-- Find free -- or at least inexpensive -- ways to do your favorite things. Local parks, for one, are always free, and can be a nice change of scenery from your backyard. A game of Frisbee is a great way to pass the afternoon. Beaches can sometimes be free as well, or at the very least, cheap -- sometimes you'll only pay for parking. Here in New York, Rockaway Beach has no day fee and several free parking lots. (It's also accessible by subway.) Finally, do some research on museums in case of a rainy Saturday. Many public libraries -- including those in Chicago and Boston -- give library cardholders free passes to area museums and other attractions, says Edgar Dworsky, founder of www.Consumerworld.org. In Chicago, for instance, you can get free passes to the Art Institute, the Brookfield Zoo, the Chicago Children's Museum and the Chicago History Museum. Here in New York, Target sponsors a program that offers free admission to the Brooklyn Museum on the first Saturday evening !
of each month, and to MOMA every Friday night between 4 p.m. and 8p.m.
-- Use coupons. One of my favorites is The Entertainment Book. You do have to pay for it, but over the year, the price drops significantly. It starts at around $30 or $40, depending on the city, but right now, it's going for $9.99 on www.entertainmentbook.com. Inside, you'll find coupons for restaurants, retail stores, car rentals and various attractions. You can buy one for your city or for the city where you plan to vacation. "You can find buy-one-get-one-free tickets for theater companies, amusement parks and restaurants. The coupons tend to be more generous than what you can find online," explains Dworsky.
-- Assume just about everything is offered at a discount. A friend tipped me off recently to the existence of discount parking coupons for garages in New York City. The site she sent me to is www.centralparking.com -- and I recently saved $25 on one day of parking by using a coupon. My point is that this is the wrong time to pay full price. If the sweater you see in a store isn't on sale today, sign up for the retailer e-mail alert so you'll see when something becomes available at a discount. The same goes for travel. One source that Dworsky recommends can be found at www.travelzoo.com. The e-mail newsletter shoots you a message once a week with up to ten or twenty travel bargains. "They do the searching for you and it's a good source of very low prices," he notes. "If you're open as to where and when you want to go on vacation, something might pop up."
With reporting by Arielle McGowen