Give Real works in three easy steps
1. Choose a friend. Give a drink credit of $1 to $99, good towards a purchase at any Bar or Restaurant!
2. Style your gift by making a drink suggestion and adding a personal message.
3. Pay with a credit card to place your order. Your friend will immediately receive a gift notification via email, with instructions on how to redeem their Real Drink!

Already we’ve seen the Bar Tab application for Facebook that lets users send $1 certficates for alcohol which is however redeemable at only certain establishments.  The Get Real application should be universally accepted.  How? We’ll find out when we recieve the first $5 certificate we ordered to try out.  We’ll let you know how it went in a future post.

We are assuming some sort of card redemption service as it states on their main website: Use your registered card to make a purchase at any bar, restaurant, club, or café in the US!

The Best Time to Buy: Airline Tickets
I’ve always found the cheapest fares on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Other thing I’ve noticed is not to buy your ticket far away from the departure date. Purchased your ticket within 90 days of the departure date. As it gets closer to the departure date, airlines are going to have to lower ticket prices to make sure they fill their plane. However, don’t wait too long, as it gets too close to departure, the plane might either sell out, or prices will rise with only a few seats available.

The Best Time to Buy: Technology
Never buy technology when it first comes out, unless you have to have the latest and greatest. If you are set on the best you can get great deals by waiting. Computer technology hasn’t advanced so fast in the last few years. You can pickup an older model computer for at least half the price of the newer computers. Personally, I’ve always found the best deals during the holiday season.

The Best Time to Buy: Cars
September is the best time to get a new car. New car models start appearing in the fall making it a great time to get an older model for a better price.

Supply vs Demand
The best time to buy anything is when demand for that item is low, yet there is a large supply of it. No company wants to get stuck with a product.

Uneetee.com
Uneetee.com they have some of the cheapest T-Shirts on the net all designed by exclusive artists. Artist of the week is only $13 with all prints being printed on American Apparel T-Shirts. If you missed the artist of the week, the shirt jumps up to $17. They ship worldwide so whether you live you can enjoy this great deal.

Shirt.Woot.com
This woot T-Shirt site gives you a reason to check their site everyday. Everyday they feature a new T-Shirt that costs only $10. If you react too late you can still pickup most shirts still for $15 the day after the sale. Each day features a different shirt by a different artist.

CrazyDogShirts.com
T-Shirts ranging from $10 to $14 depending on the shirt. Shirts are all featuring clever sayings, something you can be proud to show your mommy.

Why buy T-Shirts from a website?
Who buys in the store anymore? This is the best way to save money and be unique, who needs a $25 Abercrombie T-Shirt that everyone else has?

Shopping Essentials…
Weekly Ads, Walmart, Target, Bestbuy
Buying Clothes From Thailand, Buying Name Brand Clothes
Finding the Best Price, Price Comparison

Gift Certificates
Though I don’t like gift certificates, it still looks better than cash. Gift certificates are limited to only one store and its like giving the store your cash before even buying the gift. Lose the certificate and its like losing cash. But, we still can save by buying gift certificates. Yesterday I bought UNO gift certificates and received a $5 gift card for buying a $25 dollar gift card. Most often restaurants will give you extra savings for buying their gift cards at a certain amount.

Stock Market Shares
Skip on buying those scratch off lottery tickets and buy something with better odds. Buy them a stock, the gift that could keep on giving. By using oneshare.com you can buy stock at its listed price. Their stock will arrive within a few weeks.

Gift Baskets
Most of the time those gift baskets created by stores could be made chaper if you made it. Often a bag of popcorn and a few dvds make a great gift basket. Or, just go candy crazy and throw everything into a bag.

Still confused?
Give cash. Everyone likes money, money would certainly be better than an ugly Christmas sweater or a DVD you did’t want to see.

Other Related Posts
What Should I Buy for Christmas?
Nieman Marcus Fantasy Gifts, Most Unusually Expensive Gifts?
Who links to my website?

Buying the Right Gifts
I ask myself a few questions before buying gifts each year.
1. Where will this item be in 6 months, will it still be used?
2. Do I, or this person really need this gift?
3. How long with the novelty of the item really stay novel. (Will we still love that collection of Simpson Pez Dispensers 5 months from now?)

Be Environmental
By buying unneeded gifts and presents, we encourage producers to produce more of these items that just fill up our closets and our drawers. I’ve been in so many houses that seem just to be full of junk from the eighties. It can really be hard to let go of those atari game systems or Ebay is a great way to unload all that stuff you have accumulated over the years. Often I’ll have an ebay garage sale and just unload everything I’ll never use. I use the time test, everything I haven’t picked up or used in 6 months gets sold.

Is your house full of unneeded stuff?

1. a dragon topiary made right on your land $35,000.
2. portraits created from chocolate syrup $110,000.
3. a tree tent $50,000.
4. the butterfly two-seat aircraft from The Flight of the Monarch $80,000.
5. a classical music concert by the Kirov Orchestra for you and 499 friends. Regis Philbin hosts the concert. $1.59 million. Piano is yours after the show.
6. a two-person Neiman Marcus edition Gem Triton submarine $1.44 million
7. the Swami conversational robot $75,000
8. a Vertu phone designed by Frank Nuovo $73,000.
9. your own plane in the Rocket Racing league $2 million.
10. an online media wall for $100,000.
11. ten acres at the Ameya Preserve in Montana for $2.3 million
12. 2008 Lexus IS F special-edition $68,000.
13. a custom necklace $1 million.

Who also thinks that the chocolate syrup is the most extravagent item on the list? Is anyone actually buying these unusually expensive fantasy gifts. If so, you could always think about buying me the 2008 Lexus IS F special-edition.

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Finding Weekly Ads
A site like Spoofee.com updates every week with new ads for US Stores (in case you don’t recieve the newspaper). Most often than not, viewing ads is much faster as you can view the ads in text format rather than having to look pictures.

Are Ads Really Cheaper?
Before you run off to buy that Camera you saw advertised at Circuit City, do a price comparison. Currently Circuit City has a Camera advertised for $199, a Canon SD1000. If you would use Shopping.com and did a search, you would realize that Circuit City sells the same Camera online for only $189 with free shipping. Always do an online price check before buying something out of an ad.

Online Price Comparison
Three Sites make the top of my list. Kelkoo.com, Shopping.com, and Pricerunner.com.
With these search sites, you can search directly for an item and compare prices among a long list of stores. After the comparison and look back, what was cheaper, shipping and buying online or running out to the store to buy the item. Though for many going to Walmart, Target or Bestbuy gives us something to do, we have to deal with lines, stress and high gas prices.

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Other Posts
Shopping at 5 am or shopping online?
Top Ways to Save Money

Buying Clothes from Thailand?
If you shop for clothes on ebay, like I do, you’ll notice that you can get many clothes for much less than retail price. Take this White Long Sleeve Sinner Shirt by Diesel being listed on Ebay for $26. Take a closer look at the item location, Naivang Muangpear, Pear, Thailand. Is this a good deal or will you be getting Thailand counterfit clothing? Hard to say. I just orded a black Diesel shirt for $23 plus $10 shipping from the same seller. In a few weeks I’ll know whether I order Thailand counterfits or real Diesel quality.

Are Counterfit Items Really So Bad?
There is of course two sides of the story. There are those original creators of the clothing who lose plenty of money to counterfit sales. Why why real Oakley Sunglasses when you can get fakes for $10? However, who is really buying these counterfits? Most people who buy the $10 fakes probably could never afford the real thing. Why not let some poorer people feel good about themselves? The problem arises when the counterfits are exactly the same as the real thing. This involves anything electronic. What is the difference between a burned dvd and an original, almost nothing.

Get Real Name Brand Clothes for Less
So we want real name brands, but not counterfit and not shipped from Thailand or anywhere in the world. Try second hand shops. Many times you can get used named brand clothing for up to 90% cheaper by shopping in these second hand shops. I managed to get a really nice FCUK sweater for $20 that would normally cost $100.

Try discount clothing stores. My favorite store is Marshalls. When a store doesn’t sell all their clothing, they sell it at a extremely reduced rate to store like Marshalls. Most of the time these are name brand clothing. Take the 7 for all Mankind pants I bought for $20 in Marshalls that retail at $150.

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Shopping Online or at 5 am?
Save Money Without Noticing

Gizmodo.com:

“Xbox 360 Premium Bundle
Location: Walmart.com
Price: $399
Includes: It’s the Xbox 360 Premium with Forza and Marvel Ultimate Alliance, but you get an extra wireless controller and your choice of games from a pool of some decent titles, including Mass Effect and Bioshock, along with an Xbox 360 messenger bag. Read about all of Wal-Mart’s deals HERE.

iPods Galore
Location: Bestbuy.com
Price: 16GB touch – $379, 160GB classic – $332, 8GB nano – $189
Info: Starts today and goes through next Sunday. Best deal on an iPod w/o student discount or refurb.

10% Off At Circuit City
Location: CircuitCity.com, In-store pickup only
Price: Save 10% on any order of $249 or more.

20% Cash Back At Paypal Retailers
Location: 15 Retailers including New Egg, Barnes & Noble, HP, eToys.com, Overstock and Sharper Image.
Info: Get 20% cash back up to $50.

1TB Western Digital myBook external HD
Location: ZipZoomFly.com
Price: $219
Info: That’s a lot of porn, my friends.

Viewsonic 26″ LCD HDTV
Location: Staples.com
Price: $399
Info: That’s over $100 savings compared with standard online prices.

HP Photosmart C6280 All in One Printer
Location: Staples.com
Price: $100
Info: Also about $100 off standard online prices.

Plantronics 330 Bluetooth headset
Location: BestBuy.com
Price: $25
Info: Save over $25, get your Bluetooth on.

ClubIT Deals
Location: ClubIT.com
Info: We don’t know what they’ll have for sale yet, but deals should hit Monday morning at 12:30 a.m. PST.”

Deal and Promotions
According to my local newspaper, 72.2% of consumers are planning special promotions for Cyber Monday. In fact, many retailers will be offering free shipping on anything purchased. Online purchases now account for 10% of purchases made, a rising trend as more people than ever are turning towards the Internet as a way to do their Holiday shopping.

Safety?
One of the biggest concerns of shopping online is the threat of having your information stolen. Make sure to buy from a company that you know. Instead of buying from XYO Bookstore, consider Amazon.com. Secure Internet websites will have an address starting with https or shttp. After you order, make sure to print out your order and confirm it with your credit card statement.

Where are the best deals on Cyber Monday?
Check out comparison-shopping tools: Sites such as Coolsavings.com, Google Product Search, Shopzilla.com, and Streetprices.com, plus Dealnews.com’s companion sites, offer tools to compare prices. Use these to sort through all the deals being offered on Monday. Stores such as CircuitCity.com and Sears.com are offering free shipping.

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Save Money and not Notice you are Saving Money
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