Delivery Day!

I love online shopping. I especially LOVE delivery day when my order arrives! Today my reward for purging my closet arrived -- my clothing order from Victoria's Secret.

I'm such a geek...but I love figuring out the cost savings whenever I make an online order. I ended up buying one dress, one pair of corduroy pants and ten tops:

• Black Sweaterdress (originally $58)
• Eva Fit Pant in Washed Corduroy ($39.50)
• Squareneck Puff Sleeve Tee ($19.50)
• V-Neck Puff Sleeve Tee ($19.50)
• Peplum Crewneck Tee ($25.50)
• V-Neck Tee (2 colors at $15.50 each)
• Empirewaist Scoopneck Tee ($25.50)
• Cotton Featherweight Crewneck Sweater ($38)
• Ruffleneck Scoopneck Tee ($19.50)
• Reversible Tee ($18.50)
• Cross-Front Tank Top ($29.50)

This purchase at regular retail price (including tax) would have been $352.35. Since most of the items were on clearance AND I got an extra 20% off, I only paid $110.04! That works out to be just about 31% of the retail price. Not a bad deal.

Frugal Friday: Use AAA Discount!

After the Back-to-School clothes shopping I did the other day, I just needed to get new shoes for the girls. Wednesday, I braved a stop at Payless Shoe Source with both of them. Not something that I really plan on doing again...at least not with both of them. It wasn't horrible but it wasn't relaxing either. While I tried to help Ella find some shoes, Lucie just kept pulling shoes out of their boxes and saying "Meh-nee Shoe" which I think meant "Meli's shoes". Apparently, she thought they all looked like something her cousin wears.

Unfortunately, I didn't find any of the shoes that we liked in Ella's size in the Payless store. So, I figured that since we had her feet sized at the store, it would be safe to order online. Payless has their BOGO (Buy One Get One Half Off) sale, but their shoes are still more than I would like to spend. I remembered a friend saying that she likes to buy her children's shoes at Target. It seems that whenever I drive 30 minutes to the nearest Target, I never find anything in Ella's size that is within my budget. So, I tried online and found some great deals for both girls - as in some clearance shoes for only $6.50! We did splurge on some "princess" shoes for $12.99. I figured they will work great with the Cinderella Dress Ella will most likely wear for Halloween as well as most of her dresses. (Yeah, I don't do that whole no white after Labor Day.)
I also found a few pairs of shoes for Lucie including these little babies that were on clearance for $6.50.

Overall, Target has much better prices than Payless especially since you can find some clearance deals which Payless doesn't seem to have. But, you can get better prices at either of these stores if you are a Southern California AAA member! Just register online with AAA and you can access some online and in-store deals for shoes. To see what discounts they offer, log onto AAA, click on the DISCOUNTS tab, select RETAIL. See their website for details on how to get discounts including these:

• Target.com - Get 10% off your entire purchase, but you must link onto Target.com through AAA. Discount is automatically applied at check-out.
• Payless Shoes - Get 10% off regularly priced merchandise in-store. Cannot be combined with any other offers including BOGO. Just show your AAA card when you make your in-store purchase.
• Shoes.com - Get 20% off your entire purchase but you must link onto shoes.com through AAA. Free Shipping and Returns.

For other money-saving ideas, visit LifeAsMom for Frugal Friday.

Back to School Clothes

It's that time again to start searching for the girls' fall clothes. As I've said before, I do not like to go shopping at stores with kids. Grocery shopping is fine, but for anything else it can be too much of a chore. The thought of shopping for clothes with the girls is just exhausting. So, I did what I usually do, and shopped online.

One of my favorite places to shop is The Children's Place. We don't have one anywhere near us so I shop online...and that is just fine by me. Truth be told, I get much better deals online than I ever have in one of their stores. Their clothing lines are very easy to mix and match and they have a nice selection of solid pieces along with usually funky prints that feature hearts, flowers and butterflies. As for shipping, they just charge a flat rate of $5 per order. Can't beat that...that's less than I would pay in gas money to head out of town to the big stores.

Since Ella has been growing like a weed, she needed some new dresses, shirts, hoodies and pants. I managed to buy all of this for her:

1 hoodie, 2 dresses, 3 t-shirts, 1 halter top & 2 pairs of yoga pants

The regular retail of these items was $106. Since all of these items were on sale AND I had a 15% coupon that they sent me in the mail, I only paid $49.24 plus tax and shipping.

Although Lucie has Ella's hand-me-downs, some aren't in the greatest shape...plus I couldn't resist the chance to buy them matching clothes. So, I got this for her:

1 pair of jeans, 1 pair of yoga pants, 2 t-shirts and 2 tunic tops

The regular retail of these items was $63.50. These items were on sale as well AND I had the 15% off so I only paid $24.60 plus tax and shipping.

I got a $189 purchase (with tax and shipping) for only $85. Not a bad deal. However, I just checked their website today and some of the items I purchased are even cheaper today! Oh well.

One other tiny perk was that I am getting 2% of the purchase back because I linked to The Children's Place website through Ebates. If you shop online, I suggest joining Ebates (free membership), linking to stores through their website for % back or coupons AND checking RetailMeNot for possible coupon codes.

I love online shopping...and coupon codes!

Since I'm doing this remodel of the girls' room rather stealth-like, I've resorted to shopping online mostly. Plus, it's just much easier than taking two kids with me to stores out of town...only to find that the store doesn't have what I want in stock. Now, I hate paying for shipping but thus far I've gotten around it for the most part with coupon codes.

The other day I found an adorable lamp online and knew that Ella would love it. Not only is it pink, but it has beads and a pull-chain. (She LOVES the pull-chains on the wall lamps in my room!) Since it was reasonably priced, I thought about ordering it right away but didn't since I'm a procrastinator AND agonize over every purchase. But, I'm sooo glad that I didn't buy it then because today it was $10 off the regular price! Then I went to RetailMeNot and found a coupon code for $10 off any purchase. That more than covered the shipping costs AND the tax. I love it when a plan comes together! (Name that show.)

Then, to top it all off, I got 4% back on the purchase from Ebates! If you haven't heard of Ebates, it's a website that links you to other websites where you buy stuff. By linking through your Ebates account, you have access to special coupons and/or a percentage of your purchase in cash back. If you're interested in signing-up, click here -- it only takes seconds and you'll get a $5 signing-up bonus after you make your first purchase by clicking though Ebates. It links to some of my favorite websites -- Children's Place (3%), Shutterfly (10%), Target (4%) and Borders (4%). To see if a store you want to shop at participates in Ebates, just click on STORES on the Ebates homepage and find the alphabetical listing. If you're going to shop online anyway, it's worth clicking through Ebates to see if you can save a little money. Happy Shopping!

Rite Aid Deals

Guess how much I paid for all this stuff at Rite Aid...really, just guess. If it helps, the regular retail would be $26.85. Now that I've just typed that, it seems like an insane price to pay for what's in the picture. There is NO WAY that I would ever pay pay $26.85 for that. But, I would pay...

$1.66.

No, that's not a typo. $1.66 is what I will have paid after I get my Single Check Rebates. Crazy, I know. Everything was on sale, I used a couple coupons and they're are some free items after the Single Check Rebates. Here's the deal breakdown along with a couple of frugal tips:

• Tootsie Pops Miniatures (135 count) - These are on sale for 50% regular retail thanks to the post-Halloween clearance. Our local Rite Aid has a HUGE SELECTION of candy right now...and not just the cheesy stuff...the good stuff and lots of it. I don't think they did well on there candy sales this year. This particular bag was a mere $2.49 and will give me 135 pops worth of bribery with my three-year old.


• Kotex - These are on sale for $0.99 and I had a $0.75 coupon.


• GUM Toothbrush (2 pack) - These are on sale for $1.99 and have a $1.99 Single Check Rebate. So, they're free! Brett and I usually use Sonic Care toothbrushes, but I figure that I can use them in an Operation Christmas Child shoebox or stash them away for guests who forget their toothbrushes. Can't beat free.


• VO5 Shampoo & Conditioner - I confess I really don't use this stuff for my hair...but I do use it. We usually use the shampoo as body wash. Yeah, I used to think it was weird that Brett did this before we got married (he grew up doing this). But, once we got married, we were living in Santa Barbara on my $12/hour job and he was in grad school. So, spending $0.79 on a bottle of "body wash" made sense. As for the conditioner, I use it as a frugal substitute as shaving cream. It works really well and is cheaper than shaving cream. Plus, we can use it on Ella's hair in the bath AND mix it with water in a spray bottle to make some cheap hair detangler.


• SoyJoy Bars - Honestly, I've never had them before...but I sure will try them when I get paid to do it! Yes, that's right, this week you can actually make money by purchasing these at Rite Aid. They are on sale for 10 for $5 with a $5 Single Check Rebate. Combine that with this $3 coupon off the purchase of 5 and they're actually paying you to eat them. Not a bad deal.

At select California Stores, these deals are good 10/31 through 11/6. In all other stores, these deals are good 11/2 through 11/8.

Retail Me Not

Now that Halloween is over, it's not too early to start thinking about the holidays and Christmas shopping! Because we live in a semi-rural area, my shopping options are somewhat limited. If I'm looking for Danish knicknacks, I'm all set. But, really, how many people out there are seriously excited about finding a Danish knicknack under their tree?! So, most of the time, I have to drive at least 30 minutes to get to "normal" stores for holiday shopping. But these days, an out-of-town shopping outing with a 3-year old and a 10-month old is rather exhausting. So, if I can I shop online. Yeah, I've got to pay for shipping, but in most cases I'd spend that much on gas just getting to a store. So, I do enjoy shopping online when I can.

That is why I am soooo excited about my recent discovery -- RetailMeNot.com! Recently, I read an article about saving money online in Reader's Digest, and it mentioned RetailMeNot. Basically, it's a website where you can search for coupon codes at major online stores. You just type in the store you're looking for and it will generate a list of coupon codes along with user feedback. It is fantastic! So far, I've used it twice and gotten 10% off my order at one store and a free $75 handbag at another. Now, it doesn't work with every store -- I looked up Nordstroms and they have requested that RetailMeNot remove them from their site and they did. But, it is definitely worth a shot if you're going to be shopping online. I know that I'll be checking it before I order anything online from now on.