Groupon - great money saving tip

If anyone hasn't heard of this site yet, it's a great tip for money saving on a road trip.

I'm planning on visiting a few states this summer, starting in New Jersey and down to Louisiana. Groupon offers you money saving deals on food, entertainment and bars by state and town. The deal is sent to you by e-mail and you print it off and generally just show it to the retailer of the advertised place. They advertise new deals daily for different places.

So far I've bought half price tickets for a platinum tour of Graceland in Memphis and have seen plenty of offers where you pay a certain amount in advance (e.g. $5) and get double your money to spend in the bar. Great savings!!!!

I don't work for Groupon, maybe I should :)

I like Groupon, but I've found their usefulness for Roadtrips to be limited.

The problem is a few fold.

First the site is city based, so you have to sign up for lots of different sites to see all the deals available. And since the deals are only available for a day or two (and can't be used for at least a day after you purchase them), you have to commit to visiting a place well in advance of your travel. That's not a problem if you find an offer for an attraction you're completely certainly you want to visit (like Graceland), but for bars and restaurants you're locked into a place that you might not be interested when I'm actually travel. For example, if I get a Groupon to a BBQ place, but I'm hungry for Pizza when I'm visiting that town I either have to eat what I'm not hungry for, or the money I've spent on the Groupon is wasted. Since they typically expire after about 6 months, you can't really save them for a future trip.

I do like Groupon for places near where I live, where I've got flexibility to use them whenever I want, and once and a while they will have discounts for internet sites that can be used anywhere (they had a deal for ebay a few weeks ago), but I haven't yet found a reason to use them on a trip.

Having said that, if you do like Groupon, there are several similar sites. Living Social is one, plus both Google and Facebook are developing their own versions that are in the testing phase. There are also a few similar sites that have popped up in individual cities that only focus on one area.

If you travel with a laptop and no printer, wouldn't that also make Groupon a little tougher to use? I'm just curious -


Donna

Yes, but there are ways to get stuff printed on the road, some free and some for a nominal charge.

Most hotels these days have a computer and printer available, and i've even gone in and just asked to use it quick in a couple of instances even if I wasn't staying there.

Otherwise, libraries or at the worst Kinkos making printing available on the road.

And of course, the trend is to let the coupon be scanned right off the smartphone.

But with Groupon, as I mention, you have to purchase things at least 24 hours in advance, which means many times you'd need to do your Groupon shopping before you hit the road anyway.