Earlier this year, my roommate and I rented a car as a result of a special through Thrillist, drove to Queens and shopped in a grocery store that had more than 10 aisles and chicken didn’t cost 8 bucks a pound.  It was glorious.

While I’d love to do this again, to me it’s not worth it unless there is a special.  Enter Connect by Hertz.  Connect by Hertz is a pay as you go membership club.  Regardless if you are a current or new member, this month, Smart Car rates are only $2 an hour and include unlimited mileage.  There is no special promo code to get this deal.

Connect by Hertz offers three membership types -

• Connect Membership: $50 annual fee. Regular rates start at $10 per hour or $70 per day. Smart Car rates are $2 per hour or $48 a day for the month of March.
• Connect 50 Membership: $50 monthly fee, no annual fee.  Regular rates start at $9 per hour or $63 per day. Smart Car rates are $2 per hour or $48 a day for the month of March.
• Connect 125 Membership: $125 monthly fee, no annual fee.  Regular rates start at $8.50 per hour or $59.50 per day. Smart Car rates are $2 per hour or $48 a day for the month of March.

Before signing up for a membership, check if your building or employer offers a discount.  My building for example, waives the membership fee.  To find a garage near you, click here.  Just remember, Smart Cars aren’t huge, so a trip to Ikea may be out of the question..

Want something to do next Tuesday? Preferably something that’s free? Well, The Skint tipped us off to the VIP Grand Opening of 1834 Bar & Burger down in the Financial District. From 6-8 pm they’ll be serving complimentary cocktails and hors d’oeuvres, giving you plenty of time to get home in time for LOST (for those of us that care). If you’re interested in attending, be sure to RSVP by tomorrow, March 12^th by emailing RSVP@1834NYC.com.

If you haven’t had a chance to explore Brooklyn yet, and you should have, then head over for Dine in Brooklyn. From March 15-25 you can get three courses at any of the 175+ participating restaurants for only $20.10 at lunch or $25 at dinner, making it a far better deal than the traditional RW. I think my favorite part of the promotional  material is this bit: “Quality food, no attitude on the side!” On far too many occasions we’ve heard complaints of poor service for those opting for the RW menus at high-end places, thus ruining the entire experience. Let’s hope this promise of good service holds true.

As with Manhattan’s RW, reservations in advance are highly recommended and the ad/brochure says to mention that you’re coming for Dine in Brooklyn. Hmm, this concerns me a bit…why do we need to tell them from the beginning that we’re planning on doing the Dine in Brooklyn special? I hope this information doesn’t result in bad tables, etc.

Anyway, I’m quite excited to try out one or two spots. The restaurants are conveniently organized by neighborhood, but unfortunately there’s no direct link to the restaurant Web site or Dine in Brooklyn menu that will be offered, so you’ll have to get your hands dirty and do some serious Googling to compare restaurants/menus and determine which is the best fit for you.

And if $25 sounds like too much for dinner, then fear not. There are a good handful of restaurants that are offering 3 courses for $25 for TWO PEOPLE (list starts on pg. 4). That’s a pretty incredible deal to get 3 courses of food for $12.50 per person. Now you have no excuse to not venture over to Brooklyn and hit up at least one of these restaurants. Does anyone have a suggestion as to which I should try?

*Thanks to Lauren for sending this along

My good friend from college and her med-school friend stayed with me before a conference in the city, so I needed to find a spot for us to eat. To say I was low on money would be an understatement, but I didn’t want to totally cheap-out on their one night with me. Luckily they were in the mood for Thai and that’s usually an affordable cuisine.

Photo from Yelp

We started with the summer rolls ($5) stuffed with baby spinach, rice noodles, carrots, celery and a peanut-plum dipping sauce, and they were pretty good. All appetizers menu were between $4-6, so there’s no reason not to try at least one. And if you have a hungry group, you might as well opt for the tasting menu – any three appetizers for $12.

Before we met up they were waiting for me at one of my favorite happy hour spots in the city - City Crab. So while they had a few drinks in them before dinner, I was sober and ready to go. Naturally I wanted to split a bottle of wine and they kindly obliged me. But the good news came when we checked out the wine menu – bottles ranged from $16 – 24. Yes, $24 was the most expensive bottle of wine on the menu. This was great. Beers were $5-5.50 and cocktails started at $6. Again, low on money, we went for the $16 Barefoot Pinot Grigio (despite the good wine price for a restaurant, it still killed me slightly to pay nearly three times as much for a Barefoot bottle of wine).

Since they snacked on oysters and mussels marinara at City Crab earlier, they decided to just split the vegetable pad thai and I had the chicken pad thai, both $9. The food was really good and I was happy to have some leftovers for the next day. I thought it was a good balance between sauce and chicken/noodles, as well as between spicy and sweet. I’ve had quite a few pad thai disappointments, so I was very pleased that this met if not exceeded my expectations.

We all really liked the restaurant and I will definitely be back. It had a cute décor, great prices, good food and for me personally, a very convenient location.

As a result of this past weekend’s Oscars, are you hoping to become a film buff in 2010?  Movies can be pricey, but this deal at AMC Movies actually makes me think about setting my alarm on the weekend.  Instead of the typical ticket price of $12.50, tickets go for $6 before noon.  There are several participating locations in NYC.  Thanks to Time Out New York for the heads up!

If you are looking to grab a bite to eat this week, check out this deal at Dukes.  Dukes is offering 25% off your first online order from the restaurant.  This American eatery has locations in both Gramercy and Murray Hill.  Like our other Money Saving Mondays offers, this deal is only one per user, does not apply to catering and applies to online orders only.  Offer expires 3/22 and the code is MSMDUKES.

Looking to save some cash at another restaurant instead? Check out this deal at Patsy’s!

Guest Post by Jenni Maier, Editor of the Post Grad Blog

Macaroni and cheese is my go-to-comfort food so I was incredibly excited to discover S’MAC in the East Village. It’s an entire restaurant dedicated to making a variety of different mac and cheese recipes. They not only have 12 different types listed on the menu, but there’s also the option to make your own. And best of all — it’s not that expensive. The smallest size, nosh, is only $7.25. And trust me, you don’t need to get more than the nosh. My friends and I all made the mistake of getting the mongo ($10.75) and having to walk home with a pound of leftover mac and cheese.

I was extremely overwhelmed by all the options and finally decided on sharing with my friend. We decided on the Pariseinne (brie, figs, mushrooms, and rosemary) and my own creation (goat cheese, mozzarella, spinach, and chicken), both made with whole wheat pasta.

They were extremely good and extremely rich and I could feel my cholesterol rising with each bite I took.

And best of all, they sell lactaid pills on the counter so that everyone, including your lactose-intolerant friend who always eats dairy and then complains for 6 hours, can enjoy their meal.

If you’re like me, you’re a fan of wine but not quite educated on the topic yet. That’s why I love wine tastings and courses. This Saturday (if you’re not at Hoboken’s St. Patrick’s Day) you can take a Wines of Argentina and Chile course at Vero Midtown or Uptown for $65, with proceeds going to AmeriCares and their Chile relief efforts. You’ll learn about the wines of Argentina and Chile while sampling various wines and paired food from the region. Both locations will be offering this course with a charity component from 4-6 pm or 7-9 pm.

This wine course is one of several that Vero began offering a few weeks ago. Hosted by their new Sommelier, each class will feature wines from their extensive wine list and either focus on a region or type of wine. And of course, if you’re looking for a deal at Vero, don’t forget about their free panini with each glass of wine special valid at both locations on Monday nights.

If you are looking to eat healthy, not spend a lot of money and don’t feel like eating at Subway, check out this deal at Energy Kitchen throughout the month of March.  Energy Kitchen, which prides itself on serving nothing over 500 calories, is offering all its burgers for just $5.  These aren’t just your typical cheeseburger, but also include bison burgers, ostrich burgers, veggie burgers, turkey burgers and more.  Energy Kitchen has 9 locations around the city.

Earlier this week, Laura (thoughts in italics) and I were lucky enough to visit West 3rd Common (full disclosure: we were invited to dine there. We are ethical bloggers!). West 3^rd Common is owned by the same person who runs Common Ground, which our guest writer, Jenni, reviewed last week, and it just opened this past December.

The first thing I noticed was the space and décor – it was a beautiful lounge/restaurant with two spaces – a smaller bar area in the front (still spacious) and a larger dining area in the back. There were red velvet booths, dark wood tables and chairs, enormous, antique-looking chandeliers and huge windows in the back area (unfortunately a wall is just a few inches/feet behind the window). Nonetheless, I thought it’d be a great spot for a date or larger birthday dinner.

We started with some wine (I particularly enjoyed my pinot noir and Laura tried a sauvignon blanc and then a pinot grigio) and after much deliberation, and some recommendations, we tried their sliders – one duck with kim chi and a sweet hoisen sauce, a cheeseburger slider and a pulled pork BBQ slider. They were all delicious, but the duck and burger sliders stood out to me. I loved that the burger was a mini version of the Common Burger.  I like burgers, but after a few bites I sometimes need a break so this was perfect.  I also loved the combination of the duck and kim chi.

For my dinner I went with the house recommendation – the Common Burger. A larger version of the slider, their burgers are specially made (I believe we were told that they’re steamed first, making them extra juicy. Yup, they are steamed and cooked medium to medium well as a result, also tasted very well seasoned) with cheddar cheese, arugula, tomatoes, sautéed onions and herbed aioli. It was sooo delicious and very large, so expect to share or take some home with you. Truly this burger is worth trying and should be a must-order for someone in your dinner party. Caryn, how could you forget the garlic fries?  I think it may have been the first time I was happy to not be coming home to a guy I was in love with.  The fries were fabulous if you like garlic, but a little strong if you are planning on a little makeout action later.  If you decide to go to West 3rd Common with a date from match.com and you don’t want the end of the night going anywhere, order the fries.

Laura had the smoked gouda mac and cheese on the side of the sweet chili glaze wings from the appetizer menu. I liked the flavor of the smoked gouda, but wish it could have been a little cheesier - don’t worry, I shared these thoughts with the owner.  Caryn enjoyed it though, just because she’s not a fan of super creamy mac and cheese. I thought the wings were spot on – sweet, juicy and very meaty. These wings weren’t your typical bar wing.  Each wing felt like a mini-meal they were that meaty.

We also mentioned that we’d like to try the herbed rotini pasta, with tomatoes, pan seared wild mushrooms, garlic and parmesan.  The owner, Dan, ordered this for his dinner and we sampled a little bit.  This too was delicious.  I had made an earlier comment that I wouldn’t order this because I could make it myself, but let’s face it - I probably couldn’t and would not snub it again.

We were bursting at the seam at this point, but we were convinced to try a dessert – the chocolate brownie with peanut butter cream, brulee banana and chocolate puffs. Now don’t kill me, but I’m actually not a huge chocolate and peanut butter or peanut butter and banana fan…it’s too thick or something for me. So while it was good, my favorite part of it was the brownie by itself. Bananas and peanut butter are my favorite combo, so toss in a brownie, and this to me is heaven.  I would have liked a little more bananas though on it just because I do enjoy a good serving of fruit every now and then.

This was a great find and we’d highly recommend it to anyone. And if you need another reason to check it out, they have a pretty good happy hour: $3 draft beers, $4 glasses of wine and $5 cosmos and appletinis every day (yes, Saturday nights too) from 4-8 pm, making it the perfect spot to grab a cheap drink before dinner, a movie or any other event. And if you check it out during a non-happy hour and you still want a deal, just add them as a friend on Facebook and receive a free draft beer! Oh and need another reason - brunch is only $20 and includes an entree with unlimited mimosas, Bloody Mary’s and screwdrivers.  I think my next Tri-Sigma reunion will be held here.