2009 Entertainment Book is really bad deal

[Goldy1]

Ok for many many years me and my husband have enjoyed buying the E book. IT has been great. It only costs about $25 and it has tons of good coupons.

I like to cook and do often, but I enjoy dining out and we have different food tastes so eating out is nice. I do not eat read meat;he loves it. I love ethnic food on occasion;it scares him. WE can go to a restaurant and he gets a steak and I get a shrimp veggie meal and we get a nice discount with the coupon.

We never order drinks , starters, or desert. I don't like soda anyway and starters fill me up.I ALWAYS tip at least 20% the whole bill and I don't fool with coupons if I am with friends(I put my frugality in my pocket sometimes, people are more important to me) lol

Just wanted to mention the new book kinda blows. Here are some examples. Typically a coupon would be a buy one get one free entree up to X dolars off. So he gets his dinner for $13 and I get mine for $12 and the coupon might be up to $11 off so we just pay $2 for my dinner. (it rarely took off the entrire second meal, but no biggie)

This year the book is loaded with $10 off a minumum purchase of $40 coupons. A lot of the places opted out. Some of the carry out joints decreased thier amount off ie. it was half off carry out order up to $8 an d now it is up to $6. These places run pizza specials anyway and when you use the E book coupon they charge you the full retail price, not special price so I am saving like $2. LOL.

Also only a few places do not specify dine in only and I like carry out a lot esp if he won't eat at the place.

Also some of the coupons are now requiring a 2 drink purchase also!

Still overall worth it to buy but not too thrilled anymore.

[sweeps]

The book has gotten progressively worse each year. 2009 is the worst year yet. Very little value. I will not buy it anymore.

[Goldy1]

funny b/c it's like economy is worse so the discounts get less . lol

[LivingAlmostLarge]

Depends on where you live. I also like the regal cinema movie coupons.

[MoneyTrev]

We bought 2008 to help a fundraiser for an elementary school. It was average. I thought entertainment books were always like that.

[mladyd]

It's worth it for the Regal Cinema discount and $20 Safeway coupons alone. Everything after that is a bonus. I don't remember it ever being amazing however.

[sakigt]

They used to have 8 Publix $5 off $50 purchase coupons in them. Those bad boys were awesome. Of course those arent there anymore.

I still picked it up, it was only $20 and the Advanced Auto Parts coupons in there will pay for it.

[minnie1928]

If you register your card on the Entertainment Book website you can get a coupon for Blockbuster for a free 1yr membership for their Blockbuster Rewards program ($10 value). I use this to get a free rental for my 5 yr old daughter each month (you get one non-new release movie rental free each month).

The Blockbuster coupon and the $20 worth of Shoprite coupons have paid for the book, so anything else is bonus.

[creditcardfree]

It sure varies for us each year. This year a local grocery store offers 4 coupons throughout the year for $10 off a $50 purchase. It is not hard to spend $50 at the grocery store.

It isn't possible to use all the coupons, but I definitely seem to get my money back and then some. I always look at the coupons available before I buy...so that I know that it will be worth it.

[Goldy1]

Yes, you can VERY easily get money back. I am just not seeing the juicy cheaper meals I enjoyed for years in it. lol

[FrugalTexan75]

I agree. I bought the 2009 book from a coworker - mainly to help her daughter out, but also because I figured I could use a couple of the coupons.

However, upon getting the book, I realized that several of the restaurants I really liked (i.e. IHOP, and a little burger joint) did not have coupons anymore.

I have looked through it pretty extensively and haven't seen anything I could really use. --not even the grocery coupons - I hardly ever spend $50 at one time, and if I do it would be on a stock up trip at Walmart.

The last book I'd had was for 2006, and it had a good number of coupons that even as a single person, made it worthwhile.

Now? This will be my last book.

[Gregorso]

I've noticed that certain national chain restaurants/stores have different amounts of coupons depending on which city edition of the Entertainment Book you have.
For example, there may be 2 KFC coupons in one city's book and 8 KFC coupons in another city and zero in yet another. From my experience, you can use a KFC coupon from one city at a KFC restaurant on the other side of the state. Probably anywhere in the USA.

If we share this information with each other, we can figure out which city's edition of the book would benefit us most. For instance, if I knew that Denver's book had (just suppose) a total of 40 coupons for KFC, Long John Silvers, McDonald's, Subways and Taco Bell, I might order that edition to use in my home city of Dallas, if the Dallas edition didn't contain many of those (just supposing, for the sake of argument). It could be worth more to me, even if the local upscale eateries weren't included.

Do we think this would work?

[DebbieL]

They were great about 15-20 years ago. I find they've gotten worse and worse. I don't bother anymore. I never even used my last one.

[lebaggblu]

I liked it last year, too bad.