Inspired by a past blog post and my 32nd birthday, I wrote last week’s column on birthday deals.

Here’s a link to the b-day offers I highlighted.

Of course the phone calls and e-mails came in from readers telling me I missed their favorite birthday freebie have been rolling in.

Kristin B. told me that you’ll get a free entree priced up to $15 if you join Houlihan’s e-club.Bill has enjoyed a free birthday meal at Joe Senser’s sports bar without lifting a finger to the keyboard. That’s a good reminder that saying “it’s my birthday” can be enough to get something for free.

According to Jean, I committed a cardinal sin when I forgot to mention a free slice of pie from Baker’s Square. “Shame, shame, shame,” she clucked in a voice-mail. I could not find details online but my guess is that you have to order an entree for your “free” slice of pie. Please correct me if I’m wrong.

Finally, here’s a deal I went to the trouble to call about only to forget to list it on my freebies chart! Parents can order a free 7-inch cake from Lunds or Byerlys for their pride and joy’s first birthday. It’s an ongoing deal that’s not advertised, so don’t go hunting for details. All you need is Junior’s birth certificate to cash in.

Did I really just successfully book a non-stop frequent flier ticket for 25,000 on Northwest? In August. Flying back to Minneapolis the weekend of the RNC?

Somebody pinch me. In recent years, I’ve had zero success booking frequent flier tickets. It’s been several years since I could afford one because we aren’t frequent fliers and I rarely could find a ticket for as little as 25,000 miles.

Most of the time, I’d log on and find that a ticket would cost me 50,000 or more.

I still have a no-fee Worldperks Visa card (but I only earn 1 mile for every $2 spent). But I never use it. Getting gift cards that I know I can use is a much better perk in my book.

But today, I happened to log on and see if there was a ticket to Hartford, CT in August so my husband could fly to the wedding of a childhood friend. The wedding is a must attend and I’ve nervously watched the price tag rise in the past couple of months climb from around $380 to a whopping $785 today.

So I was amazed to find a Worldperks ticket for him to use. I’d say 25,000 miles for a $785 ticket is a great value.

My colleague Liz Fedor, who covers airlines, wrote a story last week about frequent flier miles. And research she included in the story shows that while it’s not always easy to find a flight, there are some out there.

Jay Sorensen, who runs Wisconsin-based IdeaWorks, had heard plenty of anecdotes from people who couldn’t book the trips they wanted using miles. So his company made 5,000 booking queries to assess the seat availability for reward tickets on eight large airlines.

He found that a family of four traveling in the summer could book tickets to key markets more than 46 percent of the time. A couple flying outside the summer season could book reward tickets on American, Alaska, United and Southwest more than 96 percent of the time.

Matt may have to buy his own pop, pay for extra bags and check himself in, but at least he’ll be on that plane.

Just received this email earlier today:

HSBC Direct announces Online Savings rate increase to 3.50%

– High Rate Rewards Savers on New and Current Funds —

HSBC Direct has increased the rate for existing and new Online Savings Account customers to 3.50% APY on all funds – both new and current. The offering rewards savers with a rate that is nine times the national savings average, and is up from 3.05% APY. The increased rate is effective as of today, and will run through August 15, 2008.

“We are committed to helping our customers get the most from their money, and we constantly look for ways we can reward them,” said Kevin Martin, executive vice president and head of HSBC Direct U.S. “Increasing our HSBC Direct Online Savings Account to 3.50% — when other savings rates have been falling — gives new and existing customers an even better reason to start saving more.”

I have much of my discretionary savings swooped from my checking account into HSBC each month, so this is a nice surprise. Warning: I think the web site is cumbersome. The rate is better than the 7-month CD the bank is touting on its site for 2.80 APY. Now if they’d just give away $25 or so for opening an account or sending referrals…

I have other high-yield online savings accounts that pay less in interest.

(more…)

I’ve been struggling lately with fitting exercise and healthier eating into my life. Add kids and a full-time job to my fondness for for sleep, TV and a daily glass of wine, and going on a run often falls by the wayside.

Just yesterday I was thinking about how the only time in my life that I’ve successfully made working out a priority is in the months leading up to my wedding. My incentive: Looking fabulous in my pricey dress in front of 150 people.

Since then, few incentives look as good as a second piece of carrot cake (man, I’d better get to the point before I sound any more like Cathy).

Enter Stikk.com — a web site created by Yale economists after they successfully lost weight and kept it off by promising each other half a year’s worth of salary if they failed. When I came across this LA Times opinon piece written in January by one of the founders, I hung on every word. Here’s the site’s philosophy:

The concept is grounded on two well-known principles of behavioral economics: (1) people don’t always do what they claim they want to do, and (2) incentives get people to do things.

Here’s the deal. I sign up and make a commitment to exercise regularly, lose a certain amount of weight, even vote. I can make up a commitment of any kind and register it with Stikk.

If I keep my commitment, then good for me. I don’t spend a penny (the site is free). If I fail, then the money I’ve pledged, whether it’s $5 or $500, is transferred to the chum or charity of my choice.

I can pick a referee to monitor my every move and can e-mail friends so they can keep tabs of my progress.

I think it’s a cool concept. So here’s what I’m thinking. Send me an e-mail (kara@startribune.com, subject line: Stikk) and I’ll invite you to watch my progress. If I fail to exercise four times a week for 30 minutes at a time for the next 12 weeks, I’ll randomly pick one of those e-mail address owners to receive my pool of cash. I’m pledging $20 a week, for $240. Call it Kara’s exercise stimulus package.

If looking good in front of 150 people was incentive enough, looking bad in front of all of you should get my feet moving.

It started with a Saturday night trip to the grocery store. Yes, I know you all envy my social life.

It was 9:20pm and I knew that when I arrived home with bags of food there would be a bottle of wine to open and kids in bed. But I also knew there was nothing on the TiVo and though I’ve been thoroughly enjoying the DVDs of Arrested Development, I was in the mood for something different.

Behold, the Redbox. Initially I thought renting movies from a kiosk at McDonalds or a grocery story like Cub Foods was odd. Then I rented the Bee Movie and best picture, best director-winning No Country for Old Men for $1 each plus tax. Two new movies in my hands for cheap with only the punch of a few buttons? This is a fabulous invention.

Sure, the selection isn’t massive, but that means no aimless wandering through rows of DVDs or scrolling through pages on Netflix.

One drawback is being charged on a daily basis. I think many consumers have gotten used to ordering a pile of DVDs and hanging onto them for a longer time period without extra charge. But even if it does take you a couple of days to watch the movies, it’s only $1 for each extra day. And you can return them at any Redbox location.

My favorite place to rent non-new releases or movies for kids is the library. And if you have a free moment, many libraries allow you to request a spot on the waiting list for movies that are still in theaters.

But for those of you who are wedded to watching new releases, but not enough of them to justify a Netflix or Blockbuster membership, there’s Redbox. Its web site allows you to reserve movies for pick-up. Or be spontaneous and grab a flick after you finish your fries. You can even try it for free. Sign up online.