So, for today and to keep you busy over the weekend, here are a few:

This great info sent in by Mindy in New York, a die-hard coupon clipper and price comparison shopper: New Trade in Program announced by Best Buy.  Click here for info. Thanks, Mindy!

Have dry eyes?  Here’s a FREE bottle of Optive lubricant drops! This is stuff that is just not available at a low price, so Click here to register  your info for a personal rebate coupon.

Now, let’s start talking about Christmas — already???  Yes!  Hot gift items are available NOW at discount prices — we’re doing our best to find them for you.  Shop now, get what you want, and be done, and paid, by December.  Here’s some of the biggies:

Amazon announced last week that they were lowering the price of a new KINDLE Wireless Reading Device (6 e-reader to under $260 with free shipping, the lowest price ever. You can also pre-order the next generation Kindle, launching on October 19, or, if you’re shopping for yourself, there are a limited number of refurbished models for $219.

DIGITALLY REMASTERED BEATLES BOXED SET — We think this is THE gift for baby boomers on your list, and Amazon has the lowest price, free shipping and reliability. They’ll be shipping on 10/31.

Click here to go to Amazon.com, and you could probably get your holiday shopping done by Halloween!

And a few discounts, for gifts or for yourself — Shop THIS WEEKEND for these deals:

Get low $2.99 shipping on purchases at OneHanesPlace.com. Enter promo code 611690 at checkout. This offer is valid through October 25th.

Extra $50 off unlocked BlackBerry Storm. MSRP: $899. Kusho.com price: $499.99. Now, just $449.99! Use code BB_STORM_449 through 11/16

Or, Get an unlocked black Blackberry Pearl Flip (8220) for just $239.99. Use coupon BB8210EARL20OFF thru 11.16.

A great freebie from a great resource for beauty products: FREE 27 Piece Mini Makeup Kit With Any Purchase from ELF COSMETICS! Use code LOYAL thru 11/13

Happy Weekend, Happy Shopping, and let us know what we can find for you!

Next week, we’ll talk about ways to make extra $$$ for the holiday season. Meanwhile, for more on Holiday shopping, click here!

From 17 Magazine.com (compliments of Pam in California) and Baskin Robbins, a nice payback for teens and  young adults who are giving up some of their time this summer to volunteer:

Ice cream giant Baskin-Robbins is teaming up with DoSomething.org to say an extra thanks for all those community hours and the great stuff that these young adults (13-25) today are doing to make a difference!  On July 13th, Do Something will be sending out coupons for a FREE soft serve cone* that can be used at participating US Baskin-Robbins anytime from July 13th – July 17th.

Check out DoSomething.org/Serve for other fun Thank You’s from Do Something and Baskin-Robbins.

Deal Details: *You must present the coupon received via email. Offer available while supplies last at participating Baskin-Robbins in the US only. Offer valid for teens and young adults ages 13-25. Limit one 6 oz regular size Soft Serve cone per person. If Soft Serve is not available, offer may be substituted for 4 oz hard scoop ice cream cone or cup.

PLEASE pass this along asap to anyone in that age group, as it’s only for the next few days.  Just another way to pay back those that give back.

For more about volunteering, click here. Enjoy!

Here’s his idea:

Nation-wide “Curb Day” – October 24, 2009

Unclutter your Life

What’s rusting in your garage?  On Curb Day, people are encouraged to unclutter their homes by bringing to their curbs durable goods that are safe, legal, and valuable to others. Acceptable items include sporting goods, electronics, tools, books, toys, shoes, clothing, plants, building materials, furniture, and more.

People all over the country will be out and about that weekend, picking up these items for free.

Curb Day will be a fun and efficient way to remove clutter and provide free valuable items to others. It will also reduce the number of items that wind up in landfills.

Curb Day will occur twice per year, in October and May. It will supplement resources like Freecycle, Craig’s List, eBay, and second-hand stores.

Please help by:

• Publishing an article about Curb Day (done!)
• Sending this email to all your colleagues
• Marking your calendar for October 24th to bring out your unneeded possessions
• Asking elected officials to grant a temporary variance to rules that prohibit this activity
• Sending us your ideas, stories, and photos of items you’ve picked up in the past

Learn more about Curb Day and sign in for updates at http://www.curbday.com/.

Well, Mike, we love your idea and will do our part to spread the word.  Please keep us posted on your progress.

For more thoughts on second-hand treasures, click here.

Hope you’re all taking advantage of our money-saving tips and posted Freebies; today is the opportunity to get

FREE HOMEMADE Soap at http://is.gd/1oT0F

More good ideas for living large on a budget at http://www.ILoveAGoodBargain.com

50 Easy Ways to Save Money Now in FREE report — Download your report if you haven’t already, at http://www.ILoveAGoodBargain.com/welcome

Thanks, Julia, you’re one of my favorites fellow                                frugalistas!

Thursday night is the big night at the waterfront restaurant/bar, so instead of the 400 people we expected, the crowd was about 950!  It was a beautiful evening, and once the bulk of the people had checked in, we volunteers were invited to stay, eat and drink and mingle with the people who made sizable donations to be there.  

(This is us in the middle bottom picture, compliments of Las Olas Lifestyle Magazine.  I am fourth from the left, the one showing all the skin!)

One of my favorite parts of charity events is the Silent Auctions.  Usually, we find that they’re stocked with great products and services that you can guy for a fraction of the real prices, and make a donation to the sponsoring charity too.  Over the years, we’ve gotten art work, spa services, gifty items, fine wines, jewelry, tickets to events, tickets to travel and more and more and more.  

We spoke to a guy who is living in a very cool loft building in Ft. Lauderdale.  Turns out he’s living practically for free as the building management wanted to put in attractive, successful business people to lure more tenants.  Gotta love it.  

If you need a new place to live, it pays to see a lot, make friends with the management and ask for the best deal they can give you.  If you want to make new friends, have fun, get stuff and make a difference, try volunteering.  

Most cities have a volunteer-central type organization. Just search for Volunteering and your county, and you should be on your way.

More on volunteering later, (especially those silent auctions!) but for now I’ll  just say that it’s a great way to have fun, meet new people and make a difference (the most valuable thing there is), with no out-of-pocket expense.

Just when I was thinking that nothing could outdo my joy at the day’s events, I was happily surprised to find an email with More Great News.  Due to some kind of class action settlement with the cosmetics industry, starting today you can go to most any major department store and receive a FREE sample of some really good stuff!

You can get the detail at this very cute blog called Make Me Brighter, which talks about make-up and sometimes finds neat giveaways, as you can see.  Free samples are limited to one per person only as long as supplies last, so jump on this one right away.

And then there’s my friend Ralph.  If I’m the Discount Princess, and Cindy is Queen of the Rebates, he’s the Freebie King!  Before I got married, Ralph and I used to travel the country together on real estate buying trips, and we’d play a game — let’s see how much we can get for free.  Just for asking, we got tons of upgrades: a convertible for the price of an economy car, a suite for a cheap single room rate in some really nice hotels, and multiple meals in restaurants plain and fancy.  

Ralph just got not one but two new Sprint phones for no charge.  Hopefully he’ll talk soon and let us in on his secrets. 

Looks like we know who our next president will be.  Hopefully the change will bring abundance back to our county.  It’s going to be an interesting 4 years.

So at least until the economy improves, keep checking back for more great better-living-for-less ideas.