$mart Money Monday: Sign up for giveaway,
birthday treats, win a car seat, no cheating!

By Suzy $mart
KyForward Columnist
Suzy@KyForward.com

Still time to enter to win the Kentucky Wildflowers book (University Press of Kentucky) by telling us what you’d do if you had an extra $100. (email wildflowers@kyforward.com). Suzy will announce winner tomorrow.

Today’s featured coupon site

Suzy has birthdays on her mind today. It’s Presidents Day, that’s why. Used to be we had a Washington’s Birthday and a Lincoln’s Birthday, but that was getting to be too many birthday-holidays so we scrunched them up into one big Presidents Day so we could get it over with. And we moved it to a Monday so we could have a long weekend. Not a bad plan really. We do need to have more workdays than holidays.

Just wish we didn’t have to wait ‘til our Presidents are long dead before we celebrate them. They have a hard job and, politics aside, we should be glad somebody wants to do it. It would be good if we showed more appreciation while they were still around to notice it.

But birthdays being birthdays Suzy has cake on the mind – and celebrating. So she’s pointing you to a cool site called Free Birthday Treats. Isn’t that nice?

You can even look up those that are specific to KY, which makes them easy to find. And they’ll send you to the web site where you can arrange to get the free stuff when your birthday comes ‘round.

Some examples for kids: Baskin Robbins will give you a free scoop of ice cream if you join their Birthday Club so they can remember your birthday. Bob Evans, Burger King, Captain D’s Perkins Restaurant & Bakery, Red Robin and Sonic Drive-Ins will give you a free kid’s meal if you are 12 or under. Join their club.

But even adults have birthdays and can get some treats. Baskin Robbins will give you some ice cream too and Bruster’s will give you a free waffle cone. Buffalo Wild Wings has a free dessert for you with a $5 purchase and Captain D’s has a free dinner waiting. Free dessert from Chili’s, a Grand Slam from Denny’s, a burger from Ruby Tuesdays and Red Robin.

Wow. So many birthday treats and only one birthday a year! (Good news on both counts.)

Check out Free Birthday Treats, take your pick, and plan ahead for your family birthdays. Feel special now and enjoy.

A Featured Giveaway

Lullaby Lane is giving away a Britax Marathon Car Seat for your baby, a $300 value, or a $300 Visa Gift card. You are not required to register as a customer or make any payments. The giveaway period ends April 15.

Honesty, please

Since today is Presidents Day, Suzy encourages some thought to our best values as Americans. Suzy thinks in simple, basic terms: If everybody just did what is right things would be a lot better. That applies to all things, from Presidents to bureaucrats to bankers to individual citizens – and to couponers.

The Coupon Information Center raises some real concerns about “extreme couponing,” a practice that may well spoil the kind of couponing most of us do. CIC is concerned that “extreme couponing” leads to abuses, creates unrealistic expectations about how coupons work, can encourage fraud, and promotes the misuse of coupons.

Naughty, naughty.

Coupons are a good way to save money and help brands build loyalty. Nothing wrong with any of that. No cheating!

Let Suzy know

If you have a good money-saving idea to share, know of a good couponing site, want to share a success story – or even want to say thanks to somebody for good service . . . suzy@kyforward.com wants to hear from you.