TODAY ONLY! Get a free serving of honey walnut shrimp at Panda Express.
Get a free turkey product from Jennie-O with this $5 mail-in rebate.
Restaurant discounts are happening at Restaurant.com right now with a coupon code that expires Thursday, March 11, 2010.
If you live on the East Coast, check out this Filene’s Basement coupon for an extra 10% off their designer sale.
Here’s a Coldwater Creek coupon for 20-25% off when you spend $100 or more, now through Saturday, March 13, 2010.
Snag a Kenneth Cole coupon for 20% off when you donate gently-used shoes for Haiti. Ends March 31, 2010!
Buying books, DVDs or Blu-Rays? Check out these two Borders coupons for 25-40% off.
Plus, did you hear that Disneyland gave away all its free passes for 2010? The volunteer-for-a-day-and-get-a-free-pass proved more popular than Mickey Mouse.
TheConsumerist.com
Jetblue is selling a bunch of flights from JFK for $10 each. The site was getting hammered last time I checked so give the pages time to load.
New customers can get a free photobook from Picaboo or, if you already have an account with them, there is a BOGO free coupon that is good through March 31, 2010.
Use this Gap coupon code to get jeans at 30 percent off. Just trade-in an old pair by Sunday, March 14, 2010.
Snag a bag of free dog treats from Science Diet when you share your name, email and address.
Coldwater Creek coupons! Get 20-25 percent off when you buy $100 or more. Good in stores and online.
Do you live near a Dunkin Donuts? Then get free coffee every Monday in March.
I don’t have kids and I’m excited about a new site I just learned about called ConsignmentMommies.com, which lists kids consignment sales across the country. The site capitalizes on a newish trend – people buying and selling gently used kids clothing, toys, and gear at massive sales that resemble garage sales on steriods. There are 544 sales listed already.
You can search for sales within 5-100 miles of a particular zip code. A search in my hood resulted in two sales I already knew about and four new ones. Now if only I had kids!
You can post a sale on the site and review sales you’ve been to – all for free. Business listings are for a fee, however. A mother-daughter team launched the site in 2009 and they are still adding features, like a page listing all sales by state.
ConsignmentMommies.com also has a blog with helpful tips. One recent post shared pricing guidelines for maternity and kids clothing:
• Tee shirt $1-2
• Casual Top $3-4
• Dress Top $5
• Jeans $5
• Jean Shorts $2-5
• Shorts $1-4
• Pants $1-4
• Dress pants $3-6
• Casual Dress $3-5
• Dress $5-8
• Suit $10-$15
• Swim Suit $5-10
These sound like great prices to me! One parent I interviewed years ago said she made enough money selling her kid’s old gear, clothing, and toys, to buy what they needed for the next growth spurt. I hope this site helps you find a sale with great prices near you.
I just learned about a new site that helps college students, faculty and anyone under age 26 get travel discounts. StudentUniverse specializes in airfares, hotels, rail passes, and travel insurance. The site is free to use and you don’t need to buy a student ID card to get their discounts (like some sites).
When making a reservation the site asks for your school issued email, what school you attend or teach at, and your expected graduation date. I’m skeptical that they verify enrollment or faculty status of each person who uses their site because they claims millions of students do. Hmmm…
StudentUniverse claims the verififcation process is what allows them to offer low fares. “Since we verify that our members are students, faculty, and youth the airlines give us special pricing and terms,” the site says.
When searching for flights, you can pick an exact date or look for flights up to 3 days before or after your target date to increase your chances of getting a deal. The site’s FarePlay tab will help you find a cheap vacation if you are flexible on the destination. It’s not a bad place to start if you are a student, enrolled in college, or a faculty member looking for a price break.
Thanks, Tina!
Related:
Textbook trade in save students money
Student discounts from a learned expert
Two great websites for student discounts
Little Yiye/Flickr
There’s a new way to make money from old textbooks. Use Amazon’s new trade-in program
First you find your book or DVD on the trade-in site, which I linked to above. When I searched for “chemistry” the program found 1,295 results with trade-in values from $.90 to $77. You can also search by ISBN number.
If Amazon accepts your book in their trade-in program (make sure the ISBN number matches exactly), print out a shipping label, which Amazon pays for. When Amazon receives the book, it verifies it matches what you said it was, then the company drops an Amazon.com gift card into your account. Voila! Cash for next semester’s books.
Related:
Tips to save on college textbooks
15 places to get free books online
Current and retired educators can get 30 percent off the list price of almost everything at Borders today through Oct. 7, 2009. Bring proof of educator status for the discount. In store only. No coupon needed.
Teachers, school librarians, and home school educators can also get a Classroom Discount Card that is good through the school year on in store purchases. The card gets you 25 percent off the list price of books and music CDs, and 10 percent off the list price of DVDs for professional use. Apply in stores to join the free program. Bring proof of educator status when you apply.
Details on the teacher discount programs here.
Caveats on the 30 percent off deal: cannot be combined with any other offer, including “buy one, get one 50% off” offers. Excludes previous and online purchases, special orders, gift cards, newspapers, magazines, comics, coupon books, eBooks, digital downloads, self-publishing programs, Smatbox products, Rosetta Stone® software, shipping, and all electronics, including but not limited to the Sony® Reader and the Zune™. Also excludes all Dean & DeLuca® and Starbucks® cafe items and products. May not be combined with coupons, sale pricing, or corporate, classroom, or other group discounts.
Here’s one advantage of taking nine years to get through college – you become an expert at student discounts.
That’s what happened to Cyrus Shepard, who spent almost a decade studying at three different universities. After paying so much tuition, he became a master of the student discount and founded Globe Student Discount. (Once he graduated, of course.)
The Globe gives students, teachers, and parents of students access to discounts in three main categories: travel, software and computers. They have coupons and promo codes for Apple, Dell, Microsoft, Adobe, airline tickets, bus passes, textbooks and much more.
I saw an 11 percent discount for JetBlue, 8 percent off on HP laptops, and 70-80 percent off Adobe software like Acrobat and Photoshop. The site is free to use and has a special section just for teacher discounts.
Related:
Two great websites for student discounts
Tips to save on college textbooks
Get 30 percent off the list price of any book at Borders through Sept. 14, 2009. Must be a member of their free loyalty program. Print the coupon here for in store shopping. Online use promo code BHB9149B.
The discount also works at Waldenbooks. Maybe there is something you need for back to school? Or are you getting a jumpstart on your Christmas shopping?
AARP members can get 20% off almost anything in the store now through Sept. 13, 2009. Some exclusions. Get the coupon here.
Get 15 percent off all used books today only at Better World Books, a for-profit organization that collects and sells books online to benefit literacy initiatives in the U.S. and abroad. The sale is in celebration of International Literacy Day. Use code 4Literacy at checkout.
Used titles include The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follet for $7, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince for $4.50 and Green Eggs and Ham for $4. Check out their bargain bin, where 5 used books are $15.
Find popular books by looking at Oprah’s book club, Amazon best sellers, and bargain best sellers. Perhaps you will find some early Christmas presents!
Better World Books conducts book drives on 1,800 college campuses and collects discards from more than 1,800 libraries. The company has raised $7 million for its non-profit literacy, library and college partners, donated over 1.3 million college textbooks and diverted more than 25 million pounds of books from landfills, according to a press release. Read more about Better World Books.
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!
This is a guest post by Alex, BargainBabe.com’s intern.
It’s time to head back to school, and that means it’s time to beat cost of textbooks. Whether you’re just starting college, or returning for your last year like me, here’s five tips on how to save on textbook expenses.
1. Buy Electronic
Check the distributor’s website and see if you can purchase an electronic copy of the textbook. They save on ink, paper, and transportation, so the cost goes down significantly. I once got a $115 economics textbook for $40. If you can bring it on your laptop to class, then you’re set.
ProTip: E-Book readers like Amazon’s Kindle might be worth the investment if you’re an English major where your “textbooks” are mostly novels. If you already own an iPhone or iPod Touch download the free apps Stanza and Readdle, which offer access to thousands of books typically assigned in English and drama courses. Even if you decide to purchase the physical books, you have an electronic backup.
Downside: If you need the book during tests, you probably won’t be allowed to use your electronic device to access the pages.
The other downside: Limited battery life. Physical books last forever and can take much more abuse than a laptop, though neither of them should be dropped in the water.
2. Check It Out
Your school’s library will often have a copy of the class textbook(s) for you to check out for free for a few hours. Ask your teacher to make it happen. This is a great alternative so long as you get to the library before any of your classmates.
Downside: you probably can’t bring the book to class since the checkout time frame is limited. Still, if you’re good at making friends you can always remedy that.
Middleside: Your time will likely be restricted (sometimes as little as an hour) so that others can check the books out from the library. I find this keeps me from procrastinating and I work well under short time constraints. Of course, I’m generally more efficient with my time whilst in the library where there are no distractions.
3. Buy Used
This is usually an easy task. Many campuses have used textbook stores. Just be sure to flip through the book before you buy it and make sure it’s all there and still readable. Sometimes you can find one that’s already helpfully highlighted.
Pro-Tip: Check and see if the book has been highlighted or noted throughout its entirety. If only the first couple chapters have notes and such, then they probably got distracted by those Tuesday night parties. If they’re still going strong by the end, then they were likely a good student and their markings are going to help instead of just distract you.
4. Rent
Renting your books appears to save roughly the same amount of money as buying a used book and selling it after the course is over. However, by renting you can do everything straight from your computer, and you don’t have to worry about trying to sell your books back.
Downside: The books aren’t really yours. You can’t mark them up significantly, and of course you have to pay for any lost, stolen, or significantly damaged books.
Peculiar Upside: Let’s say you’ve signed up for a course that you aren’t too sure you’re going to stick with. Renting or buying a book for that class might seem like a bad idea at first, but at Chegg.com they have a 30-day “Any Reason” return policy. So you could rent the book(s) for the class and just pay a couple dollars shipping, and then return before 30 days. If you end up keeping with the class, you have enough time to shop for the best deal, and if renting is more expensive, just return it for a full refund (they provide free return shipping which is kind of nice).
5. Beat the System
Ask your professor/lecturer if they’re going to use the same books for the following quarter/semester. If they are, then you’ll easily be able to earn some of your money back through selling to a used book store. Although even then you’re losing some money through the middle man.
Instead, try to sell directly to other students via Ebay, Craigslist, or even Facebook’s marketplace. You’ll be earning at better margins and they’ll be buying at a lower cost in all likelihood. The better the shape you’ve managed to keep the book, the better the price you’ll get.
Alternatively, there are some great book swapping sites that you can get involved with. While you’re probably only going to find novels through these online programs, it’s a great way to get them for free. Check out this post for details.
Here’s a new way to make money online. Buy clothes, shoes, whatever using the new search engine Bing (Microsoft’s answer to rival Google) and you earn CASH rebates. Basically, Bing earns referral fees through affiliate programs they have with merchants and they pass that referral fee onto you, similar to how eBates.com or Cashbaq.com work.
The thing is, Bing IS THE ONLY SITE THAT REFUNDS 100% OF THIS FEE BACK TO ITS USERS, according to the blog Seeking Alpha.
That’s because Bing just doubled the amount it gives back to shoppers like you and me to be up to 50% of your purchase price, including on many back to school items. Holy schmoley. The promotion runs through August unless Microsoft decides to end it earlier.
The rebates include 20% back at Drugstore.com, 15% at HP Direct, 36-40% at 1-800-Florals, and 4-32% back at Sears. For a list of all the cash rebates, go here. Start your Bing shopping here.
The majority of readers voted they would spend less than $250 on back to school clothes and supplies, less than half the national average. The National Retail Federation says parents with students in kindergarten through 12 will spend $549 this year. Tips to keep costs down:
1. Pare down any school supply list handed out by teachers. Ask what is truly needed and what can wait until you find it on sale.
2. Round up whatever school supplies you have from around the house. Hand me down ruler? You bet.
3. Pounce on sales. Every week Staples has a few things free – $.25. I got 15 pens and mechanical pencils for free at Staples by watching their flyers. Office Depot is currently offering a free backpack when you buy $10 worth of supplies. Deals vary by location so check your local flyer.
4. Skip the high tech gadgets unless truly necessary. A calling card can take the place of a cell phone. Dust off last year’s calculator unless a new model is truly needed. Consider buying a netbook instead of a laptop. Netbooks have lower prices but less fire power. For tips check out my computer-buying guide.
5. Take your kid shopping at a thrift store. I know of one in LA (Tween Scene) and I’m guessing others are popping up around the country.
6. Buy some clothes now but hold off on blowing your whole budget. Your kid may want something as soon as s/he sees what everyone else is wearing.
7. Call your favorite retailer and ask when their back to school sales are. Another good way to find out about back to school sales is by signing up for the retailer’s email list. Check if they have any coupons and ask what their loyal customer discount is. Hint, hint.
8. Take a stab at negotiating a discount, especially if you are buying a lot of items, are paying in cash, or are buying something opened or damaged. More detailed negotiating tips here.
9. Use your teacher discount everywhere you shop. Discounts may not be posted, so remember to ask. More on that coming.
A collection of teacher discounts. If you are not a teacher please pass this onto someone who is!
- Staples has a number of penny sales that are often limited to 5 per person (such as 5 $.01 packs of paper), but teachers can get up to 25 with ID.
- Stein Mart’s appreciation week is Aug 16-22, 2009. During this time teachers get 20 percent off any one item with valid school ID.
- Office Max gives teachers the “contract prices at any OfficeMax retail location, whether it’s for supplies or for services from OfficeMax ImPress,” their site says. Read more.
- Barnes and Nobles – educators get 20% off all items for classroom use and 25% off during Teacher Appreciation Days. Details here.
- Book Warehouse offers 15% off to educators.
- Borders offers 20% off on qualifying purchases under $1,000 and 25% off more than $1,000 with an Educator Services Card.
- Find more discounts at MyEducationDiscount.com. The site has more than 100 online promo codes listed by store. Some of them appear to be standard discounts, i.e. not tied specially to being a teacher, but some require proof.
Where else have you gotten a teacher discount?
Live in Los Angeles? Check out these deals on BargainBabeLA.com, my new site for saving money.
School supplies deals free to $.25 at Office Depot, shared by RebeccaQuinn.
Dodger tickets $7, shared by bargainbabe.
Penny enchiladas at El Torito’s every Thur after 4pm, shared by alexatbargainbabe.
Eat free at Benihana on your birthday, shared by Meital.
Free Sean Paul concert August 11, added by jlowe.
35-cent cocktails at the Edison happy hour every Friday, shared by bargainbabe.
BargainBabeLA.com is NOT a blog and there is NO email list. Instead, you visit the site when you want to share a deal – yes, I repeat, you can SHARE a deal on BargainBabeLA.com. Takes about 4 minutes and is fairly self-explanatory, but if you have questions email me.
