Answer: Don’s Leather Cleaning (3713 E. Lake St., Minneapolis, 612-721-4881 or 1-888-443-3227) will buff them clean for $30 so they’re ready to wear in the fall. On a humid day like today, Uggs are the last thing on your mind, but the off-season is a good time to clean them when the service is on sale. 

Now through the end of the month, Don’s is running a special on all leather items brought in to clean. Bring in one item and get a 20 percent discount, two items for a 25 percent discount and three or more to get 30 percent off. If Don’s location isn’t convenient, ask your regular dry cleaner if they use Don’s (most cleaners in the state send their leather there), and ask if they will honor the discount.

Besides Uggs, Don’s cleans many other leather and suede products, including jackets or coats with leather trim.

Want to try cleaning your Uggs yourself? Here is one recommended method from Wiki.  Dart Poach, owner of Don’s Leather, suggests that the water and vinegar mixture will work for touch ups and light dirt but not on skanky, salt-stained boots. For light cleaning Poach suggests cleaning in stages. Don’t try to get the dirt out all in one pass. Gently clean, let it dry and go at it again. If the dirt is stubborn, add a small dab of soap such as Woolite (less than a drop) to the water and vinegar mix. Poach said that one thing a consumer can’t do that Don’s does, is to add color to restore the Uggs to  their original look.  Â

Get 50 percent off all perennials, annuals and shrubs now at Linder’s Greenhouse seasonal flower marts. Check the website for nearly 50 locations, or call 651-488-1927. Some locations will  close for the summer earlier than others. A few will remain open into early July. The flower marts are continually restocked despite the sale, so check back if you don’t see what you want. The sale does not apply to all items in the garden center on Larpenteur Avenue in St. Paul. Keep receipts and tags for Linder’s generous two-year guarantee on perennials.

Hardcore bargain hunters will find lower prices on some plants at big box stores even during Linder’s half-off sale, but Linder’s takes excellent care of its plants, and its two-year guarantee is better than almost any other nursery in the country and definitely better than at any big box store.  I have returned a perennial or two that died over the winter and have never had a problem getting my money back at Linder’s. Â

Molly Snyder of St. Paul has saved nearly $2,400 in cash with the paperless coupon site Upromise. The company encourages savers to put the savings toward a college fund for their kids, but as Snyder said in the interview, it’s not a requirement. If you’re a frequent shopper at Rainbow and CVS and online stores, it might be worth it to you.

Coupons are downloaded online and then automatically stored on your electronically swiped frequent shopper card. Snyder saves more by getting a 1 percent rebate with a Citi Upromise credit card. (No fee).

Click to see the Dollar Duo video with Molly.

There is a lot of markup on clothing. That’s why savings of 40 percent or less aren’t usually worth writing about unless it’s an exclusive designer. But Jos. A. Bank for men is discounting its entire stock in stores and online 50 percent, except shoes, through Tuesday June 16. And for each $100 spent, get an additional $25 discount, which boosts the discount to a little more than 60 percent. Twin Cities shoppers can find locations in Eden Prairie, Edina, Maple Grove, Roseville and Woodbury, but online shoppers should check out the “on sale” section. The clearance doesn’t get the additional 50 percent discount, but I saw several of Bank’s top-of-the-line men’s suits (regularly nearly $1,000) for less than $300.

I’ve seen better discounts at Bank’s like the buy one suit at 60 percent off and get two free or the 70 percent off all cashmere offered last year but no storewide sales like this. Guys who wear dress shirts a lot should get one of the no-iron shirts (reg. $98), rated a “best buy” by the Wall St. Journal. I have several items from Bank’s and I’m happy with the quality, although recently I’ve noticed goods manufactured in China. Anyone else have a comment on the quality?

BTW, check out my semi-annual sale calendar in Tuesday’s Dollars & Sense. It’s a keeper, if I don’t say so myself. It contains nearly 50 of the best sales happening locally between now and December. Â

I need your help. I’m writing a consumer quiz and trying to come up with a list of questions to stump, er, educate readers. Send me your questions and I’ll try to put them in a multiple choice format. Try to keep them somewhat specific such as “My dehumidifier never seems to last more than a season or two. What retailer can I buy from that will stand behind it for longer than 90 days?” A question such as “Why is Whole Foods so expensive?” is too broad and a bit snarky. Feel free to send several questions and if you want to answer your own questions too, so much the better. I’ll check them out and answer the the ones that don’t require too much research time. The quiz will run in my column and online June 30. If you’d rather send them to my personal email, send to jewoldt@startribune.com. Thanks!

H&M, including its Mall of America store (952-858-8888) started its summer sale earlier this week in a quiet way. Save 50 percent or more in men’s, women’s and kids departments, including a lot of summer items. Look for the red tags to find the sale merch.

Many readers often get wistful remembering the Rivertown Trading sales that sold clearance merchandise from catalogs such as Wireless and Signals. The sales are long gone, but through today, June 10, shoppers can shop nostalgically at Wireless and get 20 percent off everything on the site, including clearance, if you use the discount code 24HRSL.

In today’s Dollar Duo video, hear couponista Suman Samtur of New York amaze me with $170 worth of groceries for $21, thanks to coupons. For more information about her supermarket savings programs, go to her website . Samtur’s coupon program is not free. I have always heard that it’s not a good idea to buy coupons but Samtur thinks it can result in significant savings. Anyone else out there who buys coupons and finds it worth the investment? Or not? (Samtur’s program allows you $25 worth for $5).

After dropping its price-matching program in 2002, Target has brought back its price-matching program in Minnesota, at least temporarily.   Last month, Target Corp. has started matching lower prices in competitors’ ads in a pilot program in the downtown Minneapolis and Medina stores, as well as 22 stores in Orlando and 28 in Denver, but Target spokesman David Fransen said the program has now been rolled out quietly to all Minnesota stores. If the program is a success, Target plans to make it nationwide in the fall.   Target dropped the program in 2002, a spokesperson said then, because too much time was spent verifying prices at checkout. This time, verification will be quicker, Target spokeswoman Delia McLinden said, because all matching is done through customer service, not at the checkout lanes.

   Under the new program, customers must bring in the entire ad, which must be current. Competitors’ prices that have expired will not be honored.

   McLinden said the policy was brought back in light of the recession. “We want to speak boldly about value and low prices and give customers peace of mind,” she said.

      Typically, stores that match competitors’ advertised prices have restrictions: no matching of percentage-off promotions, no doubling or tripling of coupons, no matching of “misprinted” advertised prices, Internet prices, nonlocal competitors, limited quantities, closeouts, or buy-one-get-one free coupons.

   Neither Target nor Wal-Mart usually will match prices within its own chain, even though products such as baby formula often have varying prices at stores within a few miles of each other. Why? It all depends on the competition nearby. The consumer’s best bet is always to hope that Target and Wal-Mart are near each other to get the lowest prices.

Target is also honoring the price match program in its Hudson, Wis. store.

Looking for a deal this weekend? Try these:

 Miscellaneous gifts and women’s clothes: Bibelot’s sidewalk sale in St. Paul on Como (2276 Como Av., 651-646-5651). Save 50 percent on gifts, clothing, jewelry, stationery and home. The sale starts at 10 a.m. People start lining up an hour or so before opening.

Air travel: Sun Country is having heckuva deal on flights booked by midnight Friday. Here are the offers:

Home furnishings and design consults: Crate & Barrel (Galleria, Edina, 952-920-2300) starts its summer sale today with 50 percent discounts on selected items. C&B’s sales are always hugely popular and the Edina store is one of the busiest in the country. Also, sign up in the store for a free 45 minute interior design home makeover consultation with one of the store’s consultants. Appointments are usually on a weekday at 11 a.m., 3 p.m. or 6 p.m.

Corningware: Save on a 10-piece set of the French white bake set Corningware from Brand Name Deals (1000 E. Moore Lake Dr., Fridley, 763-572-9800). Regularly $40, BND has the set on sale for $20. Also on sale at BND: Ceiling fans, freestanding air conditioners (not window units), women’s tennis shoes and select videogames.