Taking Advantage of Clearance Clothing

Buying clothes for children can get expensive really quickly. We have been very fortunate in that we have been given a lot of clothing for my daughter. There is still some clothing that needs to be purchased though. To help keep my costs down I have been trying to pick up clearance items at the end of the season for the next year. Just this past weekend I was able to pick up several tops for her for $1.97 each and I even got an adorable skort for $4.97. To help keep up with what clothing she has in storage I decided to start an inventory. I just made up a master list of what clothing she has in what size. I'm trying to keep it simple so the list is something like this:
Tank Top - Purple - 2T
Jean Shorts - 2T
etc.
This list helps me keep tabs on what I already have so that I don't buy too much of one thing and not enough of another. By creating this list I discovered that my daughter has plenty of tops for next summer, but she needs some shorts. So now I know to keep my eyes open for clearanced shorts and to stop buying tops.

Do you buy ahead for your children? If so, how do you keep track of what you have?

Coupon Perceptions

During my drive in to this work this morning the radio hosts mentioned that a study had just been done that found that less then 2% of coupons are ever redeemed. The reason they gave for this was that most people perceive coupon users as being cheap. Now, I am a coupon user and I have been for several years now. I personally don’t care if other people think that I’m cheap. When I look at how much I am saving it makes it all worthwhile. This whole concept of people worrying about how strangers perceive them and not wanting to look cheap amazes me. This is exactly the kind of attitude that got us into the financial crisis the country is in now. So many people worry about looking successful and having all the trappings of the good life. They don’t seem to realize that buying that “stuff” on credit today means you will be paying a lot more for it in the future. Eventually you have to pay the piper and so many families are now unable to do that.

This reminds me of a conversation I had earlier this year. I was outside talking with one of the kids in the neighborhood when another neighbor’s girlfriend pulled up in a BMW. The kid commented that it was a really nice car and that she must have a lot of money. My response to him was that the car you drive has absolutely no reflection on the amount of money she has. There are millionaires out there driving old clunkers and there are plenty of people out there driving luxury cars and hiding them from the repo man. You just really don’t know. He was amazed to hear me say this and I could tell from the look on his face that he had never even thought about that. I can only hope that what I said sunk in. It was definitely something that he needed to hear. Heck, there are a lot of adults out there that need to hear this too.

Reward Program Thoughts

First I want to state that I am a fan of participating in any reward programs that you can for products that you like or use frequently. Two of the programs that I have been using lately are the My Coke Rewards and the Pepsi Stuff programs. For both of these programs you get codes under the cap or in the boxes of participating Coke and Pepsi products. You then enter the codes online to accumulate points and redeem those points for your rewards. I use the Coke points to get coupons for free Coke products and I use the Pepsi points to get free music from Amazon.

To help get the rewards faster I get points from my family members and friends. I told them about the programs in case they were interested in participating in them themselves. None of them were, but I was able to get a few people to save their codes for me. We have also picked up codes in other places too. When I was leaving the grocery store one day I saw an empty Pepsi box in one of the shopping carts. It still had the code for the points attached so I grabbed it. We have also come across caps laying on the ground when we are out walking in our neighborhood. Keep your eyes open and you just may come across some free points too.

What reward programs do you participate in? Have you gotten any good rewards from them?

Drug Store Deals

Lately I have really been paying attention to the deal at the drug stores in our area - CVS, Rite Aid and Walgreens. They all have their quirks, but if you pay attention, you can get some good deals at all of them each week. Thanks to them, I no longer "buy" shampoo, conditioner, deodorant, toothbrushes, body wash, lotion, band aids and so forth unless it is free or less then a dollar. I have quite the stash of these items now and my husband is starting to question where we are going to keep it all. So take the time to review the ads for your local drug stores and check out their rebate programs. You just might be able to pick up some great deals.

Frugal Appreciation & Giveaway

This weekend I was at Starbucks with my husband and I used the last of the gift card I got free from My Points. After I got my drink, my husband asked for my gift card. He said he wanted to put some money on it for me because he knows that I use it as a special treat for myself. Imagine my surprise when he handed me back my card and said he had put $100 on it for me. He said that he did it because I have been doing so well with saving us money on all the stuff we need. He said my savings has more then paid for my card and that the card would probably last me the rest of the year anyway. It made my morning to know that he appreciated my efforts that much.

When he refilled my card he also picked up some of the Pick of the Week cards they had. I already had some of them, so I am going to give them away here. Complete the form and I will pick a winner at random on Saturday, July 19. I will email the winner the codes to input in iTunes to download the songs. There are a total of three songs.
#1 Priscilla Ahn - Dream
#2 James Hunter - Jacqueline
#3 Pacifika - Me Cai

Customer Service

This weekend I was out at a party with my husband when I noticed that the sole of my sandals had completely split. These sandals were only a year old and they weren’t cheap. I had picked them up at Aerosoles last summer when I needed a comfortable slip on casual shoe. So when we left the party we headed over to the Aerosoles store where I had purchased the sandals. I wanted to get a new pair of shoes and I figured we could get their customer service number while we were there so I could call about my shoes. I love Aerosole shoes and have quite a few pairs of them. This is the first time I have had a problem with them. My thought was that I would call customer service and try to get some of my money back or at least a discount on a new pair of shoes.

When we got to the Aerosole store I started looking at the shoes and my husband went over to talk to the woman working there. He explained the problem with the sandals and that I was there to pick up a new pair. When we showed her my broken shoe she agreed that they shouldn’t have broken like that and said that if I brought in my original receipt they would give me back my full purchase price in store credit. After I found a pair of shoes that I liked and was ready to check out she asked if I gave my phone number when I purchased the shoes. I was pretty sure that I had so tried looking up the receipt that way. She found it fairly quickly and printed out the receipt, gave my the store credit and put it towards my new shoes. The new shoes were on clearance so I was able to get the new shoes and still have a $16 credit towards the next pair I buy. I was very pleased with the resolution of this situation. I have been telling everyone about my new “free” shoes and the great customer service I received. Thank you Aerosoles; I will definitely be back to buy more shoes when your full Fall line is out.

So if you have a product that you don’t feel lived up to its expectations, don’t be afraid to talk to someone at the store about it or call their customer service number. Not every company will give you a great response, but you just might get an even better response then you expected.

Surprise Bargains

This weekend we were at our local fish store. My husband had promised our daughter we would stop there for her to watch the fish if she took a good nap. She did so we had to stop. When we arrived I was surprised to see that it was their 10th anniversary and they were having giveaways. So my husband entered the drawing and I took our daughter around to watch some of the fish. We wound up being there longer then expected because he decided to also buy some fish. We're glad he did though because while they were getting the fish they called his name as a winner in the drawing. You had to be present to win so if we had left we wouldn't have gotten a prize. The end result of our trip to the fish store, some new fish for $11 and a new light for the aquarium. It is a very nice light too. It even still had the price tag on it so it would have cost us $300 to buy this light. We were both very happy with our visit.