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!