In Durham, some restaurants at the Phoenix Square and Phoenix Crossing shopping centers are celebrating National Friendship Day (Aug. 1) by offering special specials in August to parties of two or more.

You can check out the details here. There's also a link to a printable flier that you can take with you to the restaurant.

The shopping centers are located at Fayetteville Street and Lakewood Avenue. Phoenix Square is on the east side of Fayetteville Street and Phoenix Crossing is on the west side. 

Maggiano's Little Italy is offering a crazy two-for-one deal at all of its 44 restaurant locations, including the one at The Streets at Southpoint in Durham.

The deal, called "Today & Tomorrow" allows customers to choose two meals, one to eat in the restaurant and one to take home for later. The price for both: $12.95.

The offer is available for dine-in patrons only and it does limit customers to specific menu choices. But the classic lasagne is one of them, along with four cheese ravioli and baked ziti with sausage. Here's the promotion for the Streets at Southpoint. It's good through Oct. 28. And here's a Restaurant News story discussing the expansion of the deal.

Live Nation is offering pairs of lawn seats to events this summer at half-off.

The deal is good only today and appears to be only good on pairs of tickets. It does appear that you can buy more than one set at the half-off price.

Live Nation operates a number of venues in North Carolina, including Raleigh's Time Warner Cable Music Pavilion at Walnut Creek and Cary's Booth Amphitheatre.

Here's the link for the offer... 

Today and tomorrow only, World Market stores and online movie ticket Web site Fandango are offering a free movie ticket with any purchase at World Market.

The ad does say, "while supplies last," and my general experience with World Market giveaways is that the supplies don't last very long. But, if anyone goes, let us know if they are still handing them out!

Here's the link to the Web ad... 

Office Depot and Foot Locker are teaming up this back-to-school season by offering an interesting cross-promotion.

Now through Sept. 5, customers who make a purchase at Foot Locker will receive a coupon good for $10 off a $30 purchase at Office Depot. Customers who shop at Office Depot will get a 20 percent off coupon for Foot Locker. 

If you missed my story in this morning's paper, I wrote about ways to save on your back-to-school shopping.

But I am sure that my tips aren't the only good ones out there.

How do you plan to save on back-to-school? 

TGI Friday's restaurants are offering you a $5 discount for each buddy you bring with you now through the end of August. Bring two buddies, get $10 off. Bring three and it's $15.

You get the idea.

Here's the link. 

Starting today, the Polar Ice House locations in Cary, Garner and Wake Forest will offer buy one get one (BOGO) admission any day the temperature climbs above 95 degrees.

The promotion will run for the entire summer. 

That's a nice way to beat the heat... 

Food Lion has brought back its program where you can earn a free gallon of milk when you buy six. The promotion runs from now through Oct. 13, so you have lots of time to earn a couple of gallons.

However, there is a change from previous years. Rather than getting a coupon for each gallon of milk you buy and then turning in six coupons for your freebie, now Food Lion is tracking your qualifying purchases through your MVP card. Scan your card, buy some milk and get credit for it. When you qualify for the freebie, you will see a message at the bottom of your receipt that says you are entitled to a free gallon. You then need to present that receipt to a cashier to redeem it.

Through Saturday, Walgreens is offering 50 photo prints for $5 when you order online and use the code SUMMER50.

Here's the Web site.