Valentine’s Day Gift Ideas

Remembering your sweetheart and loved ones on Valentine’s Day doesn’t have to be expensive.  Here are some ideas to celebrate the day and still save some money. And adding a personal touch to each gift takes more creativity than cash.

Special dinner – If you’re planning to eat out, look for specials and coupons offered by local restaurants. Or if you’re going to make that meal yourself, look for unique recipes or heart-shaped treats like pasta or dessert. This can be a romantic dinner for two, or a fun family project.

A movie – Watching a movie together is another great idea that the whole family can enjoy, whether it’s in the theater or the living room. You can buy discount movie tickets or even get a free movie rental.  Save on Fandango Bucks when you purchase them with your Visa Signature card. You’ll get an additional $5 in movie tickets free for every $20 purchased in Fandango Bucks. Use them yourself or give them away to your family and friends.

Music – Whether you buy the newest release or a romantic album by a favorite artist, or create a custom CD with some free or favorite downloaded tunes, they’ll love it! For those who play an instrument, give a gift membership or download some Valentine music at Virtual Sheet Music.

Books – Bookstores always have sales for Valentine’s Day.  Or, if you’d like to do something really unique, you can create a personalized romance novel.  This service produces eBook novellas or custom printed and professionally bound books with your own photograph on the cover. You fill in a 26-question survey, choose from one of their 30 titles, and then decide on a “wild” or “mild” overall theme.  The cost is $20 for a 30-40 page eBook that is sent within a few hours.  Printed books are more expensive and take longer to produce, so a special gift card (that looks like this) can be sent to explain that a one-of-a-kind gift is on the way.

Fruit basket or arrangement – You can get discount pricing and quick delivery on these items, so they’re a good last-minute gift. Popular choices include David’s Cookies, Edible Arrangements, or other chocolate treats.

Flowers – While roses are the most popular flower to buy, you can also choose other fresh cut flowers, as well as longer-lasting potted tulips, hydrangeas, cyclamen and azaleas. Most florists have Valentine’s Day promotions, and grocery stores offer great pricing on their cut flowers and plants, with quick delivery.

Candy – You can never go wrong with sweets!  Take advantage of available coupons to buy candy gifts locally or order unique sale items online.

Fragrances, scented candles, and beauty products – Discount coupons help defray the cost when you choose fragrances for men or women.  Pamper her with skin care lotions, scented candles, or beauty gifts. Certificates for a day at the spa, manicure, or pedicure are very popular and normally have long expiration dates to redeem them.

Items for men - Sporting event tickets, subscriptions for sports magazines, or sports gear are sure to please the favorite men in your life.

Stuffed animals – Young and old alike will love the lasting remembrance of a cute stuffed animal.

Photo gifts – After selecting a decorative or digital frame gift, personalize it with photos or a photo collage of memorable moments.  Order other lasting photo gifts like key chains, coffee mugs or mouse pads, or create a free photo book of special images.

Jewelry and personalized items - Whimsical items and fine jewelry are equally popular for this holiday, and there are plenty of  jewelry store promotions.  With 20-40% savings, a wide variety of other gift items can be personalized, from stationery to glasses to clothing, creating a cherished keepsake anyone would treasure.

Gadgets – Two-for-one deals and rebates make cell phones a cheap or even free choice for a great Valentine’s Day gift.  Digital camera and MP3 player sales offer another opportunity to save.  Many models of all these items come in red.

Cards – Hallmark has introduced a new webcam greeting card that can display 3-D ”augmented reality” animation on computers equipped with sound and webcams. Other new items found in Hallmark Gold Crown stores this year include recordable storybooks, DVD movie greetings, and voice-response bears.  For a last-minute solution, you can create and send online cards, even mobile greetings. At Smilebox, you can create free cards with photos and music that can be printed, sent by email, posted on a blog, or transferred to DVD or digital frame. Free for PC or Mac, this photo service also includes digital scrapbooking.

Decorations – Get heart-shaped balloons, bows, and ribbons at a 50% discount from party supply stores.  Disney and PBS both offer customizable cards that kids and parents can make together.

Travel – This year there’s a unique opportunity for a long weekend getaway, because Valentine’s Day falls on Sunday, followed by the President’s Day holiday on Monday, February 15.  When one airline offers a discount coupon, others usually follow suit. And, because the economy has impacted travel pricing, the best fares for last-minute cruise specials can give you a 60-75% savings if you are flexible enough to go on short notice.

Apparel – No Valentine’s Day celebration would be complete without the iconic decorated boxer shorts, tee shirts, pajamas, or ties.

Last-minute shopping is the norm for this holiday, with nearly 50 percent of all Valentine’s Day cards and gifts purchased in the six days prior to Feb. 14.  No matter what gifts you choose, whether they involve bling or calories, make them more meaningful by adding a personal touch to express your love.

Add commentFebruary 7th, 2010

January Contest Results + Buxr Wiki

Greetings everyone, hope you had a great January and we are back with our monthly wrap-up.

Monthly Contest Results:

Congratulations to equipurple with his first victory. It was a very strong showing with a record breaking total monthly score. Here is the complete list of winners for this month:

Some of the remaining winners may receive Buxr Swag:

Thanks again to all of our contributing members!

Refer a Friend Contest results

No winner in the refer a friend contest for this month. Please insert your own joke here _____ . Again, if you have feedback on how we could improve this contest, please drop us a line at “support at buxr dot com”!

Buxr Site Improvements

• Buxr Wiki – the wiki has been the most requested feature for some time and we are happy to announces that finally it is live and is full of useful information ranging from how to win the Buxr contests to what stores recently declared bankruptcy. The most importantly however is that anyone can contribute! So far we have only opened it up for editing to our Power Members, however if you feel you have something useful to share — drop as a note!
• Seasonable Deals – our regular deal submitters no doubt remember the ‘Seasonal’ attribute they are prompted to fill in when they submit deals. Until recently the information was simply stored but now everyone can finally make use of it. The upcoming holiday will be dynamically added to the Deal Page navigational bar and you can filter the deals based on the current ‘Season’. Here is for example how selecting Valentine’s Day Deals will look:






• Expanded Member Activity – Transparency and openness is in the core of Buxr philosophy. Buxr member activity page now shows records for every single month since the member joined the community (and not only the last 2 months). Go to the member profile page and click on ‘Activity’ menu item to access this information

Here comes February!

Thanks again for all of your support. February is upon us with the Valentine’s Day flowers and President’s day buttons. Make sure you stop by and check us out!

Have a great month,

The Buxr Team!

1 commentFebruary 1st, 2010

Cents-ible Tips to Save More Buck$

Looking for ways to trim your budget? Here are 9 easy tips to save pennies that will turn into big bucks.

1. Cancel your bottled water service – Did you know that 25-40% of the bottled water in the US comes from municipal water supplies? You can save by filtering the water yourself with products like Brita pitchers and filters. Drinking filtered water is a lot less expensive, just as healthy, and good for the environment.

• One Brita pitcher filter can effectively replace as many as 300 standard 16.9-ounce bottles.
• One Brita faucet filter can effectively replace as many as 750 standard 16.9-ounce bottles.

2. Save on eating out – There are several ways to save money and still enjoy eating out.

• Buy Restaurant.com dining certificates – Many $25 certificates are priced at $10, and usually discounted 50-90% off during frequent promotions.
• Buy Entertainment Coupon Books – You can easily recoup the cost of these books and they, too, are often discounted. They’re good for a year and filled with coupons for restaurants, grocery stores, movie theaters, dry-cleaners, and more. Most of the restaurant coupons offer buy-one-get-one-free meals.
• Take advantage of special offers and discounts – Kids eat free on certain days at many restaurants; some always post coupons on their websites, like Boston Market, while others issue discount cards, like P. F. Chang.

3. Save on ATM fees – Many banks charge a $5 fee if you get cash from another bank’s ATM. That’s equivalent to a 25% penalty when you withdraw only $20!

• Get your extra cash without paying a fee at the grocery store when you make a purchase using your debit card.
• Use a credit card for your purchases instead of cash and earn rewards (Discover gives 1% cash back, while Mastercard and Visa offer other rebates, including frequent flyer miles or credit toward the purchase of a car).

4. Save on hidden credit card costs -

• Never use the blank checks that come in your monthly credit card statement, because you are charged a higher rate than the monthly statement for them.
• Avoid any special programs and offers from your credit card companies like credit protection, credit monitoring, etc. Hefty monthly fees always follow the free period.
• Never sign up for a credit card with an annual fee, there are so many with no annual fee that will offer you incentives to use their cards.

5. Save on DVDs, CDs, and books –

• Many public libraries offer an online database to request books and movies for free, that can be sent to the branch nearest you.
• Websites like Swaptree.com allow you to trade your books, CDs, and DVDs with others online. This service is free, the only expense is the shipping cost of your item.
• Downloading music from the Internet saves costs and packaging disposal.
• Rent movies from Red Box, Netflix, or soon-to-be-available Sundance Film Festival films from Youtube.
• See if your favorite TV shows are available for free on Hulu or TV network websites.
• Use free bookstore rewards cards and coupons in the store or online at Borders, Books-a-Million, and Barnes & Noble.
• If you have an electronic reader, there are lots of digital books available for free.

6. Save at the movies –

• Some theaters offer matinee performances between noon and 4 pm for $2 or more off each ticket.
• Sign up for free theater rewards cards to earn points for free tickets or get specials on concession items. With a free AMC MovieWatcher card, you earn two points for every ticket purchased and receive a free ticket or complimentary concessions for every 10 points accrued. With the Regal Cinemas Crown Club, members are eligible for special promotional prices on concessions, like $1 candy on Mondays and $1 popcorn on Tuesdays.
• Get a discount when you buy a book of tickets.  For example, Costco offers a Regal Entertainment 5-pack of tickets for $39.99, a $57.50 value; or an AMC 5-pack for $44.99, a $62.50 value.

7. Get magazine subscriptions – You’re often paying the equivalent of a year’s subscription when you buy only 2 single copy issues off the newsstand.

• Order magazines on Amazon at a discount.
• Many magazines are also offered for free.

8. Sign up for a defensive driving course – It can be completed online at your convenience for around $25.

• If you’ve have a recent moving violation, you may be able to take defensive driving with the court’s permission. You’ll pay only a small court fee, save the cost of the ticket, and keep that information off your driving record.
• Even if you don’t have a ticket, take the course anyway. In either case, you may save 10-15% on your auto insurance premiums for three years.

9. Eliminate dryer sheets, air fresheners, and trash bags

• Dryer sheets can do more harm than good since they are loaded with a mixture of synthetic chemicals that cling to your clothes and can be absorbed through your skin. A half cup white distilled vinegar or one-quarter cup baking soda added to your laundry is a cheaper and healthier alternative to make your clothes soft and static free. For a pleasing scent at minimal cost, spray a small piece of cloth with an essential oil and toss it in your dryer.
• Air fresheners are not only completely unnecessary, but they can also release hazardous chemicals into your home. Chemicals linked to birth defects have been found in 12 of the 14 common household brands of air fresheners, including those that were labeled “all-natural.” Open your windows and let in the free fresh air. If your home has a persistent odor, it’s better to find the source and fix it rather than to mask it.
• Recycle both plastic and paper bags from your purchases by using them for trash bags.

Each of these items, though seemingly insignificant, can add up to quite a savings. This sort of thinking may lead you to re-examine other aspects of your lifestyle that are not included here. You’re encouraged to share in the comments any changes you’ve made to produce savings in your own budget.

Add commentJanuary 25th, 2010

The best 7 sites to organize your shopping wish lists

Tired of last minute gift shopping? Always getting the wrong size for that special someone? Well then you should start making wish lists! Lists are a handy way to remember gifts for any special occasion like birthdays, holidays, weddings, anniversaries and baby showers. They’re even good for general shopping, house warmings, or just keeping up with items you’d like to find on sale or for back to school.

There are at least 4 great reasons for maintaining your wish list online.

1. You can add products that can be purchased from any store.
2. You can consolidate everything in one secure place, and restrict access to some or all of your lists.
3. You can easily share the list, and your gift-givers can view and reserve items on your list, or even split the cost of an item.
4. You can organize charitable or cash contributions.

I looked at two dozen different free online wish lists, with a wide range of features. Some of them only offered the option to create and share simple lists, while others incorporated social networking and many more advanced features. Here are some of my favorites:

I particularly liked MyRegistry because it offered the option to import existing store registries from Target, Crate and Barrel, Williams-Sonoma, and The Land of Nod to sync and display within the MyRegistry gift list, which is great for consolidating into one list. When purchases are made in the store, the online list is automatically updated, and purchases made through MyRegistry automatically update the store gift registries as well.

• Unlimited items – Add as many items as you wish to your registry, from as many stores as you like – whether they are online or offline.
• Any entry type – Add anything and everything to your registry, even scuba diving equipment, French lessons, or a dream trip to the Caribbean. Register for spa services, dinner-for-two at your favorite restaurant, or airline gift certificates.
• Receive cash tastefully – You can even start a college fund for your new baby using the Cash Gift Fund.

Amazon’s simple gift and wish list has been improved by the addition of their Universal Wish List button and Firefox add-on. You can create multiple lists, easily add items from any web site, and make the lists private or visible to the public. But there are no access levels or advanced features.

• Firefox plugin for quick wish list updating.
• Integrated with the most popular online shopping site around.

Wishpot is more of a free social shopping service, making it easy to save and share interesting things you find in stores and online.

• Price alerts – The most outstanding feature of Wishpot is an option to alert you whenever there’s a price drop on any of your wish list items at a long list of merchants that the site monitors.
• Amazon wish lists can be imported.
• Wishpot also lets wish list owners set up contributions, so multiple people can contribute to a single item or fund.
• Wish list owners can share their wish lists  through an assigned URL with friends and family, members and non-members alike, and they can reserve items for purchase.

Wishlistr’s simple interface makes it easy to use, while incorporating some unique features.

• Import – You can add items from your Amazon wish list or your del.icio.us bookmarks.
• Formatting – Choose from 18  templates to change the appearance of your page.
• Easy link to share – Your wish list URL is www.wishlistr.com/YOURNAME.

TheThingsIWant allows you to create and maintain a list for each family member. Having these types of lists ready, will help reduce the stress of shopping for them for any occasion. They can also be used to organize surprise parties, allowing the gift-givers to organize their celebration without  the knowledge of the recipient. Finally, thethingsiwant.com offers parental controls so even kids can create and maintain their own wish lists. Just make sure you let your child understands he’s not getting every present on the wish list!

• Management of the accounts must be controlled by someone 13 years or older, so that children under 13 will need the consent and help of their parents to add an item to their lists.
• This is a great way to reduce the clutter of getting unwanted toys or duplicates.

Wantz.it is another universal wish list, with a couple of unique social features.

• Connects with the other web applications that you use everyday – like facebook, twitter and delicious.
• Your own exclusive URL – YOURNAME.wantz.it.

WishList is a basic wish list site without any of the social networking bells and whistles. But one excellent feature worth mentioning is the ability to use a camera phone to send items directly to your account while you’re out shopping.

• Easy to use for a short learning curve.
• Adds pictures to your wishlist.

I’m ready to start my virtual wish list and keep it updated, and I want my family and friends to do the same. The next time anybody buys me a gift or I need to buy one for them – thanks to our online wish lists – we’re going to get it right!

Add commentJanuary 18th, 2010

Still clipping coupons? Read this…

Tired of clipping coupons and getting paper cuts? Well, I’m going to ease your pain, because coupons are catching up with the digital age and in the process, they’re becoming much more user-friendly. Welcome to the dawning of the age of digital coupons that are truly paperless coupon promotions. With these coupons, you simply load them on a portable device like your store loyalty card or mobile phone. And, since you probably carry a these devices with you anyway, you’re pretty much guaranteed to have your digital coupons with you whenever you need them.

Coupons on Your Store Loyalty Card

A number of the larger supermarket chains and several packaged goods manufacturers have started offering digital coupons either through their own websites or through third-party sites like Cellfire.com, Shortcuts.com, Coupons.com or Zavers.com.

To get started receiving coupons on your loyalty card, you’ll obviously need to have a loyalty card from the supermarket where you plan on using the coupons. In addition, you’ll likely need to set up an account and register your card through whichever service or services the retailer is using to power its digital coupon program. Once you’ve set up the service, you simply visit the retailer’s Website or their third-party site and begin selecting the coupons you want to load to your loyalty card.

To help you remember which coupons you’ve loaded to your card, a number of retailers and third-party services enable you to create and print shopping lists that feature the products for which you have digital coupons. Also check out this neat application which allows you load all your loyalty cards on your iPhone.

Coupons on Your Mobile Phone

The newest trend is to receive digital coupon offers directly to your mobile phone without a need for a loyalty card. These may take the form of alphanumeric coupon codes that a checkout clerk keys into the register, or they may take the form of scannable barcodes displayed on the screen of your mobile phone.

There are a number of websites where you can get coupons delivered to your mobile phone, including: Cellfire.com, MobileCoupons.com, SampleSaint.com, Valpak.com and 8coupons.com. Google has even expanded its service to let local merchants offer mobile coupons through their “Place Pages” on Google Maps.

To get started receiving coupons on your mobile phone, you’ll need to make sure your phone is Internet-enabled. If the coupons are being delivered as scannable barcodes, you’ll also need to make sure you have a smart phone (such as a Blackberry, Android or iPhone) that is capable of displaying the codes correctly.

Don’t cancel the Sunday Paper… yet

If you truly want to maximize the savings you get with coupons, you won’t be able to get rid of the paper just yet.  According to NCH Marketing Services, the leading coupon processor in the U.S., digital coupons only account for about one-tenth of one percent of all packaged goods coupons distributed in the U.S. On the other hand, more than 85% of all packaged goods coupons are distributed through those inserts that come in the Sunday newspaper.

But, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be taking advantage of the many digital coupon offers that are out there. Whether you’re an avid coupon clipper or new to couponing, digital coupons provide an opportunity to save even more money in a relatively hassle-free manner. In exchange for registering your loyalty card or agreeing to receive a few mobile marketing messages from your favorite retailers, you can get anything from a free Grand Slam Breakfast at Denny’s to a $5 off coupon at Target!

And, as every coupon user knows, those little discounts can quickly add up to big savings.

Photo credit: Cellfire.com

2 commentsJanuary 10th, 2010