Knowledge is Power

In light of the current unemployment situation…now more than ever, it’s important to read up on your industry (and/or explore what’s going on in other industries). Yes, the entire web is filled with free information but here’s a bunch of FREE career resource magazines thanks to chicagogigs.net.

Inauguration Day Donuts?

So I texted some deal finding friends today, and it made me realize I should get this blog thing moving…that way, if you’re interested, you can just sign up, so you can get updates as I update my blog. V found out that if you have a blackberry, you can get up to the minute updates on your blackberry.

Today in honor for the inauguration, Krispy Kream Donuts gave us the freedom to choose…a donut! I don’t normally like to buy donuts, but if it’s FREE – sure!! There’s nothing better then getting that occasional sugar and caffeine high first thing in the morning…thanks KKD!

For inauguration night, we went to see the Killers at the nearby UIC Pavilion. Overall it was a great show. Though it started off rather blah, after the first couple of songs, our favorite Vegas boys put on a great performance. For a Tuesday night, it was a short and sweet show. I had to mention that UIC has a great Designator Driver FREEBIE. Since we walked to the show I thought I’d check it out, partially out of curiosity and the fact that it was super close to our seats. Basically, provided you’re not drinking alcohol, you get a coupon for a FREE non-alcoholic drink. All things considered, I got a $4 bottle of water for FREE. Thanks UIC!

New Trib

Tribune that is...Today is the first day and edition of the new format of the Chicago Tribune. I picked up a FREE copy on the way home at the coffee shop train station. Honestly, the new format doesn’t make me want to buy it or make any difference for reading the paper on my commute. I would still prefer the old school method, listen to NPR and read the Red Eye for the latest deals in Chicago for the upcoming days.

Chicago…North Pole…Chicago!

Since we enjoy food so much, we make it a point to go out for our wedding anniversary. For our 4th, we went to Custom House and thoroughly enjoyed it! It’s a nice steakhouse a train stop away from our house. The food was excellent – definitely geared more towards beef and seafood, which was fine with us. We had some grilled octopus, a juicy steak, short ribs, and I tried sweet breads for the first time…wow decadent! In honor of Sarah Palin, for dessert we had a baked Alaska…baked ice cream! Oddly enough, later I read that on this day, it was warmer at the North Pole as compared to Chicago.

We redeemed Amex points for a $100 gift certificate from our now obsolete IN: CHICAGO Amex credit card. We’re going to miss getting restaurant gift certificates for points but thanks to the Amex Blue card we can at least get cash back.

The crazy part? After paying minimal for our dinner, we achieved 10,000 points from opentable.com! Now we get to choose from a very long list of restaurants to redeem our $100 opentable.com gift certificate. There are so many restaurants to choose from…I think we’ll finally try Topolobampo, TRU or The Publican. Any suggestions?

Dining out on a deal (in most cities)

restaurant.com allows you find dining coupons for restaurants near your location for a fraction of the cost. If you use a coupon code from slickdeals.net again, act fast since the popular restaurants sell out fast. Read the fine print on this site - some apply the gift certificate for only food, not drinks...and sometimes they can only be used on certain days.

One thing I learned last year, is either buy it right before you go to the restaurant or double check that the restaurant is still honoring the coupon before you go. I did and found, the easy way to check – just click on the restaurant link within the printed coupon you receive in your account. If the restaurant cannot be located, then that means the coupon is no long good…this is when you email the website, and you will be credited for the amount of the coupon (not necessarily the amount for which you paid.)

If you dine out often, also cross-check opentable.com to make a reservation. You can earn points for every time you dine on a reservation made through their site. It’s usually 100 points per dining experience. If you tend to dine out during the week, it’s pretty likely you can get 1000 points for a dining experience. Once you accumulate 10,000 points, you earn a $100 gift card for any restaurant on the website. (Or 5,000 points = $50, or 2,000 points = $20) We’re 100 points away from getting a $100 gift card, can’t wait!

A few favorite daily links

This has been my first week acclimating to a new job and schedule…so, in the interim, here are a few of my favorite links!

woot.com features a new product every day. A new product starts selling at midnight CST until it either 1) sells out or 2) 24 hours elapses. Every Tuesday, there’s a two-fer deal so you get two items for the price of one. Today I purchased a cheap but relatively good heart rate monitor for my husband. We both wonder what it would do if you try using it while playing Wii Fit running. 8)

groupon.thepoint.com features a new Chicago something every day. By something, I mean event – anywhere from a restaurant coupon deal, bargain tickets to Spam-a-lot (so sad I missed this last week!), massages, Chicago Bulls tickets – it totally varies. The whole point of groupon is to gather a large enough group of buyers, to collectively purchase something at a fraction of the actual cost. Sorry, this is only for Chicago deal finders at this point. If anything, this could be good motivation to visit us in the Windy City sometime to get your groupon!! 8)

slickdeals.net is pretty self explanatory. This site is updated quite frequently throughout the day, with all sorts of deals. It’s not surprising to see a deal expire the same day – if it’s a hot item, you need to act fast. In fact, when restaurant.com publishes a coupon code, the good restaurants usually go fast. I’ll write more on that on my next entry.

Chopping it Up

On my last weekday of freedom before starting my new job, I signed up for a free class at Chopping Block.  Typically classes at this recreational cooking school/store range anywhere from $40 to $1000s of dollars.  I've taken a few classes there previously, and have enjoyed the classes.  Knife skills would be the most essential and favorite class of them all.

Today I took my first FREE class, How to Make Stock.  In one hour, Janet taught us the tricks to preparing the perfect stock to use in soups, stews and sauces.  She made a savory Beef and Vegetable Stew with the Beef Stock she had already prepared...and it tasted so good I went back for seconds.  Simultaneously, she prepared Beef Stock from scratch.  Did you know that you can purchase meat bones from the butcher or grocery store for a bargain price to make your own stock?  I'm going to do it in the near future.  Thankfully she gave us some notes so we could re-create at home.

With my new schedule, I wouldn't be able to take the free classes but here are a few that are coming up in Jan. on the Chopping Block calendar.

Stock Your Pantry on Thurs, Jan 15th and then Sweet and Savory Scones! on Fri, Jan 30th.

A New Year of Deals

The purpose of my first blog in 2009 is to let YOU know about the deals going on.  Whether it's a FREE event or a bargain priced anything, I hope to share it with you here.  To get the hang of blogging though, the first couple of entries are a few of my first deals of 2009.

To start off the New Year right, we went to Cafe Ba Ba Reba for their New Years' Day Pajama Brunch.  If your group shows up in pjs, you receive a gift certificate for a future visit in the amount of our meal.  Earlier in the week, I secured a 1pm appointment for 4 since I knew we would need time to recover from our NYE celebration together.  

It was a great deal of food!  Between 4 of us, we could barely finish our brunch tapas - tomato bread, crispy spicy potatos, spinach & artichoke crepe, baked mac'n'cheese with bacon, sausage paella, poached eggs, grilled squid, spinach empanadas, and baked goat cheese.  The spicy potatos and grilled squid were the best.  The bottomless freshly squeezed orange juice was refreshing and just what we needed after a festive night out on NYE.  The crowd was great, all decked out in festive pjs.  We'll be back soon for tapas all over again, but just not in our pjs.  Happy New Year!!