Friday, December 16, 2011

I like cheap dates

I mean, dates that are inexpensive. Or anything inexpensive for that reason. Because of my love of free and/or cheap things, I love Groupon. You haven't heard of it, you say? You're missing out! Groupon (and sites like it, like Eversave and Living Social) offers a daily deal-anything from a restaurant to a vacation. On top of the daily deals, Groupon has "Groupon Now" deals, a Groupon you can buy and have to use in the same day. We have done some of both kinds and loved it all!

If Ben and I go on an actual date, like go out in public and everything, it's usually because we have a Groupon (or gift cards from wonderful friends and family that we got for Christmas!!! Yay thank you everyone!). A night in watching Dexter (we're almost through the current season...what are we going to do when it's over?!?!?!) and making some yummy food is fun too and is our usual! But sometimes we like to go try some fun ethnic food or watch a movie. And that's where Groupon comes in handy! Here are some Groupon deals we have snatched up:

Half off at Dingo's Mexican Grill in SE Portland. The food was good, although nothing spectacular. And the margaritas were a little bland. But the cheesy bean dip was worth it all, sooooo good! We got a good amount of food and if I remember correctly all we had to pay for was a tip after our Groupon.

We also got a great deal on dinner at Peemkaew Thai restaurant in the Pearl. Amaaaaazing Thai food. I've never been to a Thai restaurant and not ordered Pad Thai, but we skipped that this time and got some other delicious things instead. And I (almost) didn't even miss the Pad Thai, everything was that good! This was an extra good deal, since I somehow was given a $10 Groupon credit from the magical Groupon fairies. It just showed up! So we actually only paid $5 for $20 worth of food (although we did order a little more than $20 of food!).

We also got half off at PBJ's Grilled, a food cart in the Pearl. Where we ordered amazing grilled peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and then had to immediately try to replicate them ourselves!

I also got a great deal at Honest-1 Auto Care. I was getting terrible gas mileage and needed to get my car checked out (turns out I'm just doing way too much downtown driving!), so this Groupon popped up just in time. I paid $60 and get 3 oil changes, a tire rotation, a discount on any service and a diagnostic check. The guys at the Stark St. location were great and really knew what they were talking about. They got things done really quickly and didn't try to convince me I needed to get a bunch more things done. They also had a nice comfy waiting area with Wifi!

We've also purchased movie tickets online for half off a couple times. And I got two haircuts for the price of one recently. I also got a nearly free subscription to a cooking magazine. And a good deal on wine tasting. I'm sure I'm forgetting a bunch of things we've purchased, but those are a few of them! You should all sign up for Groupon by going here, I guarantee that you will find a deal in the near future that you will want!