Seattle: 1-year Zipcar membership + $50 driving credit = $35.

Ugh! This was a much longer post and then Blogger ate it, so now you get the condensed bullet-point version:

• Zipcar is a car-sharing rental service where you pay an annual membership fee and then a per-hour or per-day rate to rent a variety of cars, trucks, and SUVs (insurance and gas included).
• Membership normally costs $50/year, + $25 signup fee, but with this deal you get the one-year membership PLUS $50 in car rental credit for just $35!
• Groupon is a daily deal website where they offer a new, discounted deal every day, and when enough people want to buy it, the deal activates and everybody can pile on. They have deals from restaurants, spas, outdoor activities, movie theaters, and more, so you should really sign up just to see what the daily deal is (I get no kickbacks from Groupon for saying this, I just believe in them!).

Whew, that went a lot faster. Let's hope it works this time.

Travel: One-way car rentals for cheap.

This is new to me, but it's kind of a neat idea: car fleets need to move their fleets from winter vacation destinations and spread them out for the summer travel season, so they're offering cheap one-way car rentals if you pick-up or drop-off in the Pacific Northwest or Arizona. Rentals are as low as $1/day (not including taxes and fees) when you book by May 31.

Of course, you're basically doing them a favor by transporting their car across the country, but if you're looking for a spring getaway, it could be a fun road trip to drive from, say, Seattle to SF and then hop a cheap flight home.

(Courtesy of the Seattle Times)