If you do any shopping online this season, make sure to search online for any promotional codes that offer a discount or, at the very least, free shipping. There are tons of sites that post online coupon codes for retailers big and small, and a quick search for something like “Banana Republic promo code” or “Circuit City code” will almost always yield something that’s better than nothing.

Finding printable coupons you can use in stores is a bit tougher. Fatwallet.com has a thorough (and continually updated) forum post with tons of online coupon codes and printable in-store coupons, so it’s a great place to start. Here are a few offers that caught my eye:

• 25% off coupon from H&M. (requires email newsletter sign up)
• $30 off a $100 purchase from The Limited (good for my lady friends and the gay men who shower them with gifts)
• $10 off a $30 purchase from Bath and Body Works (because you know someone else will probably get your grandma the 365 Puppies a Year calendar)

And here’s one that I found over at DealCatcher:

• BOGO TV series DVDs at F.Y.E.

Another idea (for gift giving and just to save yourself a buck) is to buy any gift certificate if you can get it for less than its face value. I just discovered restaurant.com, which offers coupons and discounted gift certificates for tons of local restaurants. I haven’t actually tried it, but it seems like a great deal. According to the blurb on the homepage, you can typically buy a $25 certificate for $10. I think there’s usually a catch—you might have to order $50 worth of food to use the certificate, for example. Still, $15 worth of free dinner sounds good to me.

While you’re out shopping, don’t forget to keep your strength up. Low blood sugar can strike at any time, and Sally Field won’t be around to make sure you drink your juice. So, take time out to enjoy a two-for-one deal on Baskin Robbins ice cream cones.

Every time I go to some gay event where people are selling t-shirts, I’m disappointed with how poorly designed everything is. The shirts are huge, the graphics look like something that was slapped together one afternoon in Microsoft Paint, and the stuff on the shirt is usually too embarrassing to wear in public. So, I finally decided to take a chance and print a small run of nicely fitted, super-soft shirts with a design that I hope at least a few gay guys out there (and their beloved female friends) will like. Let me know what you think of the lovely order page I’ve posted at www.frugalfag.com/fashion and tell a friend or two. Without your help, I’ll be forced to give these away as presents for the next 15 years, which would make my  skateboarding, Warcraft-loving little brother very sad.

If you have any questions or trouble ordering, don’t hestitate to email me at frugal[at]frugalfag[dot]com. (And thanks for putting up with my shameless exploitation of your attention. I promise—after this—it’s back to bargains and gossip and the meaning of life for a while.)

Here’s a great coupon that my new favorite reader Ron was kind enough to send my way. From now until December 3rd, you can get 20% off at Macy’s. (Just be sure to read the fine print beforehand. I’d hate for you to go tearing through the store à la Supermarket Sweep, loading five-gallon drums of Chanel No. 5 into a giant cart, only to discover they’re excluded from the coupon.)

Home Republic always has some great stuff on their site and I’ve been meaning to give them a plug for a while. Unfortunately, as luck would have it, their site is down for an overhaul as I’m writing this. In the mean time, you can always check out their ebay store. They’re a bit more grown up than Urban Outfitters and a bit more affordable than Jonathan Adler, which makes them winners in my book.

I saw these pillows a while back on some design blog or magazines or TV show, but I was feeling guilty about buying non-functional decorative accessories so I didn’t buy one. Now with Christmas around the corner, I’m buying all kinds of things for friends and family that they really don’t need which, for some strange reason, makes me fret less about spending more money on stuff I don’t really need, either. I’m even considering buying the regal wall art to go with it, but I’m afraid it might be—as Michael Kors would say—too “matchy matchy.” I’m also a little creeped out by the fact that the Petrie chair shown in the photo matches the Petrie sofa already in my living room. It’s like the Crate and Barrel people planted a camera in one of the 300 C&B products in my home, and are now selling my innermost interior design desires to the highest bidder…but I guess it’s working out well so far. Just to be safe, I’ll start speaking really loudly into my vases about the colors and patterns I’d like to see in next season’s duvets.

Before I venture out to do some bargain hunting in the real world, I did a quick check online for any promising holiday bargains. Here are a few of my favorites so far:

$49.99 HP Photosmart A618 Compact Photo Printer at Circuit City

25% off pillows at West Elm

$20 I Love Lucy (1st Season) at buy.com Buy.com usually has great DVD price specials for the holidays. In addition, you can save $10 when you use Google checkout if you’ve never used it before. Check prices there before you buy DVDs anywhere else.

$20 Arrested Development (1st season) at buy.com

$4.50 Brokeback Mountain at buy.com

$4.75 Mommie Dearest at buy.com

$3.75 First Wives Club at buy.com

$158.99 Sex and the City complete series at Amazon.com

I just got an email about these glasses at World Market and I thought they seemed like a good deal. I normally just drink everything directly out of the bottle/jug, but sometimes you have fancy people stop by and they like to drink from a glass like a British Lord or something, so it’s good to be prepared for that. Don’t forget to sign up for their email list to get their welcome discount coupon!

Arby’s finally sent me a useful coupon, but it’s only good today.

I’m currently reading The Philosophy of Andy Warhol: From A to B and Back Again and it’s just brilliant. The only thing I don’t like about it is that I didn’t write it. I’m thinking about buying copies and leaving them in hotel nightstands to help spread the Wharhol gospel.

The great thing about the book is that it’s incredibly easy to read in short bursts. Each chapter deals with a hot philosophical topic, from love and beauty to work and death. Within each chapter, Andy rants for however long he deems necessary to express his thoughts on a subject. It has a very stream-of-consciousness feel, with the rants running anywhere form a few sentences to several paragraphs.

Here are a few of my favorite revelations:

Andy advocated doing things to keep people’s expectations low so that your average traits and performance suddenly seem exceptional. For instance, he started dying his hair gray in his 20s so that people would think he was older than he really was, but think he looked really good for his age. (I’m now convinced Anderson Cooper has read this book.)

He felt sex was basically a big disappointment, and that looking forward to having sex for the first time is far better than actually doing it. Because kids are learning about sex earlier in life than they used to and people are living much longer, he suggested we should all remain babies longer and not have sex until 40—to ensure we have plenty of time to look forward to it.

He claimed funny people were the only people who interested him, but that being funny isn’t sexy, which meant he could never have sex that was truly engaging. He claimed that if he ever spent time with a “lady of the night,” he’d pay her to tell him jokes.

He believed you should immediately point out all your physical flaws to anyone you’re romantically interested in so they can’t claim you didn’t warn them later in the relationship.

He loved money, mainly because it allowed him to buy a lot of candy. And by candy, I don’t mean nose candy or some other kind of “metaphorical” candy. I mean Hershey bars and Russel Stover’s chocolates.

Surely I’m not the only person who is a little turned on by the shirtless, computer-animated Beowulf that is featured prominently in the trailer for the new Beowulf movie. It seems like everywhere I turn, I keep seeing that toned, pink body all glistening and smooth and ready for a big, naked throw down with Grendel. (Paramount must have found that Italians like half-naked Beowulf shots mixed with a bit of fully naked Angelina Jolie, because the Italian version of the trailer includes both in greater supply than the English versions.)

Until recently, I understood why interactive porn hasn’t found a big audience in the United States. X-rated video games are alive and well in Japan, but they typically feature animé-style cartoon characters. For most American men, I’d imagine the idea of controlling a lesbian love scene between two Sailor Moon cast members isn’t exactly a dream come true. Still, that doesn’t explain why other companies haven’t emerged to create big-budget interactive porn with realistic looking 3-D characters. It’s certainly not because we lack the technology. As Beowulf demonstrates, it’s clearly possible to create sexy, realistic, CGI characters. So why isn’t anyone releasing Beowulf: Serpent Strangler for Xbox 360?

Of course, mainstream movie studios like Paramount probably view porn production as a bit outside their company mission statement, and I’m sure there are all kinds of reasons why it’s not in their best interests to cross that line. But where are the porn studios in all this? It’s not like anyone is buying porn on DVD any more, especially now that sites like youporn, xtube, and pornotube are giving away the milk for free (figuratively—and literally, if you’re into that sort of thing). If nothing else, I’d expect some geeky gay guy with too much time on his hands would have already provided something to hold us over, whipping up a virtual Jake Gyllenhaal or a CGI Orlando Bloom on a MacBook in his basement. Alas, it seems if I want a fully interactive virtual boyfriend, I’m just going to have to create one myself. In the meantime, I’ll settle for the real one I’ve got, despite the fact that he doesn’t strip at the press of a button.

Becoming a successful, underground white rapstress isn’t easy. It’s helpful to have one or more of the following:

1. songs in which you brag about your hotness and/or ability to steal other girls’ boyfriends
2. low-budget music videos complete with lots of graphics and clothing in pink and gold
3. lack of inhibition about your less-than-perfect body

It seems the secret is out and the white-girl indie rap scene is awash in fresh-faced talent—or at least fresh talent with faces of some kind or another. For starters, there’s Leslie and the LY’s, MTV’s very own Chunky Pam, and Princess Superstar (featured below). Of course, I’m always on the lookout for the next big thing. So, if you know of an underappreciated chubby white girl who is jiggling her way up the anglo-neo-feminist-rap charts, do let me know.

I have a lot of odd dreams—like the one in which I’m sitting on a therapist’s couch with cushions made of that dark, sweet bread they serve at Outback Steakhouse. Last week I dreamed I was the head of a huge company and I paid Cher to do the automated voice of our customer service hotline. “Thanks for calling Frugal Corp. If I could turn back time, your approximate wait time would be less than three minutes. However, we’re experiencing unusually high call volumes. Hoh!” More recently, I dreamed a huge marketing company contacted me and asked if I’d like to have my very own Frugal Fag coupon page, allowing me to share huge savings with my readers on brands they already know and love while earning money for every coupon they print.

Well, somebody pinch me because today, I’m proud to announce the launch of Frugal’s Favorite Coupons. (I’ve added a permanent link in the upper left under the Pages section of the main navigation.) You’ll need to use Internet Explorer on a PC to print the coupons—a downer for Mac users, I know. However, I’ve tried it myself on a computer at my office and it really was incredibly easy to use. (The site will ask you to accept a little browser add-on, but it takes all of two seconds to install and it’s not one of those annoying things that takes up permanent space in your toolbar.) I’ve already printed and used several of the coupons at my local Target and it all went off without a hitch.

So, when your cashier asks you how you saved thousands on your bill, say it’s all thanks to FrugalFag.com, home of the wit and wisdom—and incredible coupons—of the cheapest gay man in America.