Frugalista Find: Groupon

I just discovered an awesome website...Groupon!

It's basically a deal-a-day kind of website, with fantastic discounts (frequently 50% savings and up!) on a variety of products and services, anything from helicopter flying lessons to restaurants to spa treatments to yoga to whale watching to...well, you get the drift. AWESOME stuff.

Anywho, Groupon works out these deals with business owners, who agree to it because they know they're reaching thousands of new customers and creating BUZZ for their company. And there's the catch...the deal is only "ON" if enough people (predetermined as part of the deal) participate in the promo. Apparently your mom was right, there IS power in numbers.

Click HERE to see a quick video explaining how Groupon works.

Groupon is operating in numerous cities, including Boston, and was just launched in Providence.

Give it a gander, you might just find something good!

P.S.-On a completely unrelated note, I just saw a commercial for a new show on the National Geographic Channel called Expedition Great White in which a team of fisherman and scientists actually catch great white sharks with a HOOK and haul them out onto a specialized platform to tag them and take biological samples. (Holy cannoli.) I'm definitely going to have to check it out. Premieres June 6 @ 9pm ET (Additional article about the show HERE)

Cupcake Rendezvous

I had to go in to work last Saturday morning (boooooo, hisssssss) and to make matters even worse, I took the 7 am train in. BOOOOOOO. HISSSSSSSS. It's unnatural, I tell you.

However, my internal peace was restored by a little cupcake rendezvous with one of my best friends, LB, who just moved to Boston's South End after many years in a land far, far away.

(That would be Connecticut.)

Side note: LB has joined the blogosphere! Go check out her new, sure-to-be-fabulous blog Girl Meets Beantown, where she'll be detailing her Boston adventures, foodie quests, and more.

Anyways, we went to South End Buttery, a perennial award-winning café on Shawmut Avenue. Café, schmafé...we were there for the cupcakes!

LB got the carrot cake cupcake (fantastic), while I got the red velvet (OK). I also picked up a couple to bring home to the hubby (1 chocolate and 1 vanilla), and they were also pretty good. With the exception of the carrot cake cupcake, they were just not as moist as I would have liked. Really good buttercream frosting, though.

*I call this pic "Dueling Bloggers"*

Pretty sure I detected some eye-rolling at the table next to us. Tsk, tsk, tsk...some people just don't appreciate photojournalism. ;) But my excessive camera usage made it possible to catch this covetous expression on the snooty people's dog's fuzzy mug:

Despite being a little underwhelmed by the uber-hyped cupcakes, I'd definitely go back again...after all, we only tasted their "classic cupcakes". There's a whole other "specialty cupcake" menu.

I need to be thorough, you know!