💰The Deal Guy Newsletter - Issue #81

🧾 INSIDE THIS WEEK’S NEWSLETTER:

**These deals could end or sell out at ANY time. If you buy something through any of the links featured in this newsletter I may get a small share of the sale.

🚗 50¢ OFF Gas At 7 Eleven & Speedway: Through 7/11/26, 7Rewards and Speedy Rewards members can save $0.5 per gallon on the 7th and 11th of every month (aka today!). For 7 Eleven: Text ALLIN to 711711, For Speedway: Text ALLIN to 96001.

And don’t forget Amazon Prime members can also link their account through Earnify for additional fuel discounts and convenience store perks throughout the year.

📚 Free Books For Kids At Barnes & Noble: Kids in grades 1 through 6 can earn a free book this summer by reading any 8 books and recording them in the Barnes & Noble Summer Reading Journal.

Bring the completed journal to a Barnes & Noble store from 7/1 through 8/31 and choose a free book from the eligible list.

$10 OFF at Dollar General: Dollar General is offering a one-day-only coupon on May 16, 2026, that takes $10 off any purchase of $40 or more before tax. Just present the coupon at checkout before it expires on 5/16/26.

🛒 Home Depot Memorial Day Appliance Sale: For anyone who has been waiting for the right time to replace a washer or fridge, Home Depot have just announced their big Memorial Day sale will go live May 14th.

You’ll see up to 40% OFF prices on fridges, dryers, stoves, dishwashers and more + bundle pricing that can save you $$$ on bulk purchases.

🐶 Amazon Biggest Pet Sale Of The Year Starts Today: The deals on food, treats, toys, grooming products, and smart pet gear are superb.

If you see something still out of budget (like an automatic pet feeder or self-cleaning litter box), there will be a second chance for these items with identical pricing on Prime Day late June.

🍗 Costco Food Court Adding Chicken Strips??: Costco is rumored to be replacing the calzone and testing chicken strips in its place at select U.S. food court locations so if you spot them at your warehouse, let me know where you found them and whether they’re worth ordering because I may feature your review next week (or take a road trip myself).

ALSO.. Costco quietly made a solid change to its famous $1.50 hot dog and soda combo. You can now swap the fountain drink for a bottled water instead, so if soda isn’t your thing, Costco finally has you covered!

✈️ Friday Is The New Tuesday: Expedia’s latest Air Hacks report says Friday is now the cheapest day to book flights, while Tuesday remains one of the cheapest days to fly domestically. August is also shaping up to be one of the cheapest months of the year to travel, and now is prime time to book.

✈️ Search Multiple Airports At Once: I always recommend typing multiple airport codes into Google Flights instead of searching just one airport. Around cities like New York or Los Angeles, the savings can be surprisingly large. PRO TIP: If you’re booking a layover, “try the multi-city search” breaking up a layover into two one-way segments is sometimes cheaper, particularly with American Airlines.

✈️ Fly On The Holiday Itself: Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day, and even July 4th flights are often dramatically cheaper because most travelers avoid flying during the actual holiday. For families, the savings can easily outweigh the inconvenience.

✈️ Early Flights Usually Cost Less: A 6:00 AM flight is rarely fun, but it is often far cheaper than the same route later in the day. My favorite part is these flights also have the best on-time performance. Red eyes can work the same way if you are trying to save money instead of sleep.

✈️ When In Doubt, Hold The Fare: United, American Airlines and many competitors will let you hold the price of your fare for 24 hours - 7 days depending on a nominal fee. For last minute bookings or busy times of the year like Thanksgiving, this is a great way to lock in fares and rebook if need be. You’d be surprised how much fluctuation can happen in a week.

✈️ Check The Airline App After Booking: Airlines often push cheaper seat options through their apps on a regular basis. I have seen deals appear and even special holiday weekend sales that never showed up by email.

Here are some recent subscriber submitted money-saving tips:

Gary writes: “Great Newsletter as always, Matt. We especially appreciated the Google hack for hotels. Perhaps you’ve covered this before, but whenever possible we use Drury Inns and Suites. Fine hotels on a par with Holiday Inns, etc. and always excellent facilities and service, but here’s the kicker: in addition to the fairly standard free breakfast, Drury Inns and Suites has what they call their “Kickback,” a free dinner, not fancy but always satisfying, and (for those so inclined) three free drinks at the bar. Great deal for my wife and me, but especially for families because ALL of the kids eat free.”

Shirley writes: “This is in response to LeeAnn who mentioned sticker shock on TemperPedic mattresses. Once we tried out a Helix Elite mattress, my husband said hey what about if we put our Tempur-pedic mattress in the guestroom, and we get this mattress instead? We are in our early 60s and wake up every time we roll over on the Tempur-pedic, (Our bodies don’t move as easily as as they used to, the Tpedic is in great shape but it is 16 yrs old). We have had zero adjustments to this new hybrid mattress and sleep much better and cooler on it as well!”

Mary Ellen writes: “I can't thank you enough for turning me on to the Live Nation promo! When I first saw/read it I though "yeah, right", but decided to look into it anyway. OMG!!! I scored back-to-back tickets at the Mystic Lake Amphitheater in Minnesota to see Toto and Christopher Cross and The Romantics on August 26th and then Santana and the Doobie Brothers then next day! And, the prices were amazing!! By the way, I'm 80 years old and haven't been to a concert since forever.”

Reply to this email and share it with me! If I feature your tip, I’ll give you a shoutout in next week’s newsletter!

(Include your first name + the state you live in so I can add it to the shoutout)

To get your question answered, simply respond to this email with any money-saving related question and feel free to include your first name so I can address you properly.

💡 Amy Asks: “I dropped multiple streaming platforms in the past few months due to the insanity of the price increases. I got a year subscription to Peacock last year (thanks to your tip in a newsletter) and was wondering if you knew when others would have a special promotion? I'm interested in HBO the most”.

Hi Amy! Honored to have you as a long-time newsletter subscriber! I expect to see some streaming deals tied to Amazon Prime Day in late June. There is a slight chance we will see something tied to HBO Max but otherwise, the HBO and HBO Max streaming discounts are a “like clockwork” staple for Black Friday and Cyber Monday, and I don’t expect anything major until then.

💡Daryl Asks: “Hi, Matt! I am in the market for a new recliner. I’m not a small man so if you could consider that, comfort is appreciated. And I prefer cloth to leather. When is the best time to replace my old recliner? Are there any sales coming up, like Memorial Day, that I should keep in mind?

Hi Daryl, I know exactly what type of recliner you’re referring to and these are always a major discount Memorial Day, with a second chance sale that’s usually slightly stronger 4th of July. If you’re a warehouse club member, there are select furniture sales through May at Costco and Sam’s Club, but the last month of May everything will come alive. Any major furniture shop (including local stores I always love to support) will have solid deals.

💡 Sji104 Asks: “I am a huge fan. I need to buy a TV- 55-60 inches. Not a Sam’s member. Any tips on a good deal? Would June be a good month to buy one?”

Thank you for the compliment and you nailed the timing. I can confirm with 100% certainty there will be exceptional TV deals within the last two weeks of June tied to Amazon’s new earlier Prime Day. Possibly stronger than that, an expected retaliatory tech sale from Best Buy on TV’s may bring steeper discounts during that same time frame.

Every week in this section of the newsletter, I share some of the most interesting and helpful money-related articles I’ve read over the past week. I hope you find these as valuable as I did!

💵 “May 2026 Mortgage Outlook” - READ HERE.

💵 “6 money skills Gen Z wishes their parents taught them” - READ HERE.

💵 “Mindless habits that are wasting your money” - READ HERE.

I hope all the moms and grandmothers had a fantastic Mother’s Day yesterday and we will all have many sales to celebrate next week with even more holiday weekend deals expected to drop early.

Happy Savings!👋

The Deal Guy (Matt Granite)