Category — Discounts

Up & Away Ballooning is offering Sonoma on the Cheap readers a special discount of 20% off hot air ballooning. Flights include a Gourmet Brunch. I can vouch for these guys: we celebrated an anniversary on one of their flights—very romantic. Just tell them when booking that you are a Sonoma on the Cheap reader and ask for your 20% discount. This might make a really special gift…. [Read more →]

If you want to enlarge your home library at bargain prices, the public library book sales are the place to go. Used books, tapes, DVDs,  and CDs at bargain prices. This weekend, the Petaluma Library is holding their book sale.  [Read more →]

Many of the flash sale deals you’ll see mentioned here (or on our daily deals page) offer 50-70% off  of restaurants, spas, salons, etc, (today’s deal, for example is $30 worth of food at Palm’s Grill in Sonoma  for $15 or a 70 minute hot stone aromatherapy massage in Petaluma for $37).

Of course, you can always buy a Groupon or Living Social coupon for a particular sale  and present that as a gift. It  has a couple disadvantages: these aren’t pretty gift cards, and the prices are shown. Still, they’re easy to wrap and  you can give great experiences like sky diving, restaurant meals, spa services, B&B  nights,  massages, etc.

But if you’re looking for something to wrap and put under the tree  or have shipped) , there are more and more gift items being sold on the daily deal sites. At 50-70% off, it’s well worth checking the daily deals page frequently against your gift list. Here is a sampling of gift items being offered today:

• $50 worth of American Apparel Clothing for $25
• An Android tablet (value $199) for $112
• Metal grill toppers that emblazon meats with NCAA team logos 50% off
• $30 worth of personalized kid’s books for $15
• $65 worth of lingerie from Biatta for $30
• Beginner’s Acoustic Guitar with bag, pick, strings and DVD (Value $360) for $179
• $75 worth of wine for $25
• And of course, dozens of other deals on our daily deal page.

Both Groupon and Living Social are SOTC advertisers. If you want to support SOTC, please use these links. Thanks!

Amazon.com has started a Holiday Countdown to Black Friday Sale. You’ll find a mix of deals, from early Black Friday sales to Lightning Deals–discounts that start at a set time & are only available for a limited time. They won’t tell you the prices in advance, but you can scroll through & they’ll give you an idea of what’s coming up.

I try to get as far from the malls as possible on Black Friday,  so if you’re like me, check back to SOTC regularly for fun and cheap alternatives to shopping. But if you’re looking for good Holiday deals, I’ll try to post them here too, so check back closer to Black Friday for news on other retailers sales.

In addition to the Petaluma Veteran’s Day Parade, several local organizations are offering special deals to Veterans or active military (or both) for Veteran’s Day (11-11-11–a once in 100 years appreciation…), including: Olive Garden, Applebee’s KC’s SDownTown Grill, Chii’s, Outback  and more. See the rest here: [Read more →]

Quite a few local organizations are offering special deals to Veterans or active military (or both) for Veteran’s Day (Friday November 11, 2011).  Here are those I know of (if you know of others, please comment below). [Read more →]

It’s starting to look a little like Christmas, even though the Thanksgiving turkey hasn’t yet been defrosted. But if you’ve got the spirit — or you’re just an avid bargain hunter — Home Depot has a good deal right now. Turn in your used or broken incandescent Christmas lights string at Home Depot by November 13, 2011 and get $3-$5  off your purchase of any energy-efficient L.E.D. Christmas lights, which use 80 percent less energy. Ho Ho Ho!

For most people, Sonoma County is synonymous with only one thing: wine. Most of the over 21 crowd who travel to this amazing region come in search of some of the best tasting and most famous of U.S. vintages. However, as any wino knows, tasting can get expensive.

There are three really great options for tasting wine on the cheap, however, each of which offers free tastings and discounts at a variety of wineries and some of which even include added, less intoxicating, events. [Read more →]

With Veterans Day coming it seemed like a good time to compile some of the discounts available to active military and veterans in Sonoma County. Here’s a partial list. If you know of others, please comment below so we can add them.

Caveat: These offers sometimes change. Please call ahead to be sure these discounts are still in effect, and to see what proof of service is required. Also, many companies offer, but don’t advertise, military discounts. It never hurts to ask. [Read more →]

I just noticed a deal on the daily deals page for Chicago: for $169 you get one night in a deluxe king room  stay for 2 in the Hard Rock Hotel; a bottle of Reyka Vodka (I guess they really party at the Hard Rock Hotel), and a Fender guitar rental. That normally goes for  $375. If you go, be sure and check out Windy City on the Cheap for great deals on local events, restaurants, etc.  [Read more →]