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!