Groupon

Words cannot describe my love for Groupon. The basic idea is that a deep discount is offered everyday, and if enough people pledge to buy in, the deal is "on", meaning your card gets charged and you get the coupon. Usually places will offer other specials for people using a Groupon; for example, when I redeemed one for 2 lbs of coffee at a local coffeeshop last year, they also gave me a free cup of coffee everyday for the entire month. Most are at least 50% off, in the form of "$5 for $10 at X restaurant". Sometimes it covers the entire bill (like going to lunch alone) or other times it just counts towards that much off your bill. It's really an awesome deal, and they get a lot of random local, independent places that you probably wouldn't check out otherwise.

I started using the site when I was living in Chicago so that I could make my money stretch a little farther. This past week I started getting back on the site because, while Ridgecrest doesn't have a Groupon site and probably never will, Ben and I have impending trips to cities that do. Most Groupons last for about 6 months, so I've been trying to keep an eye on places like Los Angeles and Las Vegas, because we will definitely be ending up there a few times between now and February. I also scored a couple great ones for places in San Francisco, for our upcoming long weekend trip to the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival.

The best part: I currently have about $120 worth of Groupons sitting in my little folder. The total cost? $58. And while we could have saved the same amount of money going to other places, the fact that we now get to check out some of the local flair that we otherwise might not have even known about it pretty exciting! If you haven't checked out the site yet, definitely do! They have a ton of different cities, and a ton of awesome offers!