The attack of good deals

In the past two weeks I have found a significant amount of discounts for things I would typically buy or had always wanted to. It all started with Broadway Week.

 My co-worker and I got tickets to Chicago for $60 each. It was a great show and Kara Dioguardi from American Idol was the lead role.

I found a Living Social deal for Hatsuhana Sushi, which was near the play so we went there for dinner beforehand. We got $80 worth of sushi for $40, split between 2 people is only $20. We had more than enough with $80 and it was absolutely delicious!

The next day I got an e-mail for 80% off at Restaurant.com. That meant that when I would normally pay $10 for a $25 gift certificate to a restaurant was 80% off so it was only $2. Great way to try new restaurants around town and save a few dollars since NYC can really get expensive. I decided on 1363 Stir and I'm looking forward to trying it out soon.

When I got the confirmation e-mail from Restaurant.com, it said my offer came with 20% off at ProFlowers. One of my bffs was having a terrible day and I thought it might be nice to use that promotion to send her some flowers. What I thought would be inexpensive with the promotion turned out to be much more than I expected with shipping and handling fees. The voice mail, text messages and a very happy friend were well worth the few extra dollars.

Don't you hate it when the picture online turns out to look nothing like the flowers delivered? The pic above is what I ordered and the picture to the right is what she got....hmmm.

Then last Friday, when I was reading my daily e-mail from The Frugal Girls when I saw "Get a free pair of glasses!" My insurance will pay for either contacts or glasses, not both. When I can get a good deal on glasses out of pocket and have insurance pay for contacts, why not? I desperately needed to update my prescription so I got an appointment and went to CoastalContacts.com to get my free pair! It turns out the most basic level of glasses are free but if you need to get a different lens for your prescription, it might cost more. Of course, mine did. I ended up getting a pair for $60 but that's still definitely a lot better than a full-priced pair.

These will be at my door in a week!

Now here's a confession: With all of these great deals combined with not paying close attention to my budgeted spreadsheet and having to drop $80 on a new computer charger, I've spent much more than I should have these past two weeks. Little things add up, even if they are great deals. I'm pretty disappointed to announce that it is September 30th and my Express card will not be 100% paid off this month. I will be able to make a decent payment towards the bill but not enough to completely pay it off. I will keep trying and I will knock it out soon but just not today.