Saturday, May 29, 2010

slickdeals.net

A friend of mine at Toddler Storytime told me about this website: slickdeals.net
People post all kinds of great deals from $5 shoes at Land's End or $2 tank tops at Wet Seal. There are also household items, video games, etc. Might find something you need/want :)

Restaurant.com

restaurant.com

This website is really cool. Just enter your zip code and it finds restaurants that are offering discounted gift certificates (most are 10 dollars for a 25 dollar gift certificate). Make sure you read the fine print though. Some require that you spend a minimum amount at their restaurant. Some don't require this and those are the best deals!

Friday, May 28, 2010

VS Semi Annual Sale

It's going on now. Get your undies, bras, and other items at way below their retail prices. victoriassecret.com Spend $100 and you get free shipping.

Memorial Day Savings

Just a quick little post...A ton of places are having sales this weekend, if there is something that you know you are going to buy in the future and its on sale this weekend and the funds are available to buy it now, why not? Save a little money by spending it now.

Carter's and OshKosh are having big sales this weekend as well as Stride Rite for all you moms out there. Get on their email lists to get valuable coupons! I have coupons for Stride Rite, Osh Kosh and Carters in my inbox, email me if you want me to forward them to you.

Cable Television

I know that I will probably get some flack for this post, however, I think I may have a valid point that could be appealing to some. What does cable TV cost these days? I think I saw a commercial for Dish Network for like 39.99 a month. I think that's the cheapest I have seen....Anyways, what if you cut cable TV out of your life? I mean, you can watch just about any show on the internet these days and those you can't you could always rent from Netflix, right? So think about it, forty bucks a month times twelve is 480. You could be saving yourself almost 500 dollars a year without it!

You can still get TV channels by buying an antenna and with HD they come in pretty good. We get 11 channels including all the major non-cable networks. I find myself filling in the time that I would have been channel surfing with other endeavors and spending more quality time with my son. Learn a language, start a blog :), read a book instead. There are countless possibilities of how you could spend your time. Any other suggestions?

Thursday, May 27, 2010

Skinny Dip

If you live in or near Virginia Beach or Chesapeake and you haven't tried The Skinny Dip Frozen Yogurt Bar you are seriously missing out. Check out their website: http://www.ilovetheskinnydip.com/. It's worth a trip...and its super cheap!

Your local library

Looking for something to do that could possibly be educational for you or your kids? Check out the programs at your local library. Many libraries offer programs not only for kids (like storytimes and the summer reading program) but also programs for adults. Usually these things are FREE! Why not check it out? You might find something you enjoy doing and meet new people at the same time. You might be able to find a few moms with whom you can coordinate a playgroup.

The Virginia Beach library's website is vbgov.com/libraries. From there you can search the catalog or click on individual libraries and get their information including lists of classes and a library calendar. I find that those people who love books are very passionate about what they do. When in doubt, give your local library a call. Most of the librarians are thrilled to talk to you about what they have to offer at their library.

College Textbooks

There are 3 things you can do with college textbooks after the semester is over.

1) keep them
2) sell them back to the college bookstore
3) put them on half.com and try to sell them yourself

I recommend doing #3 if you have no intention of keeping a certain textbook. Now, this may not be beneficial if you have a lot of science textbooks because let's face it, a new edition comes out like every 2 months...However, books for your "fluff" classes like that copy of Shakespeare's Hamlet or that random anthropology book that was written in the '30's could be useful to someone else. I found that the college bookstore was only willing to give you pittance on a book you sold back (like a few dollars or so.) Creating an account on Half.com allows you to set the price of your book competitively to match those that are selling on the site. You could actually end up getting almost what you paid for the book if demand is high enough. I've sold a number of books on Half.com and even though you know you paid for those books at some point, it's nice to see the half.com transaction deposit after the selling period ends. Sometimes I forget I sold things so when I go to budget and make sure there is enough money to pay bills, there's the added bonus of money I forgot existed. :)

When you need to buy textbooks, I always checked Half.com first to see if the price was better than my college bookstore. Most of the time it was (despite the fact that I also had to pay shipping). Buying used books also saves you money. If you don't care whether or not someone has highlighted in the book then why not save some dough?

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Land's End


landsend.com

If you have never bought anything from Land's End you are missing out. They have great clothes that are guaranteed (no matter what). I highly recommend shopping their overstocks (which are only online) for great deals. Their stuff washes up nicely and if you are ever dissatisfied you can take it back! You don't even need to send it back to the company, just drop it by your neighborhood Sears for a full refund!

And if that wasn't good enough to get you interested in checking out their stuff, they almost always offer free shipping! Most of their codes have a dollar amount you have to spend, however, if you get their catalogs, there are almost always Free Shipping codes that have no minimum you must spend on the inside cover insert...You can use them twice before the expiration date too (just in case you need to send stuff as a gift as well as send stuff to yourself as a present :)

It's a win-win situation. In the words of my sister-in-law Lindsay, "They are almost paying me to buy [them]!" You won't be disappointed...

P.S. If you have a USAA Rewards Credit Card, go to the USAA webpage and connect to their Rewards Shopping. Connect to Lands End through your credit card and get 4 points per dollar you spend in Rewards Points....Bonus!!!


The current free shipping coupon with no minimum is ISLAND PIN: 9172 expires 6/8/10

Groupon.com


Groupon


If you haven't tried this site out yet I highly recommend that you do. It doesn't cost anything to join and you can set your preferences to not receive daily emails if you like. This website provides daily deals that are ridiculously discounted since they have an agreement with each of the businesses to provide a certain number of customers from the sale of each Groupon. You are never obligated to buy anything. They cater to a number of cities all across the U.S.--Hampton Roads, Philly, Boston, Baltimore, etc. It's definitely worth a few minutes of your time...who knows, they may offer a coupon for something that you would already buy! Why not save money on something you are going to buy anyway?

First Post

Ok, so I've never felt like I've had anything important to say that would warrant the creation of a blog. However, over the past several weeks I've been thinking to myself, "Wouldn't it be great and beneficial to others if I share some of the things I have discovered to save money and to maximize cash savings without sacrificing certain luxuries?" I feel like I could be helping out my fellow moms, recent college grads, the cash strapped etc. rather than not sharing some of the great things I have discovered. So why not? Here is my blog containing all these things that I find to be great deals, cash minimal and great freebies (which are the best kind of bargain!)

So I'm going to post these things I come across that I find particularly valuable. I'll try not to limit my posts just to things in this area but things that can also be valuable nationally (perhaps internationally?). I promise not to bore you with my life's inane details in the process either.