Save of the Week 6/25/11

Or: How I got dinner for 25 cents

Have you ever noticed those survey invitations everyone seems to be putting on their receipts these days? From what I've noticed, there are two categories of these surveys. The first of these is the "you could win!" kind. Today when I bought ink at Best Buy, my receipt screamed, "You could win a $5000 shopping spree!"  These types of surveys are bullcrap.  I never waste my time on these because the odds of winning whatever prize from a national retailer are astronomical.  (And what would I actually spend that on?  312 ink cartridges?)  The second kind are the "here's some free stuff!" category.  These are generally awesome.  Mimi's Cafe gives you a free four-pack of muffins for taking their customer survey, and Subway usually offers a free drink or cookie to survey takers.  Sometimes you can take the survey online, sometimes you have to call, and it usually takes about five minutes, but when you love free stuff like I do, five minutes of your time is a small price to pay to get something for free!

The other day, my Wendy's receipt included a coupon for a free Single with a validation code from the survey.  I was like, "Heck, yes!" because I frequent Wendy's...frequently.  So I called them up and took the survey (you can even do this at night or on a weekend to avoiding using up five cell phone minutes!).  Then they make you wait all the way until the end to give you the code to validate the coupon.  (These people are no fools.  They know I would've otherwise hung up ages ago.)  They make you touch the pound key after every answer so my phone screen looked like this by the end of it:

1#9#7#6#8#5#7#9#6#4#2#8#8#7#5#6#9#7#7#7#7#2#5#7#7#7#7#5#9#5#1#2#7#7#9#6#4#5#1#9#7#6#8#5#7#9#6#4#2#8#8#7#5#1#9#7#6#8#5#7#9#6#4#2#8#8#7#5#1#9#7#6#8#5#7#9#6#4#2#8#8#7#5#1#9#

So then the next time I needed a quick easy dinner on the go (which are about the only times I ever get fast food), I proudly redeemed my hard-earned coupon for a juicy Single, a special treat for me because I usually get the $1 double stack, which is also super-tasty, just not quite as tall.

That alone would be a satisfying and delicious end to the story, but the savings don't even end there!  Yes, there's more!  I also had my special key tag, which I had purchased for $1, that awards me free junior-sized Frostys with any purchase!  Except I used my coupon so I technically didn't buy anything.  So in a moment of true frugal genius, I asked, "How much to add cheese to my Single?"  Twenty-five cents was the reply.  So the cashier rang up my slice of cheese, and I forked over a quarter and spooned delectable bites of Frosty into my face.  I have quite a small appetite so those two Wendy's favorites were enough to totally fill me up!

Single Hamburger
Original Price: $1.99
My Price: $0

Junior Frosty
Original Price: $0.99
My Price: $0

*Splurge of the Day*
Cheese: 25 cents (It seems ridiculous, but to me that's astronomical [second use of that word in one entry] because it's only $1.99 for a whole pack of 24 slices at the grocery store!  But this was a necessary splurge for the save.)

TOTAL
Original Price: $2.98
My Price: 25 cents

OK, so I only saved $2.73, but come on, people!  Twenty-five cents for a whole meal!  Percentage-wise, that's gotta be some kinda record!

EDIT: Oops, my math is terrible.  My mom pointed out I saved waaay more than I miscalculated.  The new total is above.

Save of the Week 6/18/11

Or: How we saved over 50% on dinner and a movie

I follow some other cute blogs from time to time, and a lot of them have cool ideas for a weekly theme post.  I thought I'd try to adopt a couple of these and maybe it'll keep me honest about updating in a timely fashion.

Since Eric and I are notoriously savvy savers, I thought I'd write weekly about the biggest deal we scored in the past seven days, and maybe offer some insight on how our readers (reader?) can bag the same bargain!

This past week, Super 8 opened in theatres.  I totally fell for the viral marketing campaign that made the film seem mysterious and unmissable.  Of course with names like J.J. Abrams and Steven Spielberg attached, what film fan could resist?  It's 83% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, which I always check before seeing a movie to see what the critics think.  If it gets a "fresh" tomato (60% or more positive critical reviews), I'll usually give it a try if I'm interested.

These are our stellar choices for this week.

Our local AMC cineplex recently refurbished half of its twenty-four theaters into dine-in venues for a new experience called Fork and Screen (I don't really get it--is it supposed to be like Fork and Spoon?  It's not really close enough to click), so they were distributing coupons for BOGO admission, free appetizer with entree purchase, and free dessert with entree purchase.  We went with the goal of using all three.

Since "our" AMC is at Pleasure Island on Disney property, sometimes cast members receive free movie tickets for excellent job performance (completing a big project, receiving a positive letter from a guest, etc.) and because Eric is such a great manager, this happens to him a lot!  So we took our free tickets to the box office, and the little guy at the window said we couldn't use our BOGO admission coupons since we technically didn't buy one (the BO in BOGO).  Eric, determined to attain the coupon trifecta, countered by saying that one could technically buy these passes at the window and use them for admission, so it shouldn't be any different that we brought ours from home.  The window guy eventually agreed with his logic, so in the end we only had to give up one of our free passes!  Maybe I'll swipe the other one and go see the Company limited engagement screening starring NPH...

We deliberately chose a 4:00 showing so it wouldn't be too busy.  Since they serve dinner during the movie, we (read: I) didn't want to be bothered by an entire theaterful of thirsty tourists raucously requesting refills over all of the best lines of the film.  We made sure to ask our friendly server Sharonna for separate checks so we could each use a coupon for the appetizer and dessert to share, but she informed us that they have a one-coupon-per-person policy, so we could even pay together!  We ordered mozzarella sticks as our appetizer to munch on during the previews, including one for Cowboys and Aliens, for which I'm praying for a "fresh" tomato. (Didn't this movie used to be called Cowboys Vs. Aliens? And didn't it used to star RDJ?!)  For the main event, I ate about three bites of my chicken mac and cheese (with a delightful pretzel breadstick) and saved the rest for the next day (gotta save room for dessert).  Eric tore into his bleu cheese burger and I helped out with the fries.  To top it all off with whipped cream and a cherry, our free dessert, a brownie sundae, arrived just as act three was opening up.  Overall I thought the menu prices were pretty reasonable, comparable to any other table service chain of similar caliber.

As for the movie, I definitely recommend it!  As for the save, it was one for the books.  Our rule of thumb of "it never hurts to ask--the worst they can say is 'no' " scored us the first point in the coupon trifecta.  Then we got to use two coupons on one bill, which was rare and refreshing; doing so didn't save us any extra money but it was still convenient.  We gave Sharonna the check while "My Sharona" played over the credits, and I tallied our savings in my head until my eyeballs became dollar signs like a cartoony slot machine face.

Movie Tickets
Original Price: $11 x 2 = $22
Our Price: $0 (technically -$11 since we have the extra pass to use again, but we'll say zero for tallying purposes)

"Cheese Trio Batons" Appetizer (that's "Mozzarella Sticks" to normal humans)
Original Price: $7.99
Our Price: $0

Entrees
Blue Max Burger: $9.89
Bistro Chicken Mac and Cheese: $10.99

Chocolate Brownie Sundae
Original Price: $6.49
Our Price: $0

*Splurge of the Day*
Soda: 3 dad gum dollars and seventy-nine racken-fracken cents (thank heaven for free refills)

TOTAL
Original Price (adjusted to include actual tax and tip): $62.69
Our Price: $30!


With a savings margin like that, I can't blame Eric for ordering that blasted soda, even though it did account for a whole 10% of our bill for the evening.  For a dinner date and movie night all rolled into one, including leftovers for TWO meals, I'd say that's pretty darn good!

Jackson's Really Big Day

In January I wrote a post entitled "Jackson's Big Day," about his senior recital.  I also mentioned in that post that he was engaged to be married, so it was kind of silly for me to call the recital his big day (although it was pretty big) when I knew even then that a really big day was in store just a few months later!  So we'll call the wedding Jackson and the Wonderful, Magical, Not Bad, Very Good Day, even though there's not enough space for all those adjectives in the post title.

As you know, in my previous post, I left off narrating on Saturday, May 28, when Eric and I had retired from sightseeing at Arlington National Cemetery to regroup with the family at our hotel suite in Annapolis.  That very same night, we enjoyed a delicious dinner with Evelyn's entiiiiiire family.  That girl has six siblings and two siblings-in-law, one niece-to-be, and two parents, of course, but by the end of dinner I had learned everyone's names and I still remember them all as I type this (even the unborn baby June!), I'm proud to say.  A little later that evening, we all reunited for ice cream in downtown Annapolis by the water.  As we quickly scanned the sights with what little time we had downtown, Eric was having pangs of regret because, even though it was a bit busy due to Naval Academy's graduation weekend, Annapolis seemed much more his speed than downtown D.C.  Maybe we'll get the chance to vacation there sometime.

The next morning, the Pinder girls (Mom, Annie, and I) had planned to get our nails done before the rehearsal.  Eric's feet were a bit achy from sightseeing and a bit rough from his ballooning adventures, so he decided to tag along for a pedicure, and before you know it, we'd all convinced Dad and Jackson to join us, too!  So all six of us lined up in the massage chairs for mani-pedis before heading off to the venue for the mid-afternoon wedding rehearsal.  Annie and I got to sit in the shade while we watched the wedding party parade by, but I took lots of pictures because everyone looked so cute and happy.

That night, Mom and Dad hosted a lovely rehearsal dinner, complete with Maryland crab cakes, for the wedding party and our families.  They had picked a cool restaurant right on the water, not far upstream from the ceremony venue we'd be heading back to the next day.  I enjoyed a delectable salmon and Eric devoured a fat juicy steak.  We packed some leftovers for the soon-to-be newlyweds to take along on their honeymoon, but we saved a few s'mores dessert bites to bring back to the suite for ourselves.  (What?  They wouldn't fit in the takeout containers.)

Mom and Dad also threw a luncheon at the hotel the next day for all of the guests who had traveled so far to attend the evening's ceremony.  It was mostly our paternal (south Georgian and a few Ohioan) and maternal (central and southwest Floridian) relatives, but we were grateful that a few good friends from Waycross were able to make the trip as well.  Jackson and his barbershop quartet, the Vigilantes, even stopped by for a bite and to treat us to a song.

It wasn't the last treat we'd get from the Vigilantes that day.  After the quaint and lovely ceremony at London Town and Gardens, the quartet serenaded Evelyn with a medley Jackson spent over two years arranging.  It sure was a scorching hot day, but there was beautiful music, remarkably delicious cake, and the most fun dancing I've had at a wedding in the shortest amount of time.  At the end of the evening, we saw the happy couple off to their honeymoon and showered them with rose petals as they went down the path to sail away on the South River toward their honeymoon destination in North Carolina.  Eric got to be in Jackson's wedding party, and I got to spectate and take in all of the little moments that added up to make a gloriously memorable day that I'll look back on fondly for many years to come!

I noticed that my last few posts with pictures included have taken up quite a bit of page space, making my readers deal with lots of unnecessary scrolling, so I decided to condense the photos from the wedding weekend into one big cheesy heart-infested slideshow.

Our Leather Anniversary Trip: Days Three, Four, and Five (well, Four and a Half)

Thus continues my recount of our D.C. vacation.  Day Three was a Smithsonian day all day!  Our morning was spent at the Air and Space Museum, a bit of a bore to two central Floridians comparing its (somewhat outdated) exhibits to KSC and the like.  Even Eric--who, as you know, is fascinated by flight--was a little let down.  We were still impressed by a few genuinely cool pieces of aviation history though, including the Wright brothers' original flyer, the Spirit of St. Louis, the plane that broke the sound barrier, and other cool crap unrelated to space flight.  It honestly didn't seem like it had changed much since our Pinder family trip there in 1996.

This plane was hanging in the same spot 15 years ago

We also hit the Natural History museum that afternoon, which we would have probably enjoyed lots more if every grade school class within a fifty mile radius hadn't chosen that particular day to travel there for an end-of-school-year field trip.  Despite the crowds of squealing tweens underfoot, we still enjoyed everyone's favorites--kick-@$$ prehistoric and geological exhibits, including mummieeees, dynasarrrs!! and a special edition setting of the Hope Diamond.

*drool*

On the way back to the hotel to retire for the evening, we popped in and out of the National Portrait Gallery and then paid our respects to Honest Abe at Ford's Theatre.

I'm trying to look solemn! A crazy actor shot someone here (with her camera...monopod at work)

and this is also where John Wilkes Booth assassinated Lincoln.

So Day Three was a little anti-climactic, but still oodles more fun than being back at work in Florida, where reports say fourteen babies were born at Celebration Hospital that day.  They were probably awakened by my cackles of delight all the way from the rooftop pool at my hotel.

Day Four was by far the most kick@$$ of our D.C. experience.  I had reserved a White House tour months in advance and anxiously awaited it since.  Of course the civilian tour doesn't lead you past any of the "good stuff," like Malia and Sasha's Bieber-fevered bedrooms, the West Wing buzzing with activity, or the War Room a la Dr. Strangelove, but we still got to see some really cool and important pieces of history.  I was really interested by the library (of course), each administration's china services on display, and the awesome custom Steinway complete with bald eagle piano legs and etched depictions of eras in American musical traditions.  Then, when we turned the corner out of the State Dining Room, we were greeted by, in celebration of Military Appreciation Month, a concert by a jazz combo from the Army Band!  (They even played a Disney song, Someday My Prince Will Come!)  After lingering for a while to listen to the trio, which we regarded as an extremely special treat, we decided it was time to move on to the next item on the itinerary to make the most of the time left in the day.  So we exited...right out the dad gum front doors of the White House.  And underhandedly snapped a grainy cell phone photo.

(Don't tell the Secret Service we took this photo)

Next on the list was the American History museum, which easily became our favorite of the three Smithsonian museums we visited.  Overall, its exhibits were the coolest: the collection of First Ladies' inaugural gowns and a huge presidential exhibit, the flag that inspired Key to write the Star Spangled Banner, an extensive and interesting travelling Lincoln exhibit, Julia Child's kitchen, and Kermit the gosh dang Frog!

Kermie with arms outstretched for a hug for yours truly

That evening we met up for a (yep, free) tour of some of the sights of the National Mall, including a look at the Jefferson Memorial from afar, and up-close looks at the Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, and the Vietnam, Korea, and World War II memorials.  We encountered a huge group of Vietnam veterans who had motorcycled across the country to "the wall" for Memorial Day weekend, which made visiting that memorial a very different experience.  The Lincoln Memorial illuminated at night was magnificent.  The sculptor in Eric was fascinated by Lincoln's statue, and the emotional wreck in me was moved by the history that had come to pass there and in awe of the sheer physical beauty of the place.

Great moments with Mr. Lincoln

We fumbled around in the dark to find the Einstein memorial on our way back to the hotel.  It's not well marked, but thankfully we stumbled upon it somehow because it is really cool-looking!

Come sit on Uncle Al's lap!

The next morning, we checked out of our hotel (thanks for all the free apples, Four Points by Sheraton!) and  met up with my family who had driven up through the night for the wedding.  While everyone else power-napped, Eric and I explored Arlington National Cemetery.  It's a beautiful and hallowed place, but we were honestly pretty tuckered out by four previous days of walking all over the District, so we made sure to hit the highlights and then called it a half-day (thus, the title of this post).  After visiting the graves of JFK and RFK, having much-felt memorial moments at a few grave sites picked at random, paying our respects at the Challenger memorial, and witnessing the changing of the guards at the Tomb of the Unknowns, we headed off to the next hotel to relax and prepare for the weekend of wedding festivities!

Among the fallen

Changing of the guards

Our Leather Anniversary Trip: Days One and Two

For the past three years, Eric and I have done something special to celebrate our anniversary.  The first year, our anniversary coincided with the opening of the Treehouse Villas near Saratoga Springs Resort where Eric worked at the time.  To test the operational capacities of the villas, all of the managers were offered a free night, so Eric cunningly planned his test date to be on the night of our anniversary.  Last year, we escaped to beautiful Miami for a few days.

Near our Miami hotel

For a while we had been thinking about taking a vacation to Washington, D.C., so when Jackson and his fiancee Evelyn announced they were getting married on Memorial Day weekend like we did, and that the wedding would be near her hometown in Maryland, we decided to kill two birds with one stone and take a fantastically fun and educational vacation to the D.C. area to celebrate the anniversary of our wedding during the week before their wedding!

We flew in to Dulles on our anniversary, Tuesday the 24th, and took the MetroBus into the District.  Upon arrival, we immediately partook in a DC/MD/VA tradition, eating Five Guys burgers.  (Adventurous.)  I count these as our leather anniversary gifts since they come from the same source.

Adorable upholstery on our express bus

After that, we knocked out several items from the itinerary right off the bat.  We walked from our hotel to the National Gallery of Art's East Building, stopped to see the Charters of Freedom (Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights, and Constitution) at the National Archives (no photos allowed there, to my dismay), and then hoofed it a couple of blocks to check out the Capitol Building.  Then we said "eff that" and got weekly bus passes apiece.

A favorite Renoir (Little Girl with a Watering Can) at the National Gallery

*salute*

There were no tickets available for the Washington Monument elevator ride all week, so we (read: I) researched a worthy alternative for an aerial D.C. view and came up with the Old Post Office.  The view was lovely but an unexpected draw for me was the tower bells.  Totally fascinating for a geek.

We were up bright and early on day two, only to find out that none of the attractions on our list opened before 10am.  So we killed a little time outside the gates of the National Gallery's Sculpture Garden.

Eric found a head rest in my monopod

After a stroll through the sculpture garden and a look through the National Gallery West building, we stopped for a highly recommended lunch at the Museum of the American Indian, and then we spent way more time than we thought we would at the U.S. Botanical Gardens.  What a cool place!

Stunning da Vinci at the National Gallery, the only one of his in the western hemisphere (and it's gosh dang double sided!)

Some type of tropical curiosity at the Botanical Gardens

Our next stop was my personally most anticipated itinerary item: the Library of Congress.  The idea I had in my head--a cavernous palace stacked with ancient and colorful books from floor to ceiling--was much more romantic than the real thing, where books actually are largely brought in from other storage areas upon request.  However, since I had taken the advice of some sage friends, I had at least had the foresight to register for a reader's card, so I still got to go inside the main reading room, an architectural wonder, which most visitors don't get to visit.  There were also some really interesting exhibits, including Jefferson's personal book collection, which restarted the Library after the British burned it during the War of 1812, and a Gershwin brothers gallery.  We also took the free tour (yes, everything we did on the whole entire trip was free), led by a very dedicated if ditsy volunteer.  She graciously agreed to lead Eric and me off the beaten path after the tour to see the beautiful chamber venue and a nifty collection of musical instruments.  All in all, even though it wasn't at all what I expected, the Library of Congress was still really, really cool and one of my highlights of the vacation.

Geek out!

On the way back to our hotel, we made a brief stop in Chinatown for dinner...at Ruby Tuesday.  And that completed Day Two.

Ni hao

This vacay recap has become rather lengthy, what with the myriad photos and rambling stories and whatnot, so I'll continue with the next two and a half days in the next post!

A Day at D23's Destination D

This year marks the fortieth anniversary of the Magic Kingdom, so to commemorate the occasion, the official Disney fan club, D23, recently held a weekend event for its members at the Contemporary Resort.  It included information sessions led by experts on all things Disney, covering favorite attractions and films from years gone by, sneak peeks at upcoming projects, and even a look into the Walt Disney World that never was.  The weekend culminated in a concert called Magic Journeys that celebrated the music of Walt Disney World.

Why should you care?  Because I was in that concert!  I shared the stage with some of my Encore favorites (1) and Disney legends like the Kids of the Kingdom, the Main Street Philharmonic, Dreamfinder and Figment (6), and none other than Richard M. Sherman (2), a songwriting hero of mine who has won Oscars, Grammys, a Walk of Fame star, and the hearts of millions of film-goers and theme park visitors.  Sherman and his brother Robert wrote the songs for the most beloved Disney films of the 1960s and 1970s such as Mary Poppins, The Jungle Book, and The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, and Richard Sherman sang and played all of them at this concert that I also performed in!  I geeked out to the max!  It was a major highlight of my career to perform with such a talented and well-respected performer.

(1) Cristi, Antony, me, Lynn, Tommi, Cliff, and Gretchen

(2) Our view of RMS on the Jumbotron from backstage

Backstage at Magic Journeys

A close-up on the choir

Celebrate the Future Hand in Hand

(6) Finale with everyone onstage

Feast or Famine

Here's the problem with keeping this blog up to date.  It seems that we're always either so busy that I don't have time to write about all the exciting things we're doing, or alternatively, nothing's happening and I have lots of free time but nothing to write about.  Since my last real update, there's been a little bit of both, but I'll catch you up on the highlights as far as our careers go.  Me first!  You can always visit my website for the latest on my career, but here are some of the most exciting recent developments.

After a great holiday season with Seraphim, my spring picked up with some really rewarding opportunities.  A group called Sing cast me as their swing performer.  (This basically means I learn all the parts so I can step in when someone in the cast isn't available.)  Sing is inspired by Glee and does performances for conventions and special events all over the nation--most recently Dallas, Miami, Denver, and Las Vegas!  I also joined Earth Beat, a classic cover band, as a lead singer!  Dr. Bill Picher asked be to sing in an a capella concert with the choir at the Shrine of Mary, Queen of the Universe.  It was an unforgettable day and Getting to sing with these awesomely talented groups is a dream--getting paid for it is even better!

Earth Beat

We did another opera at the Bob Carr this season, La Boheme.  My same old girlfriends--Lauren Langa, Lara Larberg, Jillian Rosich--and I had a blast cutting up in the chorus.  Simultaneously, I was rehearsing the role of Maria in The Sound of Music at Garden Theatre!  Since I was doing Boheme at the same time, I was just the understudy, but I had the chance to work with some truly amazing people and performers.  I wouldn't have had it any other way.  And I got to do the show twice :)

How do you solve a problem like me? O:-)

As for Eric, he has always been fascinated by hot air balloons.  So for his birthday, I got him a Groupon for a balloon ride. The ride itself was beautiful and peaceful.  Then right after the ride, Eric talked himself into a job on the team's chase crew!  He helps unpack and pack all the gear for rides, and he communicates with the pilot by radio and drives to drop off and pick up the passengers at the take-off and landing sites, because you can't steer a hot air balloon!

Eric hard at work