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So have you spent your tax rebate check? Saved it? Still waiting for it? By July 11, most people should have received their economic-stimulus check. More info. from IRS here.)

Visitors to this site can share what they've done with them and post photos.

The blog Wise Bread has writers talking about spending their rebate checks in thrift stores, paying bills, or putting the money into savings accounts.

Story in today's News & Record regarding North Carolina continuing to ban most types of fireworks despite other states relaxing what's allowed.
That had me pondering whether soaring gas prices has sparked a decline among North Carolinians going south of the border for the good stuff.
The News & Record story points out it's illegal to buy the more powerful fireworks in South Carolina and bring them back here, although that hasn't stopped many people from doing so anyway. But higher gas prices might prove to be a better deterrent.


Volunteers Donna Daniel (left) and Brean Southern wait for customers at the TNT Fireworks tent on High Point Road on Friday. Maggie Sartin/News & Record

This seems like a pretty cool gadget: a portable light bulb socket you can pretty much stick anywhere.

The "StickUp Bulb" is on sale at Hamrick's for $2.99 (regular $5.99).

"Bart, a woman is like beer. They look good, they smell good, and you'd step over your own mother just to get one!" — Homer Simpson

Bucking the trend regarding rising prices on just about everything these days is beer. Two words: high fives.

This week, Bud Light, Coors Light and Miller Lite are on sale for a price that makes me want to raise a glass of the foamy amber goodness and celebrate: $11.88 a case at Harris Teeter (limit two).

And just in time for your July 4 fireworks/"staycation" extravaganza.

Cheers.

Update: Harris Teeter has cases of Yuengling for the same price.

Ribeye steaks at Lowes Foods (semi-boneless) for $5.99 a pound (regular $9.99), pork baby back ribs at Harris Teeter for $2.99 a pound (regular $5.99), four 28-ounce cans of Bush's baked beans for $5.

Food Lion also has a buy one, get one free deal on Breyers Ice cream.

On a related note, I mentioned some outstanding beer deals yesterday and neglected to point out Food Lion has Bud Light, Miller Lite and Coors Light for a very tasty $11.44 per case.

Cheers.

Thinking about a getting a pooch or kitty? You might want to take advantage of the Guilford County Animal Shelter's special this week on adoption rates.

Through Friday, adoption fees for dogs and puppies will be $55. Fees for cats and kittens will be $47.50.

Those fees are half those charged normally for adopting animals. The special comes as the shelter tries to reduce the number of animals that have to be euthanized to ease crowding.

Adoptions are open to North Carolinians who can prove they live here.

Available for adoption

For a $3 donation, you can enjoy a two-blueberry pancake breakast prepared by Cheesecakes by Alex at the Greensboro Farmers' Curb Market on Saturday. Five bucks gets you two plates. Proceeds help the market, which is having its Blueberry Celebration Day on Saturday from 6 to noon.

The market is housed in the old National Guard Armory building across from War Memorial Stadium at Yanceyville and Lindsey streets.

Had barbecue grilled split chicken breasts at some friends' house in Virginia over the weekend. Moist and tender. Secret? Mark says he boils them for a few minutes before putting them on the grill, a good practice with bone-in meat that takes longer to cook.

I had never heard of that, but apparently it's not too big a secret as indicated by this exchange at Yahoo Answers, which recommends you "boil the chicken in hot water for a few minutes before you place it on the grill. This will help make sure the insides are cooked before you finish it on the barbecue for the great grilled flavor."

Says to do that regardless of whether the chicken is boneless.

So here's the deal: you can enjoy a tasty, satisfying meal on the grill on a bare bones budget. Harris Teeter has split chicken breasts on sale for 98 cents a pound until Tuesday. Make some grilled shrimp skewers (EZ Peel white shrimp on sale at Teeter for $2.99 a pound, regular $6.99), put some corn on the grill (sweet corn is three for 99 cents at Teeter) and we're talking yum-yum on the cheap. Perfect summer meal, too.

Co-worker Joe Killian, who blogs over at Culture Shock, passed along this deal: Woot has the Kingston 2 GB micro SD card with adapter for $11 (includes shipping).

Have you ever held a micro SD card in your hand? You need tweezers. About the size of a fingernail. Yet this one has about 20 times more memory than one of those big box desktop computers I remember owning back in the early 90s that set you back around a grand. That's insane. (A trip down memory lane if you will: I remember my friend and I marveling that the Doom II computer game we were both foaming at the mouth to buy was a whopping 20 megabytes. Woah.)

Anyway, Joe ordered one and will be using it for his Blackberry and digital camera. Good times.

Nearly 300 plus comments at Woot about the deal, including someone mentioning it has received solid customer reviews over at Buzzillions.com.

Lowes Foods has hot dogs on sale this week starting at less than a buck.

Get 49-cent packages of Valleydale brand. Haven't of that brand, so I'll withhold judgment on whether you get what you pay for because you never know.

So maybe Vallydale is like a fine wine. Or not. You be the judge and get back to me.

Plan B is to take advantage of Lowes' buy one, get one free deal on Hebrew National brand franks (normally $4.29 each). Now that I can vouch for. Great taste. Less filling.

You can't get there by car. But you can still save money at the pump if you take advantage of Bald Head Island's $150 gas card giveaway mentioned in the Life section of today's News & Record. Stay for one week or more in any of Bald Head Island's accommodations to receive the card. (Reserve by July 31 at 800-973-8309.)

You get to Bald Head Island via a 20-minute ferry ride.

Although old news in the blogosphere, Microsoft made it official today in announcing it start selling the Xbox 360 featuring a 20-gigabyte hard drive for $299 (regular $350). on Sunday.

The timing? An updated Xbox 360 is set to arrive in stores by early August. The $350 replacement will sport a 60GB hard drive - more space for storing the games, TV shows and movies Microsoft sells on its Xbox Live Marketplace Web site.

Speaking of movies, it was announced today that the 360 will be able to stream thousands of movies over the Internet under a deal with Netflix.

As mentioned in today's "Short Orders" column, Earth Fare Market and Cafe off Battleground Avenue in Greensboro will be grilling burgers for a buck from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday.

Proceeds will benefit the Piedmont Land Conservancy.

Food Lion has a Tracfone brand cell phone on sale for $9.99.

Harris Teeter has buy 1, get 2 free deals on Kraft salad dressing, Kraft barbecue sauce and Toaster Strudel or Toaster Scrambles.

When you proclaim something is FREE in all caps in an ad, I'll admit it, you've got my attention. But then you read the fine print and notice that free is anything but. Far from it. Sound familiar?

Case in point are those ads proclaiming you can get one of those broadband wireless USB laptop adapters that basically serve as a portable modem for free. Wireless adapters from Verizon and AT&T, for example, are free this week at Best Buy. But that hinges on signing a two-year agreement that requires a monthly access charge. (The amount is conspicuously absent from the ad, but they generally run in the $50 to $60/month range.)

Here's what I would love to see: a pay-as-you go adapter for those of us who don't need to use it 24-7. I don't want to be burdened with any kind of contracts, thank you very much. Just the ability to pop it into my laptop say during a long road trip when I'm a passenger and would like to kill time on the Web.

But I can't justify spending more than $700 a year for that luxury. I'm sure many feel the same way. So maybe the reason we haven't seen it yet is because the business model to make it profitable is still a work in progress, not that companies don't think it would sell.

Office Depot has a Logitech brand Web cam on sale for $19.99 (regular $29.99). Deal ends Saturday.

This is on our tech geek squad's to-do list, namely incorporating the News & Record's classified yard sales listings into Google Maps each week. I've already been using Google Maps to plan for our yard sale jaunts, so I figured, what the heck, why not make it available for everyone.

Happy bargain hunting.

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You want to take the tykes to see a movie (ah, air conditioning) but you don't want to spend a tank's worth of gas to do it. You might want to consider taking them to see a featured kids' movie at The Grande Theatre's Four Seasons Station 18. For $1, they can see Madagascar today and tomorrow at 10 a.m. Includes popcorn and soda.

Summer Kids Flicks series at Seasons Station 18:

July 22-23 Madagascar PG $1.00
July 29-30 Jimmy Neutron G $1.00
August 5-6 Over the Hedge PG $1.00
August 12-13 Everyone's Hero G $1.00
August 19-20 Open Season PG $1.00

Philly.com mentions some bartering Web sites worth checking out if you're looking for deals in tough economic times, including one that caught my eye called Swaptree.

At Swaptree, you can list books, CDs, DVDs, and video games you want to trade and see what others are willing to give up in return. You can also listen to audio clips of the music CDs being offered. When you register, it gives you the option of inviting people in your e-mail contact list.

I'm going to give it a whirl and will get back to you on whether it's worthy of a thumb's up or down.

As Sonja Elmquist reports in today's News & Record, an increasing number of Greensboro residents are falling prey to burglars in tough times.

Ah, memories.

One summer afternoon several years ago, burglars kicked down the front door of our apartment in northern Greensboro. Thieves helped themselves to my laptop among other things.

The only thing they left behind was a large shoe impression on the front door. Gee, thanks.

Long story short: We pretty much came out of the ordeal Ok, albeit a little bit more paranoid, because we have renter's insurance. It's about $15 a month if you pick a plan with a high deductible ($1,000).

Having the deductible take a chunk out of the reimbursement stung a bit. But it's still worth every penny.

Now that I've got your attention...

Fire up the grill because Lowes Foods this week has boneless New York strip steak on sale for $6.99 a pound (regular $10.99). Deal ends Tuesday.

Harris Teeter also has bone-in strip steak for $5.99 a pound (regular $9.99) while Kmart has packages of T-bone steaks for $5.99 a pound with an additional purchase of at least $20.

Food Lion has T-bone or porterhouse "value pack" for $6.99 a pound.

Staples has the Navigon 2100 portable GPS on sale for $129.99. But you can also order it for $122 at Amazon.com, not including shipping, which is about $5.

Reviews have generally been positive. Pros, according to some of the reviews, include price, text-to-speech road technology, reality view 3D imaging. Cons include poor routing and search options for locations such as restaurants and retailers.

Been hearing this radio commercial lately from BioLife, which is trying to entice you to donate your plasma by offering up to $250 a month. (They have a center in Greensboro).

I'm a little surprised BioLife is having to spend money on radio commercials to drive more business in tough economic times when you consider at least one report in the media that more people are getting their blood pumped for cash so they can pump more gas. In May, an Associated Press report noted a rise in the number of people donating blood for gas money.

So if anyone reading this has sold their plasma for cash, I'd love to hear from you. And maybe times have been so tough that your need to gas up the car is greater than your fear of needles. Or, you've done this before and it has nothing to do with the economy. Or you prefer to simply continue donating your blood to the American Red Cross.

The News & Record's classified yard sales listings for tomorrow:

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As noted by former N&R biz writer Amy Buchanan at her blog, going to the movies these days ain't cheap, something I'm sure you already knew. What to do? Well, if you don't mind seeing a flick in the afternoons, matinees are always a good route. That's because you can still buy two movie tickets in Greensboro for less than the price some theaters charge for one ticket in the evenings.

Late yesterday afternoon my wife and I saw "X-Files: I want to Believe" at Brassfield Cinema 10 for $8 total.

Sure, it's an older cinema and may not have all the bells and whistles of some of the newer complexes in Greensboro. And, yes, other cinemas offer discounts for matinees. But I've found Brassfield to be one of the best movie bargains out there.

Having said that, I'm curious whether you agree or find paying more to go to a more state-of-the-art theater is a good trade off. Or going to a matinee is just not practical.

As far as the movie goes, was it worth it? I didn't think it was as awful as some critics made it out to be, but there was still plenty of room for improvement. This will likely be the last X-Files movie you'll ever see, so if you're a big fan of the series, you might want to check it out for the nostalgia factor. So I'd say it's worth the price of a $4 movie ticket.

Pretty cool program in Greensboro that's mentioned in today's News & Record regarding giving away donated bicycles. The only requirement is that recipients help fix them before taking them home.

Joseph Rodriguez/News & Record

North Carolina is holding a three-day sales tax-free holiday this weekend. Starts Friday at 12:01 a.m.

To qualify, you can spend up to: $100 on school supplies, clothing and footwear, $3,500 worth of computers, $250 worth of computer supplies, $50 worth of sports and rec equipment and $300 worth of school instructional materials.

More info. here.

Mel Evans/The Associated Press

As mentioned in today's Short Orders column, you can chow down on 98-cent burgers today in downtown Greensboro.

Radio station 98.7 FM Simon will serve up 98-cent burgers and hot dogs from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at the governmental plaza at Greene Street and February One Place.

Proceeds from the Picnic in the Plaza event, catered by Pepper Moon Catering, will benefit Make-A-Wish Foundation.

After helping yourself to a 98-cent burger in downtown Greensboro, how about dessert for free?

Just head north a few blocks and get yourself some free ice cream at Center City Park.

Blue Bell Creamery will be giving away free ice cream from 11:45 to 1:15 during a performance by Chuck Folds Five.

Blurb in today's Go Triad magazine (page 4) mentions Drive-in Movie Night at Northeast Park in Gibsonville for $2. Kicking off the Friday night series is "The Wizard of Oz," the 1939 classic starring Judy Garland. Starts at 9.

I haven't stepped foot in a drive-in since high school, and pretty much thought they went the way of the dinosaur and telephone booths. Not quite, according an NPR story in April:

"In this era of video iPods and minivan DVD players, a renaissance in the drive-in movie business seems unlikely. But in the past decade, nearly 100 drive-in movie theaters have opened or re-opened."