Five-deal Friday: Save on Groupons, iTunes, sound bars, and more!

Let's kick off the weekend in style: With five -- count 'em, five -- sweet deals. And don't forget: Today is the last day to enter the Cheapskate's NeatConnect contest. That scanner is worth a cool $500, cheeps.

As always, these deals can expire without notice. They're active and available at the time of this writing.

1. A Sony sound bar with 'woofer

Your HDTV? Awesome. Your HDTV's speakers? Barf. Some people don't know how bad they have it, aurally speaking, until they plug in a decent set of external speakers.

Try these: Today only, and while supplies last, Sellout.Woot has the refurbished Sony HT-CT60B sound bar with subwoofer for $69.99, plus $5 for shipping. The inclusion of a subwoofer is a rarity at this price point, but it makes all the difference in the overall quality of the audio.

2. iTunes: $10 for $5

Here's something I haven't seen before: For a limited time, PayPal is offering $10 iTunes digital gift cards for $5. You can buy one for yourself or gift it to someone else. (There are other denominations available, but only the $10 card is on sale.)

Yesterday, PayPal was offering 20 percent off all iTunes gift cards, but by the time I discovered it, they were gone. So there's a good chance this particular offer won't last long either. Grab it while you can!

3. A Groupon coupon

Groupon doesn't always benefit the businesses that use it to attract new customers, but it's usually a pretty sweet deal for the customers themselves. And today it's even sweeter: You can get an additional 15 percent off any Groupon local deal when you apply coupon code FUN15 at checkout.

Update: The code is good only for "local events and activities."

Just head to Groupon and click the Local tab to see what's available in your area. The maximum possible discount is $50, but guess what? I'll take it!

4. Building a better Surface

Recently I've shared some pretty nice deals on refurbished Surface RT tablets -- but always with the sad fact that you'd have to pay $80+ for a Touch keyboard. Bleh.

Here's a better option: While supplies last, DealFisher (via Amazon) has the refurbished Asus VivoTab RT TF600T tablet with keyboard dock for $214.99 shipped. The tablet runs Windows RT, comes with Office 2013, and docks with a keyboard that's actually usable.

I'm not saying this thing is perfect, but I've got one, and in my humble opinion it's way better than the Surface RT. It's sexier, for one thing, and with the dock it feels more like a traditional laptop.

Of note, there's no warranty info listed (other than Amazon's own policy), but most DealFisher refurbs are backed for 90 days.

5. A cheaper 'Cheapskate Rules'

Want to learn how to score more deals on all kinds of tech goodies and services? For the novice (and even intermediate) cheapskate, look no further than ""="">"The Cheapskate Rules: 21 Easy Money-Saving Tech Secrets." At just $4.99, it pays for itself even if you use just one or two of the tips.

But at $2.99, it's practically free! That's the price for this weekend only, so grab copies for yourself and several hundred of your closest friends. Nepotism alert: I know the guy who wrote it. Good dude.

This deal is on the Kindle version of the book, which you can read on just about any device known to man: computers, tablets, smartphones, etc. Prefer print? It's available in that format, too, though it does cost a bit more.

Bonus deal: Wait, a bonus deal on top of five other deals?! Like I said: good dude. This is a repeat of a repeat of a repeat (squared), but I'm always surprised at how many people ask after this product. This weekend only, you can get Digiarty WinX DVD Ripper Platinum for free. Just click Get Giveaway Version, write down (or copy) the code, and then download and install the software. The first time you run it, activate/register it using that code.