Happy Birthday Dana at Dixies

I'm having to write this the following morning, had a fun night of cheap and free fun uptown last night! Yesterday was my friend, Dana's, birthday and, awesomely, I had won a party at Dixie's. Could it be more perfect? We all got free appetizers, $2 Miller Lites, $2 well drinks, and $3 "good" liquor drinks. To someone who loves Jack Daniels and Diet Coke, that $3 was a great thing to hear. The appetizers were really good too. I just had the chicken fingers, but there was spinach dip and meatballs also. The music at Dixie's is always so good too. They tend to play a lot of songs that get the whole crowd singing and dancing, a mix of today's best and the oldies but goodies. How did I win this party, you ask? By joining their email list, so check it out, there are so many fabulous deals out there! 

Meet Ella!

Hi all! Not something cheap and free, but I wanted to introduce you all to our new puppy, Ella! I went to drop Mandy off at her daycare, All Wags, this morning and they let me know that they had two puppies there who needed a home. One of their employees had found them abandoned in the middle of the road last Wednesday night. Miraculously, they are both unscathed by that and after a visit to the vet were both given a clean bill of health. Ever since, we lost Maddie, we have known that we would eventually be ready for another dog and little Mandy has been walking around the house giving us all the signs of being ready for a friend too. Ella has come right in and become a member of the family, you would think she had been with us forever. Right now I am sitting on the couch wrting this with Mandy on one side and Ella on the other, and I couldn't be happier!

Enter Contests!

Entering and winning contests is the greatest, most fabulous way to get something cheap and free. Well, I enter a lot of contests, and lately I've been winning a lot of contests. 

One thing to do is ti sign up for email lists, lots of bars and restaurants have some sort of incentive to join their email list, like be entered to win a gift card, etc. I've recently won happy hour parties at Dixie's and Howl at the Moon. The one at Dixie's is actually going to be my friend Dana's birthday party this Friday night, so more about that later. 

Another fabulous contest source is Creative Loafing Fun & Free Stuff. I personally check their website every Thursday. In the past I have won concert tickets and movie passes, and more recently, I won a DVD of Forgetting Sarah Marshall, which is so awesome if you haven't seen it. I'm psyched about that. I just went and picked it up today and can't wait to watch it. 

One other cool contest source that I have found is to join bands' street team's. Most bands have a link of some sort on their web page or go to a site like Reverbnation and search for your favorite bands. The bands will have frequent contests and tasks with prizes. I recently won a contest that Simplified, my favorite local band was having and my prize is on it's way. Super cool!

Hands on Charlotte Day

I had a fabulous Saturday today! I got up bright and early to help with registration and set-up for Hands on Charlotte Day. While I was at the kick-off celebration at the Epicentre I had the most fabulous muffin, as a side note. 

Then, I headed with my group off to my project at the Habitat for Humanity ReStore. We did some fantastic tasks at the ReStore, lots of pricing, rearranging, and moving items to their appropriate places. I've written about the ReStore again, but as an overview, it's a place where one can take their old home goods, fixtures, building materials, etc. and donate them to be resold as a fundraiser for Habitat for Humanity. Plus, they also get donations of new items also. It's a great place to check out every once in a while to just see what they have. 

After we did our feel-good volunteering, we went to the Comet Grill for another sort of feeling good, good food and some well-earned beers. Comet Grill was running a special just for Hands on Charlotte Day volunteers, 20% off all food and $1 domestic drafts. A $1 Yuengling never tasted so good than one drank after lifting, measuring and pricing large rolls of carpet for three hours. 

If you are in Charlotte and have never participated in Hands on Charlotte Day or any of the Hands on Charlotte projects, definitely check it out. It's a huge amount of fun and helps to make Charlotte a better place to be.

Shutterfly.com

OK, call me crazy, but I already have my Christmas cards. I love using Shutterfly.com to create the little photo cards. I know I adore receiving them, so I think others enjoy receiving mine. Get this, when I ordered 50 cards, I got 25 for free, plus 90 free address labels. No joke! The key is shopping early. I discovered this and started ordering my cards early a couple of years ago. The holidays can be a pricey time, so I love to cut costs in every way that I can.

Import Night at Brixx

Thursday nights are a fabulous night to go have a beer at Brixx, so we decided to take advantage of the record high temperatures and enjoy some $2.50 imports on their patio. To top it all off, we had a coupon for buy one, get one free pizza. What could be better? Coupons and beer specials, two of my favorite things. Let's just top it all off with getting my Brixx MBA card stamped four times (yeah, the weather was really nice and sitting outside was very enjoyable) so I'm that much closer to earning my t-shirt, free pizza, and free party. It's almost cheap and free stuff overload, but, honestly, is there really such a thing as that?

The New Trader Joe's

Hooray! At long last, the new Trader Joe's at the Metropolitan has opened up! I have been waiting so long for this.  The food and household items at Trader Joe's are cheaper and better than at your regular grocery stores. Plus, in addition to normal items like green onions, apples, and bread, you can find some incredibly cool and unique stuff. For instance, today I picked up some crunchy green beans. They are snack that looks like a dried green bean, that is salted. I haven't tried them yet, but it sounds like a winner to me. Another not-to-be-missed item at Trader Joe's is the 21 Seasoning Salute. It's this incredible spice blend that makes everything delicious, and it's only sold at one fabulous place. Did I mention the cheap wine at Trader Joe's? It bought three bottles and the most expensive one was $4.99. Also, I had received a coupon in the mail last week, so I received a free reusable shopping bag. You know I love that!

Check out Simplified!

Simplified is a great local Charlotte band and also one of my favorite cheap and free things to do. They play all around the city, very frequently at Mac's BBQ and the Visulite. Have a litte listen to them, you'll love it.

Musicovery.com

Here's a fun free thing for everyone, not just those of you in Charlotte. Musicovery.com is my new favorite way to make being on the computer all that much more enjoyable. It is free online radio with emotion. Think of this as your musical psychologist. You log in and make a few selections about your preferences; favorite artists, favorite songs, favorite eras, favorite genres... Then, tell musicovery.com how you are feeling that day and it will play songs that will completely tune into you. You'll just sit there and be amazed at how every song just is perfect and "exactly what you needed to hear." Now, if only I could listen to online radio at work, then life would be all good.

Southend Gallery Crawl

Tonight, I volunteered at the Charlotte Art League for the Southend Gallery Crawl. I did a lot of helping out with the food and answered a lot of question, plus I saw a lot of fabulous art. There was a juried art show going on also called into "Fall Into Art 2008" and the winners were announced this evening. The 1st place winner was a fabulous painting of a rooster. I know what you are thinking, a rooster? But, it really is just amazing. The show will be there until October 24th, and I definitely reccomend checking it out. The Charlotte Art League is also a great place to go if you are looking to buy some local art. Many artists have their studios there and on Saturdays you can walk through and watch them work. If you are an aspiring artist or are just looking to let your creative juices flow for a bit, Charlotte Art Leauge also offers many different classes. It definitely inspired me to get in tune more with my creative side!

Five Guys Burgers and Fries

So, I totally just treated myself to a very not good for me lunch on a Friday... it's been a long week... Five Guys Burgers and Fries is delicious! This new place just opened up on South Blvd., right near where the new Lowe's is going up. It's super cheap and super good! The menu is very limited (burgers, hot dogs, fries), but they do what they do very well. I ordered the regular cheeseburger with tons of toppings. Here's the thing that I didn't know, a regular burger is actually a double cheeseburger. I just assumed that the small burger on the menu was kids size or something, I was wrong. Plus, all toppings are free, no additional amount for extra toppings, and I pretty much had a salad on top of my burger. Fries are additional and I'm not a huge fry fan, so I didn't order any. My friend, Kim, who I was with did and, of course, the small portion of that was huge also. So, if you are looking for large portions of delicious food for not a lot of money, check out this new place, sure to be a Charlotte favorite very soon!

Getting paid to taste food? Um, OK...

Probably about a year ago, I filled out a questionnaire online to get myself registered with AOC Research here in Charlotte. They are a research company that does mostly taste tests. Oh, and you get paid. I have been called a couple of times for taste tests and haven't qualified based on my answers over the phone, most disappointingly for a beer taste test. Well, this time I qualified, and I was psyched. I can't tell you about what I tasted because I had to sign a confidentiality agreement, but I will tell you that it was all delicious. I was there for just a little under and hour, ate enough food for it to be my dinner, and... wait for it... I got paid $40. That's what I'm talking about.