Skip the shopping for a day, go get some culture!

For today,  click here to read more on discount travel and entertainment.  Happy Weekend!

The deal is $30 for dinner and a show (kind of) — it’s actually a lawn seat, hot dog and soda, and NO FEES!  It’s available today only and it’s good for 100s of shows nationwide.

GO NOW to get the best shows.  Don’t forget the ear plugs.

For a few ways to save on theatre tickets, click here.

Here are a few links to get you there.

Stay cool!

Great Escape Theaters

Regal Cinemas

Cinemark

For more local and regional location listings:

Five Cent Nickel

Also, check your local newspapers — lots of cities do free movies in parks and other venues.  You can also order discount movie tickets through your local Entertainment Book — which is free for the balance of 2009 with your order for next year’s book.  Good deal.

Of course, there’s always the stay at home movies.  If you really don’t want to leave the house, Blockbuster online and Netflix always have great offers.

If Dinner and a Movie is more your style, there are some fabulous discount dining sites.  My favorite is Restaurant.com.  Great discounts on loads of restaurants nationwide, and no sign-up fees.

For more ways to save on entertainment, click here.

Have a fun and safe holiday weekend.

Sea World was fun!  We saved a few bucks by buying tix online, then upgraded to a Fun Card that will get us back for free until the end of the year.  Of course, we had to ASK for the upgrade, actually two or three times, but it was worth it; we’ll be sure to go back.

Since I wasn’t too hungry at lunchtime, I bought a kids meal, which included a cute little lunchbox — will be a perfect kids’ toy/gift for when the friends visit — a drink, and a healthy raisin snack.

Remember, always ask for more than you expect, and you may be surprised.  Also, be mindful of waste (ie the kids meal).  The money you save on silly little things will add up so when you want to splurge, you can afford it and not feel guilty!

I looked at several discount travel agencies (I will list links to some of them next week), and got us set up with a hotel and some food.  Now, what I wanted was discount tickets for Sea World.  Checked on the SW site, a few others, Googled discounts and visited some other sites where I could find deals that I might be eligible to participate in — which I wasn’t.  So, lots of time invested for a really minimal ROI.   Honestly, I got to save a few bucks, but I’m not sure it was really worth the time.  Today’s tip — sometimes you have to measure money saved in relation to what you could have done with the time, and sometimes, it’s just not worth it.   Check back in a few days and I’ll give you some stuff that will be (worth it, that is).