Taos On The Cheap

Sierra Club membership starts at $25 at the regular rate, but if you join online now, they’re giving discounted Discounted Sierra Club Membership at the special price of $15, plus you get a free Sierra Club 1892 Rucksack. Apparently this is the same rucksack style that founder John Muir used. Membership also includes a year’s subscription to Sierra magazine, membership in your local Chapter (the Sierra Club Northern New Mexico Chapter, or there are others in New Mexico and nationally) and discounts on Sierra Club books, calendars, and other merchandise.

I’m not sure how long this Sierra Club special offer membership deal is available, so join today if you’re interested. The Sierra Club works to protect America’s wild and untamed places, and we have plenty of those around here. My kitchen would probably qualify right now. Thanks to Claire at Denver’s Mile High on the Cheap for the tip!

I’m slightly in two minds about the The American Lung Association New Mexico Ski Card deal for the 2010/2011 ski season. It costs $125 for 10 adult lift tickets to ski resorts in New Mexico and Colorado. That’s a good price, but you can only ski each destination once. The resorts are spread through New Mexico and Colorado, so you need to be a real ski fan to take advantage of every lift ticket in the package. Plus there are blackout dates for most resorts, and you could spend hours hunched over your calendar trying to figure out when you can ski where.

But hey, it’s all for a good cause, and even if you just redeem it at a few of the New Mexico and Colorado ski resorts, you’ll get your money back. For example, regular priced adult lift tickets at Angel Fire ($64) plus Red River ($63) come to $127. So if you ski both, the $125 New Mexico Ski Card has saved you $2, and the other resorts are a free bonus!

Only 1,000 American Lung Association in New Mexico Ski Cards are for sale. The card entitles you to one adult lift ticket at each of these ski areas:

• Angel Fire Resort
• Taos Ski Valley (this is a two for one offer – buy one lift ticket at $71 and get another one free)
• Arapahoe Basin Ski Area
• Enchanted Forest Cross-Country (No date restrictions)
• Monarch Mountain Ski Area
• Red River Ski Area
• Sipapu Ski Resort
• Ski Cooper (No date restrictions)
• Ski Apache
• Sunlight Mountain Resort

Check the deal page for date restrictions on each ski resort. If you really only want to ski a couple of resorts though, check out their websites in case they have other ski deals that would suit your budget better.

From classic Christmas songs to new tunes, rock, country, Celtic… If you’re looking for a little holiday atmosphere while you work / cook / PARTAY! then we’ve got some freebies for your listening pleasure.

I haven’t listed to every single one of the tracks on all these albums yet, but testing some out got me quite in the mood to wrap tinsel round my head. (Mr Cheap recognizes this as a sure danger sign. Next thing I’ll be chasing him round the house with a sprig of mistletoe.)

Free Holiday Music from Top Country Stars including Brad Paisley, Joe Nichols, Indigo Girls, Rascal Flatts and Steve Wariner, courtesy of People magazine and iTunes. Songs we all love include Deck the Halls, Little Drummer Boy and O Holy Night. You need iTunes to download, or get it free at the link. The holiday Country music is available till January 7, 2011.

The Christmas Gig Free MP3 13-track sampler album from Target features original holiday songs. Some of it is pretty snappy stuff, with artists including Guster, Blackalicious, Natalie Hemby, and the rather fabulous Little Isidore with an old-time, feel-good swing style. You can download all 13 tracks or hear them individually by scrolling down the page at the link to each performer.

25 Days of Free Holiday Songs from Amazon, including Indigo Girls, Chris Isaak, Shelby Lynne and more. Not sure how long they’ll be available, so download the free MP3 fast if there’s one you like.

Music World Free Holiday Sampler Album with 7 tracks featuring artists including Destiny’s Child.
(Also from Amazon, as are the rest in this list.)

Chacra World Music Holiday Sampler Five tracks with a touch of Celtic soul, from the jigging it up to the lyrical.

The Incredible Singing Christmas Tree A Veggie Tales free 16 track album for the kids.

Sugo Music Free Holiday Sampler Five relaxing instrumentals for those more mellow moments over the holidays. (Huh? Hello? Are we on the same planet?)

Oh yes, did we mention that they’re all FREE?

If you know of any Taos bands with free downloads by iTunes or MP3 that we can import to our various music playing devices, please let me know. 

Thanks to our frugal friends Jennifer at Atlanta on the Cheap and Evelyn at The Big Apple on the Cheap for a couple of these tips. And thanks to Mr Cheap for letting me chase him with mistletoe.

Note: I’ve given you my affiliate links to plug you directly to the Amazon deals. If you feel like sending a little love this way to help support Taos on the Cheap, please use the link.

This free author event promo material says “For over a thousand years Taos has been a place of strong women”. Tell me about it! Well, I haven’t been around these parts for 1,000 years, although some days it feels like it. But I don’t have to look too far through my address book to find a bunch of strong, talented, and amazing women who make Taos their home.
Some of those women share the word in Celebrating Taos Women, a free evening of literature and music on Sunday December 5, 2010, at 7 pm.

The event features author Susan Powter, poet Dora McQuaid, and trombonist Abbie Conant. Admission is free and they’ll be serving refreshments, art, and chat. And by the way… men are also welcome!

Celebrating Taos Women takes place at Enchanted Mountain Studios, 114 Los Pandos. (Park at Smith’s or on corner of Montoya and Los Pandos)

Feed it Forward and give friends and family free $10 restaurant certificates. Through December 31, 2010, you can send
free $10 Restaurant.com certificates to 40 different people each day. This is part of their Feed It Forward promotion – scroll down at the link to the Feed It Forward info. Sadly, there are no Taos restaurants in the program, but there are 9,500 participating restaurants nationally, including in Santa Fe and Albuquerque. So this is one to send to New Mexico friends farther afield, or out-of-state mates. You can give one gift to each person during the Restaurant.com Feed it Forward promotion, and they send the certificate via email. Send up to 40 free $10 restaurant.com certificates every single day until December 31, 2010 or until the money runs out – they have a maximum of $40 million worth of free restaurant certificates to give away.

Plus get 80% off Restaurant.com already discounted dining certificates when you enter the promo code PRESENT at checkout through December 20, 2010. A typical price example: a $25 gift certificate (usually $10) now costs $2 when you enter the Promo Code PRESENT at checkout. (The extra 80% discount doesn’t show till then.) There’s no expiration date on certificates, and no shipping fees for email certificates. Gift certificates can be used at over 15,000 restaurants nationally, and are emailed to the recipient.

If you’re buying certificates to specific restaurants (rather than just sending a gift certificate for the recipient to choose where to dine) check deal terms for individual restaurants (eg minimum spend) to make sure they’re a good deal for you,

Note: I’ve given you my Restaurant.com affiliate link. If you feel like sending a little love this way to support the Taos on the Cheap site, please use the links.

Applebee’s restaurants offer a free entree to active duty military personnel and veterans on Veterans Day.

Veterans eat free at Applebee’s on Thursday November 11, 2010 when they show proof of military service.  The selection of free entrees available includes House Sirloin, Fiesta Lime Chicken, Bacon Cheeseburger, Double Crunch Shrimp… and more.  This is only good on November 11, for dine-in only at participating restaurants, and it doesn’t include drinks or a tip. Check the Applebee’s Veterans Day offer for details on the proof of military service required.

Note: Not all locations may be participating, call ahead if you want to be sure!