Chicago Restaurant Week - now through March 6th!

Check it out - it's been extended for one more week!  eatitupchicago.com

IKEA Free breakfast through 2/16

Carpe Diem, seize the day!  Get your FREE breakfast from IKEA this weekend - until 10:30am, through Mon, Feb 16th!  Thanks Kathleen for this one!

http://info.ikea-usa.com/seizethedays/  

Museum of Contemporary Art

Target also sponsors Free Tuesdays at the MCA. Directly from the site: “The MCA offers a range of free and wildly interesting events in the cafe almost every Tuesday evening from October through April. Museum admission is free to everyone on Tuesdays so come early and visit the galleries and then stick around for constructive entertainment accompanied by a glass of wine or a cup of Joe and a tasty snack from Puck's Cafe.”

The Stitch ‘n’ Bitch and Bingo/Tango both sound very interesting!! Who knows how to knit? And tango while playing bingo??? =)
http://www.mcachicago.org/programs/event_detail.php?id=87

Adler Planetarium

Thanks to Charter One Foundation, general admission is free on a bunch of weekdays (only one weekend day, June 7th).

Feb 9-13, 17, & 24
March 3, 10, & 17
April 21 & 28
May 5, 12, 19 & 26
June 7-12
Sept 1, 8, 14-18, 22, & 29
Oct 6, 13, 20, & 27
Nov 3, 10, 17, & 24
Dec 1, 8, 15, & 22

http://www.adlerplanetarium.org/plan/#2009discountdays

Museum of Science and Industry

MSI has free general admission a bunch of weekdays throughout the year:
Apr 22 (Earth Day!)
June 1-5, 19
Oct 8-9, 12-16, 19-23, 26-30
Nov 11
http://www.msichicago.org/visit-the-museum/museum-info/admission/free-days/

Free Second Mondays at Field Museum

Target sponsors Free Second Mondays…and in addition some other regularly scheduled Free General admission on weekdays.
http://www.fieldmuseum.org/plan_visit/free_days.htm

Shedd Aquarium Free Feb 16-24

This morning, I saw the discount for the aquarium in the Red Eye (the local free daily paper published by the Tribune). I thought I’d see if there’s anything else out there, because I remember seeing some ad walking around the loop that you could go to a different museum for free every day of the week. Well, I found more than just the Shedd! Chicago is great for the FREE stuff. =)

Two things I'd note - check the website to confirm the dates, and in almost all cases it's for General admission, so once you're in then you'd pay for the special exhibits.

Shedd Aquarium:
Ford is sponsoring free admission from Feb 16th- 24th through the Community Discount Days. (My guess is that 'community' means that you will need to show a driver’s license that you’re an IL resident, and I would recommend calling to confirm.)
http://www.sheddaquarium.org/discounts.html

For your calendar - FREE Sugar Fixes

I was reading the latest Real Simple (March 2009, p. 131 to be exact) and it lists a handful of FREE sugar fixes...be sure to mark your calendars!

April 21 - Ben & Jerry's free ice cream cone

April 29 - Baskin Robbins scoop of ice cream for 31 cents

July 11 - 7-11 free 7 ounce Slurpee

September 24 - Coldstone Creamery free ice cream treat (donation to Make-A-Wish encouraged)

FREE February Days @ AI!

The Art Institute in Chicago is FREE for the freezing month of February thanks to MetLife! I'm going to go once the Edvard Munch exhibit starts on V day...since that will be half off! The SCREAM!!!
http://www.artic.edu/aic/visitor_info/feb_free_days.html

Dear Mr. Excel (Dork alert)

Thank you Mr. Excel. This week as I was trying to fix some Excel formatting issues, I remembered a helpful pdf document I used last year (thanks to V!). Well, actually all the credit goes to Mr. Excel and you can download a FREE low resolution e-book version. It's geared towards Excel 2007 and is at this location http://www.mrexcel.com/learnexcel2.shtml

The Heart Truth

February is National Heart Month! From the site www.prettycity.com/love "One in four women dies from heart disease. Heart disease is the #1 killer of women, regardless of race or ethnicity. Each February, the love you campaign, presented by prettycity.com in partnership with The Heart Truth, aims to encourage women to take care of themselves and to take charge of their own heart health."

Check out the site for $59 pampering services at spas and salons across the US - incluing Chicago, Milwaukee, LA, NYC, Orlando and more!

Chicago Restaurant Week

It's coming...Feb 20-27, to Chicago! Here is yet another great time to try out 130+ different Chicago restaurants - $22 for 3-course lunches and $32 for 3-course dinners. Check out eatupchicago.com and make your reservation through opentable.com to your points there too! Looks like we'll try out Tizi Melloul one night for dinner.

Denny’s Grand Slam Breakfast for FREE

If you’re a fan of Denny’s, make sure you head out tomorrow – Tues, Feb 3rd for a FREE Grand Slam breakfast! It’s from 6am – 2pm so check for a location near year, go with a friend and grab your free Grand Slam! Site says it's available in US, Canada and Puerto Rico!

Girls Night Out (for $15 w/a goody bag or FREE!) in Major Cities

Happy February and happy new year of the Ox! It’s been a while...since I was under the weather for a while. This deal is for the ladies and the men who are very secure and have no problem being totally surrounded by women.
Shecky’s Girl’s Night Out is in Chicago March 18-20th. They’re coming to various US cities so check out the site for your closest location.


Basically you have two options for a deal --
FREE DRINKS? If you just want to go for the free drinks – and there are plenty!! – go directly to sheckys.com site for your night out. I’m signing up for Friday and hope to see ya there!

GOODY BAG + FREE DRINKS? Sign up for goldstar.com through me and get a bargain admission for $16.50 after the fees. (Even less since you can get $2 credit for every friend that you sign up!) It’s a great goody bag, I can vouch for last year!!