In the Know: Bang for your buck

Get in the Know! Listen up coupon clippers, bargain shoppers and penny pinchers — this round up is for you. There are great deals for food, entertainment and arts in town. Here are a few you should already know about, but might not.
 

Foodies: dining certificates
Here’s the deal — Sarasota-Manatee Originals, a group of independently-owned local restaurants, offers discounted dining certificates four times a year. It works like this: there’s a certain number of certificates per restaurant. You buy the certificate at 30% off of what it is worth. So if you spend $17.50, you’d get a certificate for $25; spend $10, get a certificate for $20; spend $7.50 get a certificate for $15. But the best restaurants go the quickest.

Beginning 9 a.m. Monday July 14, there will be a 50% off, 24-hour sale that will offer the discounts left from the last round of dining certificates at 50% off. You can see all the options at dineoriginal.com.

Visual and fine art lovers: free admission to Ringling
Cure your case of the Mondays with free admission to the museum of art at The Ringling. It’s open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. 7 days a week. Every Monday, patrons can enjoy free admission to the museum of art and special exhibition galleries. This means you can peruse the galleries and grounds and gardens at your leisure, but if you want to see the Ca’d’Zan and Circus Museum, you must get general admission. Here's more info.

Theater goers: discount theater tickets
Subscribe to the Asolo Rep and Florida Studio Theatre mailing lists. Not only will you find out about fun events and pre-show activities, but the subscibers are always the first to get the discounts. For instance, last season Asolo Rep offered 50% off for final weeks of shows, $10 off for those under 30 years old and even a free beer tasting event. Florida Studio Theatre is known to send out 2-4-1 ticket offers for most performances on selected dates. Click here for Asolo Rep, and here for FST.

Cinephiles: movie discounts
Become a member of the Sarasota Film Society for $30. If free popcorn refills weren’t enough, you can also get a one time free movie pass and popcorn and discounted tickets, (i.e $5) for all regular screenings at both Burns Court and Lakewood Ranch where you can see independent films and some major films. There’s also membership packages for more with even better deals that you can see here.

Fun-loving types: bowling
Sarasota Lanes, located at 2250 Fruitville Road, offers a great deals. Among them are Terrific Tuesdays where from 9 p.m. to midnight, there’s $1.50 games of bowling and $1 hotdogs; and the Super Sunday Special where from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sundays you can bowl $1.50 games. Here are more deals.

Nature-lovers: reciprocal memberships
There are a few reciprocal memberships in town — if you get a membership to one place, you get a discount to other places such as the Florida Aquarium or the Florida Holocaust Museum.
For instance, if you get a single annual membership to Selby Gardens ($60) you can get free daily admission to Mote for the month of September or Historic Spanish Point for the month of May. Plus, the membership pays for itself in three visits, and you get to have a guest admission for $5 each time. Here's the info.

At Mote, for its $65 single membership, you get 50% off admission tickets, free tickets and special discounts at more than 100 zoos and aquariums around the country. This membership pays for itself in four visits. Here's the info.