Friday, November 27

Restaurants.com plus Ebates = Amazing Deals

Take advantage of restaurant.com's sale today. You can buy $25 dining certificates for $2 using the promotion code SAVE. Do this through your ebates account and earn an additional 20% cash back on anything you spend. Do this with your AmEx Blue card and earn 1.25% cash back on top of the rest!

I often wondered if anyone ever found enough percentages back that they end up paying nothing...

Wednesday, November 25

Amazing CVS Black Friday Deals!

This Thursday through Saturday, CVS is having three days of free products with so much overage you won't know what to do with yourselves! Overage, if you're new to this, means you have a coupon and the item is free (via extra care bucks) so you're coming out a dollar ahead of where you started.

As you know, you need to have a plan of attack before going. This will help you to minimize the amount of money you need to spend and will maximize the amount of products you get at no cost.

Here is my plan of action for tomorrow at 7 AM. As you see I already have $8.99 in bonus bucks for the free contact lens solution so that's a nice starting point which will help me reduce the amount of trips to the check out line. I only need to go to the check out line to exchange bonus bucks for products four times tomorrow.

Careful with self check out when you get things 100% for free because the machine, like the workers, are in disbelief and have trouble processing what just happened.

Please remember to go early tomorrow since many stores only stock a few of the free items. I mean go early unless you live in Rosslyn....

I have $8.99 in extra bucks

First Round

Universal Remote: 6.99, get 6.99

Colgate Acti Flex Manuel Toothbrush: 2.99 (1.99 with coupon), get 2.00

Pay nothing, get 8.99 in extra bucks

Second Round

Bic Soleil Razor $6.99 (4.99 with coupon) get $5

Degree: $4, get $4

Pay nothing, get $9 in extra bucks

Third Round

Shcick Razor $8.99 (7.99 with coupon), get 8.00

Mars Bar $1.59 (plus get one free), get 1.59

Pay.58, get $9.59 in bonus bucks

Fourth Round

St. Ives Body Wash: 3.99 (2.99 with coupon), get $3.00

Vaseline: 7.99 (6.49 with coupon), get 7.99

Hershey’s Bliss Bar .89 (plus get one free), get .89 back.

Pay .78, get 11.88


Ice Skating in DC

Tis the season to go skating. But where?

1. National Sculpture Garden on the Mall near 7th Street. This is open from mid-November until mid-March. They've been having technical difficulties opening the rink so make sure to check the website before you go.
Cost= $7 plus $3 to rent skates.

2. Pershing Rink across from the Willard is currently closed and is asking guests to use the National Sculpture Garden's rink.

3. The Kettler Capitols Rink is open for free skating and is located above the Ballston Mall. The cost is usually $8 admission plus $3 to rent skates, however if you are able to go on a Tuesday between 2:15 and 3:15, Arlington County sponsors the rink and it's only $1 including skates! The pros of this location is that it's an indoor rink and you have space to skate and practice your spins, unlike at the small and crowded Sculpture Rink.

4. Pentagon Row Rink is at the Pentagon Metro and is open from Nov 1 through mid-March. Admission is $8 for two hours and $3 to rent skates.

5. Fort Dupont Ice Arena is by far the most affordable ice rink in the area, as it's a non-profit. Located at 3779 Ely Place, SE, you can take metro to Minnesota Ave and then U6 to Ely Place and you're there! They charge $4 adult admission and $3 to rent skates. They also offers free skate rentals and lessons to kids 5-18 years old. Here is their public skate schedule from Nov 6- Dec 20:
Fridays, 12:00 - 1:50 pm
Saturdays, 4:30 - 5:50 pm
Sundays, 3:00 - 4:00 pm

Free Audiobook download

A free audiobook download (no CC required) - lots of good titles to choose from. This Amazon.com offer expires November 26th so choose fast and choose wisely!

Tuesday, November 24

See Butterflies For Free

Many things in the Smithsonians are free of charge. However, the butterfly exhibit in the Natural History Smithsonian is $6 a person.

If you're interested in spending time with the butterflies at no cost, go on a Tuesday. You can pick up your free tickets starting at 10 AM at the butterfly box office on the second floor of the building. The tickets have the time of your entry listed on them.

Hours of Operation:

Regular Hours
thru Fall & Winter

Butterfly Pavilion:
First Entry: 10:15am
Final Entry: 5:00pm*

Holiday Hours
November 27, 28 & 29
December 25 - Closed
December 26
thru January 3

Butterfly Pavilion Holiday Hours:
First Entry: 10:15 AM
Final Entry: 6:00 PM*

Monday, November 23

Watch Money Being Made

After over eight years of living in Washington, DC, I finally took my first tour of the US Bureau of Engraving and Printing. This is where they print our paper currency (did you know our bills are 25% cotton and 75% linen). There are two US BEPs, one in Texas and the other right here in DC.

The tour lasts maybe 45 minutes and they begin the tours every 15 minutes. The the thing is you have to do this on a weekday since they are closed on weekends.

It's a pretty neat tour since all of the printing rooms have glass tops so you can watch every step of the process of money being made.

Free Samples. Tomorrow Only. (my favorite sign).

To get your tour, stand in line at the tour office on 14th and C Street, SW.

Sunday, November 22

Millennium Stage at the Kennedy Center

I recently realized I have never written about the Millennium Stage at the Kennedy Center. Every night at 6 PM, thank to Target, the Kennedy Centers offers free performances ranging from Irish Step dancing to Jazz to Lesbian poetry. You can look at the schedule of what's going to be on the stage in advance on their website.

You can get to the Kennedy Center by taking a free shuttle that leaves every 15 minutes from Foggy Bottom Metro and takes you to the Kennedy Center's front doors.

While the majority of the shows are in the back foyer of the Center, sometimes you'll get lucky and the show will be in one of the theaters.

For example...

Monday, December 7, 2009

Norwegian Visions: Ingebrigt Håker Flaten and Håkon Kornstad
Håkon Kornstad [Add this event to your Microsoft Outlook calendar.]
Ingebrigt Håker Flaten
IN THE THEATER LAB
Double bassist Ingebrigt Håker Flaten and saxophonist/flutonettist Håkon Kornstad have established themselves as two of the most driven young musicians on the world jazz scene. On their recent album, Elise, the duo uses unique Norwegian hymns as a basis for their improvisation. Created in 1995, Norwegian Visions is a cultural partnership program initiated by the Royal Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Saturday, November 21

Politics and Prose

Near Comet Ping Pong, on the border of DC and MD is the 25- year old book store, Politics and Prose. Quite different than Busboys and Poets, offering social justice events and open mic, or Kramers, offering a chance to socialize over a great piece of pie, Politics and Prose has a different author every day and night come in to speak about their recent book. In fact, Julie Andrews did a book reading there with her daughter earlier this week. Their book reading events are free- so enjoy!

To see their event calendar and which authors are coming up, click here.

Their address is: 5015 Connecticut Avenue NW, a 15 min-walk from the Van Ness Metro or they have a small parking lot for customers.

Thursday, November 19

Terra Cotta WARRIORS @ Nat Geo

You may have recently walked over some warriors on the metro grounds recently. Well, these were an ad for a really neat exhibit at the National Geographic. Sadly, for the first time Nat Geo is charging an entrance fee because these life-size warriors are pretty expensive to ship.

While the normal cost is $12 for adults, I present good news for us frugal people below!

Free Wednesdays presented by The PIMCO Foundation

With generous support from The PIMCO Foundation, 200 free day-of tickets will be available for the 6:00 p.m. exhibition viewing every Wednesday. Tickets will be distributed at 5:30 p.m. with a limit of two tickets per person.

Wednesday, November 18

Ebates!

I know I've written previously about the magical ebates.com but now that I just received my second "big fat check" in the mail I realized I had to insist all of my followers join now.

Basically many websites link themselves to ebates and when you are going to buy anything online (airline ticket, computer memory, blinds, clothing) if you click through to the website through ebates, you get 2-10 percent cash back!

To join click this link: http://www.ebates.com/rf.do?referrerid=gLRlWG0ngWiOGXPRtcqOXQ%3D%3D . You even get $5 in your account just for joining!

Tuesday, November 17

Oh Metro how you failed me....

The other day I walked into a metro station, swiped my card, and then received a call that a friend was nearby and would give me a ride home. So I left the station without using Metro. My friend suggested I call Metro to ask for a refund since they can easily see my card's history and that I entered and exited the same station within minutes.

I tried doing this today and learned about their unjust policy.

The only reason Metro will issue a refund is if your train is more than ten minutes late because of Metro's mistake. If you enter and leave the station by mistake they will not issue you a refund.

I'm quite disturbed by this policy and think we should call call to issue a complaint: 202-637-1328.