Extra Coin from Coinstar

Now through December 6th, you can get an extra $10 (in rebate form) when you turn in your coins to a CoinStar machine.
As always, there is a fee to turn your coins into cash, but the fee is waived if you turn it into a gift card from one of the participating merchants (e.g., iTunes, Amazon, etc.) -- and hey, now you have a gift card for that hard-to-shop for niece or nephew!

Get the promo details here. CoinStar machines are usually located in a Duane Reade or Whole Foods stores; find the one nearest you here.

Via MyFrugalAdventures.com
Photo by Chris_Jones

Housing Works Street Fair This Saturday

Even if you're cutting back on spending, you still need to buy clothes sometimes. And if you've been really good, you deserve to treat yourself to some books and music. Head down to SoHo for Housing Works's bi-annual Open Air Street Fair extravaganza this Saturday, June 6th (rain date June 7th).

This festive, all-day shopping bazaars take place on the quaint (closed to traffic) cobblestone Crosby Street outside of the Bookstore Café and features tens of thousands of $1 books, CDs, and - perhaps the biggest bargain of all - $20 bags of all-you-can-stuff clothing from Housing Works Thrift Shops.

And there's food! Sliders and sweets from The Works. and beer from Puck Fair will be served!

Best of all, all profits from the Open Air Street Fair pay for Housing Works’ services for homeless and low-income New Yorkers living with HIV and AIDS. In 2007/2008, the two street fairs attracted more than 50,000 people and generated more than $45,000 for those services.

Check out the Housing Works website for full details.

Reward Cards Get You Money Back

At the risk of sounding like a corporate shill: If you are one of those people who can't be bothered to carry reward/customer loyalty cards, these are the times to change your ways.

One example is Duane Reade. The DR offers a $5 coupon for every 100 points you earn. Although prescriptions and beer* purchases do not count, enough shampoo, toothpaste and chewing gum at 1 point per dollar and you have $5 off your next purchase before you know it. You gotta buy that stuff somewhere, so why not utilize their customer-retention program to save you $5 now and then? Register for their e-newsletters and get chances to earn double points and reach your $5 coupon that much sooner.

It's not just drug stores, of course. Many stores offer coupons and specials if you join their rewards programs and sign up for the e-mails (Borders is constantly sending me e-mails with coupons for 20%, 30% or more off.) Again, if you're going to be shopping there anyway, may as well save some green.

You can avoid making your wallet burst with all these cards by simply taping the keychain versions together into one card (I get weird looks from the cashiers here in NYC, but they still work). Or you can use the site Just One Club Card to consolidate all of your rewards cards onto one. [via The Finance Journey via Lifehacker]

*which is just a different kind of Rx.

Photo by Jane M Sawyer / cohdra Morguefile.com

Drugstore price challenge

I was given a hint several weeks ago that NYC's Bed Bath and Beyond stores (or at least, the one on 6th Ave & 18th Street) stocks super-discounted drugstore staples and toiletries. They don't sell this stuff on the Bed Bath and Beyond website, unfortunately. I had been finding good deals online at Drugstore.com but lately, I've noticed that the prices are only competitive when they're having a sale. While Recession This! does advocate sale hunting - I find it valuable to have a reliable, reasonably priced source for basic drugstore items.

I did some price comparison between Bed Bath and Beyond(BBB), Drugstore.com’s regular prices and ubiquitous local drugstore chain Duane-Reade (DR). It's is a very casual comparison and not every item was available at all 3 stores. To my surprise, BBB comes out significantly cheaper on every item.
Here are the results:
Please take note that prices change at the whim of the market and this is only a comparison of a few items over a few days.