Discounts

Luxury retailers are looking for new customers, and they've found them at the outlet mall. Faced with unprecedented sales declines, Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue and Nordstrom are among a growing cadre of high-end retailers building more outlets, where sales have fared much better.

Julia Scott has negotiated for discounts on clothes, hotel rooms, jewelry, even photocopies and pizza slices. On Sunday, the consummate bargain hunter staged a Frugal Festival to celebrate the art of penny-pinching. By the looks of the crowd that gathered at Woodley Park in Van Nuys for the event, Scott has company these days. About 300 people showed up to snap up coupons, exchange ideas on saving money and swap free items.

2 Perched atop Mt. Hollywood in Griffith Park, the observatory is an excellent, cheap getaway date that doesn't require much getting away. Go at night and the sparkling sea of lights makes for a view so spectacular that you'll almost forget about the stifling traffic you had to sit through to get there. There's plenty to do at Griffith Observatory to fill the dreaded silence that would be inescapable on a first-date dinner.

If you're willing to wade through the remnants of another person's life, you can find bargains at an estate sale. You just may have to knock a dealer out of the way to get to them. ? Antique sellers, book collectors and EBay users show up to these events early. Often they're armed, with magnifying loupes to scrutinize figurines, research books on vintage furniture or an iPhone to check price comparisons. ? The professionals are looking for the same things you are: deals.

As fellow passengers at Los Angeles International Airport grumbled about soaring airfares, Gilda Chavez-Diaz flew home to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., last week. The cost of the round trip? $18. "People don't believe me," Chavez-Diaz said with a smile as she boarded a Spirit Airlines flight. The "ultra low cost" carrier offered a promotion Chavez-Diaz seized on after receiving an e-mail from the airline. It wasn't the only deal she's found lately.

Here's an upside to soaring food prices: big gains for certain websites. At www.allrecipes.com, traffic to low-budget and quick-and-easy recipes has nearly doubled over the last three months. Www.thriftyfun.com recorded more than 4 million page views in March, almost twice the number than in the same month last year. And www.hillbillyhousewife.com, not known for recipes involving truffle oil or sauteed chanterelles, has more visitors too. People who get a kick out of saving are eager for ideas.

At a tourist information center near the Roman Forum, I asked an attendant whether anything was free in the Eternal City. He looked at me strangely, then came up with a response. "Si, signora," he said, pointing to the brochures on the countertop, "all these are free." It's like that in Rome, where prices for everything are high, even before you get sticker shock from exchanging dollars to euros. Here's how a budget traveler can try to make do.

Summer in Las Vegas means triple-digit temperatures and torrid travel deals. And this year, the discounts may sizzle. That's because, reversing the trend over the last several years, Sin City's tourist business is slipping. Through March this year, gaming revenue and hotel rates dipped about 3% from the same period last year. Conventional wisdom blames high oil prices, the mortgage meltdown and a sluggish U.S. economy.

Vegas wants you back -- again. A "flyback" from MGM makes it easy enough to hop on the big bird and get away from L.A. for adult Disneyland. Deal: Stay two nights at the MGM Grand and get a voucher for $300 (maximum) airfare credit for a return trip. The offer also includes $25 credit toward food or entertainment (restrictions apply), 15% off spa services and select retail outlets, and two free poolside cocktails.

Air travelers suffering from summer sticker shock might find some relief this fall. With demand for air travel falling faster than Olympic swimming records, some carriers are slashing autumn fares to levels not seen since oil prices began skyrocketing last year. "It's a good time to fly if you want to put up with the grief," said Joe Brancatelli, editor of the business travel website JoeSentMe.com.