Prices? They’re So Pre-Recession

If you’ve ever eaten at a restaurant and thought your meal wasn’t worth the price, this latest recession trend might be right up your alley.

When massive discounts and coupon deals aren’t enough, a growing number of businesses are letting customers take the wheel and pay whatever prices they see fit.

Community car washes have been encouraging customers to donate what they can for years. In the recession, restaurants, yoga studios, and even taxi cabs have started asking patrons to pay whatever they think the service is worth. After all, the thinking goes, it’s better for businesses to have customers paying a little less than staying at home and paying nothing at all.

Restaurants and Cafes: Was that rib eye really worth $30? Was the latte worth $4? One World Everybody Eats in Salt Lake City is among several restaurants that think you should decide—and pay donation-style…

Downturnaround Deals: Liz Claiborne, ShopGoldyn, Piperlime, Teleflora, Abe’s of Maine, Old Navy

Every week, we post a handful of online deals hand-picked for Recessionwire readers by the nice people over at Savings.com. Feel free to pass them along to your friends. And if there’s something you’d like to see, let us know!

Click here to get $50 off $150 or more from Liz Claiborne
See more Liz Claiborne coupons…

Eating for Free

Restaurant owners certainly aren’t having a good year. From widespread job loss to lingering worries about the country’s economic future, record numbers of families have begun cooking at home rather than spending money eating out—leading to a 14 percent drop in business at fine-dining restaurants so far in 2009.

For customers still going out on a regular basis, however, the dining scene has never looked better.

That’s because many restaurants are finding that coupons and discounted specials just aren’t enough anymore. Instead, they’re being forced to go the extra mile and get creative—letting kids eat free, giving away discounted tickets to movies, and even throwing in complimentary cocktails and wine…

Discounts for Students, Past and Present

Maybe it’s been years since the last time you sat in the back row of Econ 101. But if you’ve still got that old student ID card tucked away in a drawer somewhere, then today’s your lucky day.

That’s because college co-eds aren’t the only ones taking advantage of student discounts anymore. With money getting tight in households across the country, an increasing number of budget-conscious parents are unabashedly asking for student discounts on purchases made for their children, while more and more recent grads are holding on tight to college ID cards that haven’t expired and using them to score freebies and discounts well into their twenties and beyond…

Repair or Replace: Which is Better? It Depends.

It’s a question everyone has faced at some point: When a beloved item breaks or wears out, is it a better deal to fix it or replace it?

Since the recession first began, an increasing number of families are going with the latter option, foregoing new appliances and electronics and instead fixing the products they already own at a local repair shop when they break. From cobblers to computer technicians, those working in the fix-it industry say they’re seeing more business than ever before.

Unfortunately, not every broken item may be worth saving…

Dowturnaround Deals: Saks, Diamonds, Perricone, Lord & Taylor, Ann Talor Loft, Restaurants.com

Every week, we post a handful of online deals hand-picked for Recessionwire readers by the nice people over at Savings.com. Feel free to pass them along to your friends. And if there’s something you’d like to see, let us know!

Free shipping on all orders at Saks Fifth Avenue
Expires: 9.20.09
Deal: http://www.savings.com/detail/289302-coupon.html
Merchant: http://www.savings.com/m-Saks-Fifth-Avenue-coupons.html

Exclusive 15 percent off orders of $100+ at Diamonds International…

Christmas Starts in September

It’s just one day after Labor Day, but retailers already have their sights set on the Christmas holiday shopping season. Royal Caribbean, for one, is running a television campaign featuring a familiar holiday jingle. Coming off a summer of slumping sales, retailers are looking to hedge their bets against another depressing holiday season by starting early.

Some retailers have been at it for months; stores like Toys R Us have been luring customers with the promise of discounts on toys and retailers like Kmart and Sears have promoted a Christmas Club card program that rewards customers for shopping early—and often—for their holiday supplies.

So what’s in store for customers shopping early this holiday season? We took a closer look at a few of the biggest sales programs going on right now.

Kmart and Sears

The Deal: Kmart and Sears are giving customers who put money onto a Christmas Club Card—basically a gift card that can be used at either of the stores—3 percent back on all money loaded onto the card as a way of helping customers “save now” and plan ahead for the Christmas shopping season…

Downturnaround Deals: Charlotte Russe, Puma, Office Depot, Borders, CheapOAir and More

Every week, we post a handful of online deals hand-picked for Recessionwire readers by the nice people over at Savings.com. Feel free to pass them along to your friends. And if there’s something you’d like to see, let us know!

Hit Charlotte Russe for cute back-to-school (or inexpensive back-to-work) clothes, and get 15 percent off sitewide with a coupon. (Expires 9/2/09) One of our Recession Obsessions, Forever 21, is another great source of cheap chic…

Cash4Gold Will Save the Country (Video)

The geniuses who brought us the $2 trillion bailout have a new plan for raising cash. Check out the video after the jump.

Career Scams to Avoid

As if the whole sub-prime mortgage debacle wasn’t scam enough, schemers have been out in fuller force since the recession began. According to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center, there was a 33 percent uptick in scams last year.

Companies billing themselves as “career marketing specialists” have started specifically targeting professionals and managers in recent months, for example, capitalizing on the massive number of laid off executives looking for work anywhere they can.

To make matters worse, consumer advocates report that the sheer number of people working as scammers is on the rise, since an increasing number of unemployed workers are turning to identity theft and other money-making schemes as an additional source of income during the downturn.

Of course, the best protection against recession scammers is knowing what game they’re trying to pull…