Saving Money!

When I was a kid, my parents always had an Entertainment Book lying around. I remember using it primarily for things like "Buy one whopper, get one free," although I'm sure we used it at other restaurants, too.

Over the last few years, I couldn't justify shelling out $25 to get a book. It really didn't make a lot of sense, considering that a lot of the coupons are of the "buy one, get one free" variety. When I was living alone, I really never needed to buy two whoppers at once. However, I decided a few weeks ago to buy one, and I'm really excited about it!

I was flipping through the book yesterday (since it just arrived), and I discovered coupons for quite a few restaurants that Shawn and I already go to, and most of those coupons are "buy one entree, get one free." There are also coupons for free pretzels at Auntie Anne's, a free small cone at Dairy Queen, 50% off a 6-pack of cupcakes at Cupcake Royale, and lots of other goodies. I'm also excited by a lot of the "entertainment" coupons in the book. There are "buy one, get one free admission" coupons for a lot of museums and activities around here...the Art Museum, the Aquarium, the Experience Music Project, the Science Fiction Museum, the Pacific Science Center, the Woodland Park Zoo, the Seattle Symphony, the Seattle Shakespeare Company. Those are going to be great to use, especially when we have friends and family come visit us (if you know us in real life...consider this a hint!!). One of the best things is the discounted movie tickets...$6.50 each at Regal Cinemas or $7.50 at AMC!

All of these are things that we would probably do with or without the Entertainment Book coupons. The "dangerous" coupons, though, are for activities that we may not have otherwise considered doing. For example, we can get discounted sailing lessons, or "buy one, get one free" 8-week tango lessons! I'm wondering if I can get Shawn to go for that..... :-)

Now the best part of all this...I only spent $2.25 for our book! If you're interested, here's what you can do.

Click the link to go to Cashbaq.com. When you sign up (by simply giving your email address and choosing a password), you'll automatically receive $5 in your account. Then "shop by store" to find Entertainment Book. Cashbaq members can use a 35% off coupon to buy the book for $16.25 + $1 shipping. However, Cashbaq members also get a $10 rebate when buying the book. So basically, your credit card is charged $17.25 for the book, but $15 is put into your Cashbaq account. You'll receive this money later, in addition to any other "rewards" you earn.

In general, this is the way Cashbaq works. You log into Cashbaq.com before you do your online shopping. When you access the online stores through Cashbaq, the site keeps track of how much money you spend in these other online stores. Then a percentage of the money you spend is put into your Cashbaq account and given to you later (either through paypal or a check sent to you). Really, if you don't do a lot of online shopping, then there's probably not much point in setting up a Cashbaq.com account. However, if you do a lot of online shopping like I do, it definitely makes sense!