Annapolis on the Cheap / Turning into a Groupon Addict

I think I've turned into a Groupon addict. One day last weekend, we had planned on going to Annapolis for the day to do some shopping. Annapolis is basically a town where every other car on the road is either a Lexus or a BMW. It's not exactly known for its bargain shopping. Unless of course, I am there. It turned into a day of using coupons, groupons and deals. Annapolis is a good 45 miles away and a real pain for us to get there (mostly on a 2 lane road) so we only go once in a while.

Since I knew we were going to Annapolis, during the previous two weeks I bought two different Groupon Coupons that were good for stores in Annapolis. Our first stop, was at a bakery where I was able to get $15 worth of yummy bread and muffins for $7 (using the groupon coupon). I love all things bread.

Then *shock* we went to the shopping mall. DH is strange in the way that he likes to buy books that haven't been previously owned by someone else. So he got a book at Borders (using a 33% off coupon that I had gotten via email).

At Bath & Body Works, I bought a $2 clearanced Wallflower fragrance thing (I use them) and got a free travel sized item (using a coupon I found on the A Full Cup website.

Then Jacob was hungry, so for a snack, we went to the food court and I got him a free kids meal at Chick-fil-a using a coupon he received thru school for a good report card or something. It took sheer willpower not to order a Chick-fil-a sandwich for myself.

Then went to Toys R Us and bought Jacob a new bicycle. I know, I know, I'm sure I could have eventually found a good used one at a yardsale. But I thought it would take a while to find the "right" one. He needs a medium sized bike, not a kiddie bike but not an adult sized bike either. So since I had a bunch of Toys R Us gift cards to use, and plus for Christmas he got money for a new bike, he got a new bike. We have a Toys R Us Visa card that is always sending us gift cards based on the amount we charge. And if it's a monthly bill, such as the electric bill or cable, it's gets billed automatically to our credit card. We religiously pay our credit cards off - in full - every month.

Then had a late lunch at TGIFriday's I get the TGIfridays emails, and they had sent me a coupon to "Buy 1 meal, get 1 half off", so we used that. And I showed my TGIFriday's frequent diners club (or whatever they call it) and got free chips and dips as an appetizer.

Then afterward, to keep us hydrated for the ride home, we got 4 smoothies from Robeks. I paid $10 for a groupon coupon for the 4 smoothies (which would have cost around $24 if we had paid out of pocket).

If you haven't already signed up for Groupon, please please please use my referral link below.



I haven't made any major purchases using Groupons, but when there are some good deals for $10 or so, it's a great way to save money and try out different stores. I even subscribed to get the Groupon emails from my old hometown. There was recently a restaurant deal at my brother's favorite restaurant in upstate New York. So for $12 I got him and his wife a $25 Groupon gift certificate to use at the restaurant. They are not really computer people so chances were very slim they would have known about the deal themselves.