In the name of research

Firstly, apologies to all the eager fans following the Winnipeg Jets/Phoenix Coyotes will they or won't they move saga who have ended up on my blog thanks to Google. My little blog was clearly not what you were looking for but hey, I hope I suckered you into reading a post or two. Since I may have suckered a few more in today with my sneaky choice words, take the time to read Spring Cleaning and Laughter, the best medicine (the video is pretty great).

Ok, enough of my shameless self-promotion and on to all things Winnipeg. Bargains. What does everyone think of all these new deal websites (Groupon, SwarmJam, Kijiji Daily Deals etc.) that have popping up? Now these sites are certainly not exclusive to Winnipeg and I have absolutely zero way of knowing if the population here purchases more than the average or not, but Winnipeggers do love a bargain. I came across a link somewhere for OneSprout which is a really handy service that will email you the deals from ALL of the various sites daily, and you can choose to have just new deals sent or have them remind you of all the current deals.

Believe it or not this leads me to a point. A North End point (I do that a lot). One of the deals available for about another day or so is 50% off an $80 voucher for Ideal Electric on Selkirk Ave.

Image borrowed from West End Dumplings

 So, in the name of journalistic integrity, and because quite frankly it has been on my to-do list for ages, I popped in there this afternoon to take a look. Ideal Electric's website tells me that they have been in business since 1924 and although their showroom isn't the flashiest in town they apparently do quite the brisk business including a lot of large orders for hotels and the like.  My favourites were some of the large art-deco inspired glass shades that they had hanging up. The SwarmJam offer is for a custom shade and apparently they can make one with most fabrics that you might bring in to them, or you can select from what they have - so head on down to Mitchell's and hunt through their retro fabrics for an extra unique shade!

Should you be looking for something a little more cultured, Groupon also has 46% off tickets to the upcoming Royal Winnipeg Ballet show "Bright Lights, Big City" with tickets starting at $44. What is kind of neat with many of these sites is that you can purchase discounts for online offers - so sometimes you don't actually have to live in the city something is offered in to take advantage. I bought a $100 credit for an online photo book from Picaboo for only $35 through the Chicago Groupon site. Should you decide to buy something from Groupon, do Winnipeg Girl a favour and get to the Groupon site from  here as I will get a $20 credit for the next thing I buy from Groupon (if you buy something by May 2nd, otherwise I get a $10 credit which is still awesome!).  Did I mention that the RWB tickets are through Groupon????

So far I think I'm a fan of these sites - I've just got the emails coming from OneSprout - I opt out of all the emails from the individual companies to reduce clutter in the inbox. My deals so far include: $0.10 for a Jr. Bacon Cheeseburger from Wendy's (yup, ten cents), $20 for $40 of food at the Peasant Bakery, $15 for $30 worth of food at Ellice Cafe, $35 for $100 worth of Photobooks at Picaboo and the one I'm really excited to use: $39 for 4 hours worth of Eco-Friendly cleaning.

Winnipeg Love Hate Book

A suggestion for anyone thinking of buying the wonderful Winnipeg Love Hate book - keep an eye out and Google for Blurb Groupons (you can buy from any city) - you could save yourself quite a few bucks on the book.

Well, that's it for now, hoping that I react a little faster to the next coupon for a $0.30 ice cream cone (from Spotted Cow) as I will also have no problem researching that. I'm good like that.