Maternity for Less

So I'm in the home stretch of my third pregnancy and while my first two pregnancies were over the winter months, I had to purchase some summer maternity wear this time around.  I had tried the resale outlets around us and had no real luck in my size and what I needed.  I hit up Old Navy as they are generally cheaper for clothing in general than some other retailers.  I couldn't believe the prices on some of their maternity stuff.  I was able to find stuff on sale in the past in their maternity section when we lived in another state but the store nearest me here had absolutely nothing on sale.  So where did this leave me?

I had a brilliant idea while standing in the middle of store.  I made a beeline for the back of the store to the clearance section and searched for shirts made of stretchy material a few sizes larger than what I would normally wear (to accommodate a growing belly).  I was able to find 4 tank tops for about $2 each after my 10% off coupon!  I'm still wearing them now at 34 weeks pregnant and they have turned out to be an awesome buy.  

Pants are a bit trickier but anything stretchy and low rise (so your belly can grow) works pretty good too.  You may have to get something in a size or two larger to fit the best and the longest during your pregnancy.  

Pet Food--More Convenient

So my dog doesn't eat the cheapest dog food out there....He eats Blue Buffalo, which costs a decent amount of money but I'm convinced its better for him.  I used to make a trip across town to the local Petsmart to pick up bags of this food (since I could use my Petperks card when it was on sale).  However, there's nothing really on that side of town that I need to get besides dog food.

Today I found a solution.  Petsmart.com offers free shipping on certain brands of dog food (Blue Buffalo is included.)  Not only that but I found a coupon code for $15 off a $75 purchase plus free shipping (which I was already getting...).  It made each bag $44.49 (ie. way cheaper than I've ever paid per bag even with my Petperks card in store.)

Moral: Why should I trek across town when I can get dog food delivered to my door for less than what I'd pay in-store?

Greening Your Babies

I know I've written about this before (in a more brief way) but I thought I'd write something a bit more in depth now that I'm fully committed.  Right before my second child was born I looked into using cloth diapers because a friend of mine on Facebook had mentioned they were going to do so.  I did all kinds of research and decided what we were going to use and just went for it when the diapers I bought fit my little guy (right around the month and a half mark).

My little guy is now 25 months old and we are still holding strong.  I purchased some Bumgenius 4.0's at the very start of our cloth diaper journey and they are still holding strong 2 years later!  I have maybe 20-24 diapers I use on a regular basis doing laundry every 3 days or so.  It is by far the easiest laundry I do since none of it really requires folding and I don't put the covers in the dryer.  The best part is I'm not laying out 40 dollars plus a month in diapers either!

I purchased most of our diapers on a buy 5, get 1 free promotion that Cotton Babies was running.  This promotion is currently running again if you are interested in getting some diapers.  So I saved money there and I bought some baby cloth washcloths at the dollar store for wipes which saves me on disposable wipes too.  (Might as well since I'm doing the laundry anyway).

Not only am I saving money by cloth diapering but I am helping to save the environment by placing fewer disposables in the landfills.  It really is very easy to do and the cost in the long run is proving to be far cheaper than diapers (especially since I'll be able to use these diapers on multiple children).

Interested in cloth diapering?  Check out Cotton Babies, Cloth Diaper Geek, and Jack Be Natural for great tips and information on how to get started!

Small Kitchen Appliances Worth Having

A friend of mine is getting married this summer and it got me thinking about all the "stuff" I registered for when I got married.  Some of it I've definitely used.  Others...not so much.  So I thought I'd put together a quick list of the items I use all the time and consider worth their weight in gold.

1. Rice Cooker--I use it to make quinoa and all different kinds of rice.  I recently made copycat Chipotle Cilantro Lime rice and it was awesome.  I use this all the time because I can set it and forget it.

2. Crock Pot--Great for set it and forget it meals.  I especially like making crock pot lasagna in it.  I use it at least once a week.

3. Stand Mixer--I have a Kitchen-aid one.  I use it to make icing, pizza dough, cookies, etc.  It's a multi-functional machine and you can buy all sorts of attachments for it so it does even more.

Those are the small appliances I use all the time.  I have a few other things I use a good bit (a set of reusable containers, measuring spoons and cups and kitchen utensils) but these are all things that end up on one's registry anyway.  Hope this was helpful.  :)

Greening Your Dog's Poo...

Yeah, I went there...While I think its great that people are responsible pet owners and buy bags to bag their dog's poo, I do it a little differently.  I don't buy bags for dog poo, I reuse other bags around the house.  Grocery bags are ok as long as you check to be sure that there are no holes... My favorite though are bread and bagel bags.  Not only are they hole free, since the bread has to stay fresh, but they are usually very strong.  The best part is that they are free!  These are bags I was going to throw away anyway, why not reuse them?  I'm not adding to the manufacture of new bags (of which I would have to pay) and I'm being a little more green.  

My New Favorite Place to Shop

I've been a long-time admirer of Trader Joe's and their business model.  There are no Trader Joe's factories.  Their model is a lot like a small, privately owned grocery store.  A lot of their products are made by the big companies, but Trader Joe's keeps the cost of their products down (sometimes in half) by having a contract with these big companies that doesn't allow them to advertise their affiliation with making products for Trader Joe's.  This is great as a consumer because I don't have to coupon (which also costs a company money to do) to get a great deal on great food products.

They have pretty good prices on organic.   Organic at the regular supermarket is almost always outside of my budget.  I have a heart attack just looking at the $6/half pint price of organic blueberries (one of the dirty dozen veggies/fruits)!  Trader Joe's prices on some of their organic products are pretty good compared to your regular grocery store and oftentimes it looks and tastes better too.

They have a wide variety of different foods.  I love that I can get different types of peanut butter (including something called cookie butter), different kinds of gourmet type noodles, sundried tomatoes, and chia seeds, etc.  There's a lot of really healthy stuff at reasonable budget prices.  Heck, you can try something you've never had at Trader Joe's and if you don't like it for any reason, they'll take it back and refund you.  Why not try something new?

And here's another big reason I like to shop here--taste.  The stuff I buy at Trader Joe's almost always tastes better than similar products I buy at the grocery store.  I can pay the same amount for TJ's wheat crackers as I can on Meijer brand wheat crackers.  And I think TJ's taste better!

It's a little bit further for me to travel to Trader Joe's but I think I might try to do it more often out of principal of price and taste.

Wondering where some of Trader Joe's products come from?  Check out the following article: http://www.chow.com/food-news/64791/trader-joe-s-exposed/

Coupons With Minimums Equal to Your Discount

I love when I come upon a great coupon.  I'm not an extreme couponer by any stretch of the imagination (See my rant on extreme couponing here).  I do keep an eye out in my email and in my mail for great store coupons that come my way.

I recently came upon a $15 off your first order at thredup.com (an online resale boutique) coupon with no minimum to spend.  I paid just shipping costs for 2 pairs of shorts and a pair of pants for my 3 year old.  The pair of pants I ordered apparently had a very small stain (I couldn't even find it for a really long time) so they gave them to me for free!  Oh and gave me a credit on my account (I didn't actually spend any money on this order so I basically got a free credit).

I got an email from Thredup the other day for free shipping, one day only.  I bought 2 pairs of shorts for my youngest and didn't pay a cent (since I used the credit from the pants).  The shorts I ordered came in the mail the other day and again, one pair must have had a stain because they refunded it as well (I have yet to find the flaw, by the way...).  I now have $4 in credit sitting in my Thredup account.  This is a major bonus because I can either cash out (and make myself $3.99 on everything I've purchased from Thredup lately) or keep it in my account and wait for another free shipping day and get more free stuff.

I also got a JCP flyer the other day.  I was surprised to find in the inside cover a $10 off your purchase of $10 or more coupon/code.  I used it to buy my son 3 pairs of pj pants for next year and had them shipping to the store (i.e. I didn't have to pay for shipping).  I got 3 pairs of brand new pj pants for $2.12.  Not too shabby....

The moral of this story is check those flyers for retailers you get in the mail or your email, you never know what kind of deal you can work out with the coupon and clearance items....

*The above is not an actual working coupon, just a nice example of a coupon with a minimum that's equal to the discount :)