Today we took the kids out for a few hours and we used certificates we had purchased off Groupon and Living Social to pay for our outing. First we stopped by a local indoor bounce house and paid for their admission with the certificate we had bought from Living Social. Then we went to dinner at our local Italian restaurant and used the certificate we bought on Groupon to pay. Our total out of pocket today was $11!
So how does Groupon and Living Social work?
Each day, Groupon and Living Social each release a new deal (or two or more) for a city near you. (I highly suggest that you take a moment to subscribe to the email update for your area.) The deal will be anything from a discount at a restaurant, a hair salon or even a discounted online deal. To give you an idea, here are a few of my favorite Groupons/Living Social deals that I have purchased in the past few months:
- $20 for $40 at Petruccelli’s (a family owned Italian restaurant here in Birmingham. I paid $20 for the certificate and used it to save $40 off my bill!)
- $50 for $150 at a local eye doctor (I used it and they took $150 off my total bill!)
- $1 for 3 Redbox codes (I used the 3 codes to get 3 FREE rentals at the Redbox.)
So make sure you check every day to see if they are offering a deal that would benefit you and your budget. You might also want to check cities you are planning on visiting soon. Each Groupon and Living Social Deal has an expiration date and some are good for over a year or more!
If you are new to Couponing, you might want to take a moment to read more in my Getting Started Couponing series. It will teach you how to coupon like I do!
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
Did you deliberately place the onions in the shape of a hidden Mickey? If not, how cool!
No, I just took off the 4th one that was on the plate. :)
Isn’t that cool?!?! It shows we are always in a Disney state of mind…. Have a Disney Day! : )
I have a local radio station that gives discounts on certain places in the area. It works the same way as your 2 websites do. I will have to check them out. I will also like to thank you did the Epic Mickey.
I love love Groupon we have had some great dinning deals as well as other deals! We too have a radio station that has a web site that gives 30% off of resturants and stores sometimes I am able to get some for my local produce store it’s great!
I’ve gotten some nice deals from sites like this as well … but always be careful. Not every deal is as good as it sounds! Always read the fine print, and when they tell you that something is an $X value, don’t just take their word for it! Sometimes they will say something is, for example, a $50 value, when in reality, it is easy to get discounts, so you would never pay that much.
Learning about these sites was an awesome surprise! We’ve been able to get some really great deals. Our favorite is the half price movie tickets!