Bargain Biatch

It Pays To Read. Discounts From Your Library Card

If you can read this, and not on your kindle you book hater, then you could be saving money. Brooklyn Library has joined up with dozens of local merchants to encourage you to shop in the BK by saving you some green.  Just by flashing some Brooklyn street cred, well a least your library card you can get deals on a bevy of Brooklyn goods and services.  The discounts aren’t huge, it’s like 10% off your food bill, or some shoes but hey, every little bit counts.  And if you don’t have a library card there’s an online application or just stop by your local branch.  Click HERE for participating merchants and a link to the Brooklyn Library.

And to dig even deeper into this awesome borough check out Only The Blog Knows Brooklyn, OTBKB.  The O.D.D. (Original Drinking Diva) Sarah Deming posted an interview with Bargain Biatch in her Drinking With Divas series.  Bottoms UP!

DIY Save Money at Lowes

Got a bit sidetracked with my bathroom renovation.  After a 2 ½ week sabbatical it’s finally resumed thanks to the arrival of the fantastic vanity and the long delayed floor tiles. The last of the wall tiles are still in transit.  This after repeated calls to My Tile Backsplash and having the customer service rep I spoke with 3 times tell me to be patient since orders can take up to 10 days to ship.  After my less patient last call John, the owner of the company emailed and called my home to apologize. He said there was some sort of “employee issue” and that my order had never been placed (however my credit card was billed immediately).  He seemed sincerely sorry and is expediting the order.   Pressing past …the vanity that I ordered online from the Estore New Look Plumbing  arrived and it’s beautiful.  And the mirror medicine cabinet far exceeds expectation of the the shitty online picture even came with glass shelves and an inside mirror.  Delivery was fast and free and everything including the faucet, a white marble top and rectangle ceramic vessel sink that they allowed me to swap out for the clear glass was $800, basically hundreds of dollars cheaper than a regular brick and mortar retailer. And keeping with the renovation theme DIY life put out a list of 10 Free Services at Lowe’s home improvement stores. The free services include:

1. Certified Kitchen Design…Yep useful.
2. Computer Project Design…Ditto.
3. Cutting Materials to Size…I’ve used this for cutting crown molding and give it     thumbs up.
4. One-Year Plant Guarantee…Good to know since I’m a serial plant killer
5. Pipe Threading…Nope, don’t give a shit.
6. Woodshop for Kids…What’s less than don’t give a shit.
7. Paint Color Matching Service…Great for trying to match cans from my paint     graveyard.
8. In-Store Translation…WTF=”what the fuck”, probably not.
9. Loading of Supplies…I bike, does this mean helping me overstuff my backpack?
10. Lowe’s Will Beat Anyone’s Stock or Advertised Price by 10%....ching ching!

Travel Deals If You’re Young at Heart

Even if you haven’t seen the inside of a classroom since the Reagan era you can still take advantage of student travel deals.  Perhaps to sell seats and do some sort of intergenerational exposure, student travel agencies are beginning to seek out non-students and older travelers and offer them the same deep discounts.  A hand full of these student travel agencies have quietly been doing this for years like Student City which specializes in vacation packages for high school and college students.  Although they don’t advertise it, the deals aren’t restricted by age. And now companies are starting to actively promote the open door policy.  For example STA Travel has added a “Flights For Everyone” section on their home page highlighting sales and negotiated discounts. The prices are typically better than you’d find with a regular search engine and the accommodations don’t totally suck.  Probably not four star properties but way better then the backpacking hostel staying couch surfing arrangements.  I haven’t tried this yet but I will tell my mom about the deal. And if those 20 year old slackers want to keep up with my spry and fly (almost) 80 year mother, they better be rested and ready.

 

World Water Day, Put a Lid On It

Today is world water day and in not just for 24 hrs or a week, every day we should all be more conscious and conscientious about the tremendous amount of water we waste and the expensive and environment killing receptacles.  Every time you pay that dollar for regular or maybe 3 bucks for some “vitamin enriched, energy boosting, performance enhancing blah blah fluid, you’re needlessly using energy to create the bottle and playing yourself believing all the false health claims.  NYC has some of the best tasting water and essentially free so why not switch to a refillable bottle and save the earth and like $40 a month.  And if you want and enhanced drink, I prefer EmergenC, all the electrolytes minus that sugar and a box 32 will run you $10.  But basically any just add water packet drink leaves a smaller carbon footprint and smaller dent in your wallet, or even go kick it old school and mix up some Kool Aid, make some popsicles and party like it’s 1969.

Movie Review: The Invention Of Lying

Not into college basketball and needed some cheap home entertainment so I had to choose between my two Netflix movies, Waltz With Bashir and the Invention Of Lying.  The last movie I watched was The Cove, more on that in another post (or not) so of course I went for the escapist comedy. The title explains the basic premise and the movie is set in a world where there is no lying.  Everyone tells the absolute truth like exactly how someone feels about you, your level of attractiveness to the fact all week; your boss has been working up the courage to fire you.  The main character is Mark played by Ricky Gervais who about to be fired and not genetically blessed.  He’s heading out on a first date with Anna (Jennifer Gardner), a woman who is clearly outta his league which they both acknowledge. The date scene from beginning to end is hilarious including him arriving early and Anna telling him he’s interrupted her masturbating.  Once Mark discovers lying, done initially to bring comfort to his dying mother the movie takes a strange unfunny turn.  He gets rich, becomes a media sensation, then a prophet, i.e. no longer unattractive loser.  There are a few more amusing scenes but it basically becomes yet another movie about a below average guy who ends up with a hot chick.  Burn in hell Judd Apatow.  And hurray there a movie that just opened that makes no sense of this ridiculous fantasy appropriately called “She’s Out Of My League” no shit! Gervais makes this a notch above the others but it’s still a retelling of the same offensive premise.  So the moral of the story is by lying the pathetic schlub can get the beautiful woman.

Happy Saint Patrick’s Day now where’s F***ng my tile?

My bathroom renovation is still in a holding pattern as I wait for the rest of the materials to arrive.  At least I did get my beautiful, green tile.  And as nice as it is, helping me celebrate St. Patrick’s day and all, I’d like it eve I’d like it even more if instead of being in gigantic boxes in the living room, it was installed on my fucking walls.  Sigh!

But the floor tile minus the exorbitant Fast Floors shipping costs should be arriving tomorrow so hopefully work can resume next Monday. Until then I’m gonna go to Wine Warehouse and see what kind Irish Whiskey or green colored spirits are one sale.

 

Dine In Brooklyn

Today kicks off Dine In Brooklyn, the stepchild of NY Restaurant Week and for $25 or $21.10 for lunch you can score a three-course meal.  I was looking over the tender and for a lot of the  (very respectable) participants, regular entrees don’t typically top 20 bucks so there are really just a few choices that make it a real bargain.  In the Slope, Applewood is probably the best buy and then perhaps Blue Ribbon and only because over the years the formerly reasonably priced restaurant has steadily jacked up the prices.  The River Café for lunch is never a bad thing and only dropping $20 for the food and the view is a steal. I recently dined at Bread and Butter in the Heights and had a great meal but as I recall, prices were already affordable.  So take look and even if you don’t belly up because of Restaurant Week dining in Brooklyn is always a great, lots of great foodie finds and it won’t leave you Brokelyn

Movie Review: The Last Station

When I mentioned to someone that I was going to see The Last Station, they said, isn’t that the movie with the midget and the hot guy. Answer: No! That’s the Station Agent, unless you consider James McAvoy a midget, (he is short) and hot (maybe in a weird little person kinda way).  The Last Station is an end of days story about the final years of Leo Tolstoy, his wife the Countess Sofya Andreevna and the various sycophants that fawn over him.  The movie opens in 1910 and Tolstoy is no longer a writer but spends his time as the leader of the Tolstoyan Movement, which basically dictates that their followers practice sexual abstinence and give up material possessions and physical love to find peace through pacifism.  His most dedicated followers live on an estate but don’t exactly stick with the no sex part, which becomes apparent when Tolstoy’s new naïve secretary played by McAvoy is immediately seduced by the estate hottie.  Their budding romance is played out along side the enduring love/hate relationship between the Tolstoys.  Christopher Plummer and Helen Mirren are the leads and seeing those two veterans beautifully share the screen as the oppositional couple is the movie’s greatest pleasure.  Paul Giamatti is well cast as Vladimir Chertkov who ruthlessly does anything to advance the cause.  And he is the nemesis of the Countess since he wants to deed all of Tolstoys writing to “The People” which would basically leave his wife and heirs high and dry.  The movie was a bit leisurely in the beginning but the writing is excellent and the acting is great and entertaining enough to keep you engaged until the final frame.

 

 

Bathroom Renovation, And the Final Jeopardy Category is Tile

The bathroom renovation continues…well not really, I was hoping that the work would resume next Monday after the forced sabbatical due to having to wait for the delivery of tile and other shower plumbing. The tile holdup was because of an email that I didn’t receive from the floor tile company.  Apparantly10 days ago the sent an email asking me to approve the special order.  Unfortunately cyber space swallowed up that missive, odd since when I placed the order I immediately received 2 emails; one, to charge my credit card and confirm my order and the second to sign off on the exorbitant shipping rates and shit delivery terms. I had to agree to take be responsible for unloading numerous boxes of dead weight life off the truck and getting it inside……so how exactly is that considered delivery?  After I called to find out the status of my order I was told that it had not even been processed for shipping I decided to bail, get a refund and try my luck at the tile at my local tile store.  Since I knew the manufacturer and had the model numbers the owner called the company directly, got me price quotes with anticipated shipping times.  The shipping costs were nominal so although it will be another 2 weeks, I’ll save over $200.  Trying to stay positive, sane and not homicidal.

Let Me Go: Cheap Lodging without the final (disappointing) reveal

Just heard about a new discount travel site called Let Me Go. It was started by two Latin guys and I think the name is a riff on amigo (a me go).  Let Me Go works as a kind of reverse auction where the consumer sets the parameters and providers are the bidders. You start by entering a destination, travel dates, the type of lodging you want, star rating, ambiance, budget and any other special requests.  Then you set a time frame like 48 or 72 hours.  Once you enter your info the bidding starts and you sit back and wait for offers and unlike a lot of other comparison-shopping sites, this one is more transparent.  Each offer (with specs and pics) is visible to other bidders so it encourages a real competitive auction.  And another big plus is that you can pick from a wide range of lodging options from hotel, motel, villa or yurt.  I’ve yet to try the service but I’ll be watching for ratings and reviews.