Your no-frills source for Portland bargains, freebies and money saving deals

Weekend on the Cheap:

- Portland Opera at the Multnomah County Central Library this Friday from 12:00pm – 1:00pm in the U.S. Bank room. Free.

- The Portland Seafood & Wine Festival runs this Friday from 2:00pm – 10:00pm and on Saturday from 12:00pm – 9:00pm. Adult tickets are $12.00 each with a portion going to the Oregon Chapter of the National MS Society. There will be a $2 discount price on tickets purchased within the first 2 hours of the festival each day. Food item prices range from $1 and up. Wine sampling starts at .50 and prices for menu items varies from $2 to $15.00. While this event has the potential to have costs add up, we are including this on our Weekend on the Cheap because of the value you receive. Plus, if you are one of the first 500 people each day through the gates, you’ll receive a commemorative wine glass to use at the festival and then take home with you!

- Portland Children’s Museum First Friday free admission from 5:00pm – 8:00pm.

- Bank of America Museums on Us weekend: Bank of America cardholders can receive free admission to the Portland Art Museum and the Pittock Mansion this Saturday and Sunday during normal hours. Just show your debit, credit or bank card to get one free admission.

- Viking Pancake Breakfast! From web site: “What better way to start the day than with a plate of delicious, all-you-can pancakes? Our popular breakfast also includes sides of eggs, sausages, fresh fruit, applesauce, orange juice, tea and bottomless coffee – all served up with Norwegian charm from 8:30 am to 1:00pm Adults: $6. Children 5-12: $3 (under 5: free). Children’s Nordic story time in the library from 10-11am.” At Norse Hall, 111 NE 11th Avenue this Sunday.

- Chips and dips tastings this Saturday and Sunday from 11:00am – 5:00pm at all area New Seasons Markets.

- OMSI First Sunday means $2 admission for all at OMSI during regular hours.

- Superbowl Sunday: it’s Superbowl XLIV, catch the action (or lack thereof) at a local watering hole, at home with some friends or on the big screen with new friends at a local McMenamins theater.

- If the Superbowl isn’t your style, and saving money is, then check out “Bargain Hunting 101: The Mother of All Clearance Sales” where 50 of Portland’s best and most unique boutiques and vendors come together for a huge end-of-season clearance sale. Sunday from 12:00pm – 5:00pm at the Crystal Ballroom. It’s the Mother of all clearance sales and admission is free!

- Willamette Week’s new Cheap Skate Deal Box includes a heads-or-tails free meal, a free screening of Star Trek, a free concert by Sea Wolf and more.

Spotlight: McGrath’s Fish House

We recently stopped into McGrath’s Fish House for their Crab Celebration promotion and left the restaurant full (with leftovers) and the damage to our wallet/pocketbook was minimal.

We sat in the bar and one of us ordered from the regular menu while the other ordered from the bar menu. We timed our visit to coincide with their happy hour:

Happy Hour (in the bar only; no drink minimum required)
Monday – Thursday 3:00pm – 6:00pm and from 9:00pm – close
Friday 3:00pm – 5:00pm

$2.99 Appetizers
Asian Ahi Nachos
Ponzi Salmon Stack
Pear, Blue Cheese and Walnut Salad
Pesto Artichoke Pizza Crackers
Blue Cheese Potato Wedges
Crispy Turkey Club Rolls
Pair of Oyster Shooters
Stuffed Mushrooms
Calamari Wasabi Caesar Wrap
Brushetta Caprese

Cocktails
$3.50 Well Drinks
$4.50 Daiquries
$4.50 Margaritas
$4.50 Specialty Teas
$4.50 Bloody Mary
$3.00 Glass of domestic brews
$4.00 Gusto size of domestic brews
$4.00 Glass of microbrew
$5.00 Gusto size of microbrew
$3.50 Glass of La Terre wine: Chardonnay, Merlot, Cabernet, White Zinfandel

Menu prices are reasonable and in addition to seafood, they offer chicken, pasta, steak, and sandwiches. Adult entrees include sourdough bread, fresh steamed veggies, choice of garden salad or coleslaw AND your choice of: red potatoes, penne pasta, rice pilaf, fish house fries, cottage cheese or sliced tomatoes. In place of the regular salad, you can also upgrade (for a nominal charge) to other starters like clam chowder, Fisherman’s stew, petite shrimp Louis or a pear, bleu cheese and walnut salad.

If you have little ones, McGrath’s has a kid’s menu with meals starting at $3.99. Finally, sign up for their e-club and around your birthday you’ll receive a voucher good for $10 off your next meal (must be used within two weeks of birthday). And with their current special of Crab, Steak and Prawns for just $12.99 (plus all the accompaniments above), you can’t go wrong!

McGrath’s has locations in Vancouver, Milwaukie and Beaverton, as well further south in Salem, Corvallis, Eugene and Bend. Their Crab Celebration ends next week on Thursday, February 11th (we can’t have specials like that for Valentine’s Day Weekend now can we?!). Enjoy the weekend and Go Saints! Or Colts! Just make it a great game, please!

New, just added:

- Holly Days, presented by the Hillsboro Downtown Business Association
Saturday, December 5th, noon to 6:00 pm FREE
West end of the MAX line. Visit with Santa, caroling, music, gift wrapping, caroling parade and tree lighting (5:00 pm).

- More weekend freebie fun can be found at Aroundthesunblog

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Weekend On The Cheap:

- Thursday night: Civil War! Winner to the Rose Bowl. Go out and cheer on with the masses at a local venue, crash a friend’s party or host your own. Great excuse to celebrate.

- First Friday at the Children’s Museum offers free admission from 5:00pm – 8:00pm.

- Bikecraft V, a “bike-lover’s bazaar that showcases local, handmade, bike-themed arts, crafts, fashion, and more.” This Saturday 10:00am – 5:00pm, free admission.

- 25th Annual ScanFair this Saturday and Sunday at Smith Memorial Center Ballroom, Portland State University. Admission is $6 for adults and $5 for students and seniors. “Celebrate the sights, sounds, tastes and traditions of a Scandinavian Christmas.”

- Bank of America’s Museums on Us, Saturday and Sunday. Free admission to the Pittock Mansion and the Portland Art Museum for all Bank of America card holders, just show your ATM, debit or credit card and get in for free.

- West Linn Holiday Tree Lighting and Holiday Craft Fair this Saturday, 6:00pm – 9:00pm.

- Season’s Eatings Artisan Market at New Deal Distillery, 12:00pm – 5:00pm this Saturday. Admission is a can of food or cash donation to the Oregon Food Bank. Click here for the flyer (opens up a PDF).

- First Sunday at OMSI: $2 admission per person.

- Willamette Week’s new Cheapskate Deal Box features a Free Dance Day at Polaris Contemporary Dance Center, a Cheap Art Craft Show, B-movie screenings with free popcorn and much more.

- OSU’s Food Innovation Center has a new taste test opportunity:

The Sensory and Consumer Group at the Oregon State University Food Innovation Center is looking for participants for a focus group to take place on Tuesday, December 15th and Wednesday, December 16th. The focus group is about 90 minutes and the compensation is $75. Test times run at 10:30am, 2pm and 5:30pm both days. If you are interested, please click on this link to submit a questionnaire. If you are selected to participate, we will contact you via email by Tuesday, December 8th, and then give you a confirmation email the day before the test.

For those who are new to the email list, please note that we cannot contact everyone who sent in a questionnaire. You will not hear back from us for each test as each consumer will not be selected every time. We only contact those who were selected to participate and will be sending out those confirmation emails by December 8th.

Spotlight: Tuesday Morning

Treasure hunters and bargain hunters take a look: Tuesday Morning “upscale” merchandise at 50%-80% off regular prices. Tuesday Morning is a nationwide chain closeout gift store, similar to Big Lots and Ross, squeezed into a smaller space but maximized with substantial savings. You’ll find limited quantity closeouts, overstock and some stuff that you didn’t even know existed. Their product mix is a smörgåsbord of just about everything, which makes it a fun excursion of finding gifts for others or simply for yourself! Among the selections:

Luggage
Candles
Sporting goods
Frames
Stationary
Party goods
Gift wrap
Home accents
Pet accessories
Toys
Furniture
Garden decor
Seasonal
Dinnerware
Table linens
Flatware
Stems and barware
Crystal
Mirrors
Lamps
Area rugs
Wall graphics
Fashion accessories
Gourmet food (pre-packaged)
Womens gifts
Mens gifts
Executive gifts
Books
Baby gifts
Comforters
Sheet sets
Basic linens
Towels
Bath shop
New Arrivals

During a recent visit, we came across these finds:

Telesteps telescoping ladder (2.5 feet telescopes to 12.5 feet): $99
Heated seat covers: $50
Kidsmart vocal smoke alarm: $8
Golf trainer: $18
Aerogarden: $80
Mosquito catcher: $40
Double-sided desktop easel for kids: $15
Magneflux portable induction cooktop: $180

Sprinkled around each store are special Clearance sections, designated by the yellow tags that offer additional savings. Customers can also sign up for the eTreasures program and receive news of latest arrivals and special offers via email.

Tuesday Morning hours are:
Monday – Saturday: 10:00am – 7:00pm
Sunday: 12:00pm – 6:00pm

There are ten locations around the Portland/Vancouver area, so check the web site for directions and happy treasure hunting!

Plenty to do for this weekend! Among the offerings:

- 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!