Check In

Foursquare and Yelp are location based social networking sites that can link with mobile phones to nearby restaurants and venues.  Did you know, "checking in" can sometimes get you some sweet deals?

I used to get slightly annoyed by seeing people constantly "checking in" on their facebook, yelp, foursquare applications to a bunch of random places online.  It's fun sometimes, but I don't need to know where you are every moment of everyday.   I don't need to know where you are having breakfast, lunch, and dinner, 7 days a week.

Recently, the lady and I went to visit Birch Aquarium in San Diego.  Right before paying full price for the both of us to enter, I found out from the lady at the ticketing booth that if we "checked in" on foursquare, we could get $2 off each ticket.   Sweet.  The process took less than 10 seconds and I saved $4.  You can get the iphone app here.

Did spending $4 less to get in make my experience $4 less enjoyable?  Hell no!  That extra $4 went to the dinner fund.  Here are a few pictures of the incredible sea life we saw:

You can also check in from your phone and find some great deals on Yelp.  Oh, and if you don't care to share your every check in with all of your friends on facebook, you can easily turn the sharing feature on and off.  

And while we're talking about foursquare, if you have an American Express card, you can sync it with your foursquare account here.  When checking into a restaurant or location, you can apply special deals directly onto your American Express card.  For example, last month there was a deal where you could buy $10 at a participating restaurant and American Express would give you a $10 bill credit later.  

So go out there, have fun, check in, and save money!

p.s. - Yes I am only linking to iPhone apps because I have an iPhone and you should get one too.