Cute Cheap Stuff!

If you didn’t get your shipping fix this weekend, then check out the online deals on Monday (called Cyber Monday, but I hate the word “cyber” because it’s outdated and sounds icky). It’s supposed to be the biggest online shopping day of the year, so I’m not really even sure where to start.

Here’s a pretty good list of deals and coupons to get you on your way.

Here’s a handy article from Wisebread about ways to reuse old pantyhose. I never would have thought to use pantyhose for gift wrap storage or fishing or photo effects. Who knew?

If you enjoy shopping at Ulta, check this out. You can get $5 off a $10 purchase by using the coupon code 31877. The deal expires Dec. 31.

(Thanks, Hard Times Newsletter)

Just a reminder to make sure you click here to get a $3 credit from the Amazon mp3 store. I mentioned it a few days ago, but the offer ends Nov. 30, so don’t delay!

Feel like winding down after a weekend of eating and/or shopping? Here are Redbox codes that will supposedly get you a free rental. (Reminder: If you use a code, don’t reserve the DVD online. Instead, enter the code at the kiosk.) If you’re not familiar with Redbox, I talked about it here.

DLLNS26
5HY9V24

If the above codes don’t work, here are 3 older codes that are good for 1 use:

DVDATWAG (only at Walgreens)
DVDONME
BREAKROOM

(Thanks, Fabulessly Frugal)

For this weekend only, my favorite place to shop, FredFlare.com, is offering free shipping! There isn’t even a minimum purchase! Just use discount code awesome when you check out.

This is so tempting, so very tempting…

From now until December 1, you buy a $5 subscription to Real Simple magazine from Amazon.com! It’s a great treat for yourself or as a gift. There are also a few other $5 deals, including Food & Wine, Cosmopolitan, and Southern Living.

It’s been a difficult year. But today is a day to give thanks. We have much to give thanks for, even if current circumstances aren’t ideal.

This morning I flipped on the Hallmark Channel, hoping that “The Golden Girls” may be on, but really expecting to see another Hallmark family classic snooze-fest of a movie. But it was a Thanksgiving miracle: the Golden Girls appeared on screen. And not only did they appear, but they showed up in a very special episode: Dorothy’s wedding (to Leslie Nielsen – whom I LOVE and adore).

Watching it gave me something to be thankful for.

We no longer have to wear dresses like this:

You can’t see it in the photo, but the wedding dress has full-length lace sleeves, and those ribbon curl things are just …. there are no words.

Sure, there are a lot more serious things to be thankful, but let’s keep it real. The fact that white beasts of a dress like this are no longer in style – that is worth celebrating.

Happy Thanksgiving!

As part of its Black Friday sale, Amazon is offering over 600 $5 mp3 albums. Whoa!

The sale has already started, so check it out!

For a limited time, you can download “Be Set Free” by Langhorn Slim for free from Amazon.

This Friday is Black Friday. I’m sure you weren’t aware of that. No one’s really advertised it. Perhaps just maybe you’ve seen a commercial here or there. (If I have to see that stupid Target commercial with the crazy blonde lady one more freakin’ time…)

Anyway, I’m not a fan of Black Friday. While I certainly love a good sale, there is something I value more: my sleep. I will not get up at 3 a.m. to go hang around outside a Best Buy. The only thing that would get me out of bed at 3 a.m. is a fire.

BUT online sales are a different thing. Shopping from home whenever I feel like it while sitting on my couch – that’s my style. I don’t plan on buying Christmas gifts this year, so I’m trying to avoid doing any shopping. However, I was notified about the Tulle sale and I think some of you might be interested in it. (I’ve talked about Tulle here.)

The Tulle sale starts Friday (midnight on Thursday) and runs through Monday. They’re having – get this – 50% off on everything AND free ground shipping on all orders. That’s what I call awesome.

If you’re a country fan, listen up. People.com is offering a free download of 10 country songs from iTunes. Click here to check it out. It features …. people I’ve never heard of because I’m fairly ignorant about what gets played on country radio.

As an aside, in case you were wondering, I don’t always post things that I personally recommend. Rather, I try to include stuff that I think my readers – you! – might be interested in. So, unless I gush over something – this usually involves baked goods or cute clothes – don’t assume I’m giving my endorsement.

With Thanksgiving almost here, I’m probably late in talking about pumpkin recipes. But better late than never, right?

I’m not a huge fan of pumpkin, but I find that when it’s baked with a bunch of sugar, it’s suddenly delicious!

First I want to alert you about the best pumpkin bread ever. Ever!!! 22,000 people agree with me, so you have no choice but to make this bread immediately. Note that the recipe yields 3 loaves, so if you’re feeding less than 36 people, I recommend making 2 loaves (1 will not be enough!). There’s a handy calculator right above the ingredient list.

For someone who isn’t a big pumpkin fan, I sure have a lot of pumpkin dessert recipes bookmarked. Since sharing is caring, here are recipes that I’ve bookmarked that I do – and maybe you will – eventually want to try?

Now word on the street is there might be a pumpkin shortage. Let’s just ignore that and salivate over these:

• Pumpkin muffins with milk chocolate chips
• Pumpkin chocolate chip bread
• Easy pumpkin muffins
• Turtle pumpkin pie
• Pumpkin pie dip
• Pumpkin chocolate bread
• Pumpkin chocolate chip cookies
• Pumpkin chocolate chip oatmeal cookies
• Iced pumpkin cookies
• Sour cream pumpkin coffee cake
• Pumpkin crumb cake

P.S. After all my talk about pumpkins, for my contribution to Thanksgiving dinner this year, I’m making cranberry sauce muffins. Go figure.

If you live near a Pinkberry, you should know a couple things:

1. I am crazy jealous of you.
2. Pinkberry now has chocolate! yogurt.
3. Here is a coupon for a Buy One Get One Free small yogurt with toppings.
4. You’re welcome.

(Thanks for the tip, Misty)

From Nov. 23-30, you can get a $3 credit at the Amazon.com mp3 store!

Click here to get the code.

This week is $12 T-shirt week at Threadless. Talk about awesome and affordable gifts!

(Thanks, Yugo, for the tip!)

They say that giving is better than receiving.

But receiving is still pretty fun. Especially when it’s something you actually want.

Enter Apartment Therapy’s annual Holiday Giveaway. Each day you can enter to win 6 gifts from their family of blogs (Apartment Therapy, The Kitchn, ohdeedoh, unpluggd and re-nest), and there is some cool stuff. You can enter for as many as you like, and it shows you a preview of the upcoming giveaways to lust over.

This desk is pretty hot, right?

The giveaway runs through Dec. 18, and you’ll need to check the site once a day to enter. You’ll also have to create an account, but once you do, it makes entering the contests very easy.

Good luck!

If you haven’t tried Redbox, you are missing out.

That’s quite a statement, but it’s true. For only $1, you can rent DVDs that normally cost $5 at Blockbuster and the like. The rentals are for 24 hours only (due by 9 p.m.), but for a dollar, who’s complaining?

Here’s how it works:

Go to the Redbox web site and look up your closest location. Redbox is a kiosk, often found outside Walgreens stores. If there’s one in your area, you’re good to go.

There are 2 ways to rent. You can either create an account online and reserve your DVD and then go pick it up from the kiosk, or you can skip going online and just go to the kiosk. If you do that, there is a chance the DVD you want will not be available, since you didn’t reserve it.

The awesome thing about Redbox is that if you don’t even want to pay a dollar, you can still get a free movie every month. Go here to sign up for Redbox email and text alerts. If you sign up for email alerts, you’ll be sent a code for a free rental. If you sign up for SMS (text) alerts, they’ll send you a free code the first Monday of each month, so make sure you sign up before December rolls around.

Do keep in mind though that if you want to use a promo code for a free rental, you can’t reserve it online – you must go directly to the kiosk and enter the code. If you try to do it online, there’s no place to enter the promo code. (I got very confused by this and wound up accidentally paying $1 for my “free” rental, so don’t do what I did!)

I’ve only rented from Redbox once, but aside from the payment mistake, it went well. Fortunately, there’s a Redbox not too far from where I live, and there’s a Redbox a few blocks from my office, so I was able to return it there.

Now all you need is popcorn and you’re ready for a night in!

Do you struggle every year with buying gifts for the men in your life? For me, finding a Christmas gift for my dad (and birthday gift on Dec. 17) is the most difficult shopping of the year.

If you’re also in that boat – whether it’s fathers, siblings, significant others, etc. – I have an idea! For this week only, you can buy a year subscription of ESPN magazine from Amazon.com for only $5!  Five dollars! That’s 96% off the cover price!

If your hard-to-buy-for dude (or lady! girls like sports too.) has any interest in sports, check out this deal! A few years ago, I got my dad a subscription to Sports Illustrated, and he really liked it.

Magazine subscriptions are a fun gift. It lasts all year, and it’s just exciting to get a shiny new magazine in the mail. Reading is FUNdamental!

I rarely see movies in the theater. Sometimes I go to a local $3 discount theater, but even that’s a pretty rare event. I love to watch movies, but I’d rather get them for free from the library than pay $12.

That said, when I do go to the movie theater, I am always tempted to get popcorn. That buttery aroma just draws me in, but I always turn it down because I know that it’s not very healthy. I also know that it costs waaaaaay too much.

A new report finds that movie popcorn isn’t just unhealthy – it’s REALLY unhealthy.

A medium-sized popcorn and medium soda at the nation’s largest movie chain pack the nutritional equivalent of three Quarter Pounders topped with 12 pats of butter, according to a report released today by the advocacy group Center for Science in the Public Interest.

Um. Yikes.

Thankfully, we have some alternatives. You can still enjoy popcorn without having to book an appointment with a cardiologist. I like to buy 100-calorie servings of microwave popcorn. Orville Redenbacher’s makes them, and I’m sure other popcorn brands do as well. It’s not very buttery, but you can make up for it by using seasonings. You can mix up your own batch of seasoning using spices, or you can buy prepared popcorn seasoning. I like using Kernel Season’s.

Now whether you choose to eat the popcorn at home or smuggle it into the movie theater – that’s up to you. I was taught at an early age to never buy snacks at the theater. We were candy (and occasional popcorn) smugglers. We also snuck in cans of pop. I do remember one time having to fake cough while my dad opened up a can of Pepsi (as if a cough would mask the loud kshhh! sound) and thinking that it was a little too much. And then in the middle of the movie, I accidentally kicked the empty can and everyone in the theater listened as it rolled all the way down the slanted concrete floor.

Classy. Real classy.

(Photo from flickr member Hey Paul with Creative Commons license.)

Check out this web site for a daily list of retailers offering free shipping. It’s a handy tool for the holiday shopping season!

(Photo from flickr member tiarescott with Creative Commons license.)

If you’ve been thinking about buying athletic shoes or apparel, check out this post for clearance deals and free shipping from the Nike Store.

I like H&M, especially their outerwear. Some of their regular clothes I find to be a little lacking in the quality of construction, but I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the durability of their coats. I have a trench coat and a winter coat from there that I wear all the time.

From Nov. 19-25, H&M is marking 20% off all outerwear. Enjoy!

New York & Company is offering some good promo codes:

Coupon code: 2819
($25 OFF $75)
Coupon code: 2820
($60 OFF $150)
Coupon code: 2821
($90 OFF $200)
Coupon code: 1650
($25 OFF $75)
Coupon code: 1723
($60 OFF $150)
Coupon code: 1724
($90 OFF $200)

The codes are online only and expire 11/24.

With the holidays approaching, you might be planning on buying from Amazon. If so, check out this post about a free 1-month trial of Amazon Prime (you can cancel after the 1st month) where you get free 2-day shipping on everything!

(This one’s for Seattle peeps.)

You know what’s not cute? Waiting outside in the snow for 2 hours for a bus that might never come. Now that the weather is turning colder, you can’t help but be reminded of last year’s Snowpocalypse and the Metro debacle *shiver*.

This year Metro is trying to up their communication efforts. Here are a couple things to know:

• They’re implementing 70 emergency routes in the event of another storm. Click here to find your route.
• You can also sign up to get emails and texts for your specific routes and for general Metro alerts. I’m having faith that they will actually send out alerts.

There are also various services like onebusaway to track your bus, and I’ve heard there are iPhone apps as well.

Let’s hope this year’s winter weather is a little gentler.

Gaiam is offering 99-cent shipping if you use the code EMSH99 at checkout. It expires December 8.

Gaiam sells a variety of natural and organic-themed items, ranging from home stuff to exercise apparel to exercise equipment, especially yoga and pilates. They also have a very affordable Outlet Sale section.

(Thanks, Seattle Moms Deal Finder)

Check out GIVE Seattle – it’s a really awesome and cheap! album. It’s nice to have for yourself and also a great gift. And it benefits charity.

For only $7, you can download an mp3 album featuring over 25 tracks from Seattle artists, including: Fleet Foxes, Grand Archives, Head Like a Kite, Hey Marseilles, Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band, The Blakes, Ben Gibbard, Throw Me the Statue, The Long Winters, Dave Bazan and more. Whew! That’s a lot of good stuff.

And the best part is 100% of the proceeds go directly to Arts Corps and neighborhood food banks.

You don’t even have to live in Seattle to buy it – it’s available online!

If you are local, you can also buy the download codes at Caffe Vida, The Croc, Easy Street, EMP, Sonic Boom, University Book Store, and The Sorrento.

If you’re a fan of Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings (and friends), check out Amazon’s daily deal: Daptone Gold for $2.99. It’s 24 songs for $3!

I know I’m late in reporting this, but now through January 15, Google is offering free WiFi in 47 airports in the U.S. Click here to see a list of participating airports.

You can also get free WiFi on all Virgin America flights through January 15. I flew Virgin for the first time (yeah, I know…) earlier this year, and I really enjoyed it. They have fun computer screens on each seat, where you can play music and games and send messages to other passengers and look at maps to track how far you’ve gone and other fun things that I can’t remember because I always drug myself before flying.

Happy holidays!

(Photo by kevindooley, available under a Creative Commons Attribution license.)