|Insider Tips on How to Maximize Your Dollar

Westin Hotels and Resorts is running a spectacular deal right now: for every night you pay their regular rate, you’ll receive 50% off your second night—now through December 31, 2010!  Click on the box below to take advantage of this great deal:

Gen-A members can book a package to the beautiful Marival Residences & World Spa (the new gem in Riviera Nayarit, Mexico, located just 10 miles from Puerto Vallarta’s airport) and receive a free upgrade to a 2 bedroom residence and $100 spa credit! 

•Privacy for Parents, book a one bedroom residence and get a free upgrade to a 2 bedroom residence –you can save hundreds on a totally new luxury all-inclusive experience. Spacious elegant residences, great tours, 3 golf courses — ALL INCLUDED!

•$100 Spa Credit per all inclusive plan booking of 3 nights or more.

Call our travel consultants at: 1-877-650-4545 or visit the Gen-A Travel page on our site today!

I’m so excited about our new Gen-A Travel department!

Our travel department will open the door for Gen-A members to get exclusive privileges such as: exclusive savings, upgrades, shipboard credits, complimentary shore events, hotel upgrades, complimentary breakfasts and other amenities.

Some current exclusive Gen-A Travel specials:

Cape Town, South Africa – Complimentary 4-night Stay at Twelve Apostles Hotel & a 60-Minute Spa Treatment – For new bookings January 15 – October 31, 2010.

Azamara Club Cruises – Up to $2,000 per couple ChoiceAir Credit and $500 per stateroom Onboard Spending Credit – For new bookings made June 1 – August 31, 2010, in Oceanview, Veranda, or Suite Staterooms.

Crystal Cruises – Up to $1,000 per Person Savings on Penthouse or Verandah Staterooms on Select Sailings – For bookings made by September 30, 2010.

Uniworld River Cruises – Save up to $400 per Couple on Select Egypt Cruises & Tours. Bookings must be made by August 31, 2010

Let our travel consultants do all the work for you!

To find out more info, please visit: http://genatravel.org/

My very favorite place to buy bath products (shampoo, conditioner, scrubs, lotions, shower gel, etc.) is . . . Marshall’s believe it or not!

I used to splurge and buy an expensive salt scrub that cost $25.00 (from a name brand store).  It was very luxurious, smelled great and left my skin feeling fresh and well, scrubbed.  I never did like paying that price though.

One day I wandered over to the bath and body products section in a Marshall’s store and ended up buying not only a comparable scrub, but a couple of shampoos, conditioner, lotion AND shower gel for the same price I used to pay for that one salt scrub!  And I’m talking equally luxurious brands:  shampoo from France, lotions from Great Britain, shower gel with olive oil from Italy, Dead Sea salt scrubs from Israel.  So now, that’s the only place I go to buy those items.

Once I get home though, I do take the price tags off.  Like I said in my first post: I love looking like I spent beaucoup bucks on something; who has to know where I got it from?  ; )

Even a savvy shopper like me learns new ways to shop smarter every day.  I recently went to buy some vitamins and went to one of my favorite vitamin stores: Vitamin Shoppe.  I like them because they carry some of the specialized brands that I prefer even though they are 25+ miles away from my house.

 However, I recently did some research and found that, in general, buying vitamins online saves you money—on the vitamins themselves as well as on gas, wear and tear on your car and travel time.

 One website in particular has especially good prices. I did a comparison of their prices versus VitaminShoppe.com and the in-store prices at the Vitamin Shoppe.  For more info: please take a look at the comparison chart below.

If you are a member of Generation America, you can sign up for the Value Health Discount Card (login, click on the Benefits tab and scroll down to the Health & Beauty section).  This card provides 10% to 60% discounts on dental, vision, pharmacy, chiropractic and other health benefits.  If you buy the premium plan, it also gives you an additional 10% savings on any vitamins purchased on VitaCost.com.  Orders may be placed online or toll free by phone.

 Also, when you’re on the VitaCost.com home page, take a minute and scroll down to the “Coupons, Discounts & Deals” tab.  They offer a free one year subscription to “Health” magazine with any purchase of $50.00 or more as well as some other really great specials…definitely worth a look.

 In conclusion: I wish I’d had this information a week ago!  I could have saved myself $25.00 not to mention about an hour of travel time.

* Value Health Discount Card: 10% Discount on vitamins purchased on VitaCost.com .  

 ** The VitaCost.com site states: “In the states of Florida, North Carolina and Nevada, you will be charged that state’s sales tax on all products.” The VitaminShoppe.com site states: “Residents in some states must pay applicable sales tax for certain types of products. To see if your order will be charged sales tax, please click here; or refer to your local sales tax rate as applicable.”  I checked and there were 33 states that will have to pay sales tax on all or part of their orders. Vitamin Shoppe (In Store): My Vitamin Shoppe in-store receipt showed that no sales tax was charged.

*** VitaCost.com offers free shipping on any order of $79.00 or more, otherwise they charge a flat rate shipping fee of $4.99.  VitaminShoppe.com offers free shipping on orders of $99.00 or more. They also have a flat rate fee of $4.99 for orders less than $99.00

Every summer, my parents used to take me and my sisters camping at a National Park. We lived in California so Yosemite, Sequoia, Mount Lassen, and the Grand Canyon were some of our favorites. Now, for seniors (62+), there is an “America The Beautiful” pass which covers the entrance fees for the passholder and up to 3 passengers in the same vehicle.  It also provides the pass owner a discount on some Expanded Amenity Fees such as camping, swimming, boat launching, and guided tours.

The cost of the senior pass is $10 and is valid for the lifetime of the pass owner.  It is valid only at participating Federal recreation sites (no State Parks or local city/county recreation sites).  Visit http://www.recreation.gov for information about Federal recreation sites.

For more information about this pass, visit: http://store.usgs.gov/pass/senior.html or call 1-888-275-8747, extension 1.

Free music still exists!  Login to the Generation America website , click on the Benefits tab, scroll down to the iTunes logo and click on it—you’ll see a special offer from iTunes for a “Free Single of the Week”.  This is a great deal…nothing beats FREE!

Hi.  My name is Suzanne and this is my blog.  I’ll be writing about one of my favorite subjects: saving money.  I have many years of experience in this area.  I thought I’d begin by relaying a little bit about me and my enthusiasm for the fine art of saving.

There’s not much I like to brag about, but I do love to brag about the savings on my purchases.  I love the hunt.  I love getting something of good quality for a fraction of the price.  I love the idea of looking like I spent beaucoup bucks on something.  I also love the thrill of seeing a tag with the original price followed by all the various markdowns (hopefully there are many!) slashed to an even better, more enticing price.

My all time winner in this category was a Carmen Marc Valvo dress I bought at Neiman Marcus Last Call which I ended up getting for 4.3% of the original price.  95.7% off!!  How this came about was that I decided to take the plunge and browse the clearance rack.  Now, this isn’t just any clearance rack…this is THE clearance rack; the one that you don’t see most people browsing because, well…it’s just too plain embarrassing.  I mean, we all know we’re already shopping in a Clearance store—but to shop the Clearance rack at a Clearance store?  If you’re still not convinced, Last Call has now labeled this clearance rack the “Chip and Dent” rack.  I think that says it all.  This rack usually contains clothing that is barely suited to still be for sale.  There are items missing buttons or with broken zippers, or part of the outfit is missing altogether.  And of course the sizes are either way too big, or something so small it could double as a handkerchief.  So it was, with mild trepidation that I wandered over to peruse said rack and found The Dress.  In my size.

The original price for this dress was $2,250.00.  That’s two thousand two hundred and fifty dollars in case you thought I had misplaced a zero somewhere.  From there it was marked down to $787.00 and then to $195.99 when it finally landed in the Chip and Dent Rack.  In addition to this new low, the clearance rack held a sign announcing an additional 25% off the lowest marked price.

As it turns out, I happened to be in the store on a special day wherein if you used your Neiman Marcus Credit Card, you then saved an additional 30% off your total purchases.  To clarify, I asked one of the sales ladies about it which she confirmed.  Apparently it was a pretty easy task to accomplish she informed me, in that all you had to do was turn over your driver’s license plus the last 4 digits of your Social Security card and wait about five minutes for approval.

Mine took about three.

Once my new credit card was approved, she rang the dress up and announced the bottom-line total: $97.75.  We both looked at each other and gasped.  The only words I could utter at that point were “Them’s Target prices!!”

[One word of caution must be entered here: the interest rate on a Neiman Marcus credit card is in the, let’s just put it this way “Empire State building region”, so my advice is to ONLY use it to get the extra discount and then pay it off immediately! As a matter of fact I double-checked with their Customer Service department and found out you can shop there, pay with your NM CC and immediately go to the Customer Service desk to pay off what you’ve just charged.  According to the person I spoke with, many people only use their NM CC as a “discount card” in just this fashion.]

If there are any like-minded shoppers out there (you know who you are) that has a similar price reduction story, share it with us on this blog!