Savings for Your Pets – 1-800-PetMeds

If you have pets, you have pet expenses. We have 3 dogs and the costs can add up, especially for their medications. I have been purchasing all their meds from 1-800-PetMeds for the past few years and I’ve been very pleased with their prices and customer service.

Their prices are usually better than what you find anywhere else. Right now, they are offering 20% off EVERYTHING on their site (and they have everything). They also offer free shipping on orders over $39. 

If you’re smart, you’ll also sign up for an Ebates account and get the 8% rebate for all 1-800-PetMeds order!

How to Save 80% on Your Restaurant Bill: Restaurant.com

Restaurant.com offers restaurant gift certificates for a fraction of the actual value. For example, you can buy a $25  gift certificates for $10 at any time through their website. What’s even better though, is that Restaurant.com often offers promo codes for up to 80% off their gift certificates. That means you can buy a $25 gift certificate for your favorite restaurant for just $2! The 80% off offer is currently available — enter SUMMER as the promo code.

Oh, and another BONUS! If you access restaurant.com through the ebates website, you can earn a 15% rebate, which means that $25 gift certificate costs you just $1.70! You can’t beat that deal…

I have been using their gift certificates for years and have never had a problem. Once in a while, a restaurant will go out of business after I buy a gift certificate. I just call Customer Service and they immediately offer me a site credit so that I can exchange it for a certificate for a different restaurant.

The certificates never expire, so I always stock up when they offer 80% off promo code.  Many are usable only for dinner, so be sure to read the information about each certificate before you make a purchase.

Restaurant.com is great for your favorite go-to restaurants or for trying a new restaurant with very little investment.

This Week Only — 12% Discounts via Ebates

To celebrate Ebates’ 12th birthday this week, more than 100 stores are offering 12.0% Cash Back, or higher!  To remind you about how you can save with Ebates, see my previous post: https://thedealfinder.wordpress.com/2010/12/11/ebates/. Basically just go to http://www.ebates.com and then login or register for a free account. Once you’re on the site, look for the online store you’re interested in and click the link from Ebates to go to your store’s site. As long as you access the store via Ebates, your shopping rebate will automatically accumulate in your Ebates account.

Here are just some of the stores involved in the promotion:

• DSW
• Gap & Baby Gap
• Old Navy
• Banana Republic
• eBags
• drugstore.com
• JCPenney
• Petco
• Sephora
• Shoes.com
• and many more…

It’s hard to tell exactly, but it looks like the promotion expires around May 20, 2011.

Kohl’s – Sign Up for Sale Alerts for Big Savings

My favorite store, Kohl’s, has the best sales! In addition, because I’ve signed up for their sale alerts, I often receive 15% off shopping passes. These passes allow you to save 15% off your entire order (even sale priced and clearance items). Sometimes they also offer 20% off if your purchase is more than $100 (which I can EASILY do)!

So, if you like Kohl’s and you like to save money, sign up for their email sale alerts and go shopping!

Kohl’s is all over the U.S., with 1,100 stores in 49 states.

Costco Special Offer – 50% Off Local Restaurant Gift Cards

Just received an email from Costco: they are offering 50% discounts off selected restaurant gift cards when you purchase them in their warehouse. That’s a great deal, because generally they offer 20-25% discounts. They mentioned a few of the offers in my closest location (Vallejo, CA) and they are worthwhile deals. Check it out! But be quick about it, the deal is only good TWO DAYS ONLY: May 6-7, 2011.

Nonstop Flights to Hawaii from US – $334 RT (ends May 5!)

Here’s a GREAT deal on roundtrip flights from the US to the Hawaiian Islands. We are going to Hawaii over Thanksgiving this year so I’ve been shopping around for flights. I was shopping last week and the best deals I found were for $590 roundtrip from San Francisco to Oahu (nonstop). Today, I received an email from Hawaiian Airlines advertising special deals, starting at $334 RT from the US to Hawaii.

Click this link for the details and, if you’re ready, to  book your flights!

By the way, I booked my flights from San Francisco to Honolulu today for $463 per person roundtrip nonstop, including all fees and taxes. Beware: the website was inundated today and was very slow… Keep trying!

Important details:

Booking Period:May 3 – May 5, 2011

Travel Period:Sep 9 – Nov 17, 2011

Starbuck’s Happy Hour – 1/2 Price Frappuccinos

From May 6 – May 15 between 3:00 – 5:00 p.m. every day, enjoy 1/2 price frappuccinos at participating Starbucks!

Click here for details.

OpenTable.com for Restaurant Reservations & Bonus Cash

OpenTable is a free restaurant reservation website. You can use OpenTable to book a restaurant reservation online for more than 20,000 restaurarnts throughout the United States, as well as in Canada, Germany, Japan, Mexico, and the United Kingdom.

So, where does the “deal” come in? Easy: Every time you honor a reservation that you book through OpenTable, you earn 100 “dining reward points.” Once you reach 2,000 points, OpenTable sends you a gift certificate for $20 that you can redeem at any of OpenTable’s participating restaurants. Another bonus to watch for is that many restaurants offer 1,000 for a single reservation. Book and honor two of those and you’ll already earn your $20 gift certificate!

OpenTable also offers an iPhone app that is very handy when you’re on the road or in an unfamiliar city.

Social Buying is All the Rage

You might see them referred to as “social buying,” “collective buying,” or “online daily deals” sites. Whatever the name, there are deals to be had through sites like Groupon or LivingSocial. There are other sites, but those two are currently the most popular.

You can often score 50 to 90% discounts off restaurants, hotels, spa treatments, retail shops, and recreation (just about anything, really). The social aspect: Each deal is good only if a presubscribed number of people join in on the offer before it expires.

I have purchased a few deals from each of the sites. I’ve had a great customer experience on both and have been thrilled with the deals I was able to get. It’s a great way to save money on something you would have purchased anyway; or better yet, it’s a great way to try something new with less risk because you’ll save so much money.

A bonus: LivingSocial gives you your deal FREE if you refer the deal to three friends who also purchase it.  Groupon will award you $10 when you refer a friend and they purchase their first deal.

Both sites have local deals available in tons of locations all over the world. There are iPhone applications available for both sites which come in handy. Another good tip is to sign up for email alerts for the locations you are interested in so you don’t risk your favorite deal expiring before you discover it.

So give it a shot, and let me know if you get a great deal!

Get Gift Cards at Great Discounts

Thanks to my wise neighbor, I have discovered Plastic Jungle, a clearinghouse for gift cards. You can sell any gift card that you don’t want to Plastic Jungle, or better yet, you can purchase gift cards that others have sold to the site at a discount. You can save up to 35% per gift card and just about any gift card you can think of is offered on the site (except Amazon). Shipping is FREE and there are no fees to purchase the cards.

I have purchased several gift cards from Plastic Jungle with no problems at all. They usually arrive within a few days of your order (depending on where you live).

I think it’s a no-brainer. For example, I do a lot of my general household shopping at Target and buy clothing at Kohl’s. So I purchase the gift cards ahead of time and use them as needed, knowing I’m making my purchases at a discount. You really can’t lose!

The only downside I can see is that when the gift cards arrive, the card itself does not look brand new. That’s no problem for me because I generally purchase them for my own shopping needs, but I may not want to give one as a gift to someone.