If you’re a coupon user, you are probably already familiar with the Entertainment Book, but for those of you who are unfamiliar, it is a thick book jam packed with money-saving coupons – usually ones that are harder to come by, including coupons for local restaurants, movie theaters, car washes and retail stores. You can preview the coupons included in each city’s Entertainment Book by visiting Entertainment.com and entering the zipcode or city and state.
These books aren’t cheap – they are regularly $35 in the Minneapolis, MN area (prices vary by region) – but with the right sale and by using cash back sites, you can pick one up for a pretty good price. Here are the four main ways you can save on an Entertainment Book:
#1. Purchase on Entertainment.com. Entertainment.com frequently has sales and often offers free shipping. Combine this sale price with cash back sites, and you can save a notable amount on an Entertainment Book.
#2. Buy online using a cash back site. If you are unfamiliar with cash back sites such as Ebates, Mr.Rebates, Cashbaq and Shop at Home, they are sites that simply give you back a percentage of your order total or a specific dollar amount when you click on and shop through links provided for specific stores on their website. You can request a check once your account reaches a certain threshold. In addition, new members for each individual site will earn a $5 sign-up bonus.
#3. Buy in a retail store between now and Christmas. You can find the Entertainment Books at a CVS Pharmacy or Walgreens store near you and oftentimes for cheap around this time of year with certain promotions. Last year, the books themselves were on sale for $5-$10 off and Walgreens ran a promotion where you could get $5 in Register Rewards back when you purchased one. I was able to get a few Entertainment Books (regularly $35 for my region) for only $15-20 each. Hopefully we will start seeing these types of promotions in the coming weeks.
#4. Wait until after Christmas and into 2011. Starting around March, these books start going on sale at clearance prices by as much as 50% off or more until they are sold out, usually by the beginning of the summer. Last May, some of you were able to get an Entertainment Book for as low as $6 when Entertainment.com had them marked down to only $12 and Cashbaq was offering $6 cash back.
These books are not only a great resource to have on hand in general, but also nice to have if you are planning to travel to another city in the coming year. Consider purchasing one for another city/region as it will provide a great way to save on dining out and entertainment expenses. Of course, this also makes for a nice gift for a frugal friend.
Your turn: How do you get the best deals on Entertainment Books?
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About Carrie Rocha
i just got a mailer from them for 19.99 for the tc edition
i ordered one last year
I was able to get both the Twin Cities and Milwaukee editions for $22 due to a special ebates promotion with free shipping to my door a couple of weeks ago!
I wish this would have been posted much earlier!
Me too! I had the idea in my brain, but didn’t get it published as quickly as I would have liked.
Whenever we are going on a trip (i.e. Orlando, Chicago, Seattle) I purchase that city’s book and plan ahead where we will eat, stay, and play. It has saved us hundreds of dollars and gets us to places we wouldn’t normally eat or stay. There is always discount admissions to that city’s museums, amusement parks, zoos, etc…I then share the book with a friend who is also visiting that city in the same year.
Amy – I do that too and sometimes I leave the book with someone at the hotel or a server at a restaurant who says they’d enjoy the coupons.
I recently got a happenings book at Costco for around $20. Not a bad deal…
Just got an offer from Entertainment books to pre-order a 2012 book. It would be $5 off the regular price (I guess this makes it $30?), free shipping and a $25 restaurant gift card. And they claim you get the book early, so you have more months to use the coupons in it.
We are going to share this deal, plus a new lower sale price on 2011 books in an up0coming blog post. Thanks!