Sponsored Post: The Results of our Groupon Contest and new deals for the New Year!

Some of you may recall that before the holidays The Recessionista offered an amazing giveaway sponsored by American Express of a $200.00 Groupon gift card.  The winner of the contest was Ashley and we had 270 entries to win the Groupon card.  Obviously, a lot of you love your Groupon deals.  Did any of you cash in your American Express membership rewards points over the holiday to gift someone with a Groupon gift? Just a reminder, you can cash in 1,500 points for a $15 Groupon Gift Card via the Membership Rewards programs.

With hundreds of entries, I thought it might be interesting to summarize the comments and contest entries from our pre-Christmas giveaway to share how some of you like to use Groupon.

• 55 % of you enjoy using Groupon to get the best spa deals, especially winter spa packages (good idea, my readers are SO smart.)
• 25% of you enjoy using Groupon for  deals on apparel.  Several of you named the recent Old Navy deal, and I myself bought a Groupon last year to shop at Mango.
• 20% of you noted that you use Groupon to get restaurant deals, travel or even experience adventures like a Hot Air Ballon ride.

From the comments it’s clear that many of you use Groupon to both experience new items but also, to look for deals at places, spas or restaurants that you know and love. If you’re not already a member of Groupon, click here to use my Groupon invite to join and check out the deals.  If you haven’t used Groupon yet, just a friendly reminder that if you shopped for the holidays using your American Express Card, then you may have accumulated enough membership reward points to treat yourself to some Groupon gift cards.  Personally, I did most of my holiday shopping using my American Express card, then I double dipped by stacking up some rewards and using them for gift certificates to do more gifting.

Pictured: A current Groupon deal for Pilates classes.

There is some good stuff on the current rooster of deals that you may want to check out. With the fervor of newly made New Year’s resolutions on all our minds, check out the workout  (yoga, personal, training and pilates) deals by your state and event deals on car maintenance. There’s nothing more I hate than doing my car maintenance, and it’s usually extremely pricey.  Look for current deals on tire rotation and oil change. It’s not sexy or fashionable, but it’s practical and could save you some serious $$.  Are there any deals you currently have you eye on?