The folks at Rocky Top Hospitality are offering a free entree to customers on their birthday.

Show up at Michael Dean's, Bogarts, Hi5, The Red Room or The Twisted Fork and show your ID to claim your free meal.

The new offer is effective immediately, so if you know someone with a birthday this weekend, let them know!

RTP company ChannelAdvisor has put out its second annual holiday discounts catalog, featuring special discounts from more than 40 retailers.

There are some big national retailers participating, including Ann Taylor, Dell and Petco.

You can at http://www.channeladvisor.com/holidaycatalog

I got a press release telling me that TGI Friday's will be open on Thanksgiving Day.

There are several other restaurants (both chains and independents) open if you don't feel like cooking. But make your reservations soon.

See the full list on our Mouthful blog HERE.

If you're looking for a holiday bargain on eBay, you may want to take note of a Texas merchant's blog post.

David Goldstein says that you can find a bargain just by misspelling the name of the thing you want.

Looking for a Playstation? Try "Playstaion" or "Palystation."

Ebay makes suggestions to buyers who are searching the site, he says. But no such courtesy is offered to sellers. And that can add up to a great deal. 

You can read his post here.

Tonight's the night they light the Christmas tree at North Hills. The lighting won't happen until evening but there are events all day starting at 11 a.m.

From 3 to 7 p.m. there will be ice skating on the Commons lawn and miniature pony rides. From 4 to 7 there will be horse and carriage rides, train rides and other entertainment. The lighting itself is scheduled for 5:40 p.m. 

If you're going with your kids, take your camera. Children will be allowed to visit Santa and parents will be allowed to take photos.

It's Friday, so let's do some freebies...

*Oriental Trading is offering a free 2010 calendar here.

*Walmart has a Always Infinity sample here. 

*Beneful is giving away free dog toys to the first 2,000 people who review a site or a photo on their WagWorld site here.

*And there's a company giving away free doggie sleeping bags. (I know... just the picture is worth the click.) Here's the link.

Just a reminder to everyone planning to come to coupon class tomorrow at Meredith College:

We will be collecting donations for the Food Bank of Central & Eastern North Carolina.

Please bring an item (or more to donate). Anyone who does make a donation will receive an extra raffle ticket for the door prize giveaway at the end of class. I've seen the door prizes, folks. They are super!

Click Read More for a list of the food bank's needs.

   Comments (1)

If you know any teens who are obsessed with the Twilight series, you might want to point them in the direction of Peche de Chocolat at 16 Glenwood Ave. in Raleigh.

On Saturday, from 3 to 9 p.m., the store will host a New Moon party. There will be door prizes, games and a raffle drawing in which you can win tickets to see the new movie. And, of course, there will be chocolate. Admission is $10.

If you're making a game plan for Black Friday shopping, you may want to start considering stores' price-matching policies. That's when a store says they will match the price a competitor is advertising. It's a good way to score a deal at a store that may have more inventory of the item you want.

Remember if you're price matching that you generally need to take the advertised sale (ie, the store flier with the price advertised) to the store that you want to match it. The folks at dealnews.com have compiled a list of stores and their price-matching policies. You can find it here.

And, while we're on the topic, I'm looking for Black Friday volunteers. If you will be out with a team of shoppers bright and early scouring for the best deals, I might want to tag along. E-mail me if you are interested.

There's a new coupon for 25 percent off one item at Barnes & Noble stores. There's some fine print, but overall, that's a good deal. The coupon is good through Nov. 22.

Here's the link!