Lobster loss leader Mystic Lake is offering a "seafood spectacular" deal through March 7. Get two lobster dinners for $20. Each dinner includes a 12- to 14-ounce whole Canadian lobster served with baked potato, corn on the cob, roll and house salad. The offer is available from 5 p.m. to close at Ribbons Steakhouse Wednesdays through Sundays. Ribbons, unlike the Buffet, is a sit-down restaurant. The Buffet at Mystic offers its popular $23 seafood buffet from 4:30 to 11 p.m. Wednesdays.
The $20 deal for two is a better deal than Red Lobster's current "Lobsterfest," which has entrees ranging from $18 to $31, but those are featured entrees rather than a discounted price. The upside is that you don't run the risk of plunking down $100 more into a slot machine at Red Lobster.
Good customers deserve a break Deal spotter Ron from Golden Valley reminds us that it's a good idea to call your service providers occasionally to tell them what a good customer you are and ask for a perk. That's a nice twist on conventional wisdom that you should threaten to switch to a competitor to get a sweeter deal. Ron was able to get one month free from CenterPoint's Service Plus and a discount from Comcast, as well. Other money-saving tips from Ron and me: An infrequent cell phone user, Ron spends only about $80 per year using a prepaid service from Virgin Mobile (25 cents per minute). The phone cost him $50 five years ago. Consumers should also shop around for auto insurance every one or two years. Some people believe they get discounted premiums as longtime customers, but I question that. Once a year at renewal time, get out your declaration page with your coverages and call around to do an apples-to-apples comparison of insurance benefits. One reader saved $1,200 per year switching from Farmers to AARP. She and her husband weren't AARP members, but they gladly paid $12 to save 100 times that. She also checked the insurance companies' rating online at Standard and Poor's, A.M. Best and Consumer Reports before purchasing. You can also do online price comparisons, but I'd dig deeper than Progressive, which I haven't found to be that price-competitive.
Consumer Reports publica su Guia de Compras en Español For the first time, Consumer Reports has published its annual buying guide in Spanish as well as English. The 334-page guide is an important consumer tool now made more accessible to Hispanics. It contains a foreword by Julie Stav, a widely recognized personal finance expert within the U.S. Hispanic community. It is available for $11 in bookstores and for purchase at www.consumerreportsen espanol.org.
Free H1N1 shots at selected Rainbow pharmacies I wish that my deal spotter had sent in this tip a few months earlier, but if you still want an H1N1 shot, selected Rainbow Foods pharmacies are administering them free to anyone 18 and older. Not every Rainbow pharmacy offers them, so call ahead for times and availability. The Richfield and new St. Louis Park pharmacy locations offer them.
John Ewoldt • 612-673-7633 or jewoldt@startribune.com. If you spot a deal, share it at www.startribune.com/blogs/dealspotter.
