Do You Groupon?

So my good friend and co-worker, LRB, tells this joke.  A man comes home and finds an elephant sitting rather unhappily in his living room.  Immediately he calls his wife and asks "What's with the elephant?" and she replies "What? It was on sale!"

Sexism aside, that joke summarizes a kick we've been on since, oh, August of 2008, to seek out and take advantage of great deals.  We paid for one and only one item of furniture in our comfy living room (it's a leather-topped, carved mahogany coffee table from we got at cut-rate from a self-described "junk shop." I love it.)  The generous people of Craigslist provided us with two large bookcases, a charming leather wingback chair, and a burgundy damask print couch with carved wooden accents--all for free.  Similarly, our dining room set, which can seat 8 (and includes an awesome dining room table Mr. Luz made out of an old farmhouse door bolted to two cast-iron sewing machine treadle bases) cost less than a plane ticket to NOLA.  And I won't tell you how little we spent to kit out our kitchen.  Apparently rich D.C. folks regularly give things like unused KitchenAid standmixers to the Salvation Army to sell to people like me for $20. Ok, so, we love getting great stuff for little to no moolah.

Which is why we love Groupon.com.  If you're not checking Groupon regularly, you're really missing out on great deals.  As I understand it, Groupon goes out and bargains with businesses in major cities across the country for deals like half-priced spa packages, restaurant gift certificates, cases of wine, and otherwise pricey adventure experiences (including sky-diving, ropes courses, hot-air ballooning) in exchange for the advertising and new customers that a Groupon deal inevitably brings to the business.  And oh, do we take advantage of those deals. 

As a food lover, obviously most of my disposable income goes to food, wine, and gadgets-but mostly food.  (See above re: cheap gadgets).  As a reader, I assume that to some extent that's true for you as well.  So it's incumbent upon me to share with you my knowledge of how to get more wonderful food and wine for less disposable income.  Groupon.  Thanks to Groupon, I've been able to eat for half-price in New Orleans, St. Louis, and time and time again in D.C.  And now I'll be doing some fine dining for half-off at home, too.  Yep-for a mere $40.49, Igourmet.com and Kansas City Steak Co. delivered to my front door just yesterday: 2 lbs. of gourmet cheeses, including a raw aged sheep's milk manchego from Spain and a blue cheese from the oldest purveyors in France, and 6 lbs. of wet-aged bone-in NY strip steaks.  My head exploded a little, just typing that.  I paid $1.49 for two pounds of gourmet cheese!! Seriously, I can't think of a clever way to end this post, and now all I can think about is the sharp, musky aged provolone cheese sitting in my fridge right now. So....I'm going to go eat some.  Groupon.  Do it.