Check out Restaurants.com and see if you like it as much as me. The site allows users to purchase $25 gift certificates good at local restaurants for only $10. I know, hard to believe.

And it gets harder to believe when you see the list of participating restaurants. A quick check by me revealed the local list includes popular eateries like Athena's By The Sea in Lauderdale-By-The-Sea, America's backyard in Fort Lauderdale, Argentango Grill in Hollywood, Mama Jennie's in Miami, A Saquella Cafe in Boca Raton - and the list goes on and one for pages. I found 10 pages of restaurants within 15 miles of my home alone.

But don't just take my word for it. Carol of Weston wrote: Daniel, I almost hate to give this secret away but, I always check www.Restaurant.com to see if there are any certificates available at our favorite restaurants. Towards the end of the month, they sell out. If you sign up at the website they will send you offers of up to 80% off of a certificate. I have purchased a $25 certificate for $2. in the past. Some restaurants specify lunch or dinner, or they may only be used on weekdays. The website is very user-friendly showing menus, etc.

Thanks Carol!

Read the fine print: There are different bargain certificates at various prices available at Restaurants.com - and there are restrictions. For instance, with the $25 certificate for $10, it is only valid with a minimum purchase of 2 entrees and does not work with other promotions or specials. For the $10 certificate for $4, it only works with a minimum purchase of $20 or 2 or more entrees and excludes alcohol or beverages.

What do you say? Can you recommend a South Florida restaurant that offers bargains? Or your favorite Website to find good, cheap or free meals (for children, etc.)? Let us know.

South Florida residents who are Bank of America cardholders can enjoy free access to below museums the coming weekend of November 7 & 8:

Miami-Fort Lauderdale

Bass Museum of Art, Miami Beach

Miami Art Museum

Miami Children’s Museum

Miami Science Museum

Museum of Art-Fort Lauderdale, Broward County

Museum of Contemporary Art

Museum of Discovery & Science, Broward County

Young At Art Children’s Museum, Davie

West Palm Beach

South Florida Science Museum

The free access is part of Bank of America's Museums on Us program, which offers all BofA cardholders - credit and debit - free access to local museums and cultural institutions the first full weekend of every month.

Upcoming weekends: December 5-6 and January 2-3.

Well, mom was ahead of her time - again. Stores - brick and mortar and online - are increasingly offering helpful layaway plans as a way to keep shoppers coming in, even if it's on their own payment terms.

What is layaway anyway? You pick an item, or a list of items, at a store with a layaway plan, leave a down payment (such as 10 percent of the total cost) and then make steady payments for several weeks or up to a year until your purchase is paid off. 

Check out: Sears, K-Mart and Burlington Coat factory. Online, visit ELayaway.com, Lay-Away.com and LayAway-Travel.com 

The upside:  You can spread payments over time. More importantly, your layaway items stay in stock until you're paid off, ensuring you get exactly what you wanted. It's also a great strategy for making sure you get the hot items that may sell out shortly before the holidays, like the newest Tickle Me Elmo or Hannah Montana doll.

Here are some things ShopSmart Magazine recommends watching out for: 

Hidden fees: They can range from $5 to $150. Most layaway plans also charge a cancellation fee and some charge service fees of $5 or a small percentage of the merchandise total. Make sure you know about all fees before you sign-up.

Price adjustments: Check whether the store honors price adjustments should one or more of your items go on sale during the layaway period. Often, the adjustment period is limited to a couple of weeks or less.

Choose your store carefully: Like gift cards, layaway payments could become useless if a store goes out of business.

Here is one more tip: Check local mom-and-pop stores, such as clothing, jewelry, consignment and second-hand. These stores may offer their own layaway plans with less fees.

The newest Flip pocket camcorder comes with brushed metal finish and a large high-resolution, no-glare screen that appears to offer improved viewing of your subjects. But the real prize for semi-professional home-movie enthusiasts is the two-hour HD recording time, double that of the previous model.

More perks: You can record your child's soccer game and then use the HDMI jack to connect to any High-Def TV and show off your kids dribbling and shooting skills to friends, neighbors or anyone else nearby.

Cost: At $229, this is one of the pricier pocket camcorders on the market, but not all lower-priced models offer true HD recording. There is also a one-hour model for $200. 

Available at: Best Buy, Sears, Target and Wal-Mart.

What do you say? How do you like your pocket camcorder? Have any great home videos to share or show off? E-mail me at dvasquez@sunsentinel.com.

South Floridians sometimes have to worry about bad weather, and the newest line of Eton Corporation NOAA weather radios will help keep you informed when it counts most, even when the electricity goes out. 

And at these prices, Eton's American Red Cross lineof hand-crank radios make great stocking stuffers or affordable gifts for a neighbor or friend. Etón Corporation will contribute $0.49 to $1.00 of the sales price of each Red Cross product to support the American Red Cross.

Check out:

FR160 Microlink, $30.This low-end model is a self-powered AM/FM/NOAA Weather Radio with flashlight, solar power, and cell phone charger. For every two minutes of cranking, you get a minute of power. Two minutes of cranking means one minute of charge. Powered by solar or dynamo hand crank, both of which charge internal Ni-MH battery. And it can be juiced via a USB cable.

FR360 Solarlink, $50.This has the same features as its smaller brother version plus packs in a few more, including that it can also be powered by 3 AA batteries and comes with a flashing red emergency light. The siren is a blast and can come in handy in a pinch. If you can afford it, spend the extra $20 for this larger version: It's a bit easier to hold when cranking and has a larger, louder speaker, which could come in handy should you end up in a shelter with loud-talking relatives or neighbors.

Making matters worse, criminals are increasingly taking advantage of the bad economy and an increase in foreclosures to prey on those desperate to find solutions and save their homes. Over the past year, the Attorney General’s Office has seen a dramatic increase in complaints on foreclosure rescue fraud and other mortgage related issues.

If you need help with a foreclosure-related problem or want to know what to watch out for you, here is your chance:

Free Community Forum: On November 7th, Attorney General Bill McCollum and the Florida Interagency Mortgage Fraud Task Force will host a free Community Forum on the Housing Crisis at the Sunrise Civic Center. The event is scheduled from 9 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. and will include a comprehensive approach for dealing with housing-related issues and provide community education and assistance to all in attendance.

Help will be on hand: Representatives from other local government and community organizations will be available to answer individual questions and provide information about their services free of any cost. Lawyers from local legal aid organizations and other volunteer lawyers will be available to answer questions and provide brief individual consultations at no cost. HUD-certified housing counselors will also be available for free consultations.

Reservations strongly recommended. The toll-free reservation line is 877-385-1621. Seats for the town hall meeting may be reserved through the reservation line. More information about the Attorney General’s efforts to combat mortgage fraud and consumer educational materials are available online at: http://www.myfloridalegal.com/mortgagefraud.

They will be given at the Mailman Segal Institute-Unicorn Children’s Foundation Clinic located at 7600 SW 36th St., on Nova Southeastern University’s main campus in Davie.

Registration: There are a limited number of appointments available and parents are encouraged to register their children in advance by calling (954) 262-7111.

Enter CouponMap.com, a new site that makes it easy to sniff out a bargain in your own neighborhood - or any place your visiting for that matter.

I spent a little time on the site and easily found out how to save 10 percent on purchases at Home Depot, get $3 off an ice cream cake at Baskin Robbins and $5 on a $20 toy purchase at Sears - all within a few miles of my office. It took less than a minute to find all of these deals and more once I plugged in a zip code.

What do you say?What are your favorite Web sites or online search strategies to save big at local stores and restaurants?

Every baby is born a star, and here is a chance to get yours featured in a Huggies ad. My then two-year-old nephew went to one of these South Florida casting calls a couple years back and his faced ended up appearing on packaging for diapers.

What: HUGGIES CASTING 

Lori Wyman Casting & Huggies Invites you to bring your BABIES to our casting 

Casting Dates: Friday, Oct. 23 to  Friday Oct. 30, 2009 

Shoot Dates: Week of November 9, 2009 

Casting Times: From 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on all days. 

Call your agent for an Appointment or call Monday-Friday 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at 305 354-3901.

Let us know if your baby gets booked!

Fortunately, with a few shopping tricks and some creativity, you can be creep-y this year on the cheap-y. 

The fastest way to save is to skip buying or renting a full-blown, pre-assembled costume. Go with a single, cool accessory and use stuff around home to adorn it. I found a fun fake butcher's knife that plays a screeching sound for just $2. Just add a ripped up hoodie with ketchup stains and you instantly become a respectable, psycho killer. 

Shop around: In the past couple of weeks, I’ve been to K-Mart, Walmart, Target and specialty stores like Party City and Spirit Halloween stores, and have found no single store offers the lowest prices for a Halloween costumes and accessories. So it’s a good idea to shop at two or more stores to snag the best prices. For instance, I found 6-inch skulls were $10 a piece at one store, and $5 at another. Also, a toy sickle – the preferred weapon of choice by four out of five grim reapers - was $4 at the cheaper store and $2 at the store where the skull was higher-priced. 

Check all shelves: I found an awesome sound-effects shotgun for $10 at a store that sold smaller guns with less features for twice or three times the price. But this shotgun was tucked away on a top shelf in an aisle away from the high-priced guns that were all together. So it pays to check out the entire store before buying. 

Check clearance items. There are always clearance items available and you can often save 50 to 75 percent off each item. I found the screeching knife, a favorite with my son, for $2. It originally sold for $5. A lot of times these are items that are leftover from last year’s inventory and are still perfectly fine. 

Don’t shy from hot-selling costumes because you think they’ll be the most expensive. Just be smart about which one you choose. For instance, some of most popular characters this year are from the Transformer movies, like Bumble Bee (the one who protected Megan Fox and what’s his name) and Bumble Bee’s boss Optimus Prime. For children, most retailers sell the costume for $40. You get a mask, a pair of tights and a little bit of body armor. But if you look around, you can get the same costume minus the body armor for $15.  

Buy the basics. And spice them up yourself. I found a one-size-fits-all vampire cape for $10 on sale at K-mart. Add $2 vampire teeth and a dress shirt or silk blouse you already own and you’re suddenly one of the vampires from the popular Twilight movie series. Classic, yet modern. Nice.