I've had some pretty good luck with finding deals lately and I just had to share! Thursday I did some mystery shopping at a shoe store and ended up getting these two pairs of shoes for James for free! We needed some water shoes for him for the Keys, so this came at the perfect time. The shoes were buy one, get one pair 1/2 off, so my total came to just under $15. I got paid $15 for doing the mystery shop, so free shoes! It was kind of fun doing my "secret" shopping. The only annoying part was that I had to shop in the store for at least 20 minutes, which James tried to make the loooongest 20 minutes ever :)
A few weeks ago, I got an awesome deal on this Thomas the Train electric toothbrush for James. He hates, absolutely hates, getting his teeth brushed, so I thought an electric toothbrush would at least cut down the time it takes to brush his teeth. I hoped he would think it was more fun with the train shape and the buzzing sound, and I was right! He is much better about getting his teeth brushed at least some of the time :)
I had been thinking about getting him one for awhile when I saw on one of the coupon blogs that I follow that the Thomas the Train spinbrushes were clearanced to $1.97 at CVS! Not only that, but that week they had a promotion that for every spinbrush you buy, you get $2 back on your receipt. Plus, I had a $2 coupon off of one. Since I was heading to CVS anyway, I grabbed the coupon and decided to see if they had the spinbrushes at my store. (Clearance can be so unreliable). Luckily they had two left and I snagged them! So after the cash back and my coupon, I actually made $2 off of getting two toothbrushes that I was going to get anyway. So cool! I love it when you find deals like that, especially when it is on something you were planning to buy anyway.
I've been focusing more of my time on trying to find ways to bring in a little extra income. I'm still doing Swagbucks for my diapers and wipes supplies which has been great, but I've also branched out to a few other rewards websites. Most of them only offer a few dollars here and there, but I figure for a few extra minutes a day it all adds up. I made a spreadsheet that keeps track of all the extra money and gift cards that I have earned so far this year (I love my spreadsheets!! Couldn't live without 'em :) and it is motivating because it makes me want to get that number higher and higher before the end of the year!
Now, if only I could find a way to get the awesome garage sales deals that my sister in law Happy gets I would be in heaven!! I would say it is the location we live in, but that is a cop out because she has been able to get great deals in at least 4 different cities that she has lived in. Tutorial post Happy??? Pretty please??? :)
2 comments:
I love it!!! I wish I had the patients to try to get deals with the coupons and stuff... maybe on day. Although I have saved a ton of money doing Swagbucks when I buy books for the boys for school!
I would totally like a garage sale tutorial too....
Haha, you're funny! You got some great deals, and good job on your spreadsheet to keep track of it all! You're better than me, b/c I'm just spending money and you're getting things for free! Yard sale ideas? Hmmm....I guess I'd say: know what kinds of things you want before you go out, know what they cost new and what you could get them for on craigslist so you know if its really a good deal or not, be brave and always try and talk them down, be super picky about what you get b/c it adds up really quickly, a lot of the good stuff goes early in the morning, but people are ready to just get rid of things for cheap at the end of the day (around 1pm), find neighborhoods with lots of kids so you can find the good kid stuff, do drive by's so that you can get to more garage sales and not waste time at old people junk garage sales, don't drive too far away for garage sales so that you're not wasting more money on gas than what you're saving on good deals, look the night before on craigslist for community or neighborhood garage sales, bring lots of $1 bills, and the thing I struggle with the most- try and picture what things could look like with some paint and new knobs, etc., b/c you could really get some good deals if you're willing to do a little touch up.
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