WOW...2 GREAT THINGS TO BLOG ABOUT IN 1 DAY

I recently joined the Coupon Mom's website after learning about her on Oprah*. It is a great website and is free. (I need to unsubscribe to thegrocerygame.com because it costs me!) She has lots of great tips on saving money but my most favorite recent discovery via the coupon mom is a way to get discounted gift cards. There you can search your zip code or city or wherever you want to find a restaurant and you will get a list of participating restaurants. Then, you choose which gift cards and how many of them that you want to purchase. Usually a $25 gift card will cost you $10. That's great. Plus, there are also promo codes that you can enter which get you an even greater discount. The deal varies every time but the current deal gets you $25 gift cards for $2 each! Now, here is some info about these- 1 - each restaurant has their own set of stipulations (must spend x amount of dollars, can only use on certain days, etc) 2 - you can only use 1 gift card per table so if you and a couple went together only 1 of you could use the gift card...unless you put the bill together and split the savings...which is still a great deal 3 - there are limited restaurants that participate and they typically aren't chain restaurants; mostly locally owned places (for me this is a pro too because i love to try new places and different places) 4 - the restaurants may not participate continuously so if you want a gift card for a certain restaurant you might want to buy it when you can (for example, there was a place in Concord that I wanted to get a certificate for and try out and then the next time I looked that restaurant wasn't available any longer) 5 - the cards seem to be "restocked" at the beginning of the month, so as the month goes on some of the stores' cards become out of stock, so you might want to stock up on your favorite restaurant at the beginning of the month.

So, I learned about this in a timely manner because I am using these as Christmas gifts to my coworkers. It might seem cheap when you know how it works...BUT it's the thought that counts! Christy, Kim, and Karen - this is why I have gift certificates for the restaurants that I want to go to with each of you!

Let me know what you think of the website -