LAST MINUTE GIFT IDEAS:
Going bonkers because you are on the verge of buying a Chia pet for someone because you can't think of what to get them? Here are some better gift ideas:
RESTAURANT.COM
Get $25 gift certificates for $2. Includes restaurants Cadillac Ranch, Luchita's, Fishers Pub & Cafe, Quaker Steak & Lube, The Hudson Room, Swingo's, Shula's and many more. Find restaurants across the US. Great to use when travelling. If the restaurant closes they issue you a code to use for another restaurant. Certificates are good for one year.
Use code: SANTA.
Click Here: 80% OFF
2009 OUR TOWN AND ALL AROUND COUPON BOOK
Great for that spender that needs to save money and loves to go out to eat.
* The new 2009 book is now available! Buy it now to take advantage of all the coupons. It's like finding a gift card on every page! Better than the Entertainment book.
* Over 120 more pages in the 2009 book than the 2008 book - almost 900 pages total!!
* Over 185 Fine Dining Restaurants with savings of $10 or more. Go to http://www.ourtownandallaround.com to see what is in the book.
* Dining alone? No problem, the Our Town book has half off meals for single diners.
* Over 400 "two for one" or "50% off" offers at fast food giants and neighborhood favorites.
* A new WINERY section with coupons from wineries across Northern Ohio
* West Side Market section
* Many golf, entertainment, pizza, dry cleaning, and services coupons.
* Coupons expire December 1, 2009.
$26 - Shipping and handling included
To order go to:
http://www.joethecouponguy.com/merchandise/index.htm
SAVVY SHOPPER BOOKLET
Spend the holidays learning how to save more money.
Now over 130 pages! Updated booklet featuring my shopping tips, how to stay organized, around 1,000 savings web sites, many topics including travel, gas savings, restaurants, rules on saving money, colleges, home maintenance, as well as loads of information on transforming you from an over-spender to a saver!
$8.00 -Shipping and Handling Included
To order go to:
http://www.joethecouponguy.com/merchandise/index.htm
RITE AID
Free DVD after rebate - watching bad movies for free is all good.
SUPER K-MART
They are doubling coupons of $2 and less from 12/17 until 12/21.
WALGREENS
Milk - gallon - $2.39
STATS
The projected amount of enclosed shopping malls that will be built in the US in 2008 – zero – according to Harpers Magazine.
Most shoppers spend two to three hours shopping per week. Harpers Magazine published a stat that stated Americans spend an average of 4 hours shopping per week. I usually spend another hour or two organizing my coupons and going through the sales ads. By increasing your saving methods, in the end you can save time shopping because you will develop a stock of items in which you won’t have to purchase at a later date and also have alternatives for meals so that you don’t have to go to the store for certain items. In comparison, Harpers also stated that a Chinese person spends 10 hours shopping per week.
GOING OUT OF BUSINESS
Note: Liquidators usually take over selling the items in the store and they tend to state that the items that don’t sell will be sold to a wholesaler so they will use that reasoning as to why they can’t go any lower on the price. Stores have been known to mark up their prices before they go out of business to make it seem like their markdowns are bigger than they really are.
Modern Classics Furniture – Mentor – I like how they state in their ad that it’s “Our biggest sale ever!” Well cockle doodle doo. Might be why they are going out of business.
Marlos Jewelry – Great Lakes Mall – Retirement sale
Circuit City – they let go 3,000 of its higher paid employees earlier this year only to ask them to come back at a lower pay some months afterwards. Now they go bankrupt. You think those employees are going to give their all knowing they got dissed and may now be losing their job again. Says a lot about this company. HH Gregg extended an offer to those with Circuit City gift cards. They are offering 20 percent of an item purchase price using the gift cards.
Acorn Stores
TGIFridays - Elyria & Parmatown
KB Toys - bankrupt
Short Sizes Inc.com - 6051 Mayfield Road
Birkenstock - Legacy
OPENINGS
Value King – Eastlake – I stopped in for a few of their good deals. Looked for the chicken at $1.47 a pound. None in stock. Asked for a raincheck. They don’t do them. The ‘head’ kid in charge said he would lower the price of a smaller package of chicken I found to match the sale price – it was the last one on the shelf – probably a return. The kid in charge couldn’t figure out how to lower the price and his lackeys couldn’t figure it out either. So he said he would give it to me for free. After some figure-outing by the oldest cashier there, they were able to get it to me for free.
The store reminded me of that TV show that had kids running their own town. They all had chores to do. Eventually leaders emerged. However this store didn’t even have a service desk for the leader kids. It’s run by Giant Eagle to go against stores like Aldi’s, Wal-mart, and Marc’s. No frills and no double coupons. Value King is the generic brand of Giant Eagle. Some people think that generics are cheaper than store brand. Not always. The Giant Eagle 32 ounce can of sauerkraut is $1.55. The name brand Libby's is $1.25 - and you're more likely to have a coupon for the name brand that will double, making it even cheaper.
Quaker Steak and Lube – Mentor – the old Chi Chi’s building will be torn down for it.
WAL-MART
Wal-mart recently lost another lawsuit and have to pay $54.3 million because workers were made to work off the clock in Minnesota (they lost suits in Pennsylvania - $78 Million and California - $172 over wage-law violations). Sad to see a multi-billion dollar store take advantage of low-paid workers. What in the Woolworths were they thinking...
MEXICO
We were in Mexico staying in Riviera Maya for a trip recently. One thing that stuck out was the tipping for everything. We stayed at an all inclusive. Nice looking place. Food could’ve been better – I didn’t like the flesh burgers. But every time anyone did anything there I felt like I had to tip them or they would blatantly ask for a tip. Oh that person just said good morning – here’s your tip. That person just cordoned off an area of wet floor – here’s your tip sir. Another worker coughed in my direction – ok, I’m guilted into tipping them.
I don’t mind tipping. It just gets old when you have to do it twenty times a day. We did tip our buffet waiter, Nicholas, so good each time that he always had two of the ‘better’ bottles of wine waiting for us. Better tipping does get you better service. I sure hope they don’t make Nicholas into one of the flesh burgers though. He was nice. Maybe Raul. He wasn’t nice, but didn’t look very flavorful. More fruit for me today!
If you are in that area, go to Playa Del Carmen to get better exchange rates for pesos. Also take the bus instead of the taxi. We had no problems riding the bus and it was literally ten or more times cheaper. And every fifth bus the Mexican cartel creates some excitement on the bus. We were bus number four and so no be-headings on our bus. Just kidding. Brochures also warn about cops that take bribes. They said to call Apple vacations, our outfitter, if that should happen.
Internet was $27 at the hotel. Internet cafes in town were as low as 75 cents for a half an hour. Since not all words converted to English I now know cut and paste in Spanish.
I stopped at the local Mexican "Giant Eagle". Converting the prices to US dollars was tricky, but for the most part the prices were about the same. They were big on putting the fresh baked pastry and cookie section in front of the store. Huge selection. One thing I thought was funny was that they also had one of those two full shopping carts comparisons. At our place it cost $104 and at the store across the street it is $122. No coupons. Beware of the time share vultures.
The duty free shop had some deals on vanilla concentrate and liquor.
COUPONS.COM
Print free coupons at Coupons.com - click here: Coupons
CLASS SCHEDULE
If you travel a lot, come to my class in Aurora in March. That class will strictly be on travel tips and deals. I'll also have a class on wedding savings and tips in January and one for pre-teens in February at Lakeland Community College. Check out my class schedule at: http://www.joethecouponguy.com/schedule/index.htm
VACTIONSTOGO.COM
Top 10 Cruises deals from vacationstogo.com:
1) Caribbean, 7 days on Carnival, departs Miami Jan 25, starting at $449, save 73%, FastDeal # 21080
2) Bahamas, 7 days on Norwegian, departs Charleston Jan 17, starting at $249, save 75%, FastDeal # 10973
3) Caribbean, 7 days on Carnival, departs Miami Jan 31, starting at $469, save 72%, FastDeal # 16075
4) Mexico, 7 days on Royal Caribbean, departs Los Angeles Mar 8, starting at $509, FastDeal # 25830 (Royal Caribbean does not provide brochure rates for this cruise, so we are unable to show a savings percentage.)
5) Caribbean, 7 days on Princess, departs San Juan Feb 8, starting at $505, save 60%, FastDeal # 12442
6) Mexico, 7 days on Holland America, departs San Diego Jan 24, starting at $449, save 58%, FastDeal # 11314
7) South America, 14 days on Princess, departs Manaus Dec 19, starting at $805, save 79%, FastDeal # 17351
8) Caribbean, 7 days on Royal Caribbean, departs San Juan Jan 10, starting at $499, FastDeal # 27254 (Royal Caribbean does not provide brochure rates for this cruise, so we are unable to show a savings percentage.)
9) Alaska Cruise Tour, 10 days on Celebrity, departs Vancouver May 29, starting at $1199, FastDeal # 31049 (Celebrity does not provide brochure rates for this cruise, so we are unable to show a savings percentage.)
10) Mediterranean, 12 days on Crystal, departs Istanbul Sep 14, starting at $4865, save 51%, FastDeal # 23849
HAPPY HOLIDAYS!
Joe
http://www.joethecouponguy.com
