Judith Zwolak's Blog
Posted by Judith Zwolak
Gift certificates from Restaurant.com are great inexpensive presents for friends and family--or even as a treat for yourself.
I have bought certificates from this site for family members in Upstate New York with success. With a coupon found at dealcatcher.com, a $25 gift certificate at a relatively upscale restaurant cost me only $4. Restrictions apply, but they are not so onerous that they detract from the gift certificate's overall value.
Here's how it works: go to Restaurant.com and search for a restaurant in your area using a zip code or a state map. After refining your search to your specific location, the site displays the participating restaurants and available offers. A common option is a $25 gift certificate for $10, with restrictions. This option at the Mundo Grill, an upscale eatery in Rochester, N.Y., for example, requires the diner to order a minimum of $35 and include an 18 percent gratuity. In Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Casa Del Rey, a Mexican restaurant, offers a $25 gift certificate for $12.50--valid only at dinner, not on Saturday, and with a $35 minimum purchase.
Before you buy the gift certificate online to print out at home, first check dealcatcher.com for any coupons. These can save you up to 70 percent and make the dining deals even more attractive.
A caveat: the swankiest or most popular restaurants in your area may not participate in Restaurant.com. It's a place for up-and-coming establishments to attract customers and spread the word about their food. Also, not every geographical area is represented at the site.
For the price, however, the gift certificates available at Restaurant.com are a good deal, especially if you have a coupon.
tag: restaurant.com
Posted by Judith Zwolak
Flush with the profits from selling their house and entering an assisted living facility, elderly friends needed a place to park a healthy sum of cash. After researching online savings accounts for them, I recommended the GMAC Bank Money Market Savings Account.
The GMAC savings account offers a healthy interest rate (5.25 percent APY in early December 2006) and all the benefits associated with most online accounts--linked access to a primary bank account, online sign-up and FDIC insurance. What sets this account apart is the easy access to funds through paper checks and a Visa check card.
A few other banks offer check writing, but GMAC appears to offer the highest interest yields.
I helped my friend sign up for the account online--a fairly straightforward process that took no more than 10 minutes. GMAC requires $50 to open the account and offers customers the option of sending a check or funding through electronic transfer. Customers must keep a balance of $500, however, to avoid fees. Withdrawals are limited to six each month. This account is designed to complement a checking account, not serve as the account used for day-to-day banking
In a few days after opening an account, GMAC Bank sent additional paperwork in order to have signatures on file. Within a week or so, my friends had a new money market savings account that provided a healthy interest rate and easy access. I give this account high marks.
See also: Online Savings Accounts
Posted by Judith Zwolak
Actress Jamie Lee Curtis has signed on to promote board games this Christmas season for Hasbro Inc. Purchase any of 12 games--including Clue, Monopoly and The Game of Life--and mail in this form for $2 to $3 rebates on each game.
Update: This 2006 offer is expired. Check out the 2007 offer.
See more inexpensive Christmas toys in my article Frugal Christmas Toys.
Posted by Judith Zwolak
Eleven months out of the year, I have a common retort to my children’s request for toys and gadgets: “You’ll have to wait until Christmas or your birthday.” Birthdays in December and February mean my two kids must pine for the latest cd or Thomas the Tank Engine train for months.
While it tames “the gimmies” throughout the spring, summer and fall, my strategy backfires come December when the kids can cash in on their mother’s promises. I try to keep the holiday season as free of rampant greed as much as possible. My 5-year-old son and 8-year-old daughter and I bake cookies together and deliver them to neighbors, we take part in church festivities and spend a lot of evenings driving through town admiring the light displays. But it’s obvious my kids’ favorite part of the season is the presents they have waited for all year.
Within reason, they usually get everything they want. I can’t go back on my word and expect my children to keep their promises. Together with two sets of generous grandparents and a couple of aunts and uncles, the kids score presents galore on December 25th. Christmas morning finds us all happy and a little overwhelmed--our living room a minefield of wrapping paper and toys. I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Showering kids with presents only on Christmas also brings with it other benefits throughout the year. My children know that if they want to buy something during the rest of the year, they will have to earn it themselves. Or, if they choose to wait for Christmas or their birthday, time may have tempered their fierce desire for some sparkly doodad, much to my relief.
This Christmas, as always, will welcome piles of new toys into our household. I only hope they will keep my kids occupied for the next 12 months.
Posted by Judith Zwolak
Hand pick your toppings and mix-ins at a Cold Stone Creamery store and they will fold it into your choice of ice cream on a frozen granite stone. Search the site for "coupon" and the company will display an ever-evolving list of printable coupons. Or just click on the site's promotions page.
Find more great coupon sites in my article on Internet coupon hunting.
Ice cream lovers on the East Coast can also get a free ice cream at Friendly's.
MaggieMoos also serves hand-mixed ice cream creations and offers free birthday cones for customers who sign up for an online newsletter.
