Cute Cheap Stuff!

Take 20% off all sale items at fredflare.com by using the code sweet. The offer ends March 1.

You can download Derek Webb’s “Stockholm Syndrome” for free! Click here for more info. Basically, you just submit your email address and zip code and mention it on Facebook or Twitter and you can get the free download. There are other artists on the site as well, including Derek’s wife Sandra McCracken.

The deal ends midnight on Thursday, so don’t delay!

(Thanks, Sarah!)

I have a friend who, in honor of his 26th birthday, is raising $26,000 for an organization that gives Haitian women microloans. Haiti isn’t in the news as much anymore, but they still need help and supporting entrepreneurs there is an excellent way to help the country get on its feet.

His goal is to raise the $26,000 by Feb. 28. He’s well over halfway there but is still looking for donations. If you’d like to be a part of this mission, or to find out more about why he’s doing this, click here.

If you’re thinking about attending Sasquatch (this year’s line-up is really good and I’d like to go for one day at least), there’s a deal you should know about.

Tickets go on sale Saturday, Feb. 20 at 10 a.m. Single-day tickets are $70 (if you wait until a few days before, it’s $80). But the best deal is that you can buy a 3-day pass for only $170! It’s only available through Sunday, Feb. 21 at midnight. Go here for more info.

The festival is May 29-31 at the Gorge.

Want a free sample of Burt’s Bees natural toothpaste? Of course you do. Click here to get it.

For Seattle people:

Counting to ten – or at least eight – in Spanish has never been so fun! Ocho in Ballard is having a seriously cheap happy hour (at least for food).

• about a dozen menu items for $2 each
• $2 off house cocktails
• 4 to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday, and noon to 6 p.m. on weekends.

That’s some cheap eats, even if it’s not a super deal on drinks.

This is a fun one. For a limited time, you can download “I’ll Be Oh So Good” by Velma* Cross & Her High Steppers for free from Amazon.

*Not to be confused with this Velma:

Click here to print a coupon for $10 off a $25 in-store purchase at JC Penney. It expires Feb. 27.

I tend to forget about JC Penney, but I do actually like that store. It’s kind of like Macy’s but less crowded and cheaper. OK, maybe it’s more like Sears without the tools… the hardware kind of tools.

A couple booze-related links:

• Magic Juice – this sounds and looks wonderful!
• How to make grenadine and why you should bother. I never really thought about grenadine having high fructose corn syrup. Of course, I’m not exactly trying to avoid HFCS either. But still – this is good to know! My initial thought is that this would be good if you’re having a party where you’ll be having a lot of drinks with grenadine, but if you want to keep something in your fridge for a long time, it might not work. However, comment #13 points out that this concoction will keep for a long time depending on how you store it. If you’re like me and it takes you forever and a day to use up alcohol and other alcohol-related mixers, this is good news.

Hello! I’m knee deep in unpacking from my move. It takes so long to figure out where to put things and then I know I’ll eventually rearrange it all, so it feels kind of pointless. But it’s the first step and a necessary step in settling in. I have some predicaments in terms of layout and lighting that I’d like to discuss here and ask for advice, but I won’t be talking about that quite yet.

What I can say is that Can’t Stop Moving is awesome. If you live in the Seattle area and you’re looking for movers, I highly recommend them. I got quotes from a few different moving companies around here, and theirs was the best. And not only were their prices good, but the guys were friendly and did a great job moving. The move only took 1 hour and 45 minutes! Aaaaawesome. Least painful move ever.

I’m moving to a new apartment this weekend, so I apologize in advance for the lack of posts around here and in the near future. I decided to hire a local moving company, which was a hard decision because it goes against my frugal ways. But I think it will be really nice to have other people do the lifting. And I won’t have to rent a truck, drive that truck, park that truck, and return that truck, not to mention putting everything inside and outside of that truck.

The company I hired is supposed to be really good and they had the best pricing compared to other recommend companies around here, and I like the idea of supporting local (good) companies. And since I’m moving  on Sunday, I decided not moving my furniture myself was my Valentine’s Day gift … to myself (in the least depressing sense).  That sounds a little Liz Lemon-ish, but that’s how I roll. Speaking of Liz Lemon ….

In the last night’s “30 Rock,” she scheduled a root canal on Valentine’s Day so that she would be passed out for the most of the day. I’m a little bit ashamed and a little bit proud to say I’ve done the same thing – twice. Well, almost the same thing. Twice in the past few years I’ve scheduled a dentist’s appointment on Valentine’s Day; I figured since the day was miserable* anyway, why not throw a dentist’s appointment in there? That way, I wouldn’t ruin an otherwise good day with the bad feelings associated with the dentist.

* OK, sort of miserable – it’s not like anyone yelled at me for being single. And I’m happy for people who are in relationships and I know that V Day can be fun even if you’re single, but still….

Anyway, if you have any good last-minute moving tips, throw ‘em my way.

Oh, and this is what I plan to do when I’m done moving:

Hmm… actually, I have the same response to moving and to Valentine’s Day.

I’m just going to say upfront that this post is not that cheap. But it is cute, so let’s just go with that.

I’ve never been into buying expensive make-up. But in the past year or so, I’ve taken more of an interest in buying make-up that you can’t buy at Target or Walgreen’s – mostly stuff sold at Sephora. I like perusing the Sephora website because of the reviews and comments. Granted, for every positive review, there’s a negative review, and that can make it hard to make accurate judgments about products based on reviews, but I still find it’s helpful.

But enough about Sephora. The point of this post is eyelash primer. Eyelash primer, people! Get excited!

I have to go back to Sephora for a second though. Last year I took the plunge and because of the glowing reviews, I splurged on mascara: Dior mascara at $24. It pains me a little to say that I spent that much on mascara, but I viewed it as an investment. My eyelashes are sparse and short, and I really wanted to find something that would help them stand out.

While I liked the way the Dior mascara looked on my eyelashes and its scent (who knew make-up didn’t have to smell gross?), there was a problem. After a few hours, it would flake off – and that’s not very attractive. But I still really liked it, so I settled for only wearing the Dior when I was going out at night for just a few hours – before the mascara had a chance to flake off.

While the Dior flaked off faster than other mascaras, the flaking issue wasn’t isolated to Dior. Most mascara I tried flaked off after several hours, so I never bothered to wear it during the day. I decided that this needed to change. I’d heard about mascara primers but never bothered to try it. My eyes are really prone to getting styes, so I assumed that anything extra I added to my lashes would cause immediate styes. However, I eventually decided to just give it a shot.

I hesitantly purchased Clinique Lash Building Primer, and boy am I glad I did! It adds length, thickness, and curl to my lashes (without even having to use an eyelash curler), and it makes the Dior mascara stick all day and all night. It’s $13 well spent! You just put it on your lashes (it’s white, which I find to be a fun novelty), and then you wait a few minutes for it to dry and then you put on your mascara like usual. And it hasn’t caused my eyes to develop styes either. It’s pretty awesome.

I’ve been using the eyelash primer for a month and a half now, and I love it! There are probably cheaper brands of eyelash primer too – I just haven’t looked into them. I’m happy with the Clinique, and I think it’s going to last a long time, so I don’t view $13 as too expensive.

I also picked up Bare Escentuals bareVitamins Prime Time Eyelid Primer ($16) because my eye shadow tends to crease at the end of the night due to oily skin. This stuff also works great, but I would caution that if you’re not good at putting on eye make-up, this primer can be a problem because if you put on eye liner and you do a shoddy job (which I always do), it’s really hard to wipe off. But that also means that it helps your make-up stick! Just make sure you do it right the first time.

Today’s daily deal at Amazon is the soundtrack to “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” for only $2.99. It’s worth it for Gillian Welch’s “I’ll Fly Away” alone.

I’ve been meaning to buy this for years and years. Today’s the day!

If you don’t live near a Sephora, or just don’t feel like leaving the house this weekend, you’re in luck! Sephora is offering free shipping on all orders over $25. Just enter code TOUCHDOWN at checkout. The offer ends Feb. 8.

This is for Seattle folk:

This weekend, Easy Street Records in West Seattle is having a CD & vinyl sidewalk sale. All used CDs on the sidewalk are $2 each or 3 for $5. All used vinyls are $1 each or 3 for $2.

I’ve been to Easy Street in Queen Anne many times, but I’ve never made it out to the West Seattle location. This needs to be remedied.

Easy Street is located at 4559 California Ave SW.

Use discount code hearts when you check out at Fredflare.com and get free shipping! That’s saving $7.95, and there’s no minimum purchase. The code ends Feb. 8.

I’ve been coveting this cardigan for a long time:

$40

and this:

$28

and this hoodie jacket:

Sigh. Must.resist.

If you are engaged or if you know someone who is (which probably all of us do), check this out. You can win a free wedding gown or 5 bridal party dresses from David’s Bridal – every month! Click here to enter the drawing.

Groom sold separately.

(Thanks, Money Saving Mom)

Photo: Creative commons – Flickr user catchesthelight

For you fans of “LOST” (which should be everyone because “LOST” is awesome):

Exciting news! The entire “LOST” DVD collection comes out August 24. You can pre-order for $148.99 (regularly $229.99) at Amazon.

I’ve held off on buying any of the previous seasons because I knew I wanted to just buy the boxed set after the show ends in May (*tear*), so I’m very excited (and sad) to see that the end is in sight.

If you don’t want to save up, you can also try winning the lottery. There are some numbers you might be interested in….

Another free song alert: “Little Bird” by Eels available from Amazon for a limited time.

I like this one.

A big welcome to February and a big welcome to new $5 mp3 albums at Amazon.

This month’s offerings include: Muse, Mary J. Blige, Colbie Caillat, Vampire Weekend, Johnny Cash, and more.

Today’s deal at Amazon is “Fantasies” by Metric. It’s only $2.99.

My friend Anika (hi!) loves Metric, therefore I feel I should endorse this album – even though I haven’t listened to it. I trust her. Trust us.

Feeling like your homecooked meals are boring? Does your chicken need pizazz?

Try 8 Swanky Sauces to Glamorize Dinner. I’m a fan of piccata sauce and other sauces with capers. Capers just feel fancy.

And while you’re sexing up supper, invite Color Me Badd over:

(This is one of my favorite songs. I’m not even joking.)

This is for Seattle people:

Did you know that The Stranger keeps an event calendar for food? It includes lots of specially priced events and other fun things – like World Nutella Day! Who knew? Some of the events are more on the fancy end of the spectrum but there are some deals thrown in there too. The next time you feel like heading out for dinner, check the calendar first!

For a limited time, you can download “Norway” by those masters of dreaminess, Beach House, for free from Amazon.

Check out 15 Uses for Incredibly Inexpensive White Vinegar.

Some of these sound a little suspect – like vinegar on a sunburn? – but it’s worth reading.

Today’s daily deal at Amazon is “I Am…Sasha Fierce” by Beyonce for $3.99. Put a ring on that.