Cats And Coupons

My Mom does this all of the time. The way most kids grow they tend to outgrow their shoes rather than wear them out, which means we need to constantly buy them shoes. And shoes can be pretty expensive, particularly if you’re looking at big names like Naot. When my oldest son started running track this year I couldn’t believe how expensive some of the running shoes were. So here’s how my Mom saves a bunch of money on shoes for my younger son. She looks for really good sales, usually clearance sales when seasons are changing. She then buys a size or two bigger and we put them away. This works great because my younger son is pretty tiny and his feet grow slow enough that he actually wears out his shoes before he outgrows them. Do you have anyone in your family that this method of shoe shopping might work for and save some money?

One way to save on certain types of travel and vacation is by booking at the last minute. The things that springs to mind here is cruises. If you can travel on less than two months notice you can usually find a deccent special. Sometimes within the last two weeks before a cruise you can get a great special. I know of people that have taken a 5 day cruise for $99 this way. Of course this works best if you’re within driving distance to get to the ship. Why do the cruise lines do this? Because they want the ship full. Make sure you’re signed up for some of the cruise companies specials, as well as some of the big cruise broker specials. Happy sailing!

If you’re like me you’re probably seen the boxes online that ask if you want to receive the free newsletter. Did you know that frequently if you sign up you will receive specials by email? These specials can save you a lot of money! I don’t sign up for all newsletters, because I get a lot of email already. But any company I buy from on a semi-regular or regular basis is one that I definitely want to receive email from. These companies send coupons and discount codes to their subscribers. One of my favorites is Roamans womens clothing, I get one discount code or another just about every week from them. Go ahead, check the box. And one more thing. If I’m considering a purchase from a particular store in the future I sign up for their email specials as well. Let me know which companies send you good email specials.

I had heard of bartering before, but until this past year I’d never officially bartered for something. Last year I bartered with the owner of a small carpet store, a website for a carpet. It was a good deal. I didn’t ask for anything outrageous such as home theater carpet, I only asked for what we needed which was a 15×15 square rug (which the man had bound for us as well). We even got to pick the color we wanted from a bunch of swatches. If you have a business or have something you’re good at, consider bartering for your next purchase. You might be surprised to find out what you can make arrangements to barter for and save yourself a nice amount of money.

My son went to an end of season pizza party for his basketball team yesterday. One of the Moms brought a half sheet cake, decorated with a basketball. It looked really nice, and didn’t taste bad either. When I asked her where she’d gotten it, I was surprised to hear she’d gotten it from the county vocational school for $10. I did not know the culinary program had products for sale. Not only can you order certain things for the students to make in class, they have a store open to the public. Everything is made daily by the students in the classroom.
I also recently learned that the Cosmetology program at the vocational school has one or two nights a week where the public can come in and purchase services at a reduced price. The students do the work, and the instructor checks important steps along the way to ensure quality work and make sure the practical application of knowledge is being applied correctly. One of the women I work got a hair cut from one of the students and it looks great.
I know there’s an automotive program as well, and I heard they do some work for area residents as well but haven’t been able to confirm it yet.
I think it’s a great way to let students practice their future craft and for people to save some money while supporting education. Next time you need a specialized service, see if there’s a vocational school in your area that offers services to the public.

I had to go to Walgreen’s to pick up prescriptions for my older son this weekend. He had bronchitis and the flu. On my way to the back of the store I had to go down the aisle that carried cough and cold products and pain relievers. We were running low on a couple of things, that I was debating picking up while I was there. Well boy did I get lucky, because almost every one of them was on sale. The cough drops were on sale, the day and night cough syrups were buy one get one free, and the aspirin was buy one get one free. Even the candy bar I decided to buy at the counter was on sale. I should have taken a few minutes to go over to the skin care aisle and see if any of the acne treatment stuff that my son likes was on sale. Maybe I’ll go back. Have you ever lucked out and found a sale by accident?

I was online surfing the web and I saw an ad that proudly proclaimed free shipping and 110% off Ogio bags. Now I do not spend much money on myself. And I never spend a lot of money on a purse. I just cannot justify it. The purse I have now happens to be the one that has lasted the longest and worn the best and it’s a Claiborne. But, the purse is about three years old and is starting to show wear, so I know soon I will need a new one. I’ve seen some nice Coach bags but just won’t part with my hard earned cash. So, when I saw this ad I figured it was worth checking out because they might have some bags that I like and I could take advantage of the sale. Imagine my surprise when I clicked on the link and found golf bags! Definitely not my next bag. Have you ever seen an ad for something online that turned out to be for something else? What was it?

Tell the salesperson at the phone store where you work. I took my son with me to the nearby Verizon store yesterday to look at phones. I was pretty sure I wanted to leave Nextel and port my number over to my existing Verizon account that hubby has his phone on, and my son was deciding if he wanted a phone. Actually he was very sure he wanted the Chocolate but I told him no I wasn’t spending all that money and yes I knew they had a buy one get one promo but I didn’t want one. So in we went. I didn’t see the same specials in the store that were online so I asked the rep. He said yes they had those specials in the store. We got to chatting and I mentioned something about work and he asked where I worked. He said “oh you work there, you can have your phone for free”. He asked if there was anything else I needed and I told him my son did want the Chocolate but it was too expensive. He knocked the price of the phone my son wanted down to $49.99 so my son did get the phone he wanted. Then, as if icing a cake, the rep told me I’d be eligible for 20% off of my monthly bill as well. It was a very productive trip. My son is thrilled he got the phone he really wanted and he’s really enjoying texting and sending pictures too.

We went on our first and only cruise in December of 2006, it was a Disney cruise. It was wonderful and we really loved it. We all want to take another cruise, possibly in 2009. We’re interested in caribbean cruises and having never been, I’m wondering what everyone recommends. I’m pretty sure we’ll travel around the same time of year next time, for a couple of reasons. The weather at the end of November and beginning of December is still warm for us New Jersey folks. Hurricane season is officially over. And, prices are much cheaper because there’s less crowds at that time of year. So, please comment me with any recommendations you have – locale, cruise line, anything pertinent. I welcome the input.

Do you like to play games on your computer? I’ve gotten hooked on hidden object games, thanks to my blogging pal Skeet. After buying one hidden object game and beating it, I knew I had to have more. Which is where the saving of the money comes in. I could go broke buying games at full price. So I joined the Big Fish Game Club. By signing up for the club, I am committing myself to making one purchase a month. In exchange for that commitment, Big Fish is discounting games down to $6.99 each. (There are two other plans at $9.99 per month and $7.99 per month, but the best discount is the one I got, and it saves a lot of money.) Generally games are about $19.99, so you save $13 each if you’re in the game club. So let’s do the math. I’ve committed to spending $83.88 over the course of one year, broken down into $6.99 increments each month. If you were buying the games full price, you’d spend $79.96 on four games alone. So after buying four games you’ve pretty much paid for the membership. Once you’ve met your committed number of games you can cancel. And if you want you can rejoin at any time with no minimum required. It’s a great deal worth checking out. But wait! That’s not all. For a couple of days more, Big Fish has made the deal even better. The ad on the Big Fish Games Home Page says that if members use a game credit between now and 12/14/07, they will be emailed a free game credit on 12/15/07. I also got an email saying the same thing. Go. Now. What are you waiting for? If you don’t want it for yourself, it’d make a great gift.