WEEKEND ON THE CHEAP

- Black Rock Coffee Bar Walker Road (by the Nike campus) Grand Opening offers free drinks all day this Friday.

- OSU Marching Band Concert, 12:00pm – 1:00pm this Friday at Pioneer Courthouse Square, free.

- Shredtober Film Festival this Friday with a double feature at the Clinton Street Theater for just $2 for one show, $3 for both beginning at 7:00pm. There will be prize giveaways and all proceeds to benefit Kevin Nimick’s battle with cancer.

- Free Family Friday Concert Series, 7:15pm at Community Music Center features the Whistlin’ Rufus. (Suggested donation: $5 for individual, $15.00 for family)

- Art in the Burbs, Friday – Sunday at Alberta Rider Elementary School in Tigard. From web site: “For one October weekend, Alberta Rider Elementary will be transformed into a fine art gallery with original works from over 80 juried artists available for sale. The Foundation’s Art in the Burbs brings a diverse range of art. Explore the juried artist page to view who’s in our show this year. A highlight – you will also be awed by talented Tigard-Tualatin students as you stroll through the student art gallery and entertained by student musicians performing throughout the weekend.”

- The Portland Actors Ensemble presents “The Life and Death of King Richard III” this Friday and Saturday at Concordia University Fine Arts Building, 7:00pm curtain, and on Sunday at 3:00pm. Minimum donation of only $5!

- The Home Improvement Remodeling Show takes place this weekend at the Oregon Convention Center. See website to print out a $2 off coupon (general admission is $7); better yet, “if you are ready to remodel, bring a picture of your project and pay no admission!”

- Portland REI — Member’s Only Used Gear Sale, 8:00am – 2:00pm this Saturday at the Pearl District location.

- 9th annual Community Action Energy Fair, 9:30am – 2:00pm Saturday at Lincoln Street Elementary in Hillsboro. From web site: “Join Metro toxics reduction educator Caran Goodall and many other experts at the ninth annual Community Action Energy Fair. The event is free and open to the public, and showcases energy saving tips and tools. Workshop topics are varied, covering energy, safety and health topics in sessions such as safety kid training, furnace basics, eating for good health, and mold control. Goodall will lead a workshop on green cleaners. Information will be available in English and Spanish.”

- Grateful Dead Musical Tribute by Northbound Rain, performing at the Beaverton City Library Auditorium this Saturday from 2:00pm – 3:30pm, free.

- Portland Community College annual Harvest Festival this Saturday at PCC Rock Creek, 10:00am – 2:00pm. Free admission includes family activities, food, music and more. In addition, the Washington County Museum will be free from 10:00am – 2:00pm.

- Portland Financial Planning Day, 10:00am – 4:00pm at the Portland Building. From web site: “Portland Financial Planning Day is a free event where you’ll have an opportunity to address specific financial questions to professional financial planners who are volunteering their time and expertise to provide unbiased financial planning information tailored to your unique situation.” There will also be a series of free classroom-style 50-minute Educational Workshops. Please see web site for full schedule.

- Washington County Artists Open Studios this Saturday and Sunday. From web site: “Please join us for a free two-day self-guided tour of the private studios of 37 Washington County artists and two galleries. This is an exceptional opportunity to meet artists and to experience art in an extraordinary way.”

- Oregon Ballet Theatre’s costume and clothing sale this Saturday and Sunday, 10:00am – 4:00pm at the OBT Warehouse.

- Salmon Homecoming at Oxbow Park this Saturday and Sunday, $5 per vehicle entry fee to the park.

- Smart Saving lecture series presents “Credit Score Got You Down?,” this Sunday at the St. Johns Library beginning at 2:00pm.

- For more ideas on things to do this weekend, please check out the listings from Aroundthesunblog and PDXPipeline!

For a super cheap and great value lunch, take the time to check out the restaurant run by the students at the Oregon Culinary Institute. Located one block away from the Goose Hollow MAX stop, you’ll find on-street parking (no meters!) and public transportation makes it very easy to get to.

The restaurant is open Monday – Friday for lunch (12:00pm) and dinner (7:00pm) and features a menu that is rich on food but low on price. For $9 you get a three-course meal at lunch, and for $18 you get a four-course meal at dinner. It’s a great value overall, even more so with the buy one / get one free coupon inside the Portland edition of the Chinook Book (expires in 10 days for the 2011 edition!).

Your servers are current students from the Restaurant Management Course, whereas the food is prepared and made by the students in the culinary and pastry/baking program. Additionally, all gratuities go to OCI Student Awards, so tip accordingly. This is a learning environment, and invevitably there will be some mistakes made with the food or service. No big deal! Knowing this beforehand is key to enjoying the experience and you just can’t beat the price. We were seated immediately for lunch and our glasses quickly filled with water. A bread basket is also provided shortly after ordering. Service was fine, portions were just right and the food options were varied and all sounded delicious. Call ahead to make reservations. Check out their current menu here for lunch and here for dinner. Drinks are very reasonable at $1 for hot drinks and soda pop, $2-$3 for beer and $5-$8 for a glass of wine.

In addition to the Oregon Culinary Institute, Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts (formerly Western Culinary Institute) runs the restaurant “Technique” (aka Restaurant Bleu) inside downtown Portland’s Galleria with lunch and dinner seatings every Tuesday-Friday. Lunch is only $10 for three courses, dinner around $30 for five courses. Check out the reviews on Yelp! and Open Table for more insight. We haven’t eaten here (yet), but the reviews are mostly positive and like the OCI, you just can’t beat the price! Bon Appetit!

- Free admission to the Portland Art Museum on Friday, from 5:00pm – 8:00pm

- Hillsboro’s Main Library has ‘Groovin at the Library‘ Friday night from 7:30pm – 8:30pm, featuring the Montavilla Brass Quintet

- Saturday choose from a free Homeownership Fair; PCC’s 9th annual Harvest Festival (with free admission to the Washington County Historical Society Museum); community Health Fairs in Milwaukie, Battleground and Vancouver’s Community A.M.E. Zion Church; the Portland Zombie Walk at 3:30pm in downtown; the events of the Portland 350 Global Day of Action; and FREE waffles from 9:00am – 3:00pm at FlavorSpot during their 3rd anniversary SpotFest:09

- Sunday take part in Family Bicycle Transportation Day at Oregon Manifest Bike Union

- For more free weekend happenings, go to Aroundthesunblog

- Willamette Week’s new Cheap Skate deal box features half-off Halloween tattoos, bike mechanic school open house, a free concert and more.

Spotlight: Free DVD Rentals

We love our movies, and we go out perhaps twice a month to see a movie on the big screen, but mostly we watch on the small screen in the comforts of home. Here are some ways to score some free DVD rentals for the long winter ahead.

- Redbox rental kiosks are found at a variety of locations around the Portland area inside of Fred Meyers, Albertsons, and McDonalds. Most rentals are just $1.00 a night, but get them free by using a special code at checkout at InsiderRedBox.com, or combined with other promotions (for example, buy a certain McDonald’s value meal and get a free rental).

- A direct competitor is DVDXpress, found inside grocery stores such as Haggen, Lambs, Thriftway, Roth’s and Food 4 Less. Use the special codes listed here upon check out for your free rental. Provide your email address to the service and you’ll get you’ll also receive occasional BOGO free offers.

- Netflix: get a free 2-week trial for their mail-service DVD rentals. Great selection to choose from, but just remember to cancel before the end of the trial period! At one time they offered a 30-day trial, but they wised up and now it is limited to 2 weeks.

- Blockbuster by Mail: similar 2-week trial as offered by Netflix. The advantage is that you can sign up for their 3 DVDs at a time with 5 in-store exchanges. What that means is when you are finished with one DVD, instead of mailing it back and waiting for your next DVD on the queue, just go to your local Blockbuster and exchange it for one on the shelf and save yourself the wait.

- Borrow from your friends or co-workers, start up an exchange! Chances are that you must know somebody with a huge inventory of the latest movies…

- Columbia House DVD Club. Um, we said rentals, and Columbia House is not for that, so we do not recommend it. You know the drill: get 3 DVDs for free or for $1 each and just pay shipping and handling AND buy 3 more movies at regular price during the year…and don’t forget that you’ll get a monthly director’s featured selection mailed to you and if you don’t cancel in time, guess what?….yeah, no thanks!!!

- And drum roll please for our favorite method of getting free DVD movie rentals…ta da!…. it’s at our local library! Log-in online and reserve a copy of the DVD and just wait until it is your turn on the waiting list. Even the most popular movies like Transformers 2 will have 20 or more copies available, and if you own a Blu-Ray then you’re in the minority and you’ll get your rental much sooner. Take a spin at Washington County, Multnomah County, Clackamas County (new link for 13 libraries provided by Jon) and Fort Vancouver Regional libraries!

If you know of any other ways of scoring some free DVD rentals, we’d love to hear them so please leave a comment and share. Thanks for reading and for your support!

- $15 Macy’s gift card to the first 150 customers in the stores this Saturday, October 25th. This is part of their 150 year birthday celebration, and look in the Friday Oregonian for a bonus savings pass that will save you an extra 20% or 15% on regular, sale and clearance purchases through Sunday, October 26th.

-$10 Office Depot coupon is available in Thursday editions of the Oregonian newspaper. Minimum purchase of $25 required and technology items are excluded.

- PCC’s 8th Annual Harvest Festival is this Saturday from 10am-2pm at the PCC Rock Creek Campus. Fun and activities for the entire family for a suggested $5 donation, includes free pumpkin, petting zoo, music, admission to the Washington County Historical Society Museum and much more.

- For more free events, be sure to check Aroundthesunblog.com and for more deals please visit our main site at portlandonthecheap.com.