ABOUT US
Thrifty Hip is all about doing cool epic shit.
We help you do it on a budget.
A local guide. A lifestyle curated by neighborhood artists and musicians dedicated to helping you get the most of your entertainment dollar.
The story of the world’s 1st happy hour search engine
ThriftyHip (aka “ThriftyHipster”) was started in 2005 by University of MN graduate Matthew Dowgwillo. A super social, and broke college student, who lived impressively well despite his minimum wage research job. He loved his local bars and restaurants, and by sticking to happy hours, he was able to live it up on a budget!
(pic of matt on his bike)
“I would go out 5-7 times a week, and somehow I was always able to pay for it… I lived in the UMN ‘Ski House’ and I remember going to meet up with friends at Sally’s one day, but I arrived at 6:33pm. I remember arguing, “it’s only 3 minutes! Why should I pay double!!?!?”
For Matt, saving money on fun things was what allowed him to do so much fun, cool shit.
“That night I searched all over for a site that listed all the happy hours, it just seemed natural to me: people like to drink, people like to have fun, people either need (or at least prefer) a great deal to do it… but no site was found…”
He was just graduating college, and had no money (and what little he did was spent on beer), but had free time. He bought some books on PHP and made the first site. It was pretty bad, but he did it! He and his friends would bike around, take photos of places, and add the happy hour info to the site.
“After a few months we started to see WAY more people using it than we knew. I picked up some extra shifts in the research lab and got an artist buddy (who now runs MPLSART) and fellow college student to help. I was paying him all the money from my extra shifts, but he was giving me a crazy good bargain. The ThriftyHipser was born.”
“And 10 years later we’re able to boast that we are still here. We run the most accurate and best happy hour app in the world. We’ve gotten to support tons of great local organizations, work with some of the coolest bands, befriended all kinds of people, were original supporters of MN Craft Beer… Twin Cities’ bars & restaurants have some of the best happy hours and food in the nation, and we like to think we played a huge part in that.”
They strive to bring REAL LOCAL KNOWLEDGE to their recommendations. If you’re a tourist, use ThriftyHipster to find what locals do. If you’re a local, use ThriftyHipster to find better values. But no matter who you are, go out, be social, have fun, and know that with ThriftyHipster, you can do whatever you want no matter what your budget.
Support your Local Website:
Please help support your community. We need Writers, Photographers, and quality Thrifty Tips.
Do your friends look to you for advice on what to do? Do you think you are into fun stuff before it’s trendy? Do you know some great places and great money saving tips?
If you’re a super-social, thrifty hipster, who loves local music, taking photos, or writing we’d love to hear from you. We can share our knowledge and help maintain the quality of local businesses. All while helping out fellow fun-lovers.
