out there today...

Pathmark (on sale through midnight thursday unless otherwise noted)


Brita Slim Pitcher $20.99 usually, $9.99 on sale with card
Blackberries .98 cents container, through midnight Sunday
Florida's Natural, not from concentrate $1.88 per quart, through Sunday midnight
Tribe Hummus, 1/2 off...usually $3.99 on sale 2 for $4
Haagen Daaz ice cream 2 for $6, purchase 4 and get get a $4 coupon (which I used for that purchase) so essentially $2 a pint

Key Food (on sale through midnight thursday)


Organic Valley Milk: $3.99 a quart
House Foods Tofu products, includes shirataki noodles, organic tofu, Tofu Steak, etc 2 for $3
6 pack, Scotts Toilet Paper 2 for $8 (must buy 2)
Tropicana pure premium $2 per quart (with $25 purchase)

Saturday, April 11, 2009

For the first time in ages, a great deal at Food Emporium




Man, the last good deal I remember at Food Emporium was those Taste of Thai noodle boxes a couple of months ago. I think they ended up being something wacky like $1.75 a box.

Lo and behold someone answered my prayers regarding organic milk...the only two places I can find in the city that carries organic milk by the gallon are Trader Joes (which has it at a reasonable price, $5.99 per gallon) and Whole Foods (which is not reasonable).

Food Emporium is running Organic Valley milk on sale at $2.89 a half gallon...which is a mere $5.78 a gallon...but the real joy in that is not the 21 cent savings but the relief I feel not having to stand in that loooooooooooooong line at TJs. Love you TJs but come on...more cashiers pls.

On sale at Food Emporium through 4/16...

Friday, April 10, 2009

Go and rock the pathmark sooooooooooon







In this past Sunday's paper there was a $1 off coupon for Stonyfield Farm's Oikos Greek yogurt. Fat free, delicious flavors like Honey and Blueberry on the bottom, AND it's Organic.

Even the usual non greek Stonyfield yogurts on sale run around 4 for $3 or 75 cents each in NY. This runs around $2.49 a cup in the city with Pathmark being the cheapest at $2.19. However, if you clipped the $1 off coupons in this past Sunday's paper your net cost on these will be 50 cents a cup...yup. Pathmark is rocking these on sale 2 for $3 and couple that with a $1 coupon per cup and 50 cents each.

I can highly recommend both the honey and blueberry flavors...Go and get it...

Friday, April 3, 2009

How to rock Pathmark NYC this week

I have to admit, I had a killer run today at Pathmark...

For a mere $31.40 I loaded up on the following:

Two 48 ounce tubs of Sargentto Ricotta (on sale $3.99, plus $1 coupon each)
Three 16 ounce packages of Sargentto Mozzarella (on sale $1.99, plus $1 coupon each)
4 containers of Tropicana 50 Orange Juice (on sale $2.50 each, plus $1 coupon each)
2 containers of Silk Soymilk (on sale 2 for $6, plus $1 coupon each)
4 boxes of Wheat Thins artisan cheese crackers (on sale 2 for $4, plus two 2 for 1 coupons)
2 containers Breakstone's Sourcream (on sale $1.25 each, plus $1 coupon off 2)
2 loaves of Nature's Pride bread (on sale $2.50 each, plus $.55 coupon each)
5 cans diced tomatoes (on sale 5 for $5)

Total savings, between sale price and coupons??? $65.33

Dear Recession, you can suck it. I can STILL have orange juice, soy milk, and make a lasagna even if you're hanging around.

xoxoxoxox.

Tuesday, March 31, 2009

On sale at Walgreens




Go go go to Walgreens before it goes off sale. 1 liter bottles of Listerine Total Care mouthwash is usually 6.49 a bottle. On sale for 2/$11 with $5.50 in register rewards if you buy 2, if you head over to the Listerine web site:

http://www.listerine.com/

You can get $2 per bottle off. So, in summary.

Listerine Total Care:

Usual price: $6.49 (x 2 = $12.98)
Sale price: 2 for $11 (or $5.50 each)
Use two $2 coupons for $7 total (or $3.50 each)

Then get back $5.50 in register rewards which brings your total down to $1.50 for 2 bottles.

They do weird stuff with the tax so it ended up being $7.92 but after the $5.50 coupon both bottles, all in, were $2.42 or a whopping $1.21 a piece or 82% off including tax.


Go now....

Saturday, March 7, 2009

Quit smoking for free in New York.


Ah smokers. You are indeed plentiful in the city. I smoke. I neeeeeeeeeeeeed to quit. My boyfriend does as well and we are both going to try and embark on that journey.

Smoking in New York is expensive, really expensive. We smoke American Spirits, those run up to $10 a pack in the city. At a pack a day for 2 people, that's about $600 a month in cigarettes, $6600 a year. That could pay for a couple of really nice vacations.

I never thought I'd say this but 311 to the rescue. They referred me here:

http://www.nysmokefree.com/newweb/default.aspx

Most New York state residents qualify for a free program in NY to quit smoking. They'll send you free patches and gum to help you quit. They do want to call you and follow up, if you stay on course they will keep sending you patches or gum until you quit.

Come on, it's free, like really free, like you dont even pay shipping and handling. So your choices are free and saving $3600 a year or spending $300 a month that I bet you dont have and dragging down your health.

So go ahead, quit smoking, it'll save you a ton of money and NY loves you enough to send free stuff to help.

Thursday, March 5, 2009

Why you shouldnt shop in Manhattan.

If you are one of the lucky ones to live in the Borough of Brooklyn you'll notice that it's a bit easier on the wallet than it is if you lived in NY.

My local Key Foods is clean, well stocked, and cheap. My local C-town, maybe not as clean, not as well stocked, but does indeed offer the occasional good buy, for example I got some very delicious stonyfield farm organic yogurt there last week 4 for $3.

On the other hand while D'Agostinos, Balducci's, Garden of Eden and others are not only shiningly clean and well stocked the other thing they'll gladly clean out is your wallet. That said, a few tips on getting some good buys at local stores.

Let's start with CVS. CVS offers a great program, ECB, extra cash back, great items, on sale, extra cash back and most specials are usually in conjunction with some coupons from the sunday papers. The CVS locations in Manhattan...they dont offer it, their store circs are 4 pages...that's it. However, go to their web site and check the circs in Brooklyn and it's 20 pages and filled with not just good but GREAT deals.

For example. Tide detergents. 50 ounces, at Duane Reade they run 11.97...usual price at CVS in Brooklyn about $9. On sale this past week in Brooklyn (not Manhattan) $5.97, on top of that I had a dollar off coupon. $5 a bottle, I bought 4 of the Tide total care. There were other items on sale on that page of the circ...Dawn detergent, Crest toothpaste, Puffs. If you bought $20 worth of merchandise on that circ page you got a free 6 pack of Charmin ($5 value). Lucky for me they were all out of the 6 packs so I got a 9 pack worth $7.50. Lesson? Spend the extra $4 round trip and go to brooklyn to shop, even if you live in Manhattan.

Oh Walgreens, I have noticed how cagey Walgreens has become with dealing with circs. Last week Walgreens was running Formula 409 at 2 for $5...bargain. Again, I had $1 off coupons so $1.50 a bottle. I went in to the Union Square store to stock up and was told, no joke, they dont carry Formula 409. Really? You dont carry one of the most popular cleaning solutions in the United States??? What? Same story with the memory formula Walgreens was offering free after rebate. Didn't exist in the store.

Duane Reade. Seriously don't even bother. Nothing is ever on sale there that you cant get on sale cheaper at Rite Aid.

Pathmark. Pathmark in Manhattan is a bit tricky. Honestly, the circ is pretty much the same for the city as it is in the boroughs. The difference is the coupon policy. You are limited to 4 coupons for the same item. You cant use a coupon for a "get one free" (buy one get one free) item so you cant really roll out 2 coupons for 2 boxes of cereal. So there are more restrictions. If you really really want those Pepperidge farm granola cookies that are 2 for 1 on sale for $.80 a bag (using 2 coupons) your choices are suck it up and leave the city or pay a smidge more ($1.30 a bag) at the Cherry St location.

And seriously, do not bother with Duane Reade. Don't do it.

Sunday, March 1, 2009

Go get some free toothpaste at Walgreen's this week.




Walgreen's is running a sale on a new toothpaste called Colgate MaxFresh or Colagate MaxWhite. All you need to do is roll up, buy one of the varieties and you get a quick register rebate of $3.29 good on your next purchase.

Bundle that with the $.50 coupon on any Colgate from last week's Sunday coupons and you make $.50 on the deal.

For some reason, the Walgreen's at union square is issuing $3.50 credits on the toothpaste so I got a plus of $.71

I'll go back tomorrow, pick up their 2 for $5 deal on Formula 409, couple that with two $1 coupons on 409 for this morning's coupons and I got a pretty sweet deal.

Saturday, February 28, 2009

Yummy delicious deal of the week.




In this past Sunday's coupons there were $1 off for Pepperidge Farm granola cookies.

Pathmark is running a 2 for 1 sale on these treats, I tried them and they are soooooooooooooo delicious.

Grab two $1 coupons from last Sundays coupons and buy the two for one cookies at Pathmark and these scrumptious treats will run you 80 cents a bag.

Everyday things you need that can get for free or nealy free.

Dont ever pay full price for any of these items, between sales and coupons you should be able to get some of these items for free or nearly free. Your best bet is combining coupons with sales and rebate campaigns from drug stores like Rite Aid, CVS, and Walgreens.

Cereal

In New York cereal typically runs around $4 to $5 a box, however, lucky for you nearly every weekend in the Sunday paper, someone has a cereal coupon or two. If you dont grab the Sunday paper, you can always search online for coupons. For example:

This past week Rite Aid ran a sale for 2 for 1 on Fiber One cereal, all varieties, starting price was $4.29 a box. I managed to be sitting on a few coupons for $1 off per box. Net cost per box of Fiber One? $1.15 or $2.29 total which is a far cry from the $8.58 cost of buying the cereal on any given day and about a 75% savings.

Deodorant

Luckily for all of us, the deodorant industry is highly competitive. CVS tends to be more aggressive in this area than some of the other drug stores. A couple months back they put Secret deodorants on sale for $2.99 then offered an ECB of $2.99 making that item free. Every weekend I find coupons for deodorants, clip them and wait for them to go on sale. The most recent deal I got in that area was from Rite Aid, the new Secret Flawless which usually runs about $6 was on sale for $3.99, again a $2 off coupon in this weekend's paper brought the cost down to $1.99 each.

Toothpaste

Last week Walgreens ran a sale on Colgate toothpaste, $1 per tube. In last Sunday's coupons there was a coupon for colgate for $.50 bringing your net cost down to 50 cents at Walgreens. I am a bit more fussy about toothpaste but you can still get some good deals out there if you keep your eyes open. Rite Aid put all sorts of Crest toothpastes on sale for $2.99, including my favorite, the crest pro health whitening which usually runs almost $5 a tube. This Sundays coupons yielded an additional $1 off coupon so I stocked up. Savings of almost $3 per tube.

Pain relievers/OTC medicines

I have two other awesome Rite Aid examples from last week. The new Rite Aid was offering a $5 rebate on the new new Claritin liqui-gels. They retail in the store for $19.99. On top of that $5 rebate if you grabbed the paper last sunday there was another coupon for $5 off bringing your total cost down to $10.

Rite Aid was also running another special, buy any three bayer products and get a free $10 Rite Aid gift card. I bought two 50 count bottles of aspirin and 1 bottle of their low dose aspirin for a whopping $10.97 all together. Total cost after getting that gift card back? 97 cents. That doesnt include applying a $5 coupon Rite Aid gave rebate customers for purchases of $20 or more on Friday and Saturday last week.

Hair Dye

All right so maybe you dont NEED hair dye, but those of us who dye our hair sure do. Another example from Rite Aid (Sorry, I think they tend to be the best at helping maximize weekly coupons). Garnier Nutrisse was on sale for 2 boxes for $10 (usually runs around $7 a box) and they were offering another $5 rebate bringing the price down to $5, then couple that with the $2 off manufacturers coupon that was in the paper the week prior and your price went down to $1.50 a box.

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Free Kashi frozen entree

The very kind folks over at kashi are so confident you'll love their frozen foods that they are offering a coupon for a free entree while supplies last!

Head on over to:

http://www.kashi.com/picturehunt

And sign up for yours. They are made with all sorts of delicious whole grains and appear to be a healthier alternative to the usual frozen meal! Enjoy!

Monday, February 23, 2009

Quiznos giving away free subs!



















Quiznos is offering a million free subs to anyone signing up for their email list at the free sub promotion page.

Just head over to the following link:

http://www.millionsubs.com/Reg.php?x=1

And sign up.

After you get signed up, Quiznos has quite graciously offered you the opportunity to opt out of their email list if you head back to the same link!

Friday, February 20, 2009

Bloggers rejoice in Ile de France Cheese


The fine folks over at Ile de France Cheese are offering bloggers the opportunity to try then review their cheeses. If you have a blog head on over to:

http://iledefrancecheese.com/Hello-Bloggers.html

Then fill out your info and maybe you'll be one of the lucky ones to try one of their cheeses. I opted to try their brie as I tried their goat cheese before and it's quite heavenly!

Come back for my review of their Brie if I am one of the bloggers they choose!

If you're not a blogger head over to the web site anyway, there are $1 off coupons on the site for you to try their cheeses!

Monday, February 9, 2009

Spendthrift giveaway!


To launch the blog properly I thought it might be nice to start with a giveaway.

So I bring you a Keurig Elite B40 Coffee Maker...Brand spanking new, and still in it's original packaging...



From Amazon.com:

"Ideal for entertaining, this 1500-watt single-serve home-brewing system brews a fresh cup of gourmet coffee or tea in less than a minute. The unit uses Keurig's patented K-Cups, which offer over 70 varieties of pre-measured gourmet coffee and tea from a variety of premium brands. The brewer's patented one-touch technology ensures precise control of brewing, and there's no messy grinding or clean up. Simply open the lid, insert a K-Cup, close the lid, and select a cup size. Two brew-size options include a 7-1/4-ounce cup and a 9-1/4-ounce mug. The machine fits both regular and travel-size mugs easily, and comes with a two-hour automatic shut-off for safety. Other useful features include a descale indicator, a removable 48-ounce water reservoir, and a removable drip tray. Providing a convenient size and quiet performance, the single-cup home-brewing system measures 13-1/4 by 10 by 13 inches and carries a one-year limited warranty.

Product Description

The elite coffee brewer can brew either a regular or travel size mug from 7.25 oz. up to 9.25 oz. at a time. Other features include a removable 48 oz. water reservoir, and the removable dip tray is dishwasher- safe. 13"H x 10"W x 13.25"D "


How to enter:

Please comment with your best money saving tips, you can get additional entries by following this blog on blogger or writing about this contest in your own blog. If you can't be reached via your blogger ID please leave an email address.

Entries due in by 9pm EST Feb 16th.

Thanks!

This weeks Supermarket Circ Highlights (NYC & Brooklyn only)




Some supermarkets will indeed require you to have one of those "loyalty cards" or club cards for some of these prices. They might also require you to have a store coupon from their instore circular, just grab one at the front of the store.



Whole Foods (2/4-2/10)


Organic Blueberries 2 for $5
Bionaturae organic canned tomatoes 2 for $5
Wallaby Organic Lowfat Yogurt Cups 3 for $4
White Grapefruit $.69 per pound

D'agostinos (Good 2/4-2/10)


Beefsteak Tomatoes $2.99 a pound
Haagen Daaz Reserve Ice Creams $3.99 a pint
Polaner all fruit jelly $1.99 each
Jiffy Corn Mix 4 for $2
Progresso Soups 2 for $4

Organic/Healthy Choices:

Organic Onions 3 lb bag $2.99
Organic Russet Potatoes 5 lb bag $3.99
Organic Celery Hearts (package) $2.99
Organic Romaine Hearts (3 pack) $3.99
Egg Innovations "vegetarian eggs" $3.99
Morningstar Farms breakfast patties $3.99
Bear Naked Granola $2.99 (with 300 green points)
All Kashi Cereals $1.99 per box (with 1500 green points)


C Town (good through 2/6-2/12)


Barilla Pasta 4 for $4
Progresso Soups Buy one get one free
Arnold Whole Grain Classics Bread Buy one get one free
Tropicana Pure Premium OJ 2 for $5.98
Bumblebee Solid White Tuna 4 cans for $5
Redenbachers Microwave Popcorn Buy one get one free
Fresh Strawberries (1lb container) 2 for $5
Cherrios 2 for $6
Lucky Charms 2 for $7
Cookie Crisp Buy one get one free
Fruit Loops Buy one get one free

Organic/Healthy Choices:

Organic Broccoli $1.99 each
Organic Grape Tomatoes (1 pint) $1.99
Organic Gala Apples (3 lb bag) $2.99


Associated Supermarkets (2/6-2/12)

Chicken of the Sea Solid white Tuna 5 for $5 (with coupon from instore flyer)
Brawny Paper towels 8 rolls or 6 big rolls $6.99 (with coupon from instore flyer)
Florida's Natural Orange Juice $2.99
Smuckers Strawberry Jam 2 for $5
Cheerios 2 for $6 (with coupon from instore flyer)
Cap'n Crunch 2 for $7
Swiss Miss Hot Cocoa 2 for $3
Arnold's Bread 2 for $4

Organic/Healthy Choices:

Kashi Heart to Heart 2 for $7
Stoneyfield Organic Smoothies 2 for $3
8th Continent Soymilk $2.99


Key Food (2/6-2/12)

Sorrento Mozzarella Buy one get one free

Tropicana Pure Premium OJ 2 for $6
Carnation Evaporated Milk 10 for $10 (for you bakers out there)
Dole prepackaged salads 2 for $4
Newcastle Brown Ale $8.99 6 pack
Cookie Crisp, Lucky Charms, Trix 2 for $6
Chicken of the Sea chunk white tuna 10 for $10
Progresso Soup Buy one get one free

Organic/Healthy Choices:

Earthbound Farms Baby Carrots 2 for $4
Romaine Hearts (3 pack) $3.99
Organic Onions 3 lb bag $2.99
Organic Carrots $1.29 a pound
Organic Celery hearts $2.99 package
Morningstar Farms Breakfasts 2 for $7 (grillers, soy sausage patties, burgers)
Tofutti Desserts (16 oz) $2.99 - assorted
Kashi Heart to Heart $2.99
Healthy Choice Soups 2 for $3
Kashi Insant Oatmeal 2 for $5


Food Emporium (2/6-2/12)

Barilla Pastas $.99
Progresso Soups 2 for $4
Bounty big rolls (8 Pack) $5.99
Cedar Springs all Natural Lamb Chops $9.99 a pound
Wasa crispbread $1.99
Twinings Teas $2.69
Ben & Jerrys ice cream 2 for $6
Healthy Choice frozen meals 3 for $11
A Touch Of Thai Boxed Noodles $1.89
Stash Teas $2.49
Tropicana Pure Premium OJ 2 for $7

Organic/Healthy Choices:

Organic Red Pears $1.99 a pound
Organic Red or golden delicious apples $1.79 a pound
Earthbound Farms Organic Salads $3.99
Organic Grape Tomatoes (pint) 2 for $6
Organic cucumbers $1.79 each
Organic broccolette 2 for $5
Healthy Choice soups 3 for $7
Organic Valley Whipping cream $2.99
Organic Valley Brown Eggs $4.99
Bionaturae pasta $2.79


Pathmark (2/6-2/12)

24 Pack AquaFina Water $3.88
Coors, Bud, or Miller - 18 pack $11.99
Tropicana Pure Premium OJ $2.99
Thomas' English Muffins $1.69
Cheerios, Trix, Lucky Charms, Cookie Crisp $1.99
Progresso Soups 3 for $4
Entenmanns (full line) 2 for $5
Hot pockets or lean pockets 5 for $10
Barilla Pastas $.98
Powerbars 5 for $5
Nature Valley Granola Bars 2 for $5
Arnold's Bread (whole grain, wheat, etc) 2 for $5
Dannon Yogurt (assorted varieties) 10 for $5
Scott Bath Tissue (20 roll pack) $10.99

Organic/Healthy Choices:

Kashi Go Lean 2 for $6
Dreamfields Pasta 2 for $4
Tribe All Natural Hummus $1.99
Kashi Granola Bars $3.49


Met foods (2/8-2/14)

Cheerios $2.99
Tropicana Pure Premium OJ 2 for $6
Quaker Granola Bars $2.99
Progresso Soups 2 for $4
Ben & Jerrys Pints $3.99
Cabot Cheese $2.99 (8 oz)
Thomas' English Muffins $1.99

Organic/Healthy Choices:

Kashi Heart to Heart Oatmeal $2.99
Kashi Go Lean $2.99
Newman's Own Salad Dressing $3.99
Newman's Own Salsa $2.39
Newman's Own Popcorn $2.99
Newman's Own Pasta Sauce $2.99
Newman's Own Marinades $2.99
8th Continent Soy Milk (64 oz) 2 for $5
Morningstar Farms (various) $2.99
Organic Grape Tomatoes $2.99 container
Organic Baby Lettuce (5 oz) $3.99

Sunday, February 8, 2009

Mmmmmmmmm. English Toffee Anytime

Oh the mommy files is doing a contest giving away some delicious English Toffee anytime toffee. I have sampled their toffee and the dark chocolate is heaven!

You've gotta be quick though, ends at 3pm eastern tomorrow!

http://www.themommy-files.com/2009/02/super-sweet-giveaway-english-toffee.html

Free flowers or something...

For the past few days mypoints.com has been offering a free $50 gift card to the first 100 people per day who click on the promotional link on their home page. Sadly the promo runs on PST so instead of a quite reasonable midnight start time, for those of us on the east coast the promo started at 3am.

I had pretty much blown it off as I'm not usually up that late but for whatever reason last night I couldnt sleep and gave it a shot, sure enough I rocked the code. $50 in free FTD....sweet!

This morning I perused the site trying to figure out what I would get. I eyed some food gift baskets, primarily the wine and cheese baskets, some eli's cheesecake, and some of the spa baskets. Ultimately because shipping on perishables was just silly ($24.99) I figured I would nab a spa finder gift card. They're $75 plus $11 in shipping but I figured what the hell, $36 for $75 in desperately needed pampering was still a hell of a good deal.

Went through the motions and what did I find? FTD.com is charging sales tax on gift certificates!!! WTF? For now I am going to chalk it up to a coding error as it's clearly a non taxable item in NY State. Gift certificates are non taxable but any goods and services purchased with them are taxable if indeed they fall under certain guidelines in NY City or State.

The NY State Dept of Taxation web site clearly states gift certificates are not taxable so if you're in NY and buying a gift certificate, don't let anyone charge you tax.

I wrote to FTDs General Counsel to clarify their policy and will report back.

Saturday, February 7, 2009

Finding the best deals on groceries...

I really didnt grasp how much money I was blowing until I signed up at mygrocerydeals.com.

The premise of the site it quite simple, they take all of your local grocery circulars, put them in one place and allow you to search for the best deals based on your shopping list or what you might be looking for.

For example, I chose the following supermarkets to track: D'Agostinos, Food Emporium, Key Food, Met, Pathmark, Shoprite, Whole Foods. I also added some drug and discount stores for deals on snacks: CVS, Rite Aid, Walgreens, & Target. Sadly a couple of my locals are missing, including C-town so I'd have to go to their site and look at their circular online to find out this week they are offering Barilla pasta at $4 for 4 boxes (good through 2/12/09)

What I found was a bit astonishing, MET foods, even on sale was on average double in cost than other markets such as key foods.

However, with just a little looking around you can find some bargains. Last week at pathmark, 8th continent soymilk all flavors was 2 quarts for $5, Silk usually runs about $5 a quart and I usually buy a quart of chocolate soy milk per week.

Other local deals this week? Food emporium has Ben & Jerrys ice cream 2 for $6 - granted, they are limited flavors I remember Cookie Dough, Mint Cookie, & Coffee (although there were 3 or 4 more). They also have those A Taste of Thai Quick meals noodle boxes for $1.89 each (limit 4 per person with Food Emporium Club card) that usually run around $4.79 each. A cheap easy and yummy lunch for anyone but these are also vegan.

So, for savings I sorted out $4 off the ice cream and $2.90 per noodle box and managed lunch for a little over $2 a day as I will be adding baked tofu to my noodle boxes.

Oh restaurant.com, how I love thee.

I feel like a damn fool, I hadnt keyed into restaurant.com until recently when they were running a 70% off sale with a super secret code.

I browsed the site and found 3 of my favorite restaurants listed and sat, frozen almost in shame, staring at the savings and calculating how much money I could have saved at these three restaurants alone over the past few years.

At any given moment even these coupons at full price are still a pretty decent deal but at $3 a pop they were a steal.

Haveli restaurant, one of the best on indian restaurant row, as well as one of the most expensive is participating. A coupon for $25 off a purchase of $50 or more in food. So go ahead, order that lobster curry at $24.95, it's essentially free after whomever you're with orders dinner and you order appetizers, rice, and their heavenly na'an bread. Or better yet, ditch the lobster curry and order an extra entree or two and take it to go. Indian leftovers are heavenly.

A restaurant local to me, Cono and Sons, has an equally as good deal but their coupon also covers wine. I snagged a few $50 coupons for $6 each, and total purchase all in has to be $100. However, Tuesday nights at Cono is "Wine Night" all bottles of wine are half off. So that means that $85 bottle of pinot will already be on sale half off when I roll in with my coupon. The way I see it, Tuesday night my boyfriend and I will have a ridiculously expensive bottle of wine, some calamari, some seafood entrees and skate out of there with a $50 check. Nothing to be mad at.

Currently restaurant.com is having another coupon sale good through 2/9/2009, making those $25 vouchers $5 each. Coupon code is: CUPID

Savings thus far and some tips...

Recently I joined a few coupons and deals sites, as well as a sweepstakes site - a few of my early coups have been winning some gift cards.

Free money so far over 2 months?

A $25 gift card for gifts.com which I quickly converted into a rite-aid gift card because there's one near my office.

Two $25 Visa gift cards from a Miller sweepstakes.

A $50 Visa gift card in a blog contest.

A $50 Best Buy gift card in a Microsoft contest.

A $50 gift card for Discovery.com from the Meet Mike sweepstakes.

A $25 gas card.

A $25 grocery card (not actually won, given from the grocer after I wrote a complaint letter)

$10 in amazon gift codes searching with swagbucks.

Mind you, I'm still determining what to do with the gas card seeing as how I dont have a car but thinking I should hang on to it hoping I save enough money this year to actually take a vacation and rent a car. The discovery gift card will make for some nice christmas gifts for my boyfriend's nephews.

Total in free cash so far to do as I please with it: $285 and that's a fine start.

It's on like Donkey Kong.

As a new blogger I feel I should admit necessity is what dictates me changing my ways to become a more frugal shopper, especially considering how expensive things are in the city. Actually, I live in Brooklyn but do at least half of my shopping in the city.

The reason for creating this blog was wanting to track exactly how much I manage to save this year by paying attention to my buying habits and actually looking for items on sale, and gasp, using coupons.

So far I'm pretty pleased with the results and will begin chronicling and sharing those saving tips with you.