Bonefish Grill, a seafood restaurant owned by OSI Restaurant Partners (they own, among others, Outback Steakhouse, Carrabba’s, and one of our favorite restaurants – Roy’s Hawaiian Fusion restaurant), is running a special holiday gift card offer where if you give $100 in gift cards, you automatically get a $20 gift card, valid Jan. 1 – Feb. 10, 2010, plus an entry into their Give, Get and Win Sweepstakes. If you win the sweepstakes, you could win $5,000 cash and $5,000 you can give to a charity of your choice. You can buy the certificate in a restaurant or online but you have to register the card online to participate in the sweepstakes.

A Maryland/DC/Virginia chili chain, Hard Times Cafe, always does this same type of promotion around the holidays and until they closed the one near us, we used to buy at least a $100 in gift certificates because it was any easy $20 off. If you live near a Bonefish Grill and you enjoy their food, taking this promotion is a no brainer. If you don’t, well… then it doesn’t really make much sense, now does it?

I also have a bonus today, as Bonefish Grill has given us a $25 gift certificate to give away to one lucky Bargaineering.com. First, check to see that there is a local Bonefish Grill near where you live. Then, if you have one nearby and you would like to win the certificate, just leave a comment below with the menu item you’d most likely get the next time you visited before Sunday, November 22nd for your chance to win.

Me? I’d probably get the Chilean Sea Bass in a Pan Asian glaze. Mmm… I do love me that Patagonian toothfish.

This contest is void where prohibited. Good luck!

For a month or so before our wedding, my wife and I used Crest Whitestrips to help whiten our teeth. We thought about doing one of those “professional” dentist teeth whitening sessions but between the cost and the discomfort (my wife has sensitive teeth and her dentist said these were just as good… and cheaper!), we opted for a do-it-yourself kit because we figured it was a good value. In the end, we were very happy with the results.

Just this last week, a representative from Crest asked if I’d be interested in getting a box of their new Crest Whitestrips Advanced SEal and five boxes to giveaway to readers. Any time a good company is willing to send me something I can give away to readers, I take it.

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10,001 Ways to Live Large on a Small Budget is a compilation of over ten thousand tips and tricks to help you make the most of the cash you have. I’ll have a review of the book itself later on this week but I wanted to announce two special giveaways and contest they’re holding.

Win one of five Flip Mino Camcorders if you buy the book today (May 18th). Just buy the book from Amazon and forward your email receipt to bookfreebie@wisebread.com before tonight. (full details)

The folks at Wise Bread have also given me three copies of their new book to give away! To win a copy, leave a comment here before Noon (Eastern Time) Friday, May 22nd. I will select three winners to win a copy Wise Bread’s 10,001 Ways to Live Large on a Small Budget.

Good luck! Void where prohibited.

The giveaway has ended the winners have been notified. Thanks for enterin!

Lending Club is doing it again, they’re giving away a hundred bucks to one lucky Bargaineering.com reader! How can you beat that? (two hundred bucks? hint hint!)

For those that aren’t familiar with Lending Club, they’re a social lending network. Investors can join and invest in 3-year loans, with Lending Club handling all the interest payments, at interest rates far superior to what banks offer. Borrowers can join and borrow at rates that are usually better than the banks, especially in this lending environment. It’s really a win win situation for all involved.

So how do you win the hundred bucks? Very very easy, you must:

• Leave a comment on this post before noon, May 22nd, and,
• Become a free registered member of LendingClub. If you signed up already, no need to do it again and you are still entered into the giveaway.

The second requirement, to register for free at LendingClub as a lender, is so that they can deposit the $100 directly into your account. You can withdraw that money immediately (or invest it, your choice).

On May 22nd, I’ll select a winner and they’ll take home a hundred bucks!

Congratulations to Eric! Eric is now the proud new owner of a hundred bucks deposited into his Lending Club account.

One of the fun things about running a blog is being able to hold giveaways where I can give readers some really awesome things. Today, I have the opportunity to offer up a $200 gift card from Home Depot to one lucky Bargaineering.com reader.

Last week, Fred from One Project Closer’s wrote a guest post about frugal tool options and several people emailed me to ask if I had any personal experience renting tools. If you remember, renting tools was Fred’s #3 recommendation after borrowing and co-op buying (I would’ve listed renting as a #2, before co-op buying).

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Have you entered the Intuit Quicken Premier 2009 & TurboTax Pack giveaway yet? The contest ends on Tuesday at noon so you still have a few days to enter if you haven’t already. As a reminder, there are three ways to win and we’ll be giving away three packs worth nearly $150 a piece.

The original post has only 39 comments, leave a comment there (joke not required, but kindly encouraged for our mutual amusement) and you’re entered to win the first one of the packs.

If you’re reading this in an RSS reader or via email, just look at the bottom of the article because you’ll see the secret phrase right there! Just copy that into an email to contest at bargaineering dot com and you will join the thirty other entrants for the second pack.

Finally, join the forums and chat with 130+ other denizens of Bargaineering.com as we talk about everything, from actual personal finance to dream interpretation. Just remember to leave a post on the official contest comment thread. With only 13 entries there, that’s your best shot at winning a pack.

What are you waiting for? Three easy ways to enter and you only have a few more days left!

When Intuit offered up three copies each of Quicken Premier 2009 and TurboTax, I jumped at the chance to give away more free stuff to you all. We’re deep into tax season and with the economy where it is, I’m sure everyone is looking for a little edge. Intuit’s been very generous with Bargaineering readers, already I’ve given away two copies of Quicken Premier 2009, one to a forum participant and another to a commenter in the Your Take question on money management software.

The Quicken Premier 2009 and TurboTax Packs contain a CD containing Quicken Premier 2009 and a pre-paid access card to TurboTax Deluxe (both federal and state!) edition. Quicken Premier has a retail value of $80 and TurboTax Deluxe, federal and state, is worth at least $65 – so these packs are worth almost a hundred and fifty dollars!

So, how do you win? It’s easy.

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The Bargaineering Forums have been a hit so far, with over 60 members and numerous active discussions. Readers have been able to post their questions and get a myriad of opinions. I wanted to reiterate that we have a giveaway going on too. On February 13th, I will randomly select one forum participant with at least five forum posts to receive a CD containing a full service copy of Quicken Premier 2009 – an $80 value. If you want to give it as a Valentine’s gift, by all means, but I don’t recommend it!

And if there are any bloggers (or future bloggers) out there, we’ve also created a Blogging forum where you can post your questions, ideas, thoughts, whatever. If you have any blogging questions, it’s the place to post it because we have some of the top personal finance bloggers checking the forums every day!

If you have never used a Quicken Premier product, I have to warn you… it’s very powerful. It has a lot of tools and a lot of features that will be able to give you a very good idea of where you are in your finances, how you are performing against your goals, and everything you need to handle your money on a daily basis. That said, it can also be a little intimidating at first. The $80 price tag is well worth it, as anyone who has come to appreciate the power of Quicken can tell you, but it may be overkill if you have no idea where to start when it comes to managing your money. I don’t want to dissuade you from entering the giveaway or buying the product, far from it, but I want you to be prepared for it should you buy or win it.

If you are familiar with managing your money but only have a few things to track (some bank accounts, a few bills, a 401k), it might be a great tool for you because you can play with the tool a little bit each day. The nice thing about the tool, over the online version, is that all the data is stored locally and only used to interface with other financial institutions. If you’re not comfortable with saving your sensitive data online, despite it being encrypted and protected, this is definitely the best option for you.

If you’re just starting out, you might want to cut your teeth on Quicken Online. It’s absolutely free and is similar to other online money management applications except there’s a heavy emphasis on cash flow management. They are very much focused on helping you manage your cash flow, from your paychecks coming in to your regular bills going out, so that you don’t find yourself in a financially precarious position. I just saw a quick demo of the product from their PR team, as well as a first look at their new iPhone application, and I’ll be discussing that later in the week.

Good luck!

How would you like to win a hundred bucks?

The fine folks from LendingClub are giving away $100 to one Bargaineering reader. As one of the only peer to peer lending marketplaces still doing business right now, Prosper entered a quiet period as it completes its regulatory filings. If you want to borrow or lend money, LendingClub is one of the only ways you can right now. A week ago, I posted a video explaining how peer to peer loan marketplaces like LendingClub are really helping people out of jams. Today, they’re ready to give a hundred bucks to one lucky reader.

Here’s what you have to do to get an entry in the contest:

• Leave a comment on this post before noon, February 20th, and,
• Become a free registered member of LendingClub.

The second requirement, to register for free at LendingClub as a lender, is so that they can deposit the $100 directly into your account. You can withdraw that money immediately (or invest it, your choice).

Easy right?

I’ll select a winner at high noon on February 20th, email them for their LendingClub username, and he or she will be credited with $100 in their account. Void where prohibited.

The contest has closed, Bobby was randomly selected to win the $100! I notified him tonight but if he doesn’t respond in a week, I’ll select another name.

I normally am not a fan of gift cards because they force you to spend them at a particular store, I instead think that cash can still be a classy gift if presented in the right way (and who doesn’t like cash?). However, if I were to get a gift card, there are few stores I’d rather get a card for than Home Depot because, like all other homeowners, I seem to be one project away from being “finished.” There’s always something I can get there and Home Depot doesn’t play any of the BS gift card games like devaluing the card if you don’t use it or charging annual fees.

From now until February 28th, The Home Depot is offering a special commemorative “Dream” gift card to celebrate and support the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Home Depot will donate 5% of each “Dream” gift card to support the Center for Civil and Human Rights, up to $1 million dollars. The monies will then be used to build a permanent home for Dr. Martin Luther King’s history papers, a collection of over 10,000 items consisting of his personal writings and papers. The collection includes over 7,000 handwritten notes from 1946 to 1968 and include drafts of his “I Have a Dream” speech, his “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” other theological writings and his Nobel Peace Prize addresses.

You can buy these cards at a store or online at Home Depot.

To help get the word out, Home Depot is giving Bargaineering readers an opportunity to win a $50 gift card! To win, all you have to do is leave a comment telling us what is the one project in your house that you keep putting off? You all know what I mean, it’s the toilet with the leaky tank, the door that doesn’t close all the way, the faucet that continually drips. What is the one project you keep putting off? For me, it’s my closet door that doesn’t close all the way. My closet won’t close because it’s just too big. I’ve sanded it a little but I need to get the electric sander out and really go to town before the stupid thing will close. I haven’t done it yet because my office is carpeted and I just don’t want to deal with both sanding and cleaning up.

So, what project have you been putting off? Tell us all by noon on February 13th and you will be in the running. I will randomly select one commenter to receive the $50 Home Depot “Dream” gift card. Void where prohibited. Good luck!

The contest is now closed, the lucky winner is “tom rundel” (Comment ID 296068) who just put in a wood stove, I hope this $50 gift card from Home Depot can help complete the look!