hot deal! 70% off barbie fashion fairytale palace

There is a great deal on the Barbie Fashion Fairytale Palace right now on Amazon.com.  It normally sells for $114.99 but is currently on sale for $34.99.  Amazon's prices can change quickly due to demands, so if there is a little Barbie fan in your life that you still need to find a Christmas gift for, you might want to jump on this one!

Click here to purchase.


Did you vote today?  Click here!

hot groupon deal: 3 redbox rentals for only $1

I wanted to make sure everyone saw today's fantastic Groupon Redbox deal!  Today only, get 3 rentals from Redbox for only $1.00.  If you haven't tried Redbox or Groupon, this is a great way to experience both.   

Click here to grab this deal!

Did you remember to vote today? Click here!

cyber monday

I don't know about you, but my email inbox has been flooded this morning with Cyber Monday offers from online retailers.  If you are looking for a great deal and were, like me, far too lazy to venture out on Black Friday, you may want to check some of them out.

By far my favorite deals are the Cyber Monday Deals from Amazon.com.  There are some amazing lightning deals, but you have to act fast--the really good ones often sell out within minutes.  Click this link to go to the Cyber Monday page, then keep the page open on your computer throughout the day to stay on top of the deals that come up.

Gymboree.com has free shipping and 20% off everything.  They have some really cute items already on sale, so the combination of the additional 20% off and free shipping can make for some pretty great deals.

holiday shopping deals & black friday preview

This may come as a surprise (or maybe a disappointment) to some of you, but I'm not a huge fan of Black Friday.  I absolutely loathe large crowds of people, and eight years of working in retail was enough to make me avoid the mall at all costs at any time between Thanksgiving and Christmas.  The one year I did decide to fight the crowds and score a great deal on a new digital camera, the camera ended up being a complete piece of garbage and I returned it a month later and vowed to never put myself through that ordeal again.  If you are one of those crazy enthusiastic people who want to get up at 2am or, worse better yet, camp overnight in the Best Buy parking lot, more power to you.  Just don't look for me.  On Black Friday morning I will be home, in bed, cuddled with my girls (and dear sweet husband who does not like to be left out!) underneath our 800 thread count sheets.

That said, there are some really great Black Friday deals out there.  So although I have no interest in hitting the stores myself this Friday, I decided to put together a list of my top Black Friday deals for those of you who are insane do enjoy the mad rush of the busiest shopping day of the year.

holiday shopping tip: daily deal sites

If you are looking to stretch your budget this holiday season, you are in luck.  It seems like there are new daily deal sites popping up almost every day, and I am definitely not complaining!  As you've probably already noticed, I just love Groupon and I buy them frequently.  I have also found some amazing deals on Eversave, Jasmere, Zulily, and RueLaLa.

And today I have discovered a new site!   Gilt has some pretty amazing discounted designer goods available too.  With all this competition, Gilt has stepped up its game and is offering a $20 credit to all new members.  If you check out the site, you will see that they have a lot of items priced under $20 which means that you can score one of those holiday gifts for FREE!  (Click this link to sign up and get your free credit.)

hot deal: monday shopping 11-01-10

I hate shopping or running errands on Monday morning because I feel like it throws off my whole week.  I need this time to re-group from the weekend and get my house and life in order.  However, there is such a hot little money-maker deal going on that I couldn't resist venturing out for a quick Walgreens run.  But I gotta say, it was worth messing up my whole day!

Here is what I got:

one day only! all you magazine subscription for $7

I normally reserve the can't-miss hot deals I come across for my Facebook page, but this one is so good, I had to post it!  If any of you are just getting started with coupons, this deal is definitely for you.

Today on Eversave you can get a $26 voucher to BlueDolphin.com, an online magazine superstore, for only $12.  All You magazine is loaded with coupons (not to mention lots of great ideas for thrifty living), and it almost never goes on sale.  In fact, I just sent in my subscription check last week and paid $19.90 for a year!

Eversave is a daily savings site, (similar to Groupon, which I post about all the time!).  But here's the really great part:  if you are a new user to Eversave and sign up to receive daily emails, you will automatically receive a $5 credit, which means your $26 voucher will cost only $7!  I just bought one, and since multiples are allowed, I may just snag another one.

Click here to sign up.

10 do's & don'ts for buying & selling on craigslist

I don't know about you, but I am pretty much in love with Craigslist.  It is simultaneously a thrifty shopper and compulsive organizer's dream.  Did you spend the weekend cleaning out the garage and now have a bunch of stuff you want to get rid of?  Craigslist is there for you.  Need a new desk but don't want to spend a fortune?  Craigslist has you covered.  Moving cross-country and need to sell everything you own as quickly as possible?  Craigslist, baby, craigslist!

As it so happens, I happened to have just cleaned out our garage this past weekend, which is probably what got me thinking about my favorite website of all time in the first place.  And last fall when we moved from Seattle back to our fully furnished house here in Florida, we sold everything we had, including one of our cars, on craigslist.  So when it comes to buying and selling stuff on CL, I've had a lot of chances to figure out what works....and what doesn't.

So without further ado, here are my top 10 tips for making the most of your craigslist experience:

easy money, free prizes, cheap stuff

As you've probably already figured it out by now (probably just by reading the oh-so-catchy title), the whole theme of this little blog of mine is living well, spending less--the adventure of finding style and luxury on a budget.  It is based on the premise that (for most normal people) money is limited.  Thus, in order to do or buy the things you want, you either have to a.) spend less on other things or b.) make more money.  And that's where I'm here to help!

There are a few different online resources that I've discovered recently that can either earn you money or prizes, or get you great discounts on stuff you need.

The first is PayBox, which I first blogged about last week.  This new service is still in the development phase, but it is set to launch in 2011 as a major competitor to PayPal.  So why is that relevant to you?  They are asking for EarlyBird subscribers to help them get all the kinks worked out of their system.  Just for signing up, they will deposit $50 into your account, and you then earn more money each time you log in.  Seriously.  The "catch" is that the money will not be available to spend until PayBox goes live in 2011, so you can think of it sort-of as a free & easy savings account.  

It should come as no surprise that there are a few rules for this free money.

free money

Want to earn some easy money?  I just found out about a new service called PayBox that is being established to compete with PayPal.  It is in the development stage right now, and won't actually launch until 2011, but they are looking for EarlyBird users to help get their service going.  Just for signing up you earn $50 for your PayBox account.  You also then earn money just for logging in frequently.  I signed up this morning and have logged out and logged back in twice so far and now have $52.84 in my account.    There are a few rules for keeping your account active--you must log in frequently, subscribe via email or reader, and fill out a survey once a week and the "catch" seems to be that the money earned now won't be available until 2011.  I don't know about you, but I'm pretty sure I will need money then, too!

Click here to sign up!

family photos and why groupon rocks

My sweet (and very photogenic, I might add) husband loathes professional photographs.  I adore them.  If it were up to me, we'd have them taken once a month and if it were up to him, we'd never set foot in a photography studio.  But as you've probably figured out by now, given that we are polar opposites in so many ways, we have gotten pretty good at compromising.  So once and only once a year he lets me drag him to get a family portrait taken.

I am a huge fan of Groupon, which I originally discovered when we were living in Seattle.  If you aren't familiar with it, let me fill you in.  Groupon is a collective coupon that offers amazing deals in cities all over the country.  Each day has a new deal (different for each city) that is available for one day only, usually for at least 50% off a product, restaurant, event, or service.   The "catch," if there is one, is in order to get the deal you must pay ahead of time.  (Sort of like purchasing a gift certificate for yourself.)

A few months ago, only a few days after I changed my Groupon account to receive the Tampa deals instead of the Seattle deals, an amazing offer popped up for an on-location family portrait session by Angela Clifton Photography.  Tampa is about a 2 hour drive for us, but this deal--$59 for a 1 hour portrait session and photo CD of all the images--was just too good to pass up.  Even my husband, Mr. Anti-Portrait, couldn't turn it down.

This past weekend our long-awaited appointment finally arrived.  Dawn and Brent, the owners of Angela Clifton Photography, were super helpful when it came to suggesting a location (since we're not familiar with the Tampa-area beaches) and the best time of day (for good lighting).  They arrived for the session right on time and started shooting photos almost immediately.  They were great with the girls and did a wonderful job of just capturing the natural moments instead of trying to pose every shot, which made the experience a lot more tolerable for my kids (and my husband!)  Even more impressive, they emailed me a link to view the images less than 24 hours later!

I am so glad this package includes a CD of ALL the photos because there are way too many good ones to choose from!  Here are just a few of my favorites:

So out of all of this comes two things:  

1: if you live in SW Florida, it is worth a trip to Tampa to work with Dawn & Brent of Angela Clifton Photography.  The normal cost for their family package (what we got) is $200 (still a bargain, in my opinion!) and includes a CD of all your images, BUT if you mention my blog when booking your appointment, they will graciously give you a 20% discount--$40 off!  

2: if you live anywhere else and you have not yet signed up for Groupon, what are you waiting for?  Even if the closest participating city is a few hours away (as ours is), it is worth getting a daily email because every once in a while you will find something worth driving for.  Even better, there are a lot of offers that come up for online companies, which you can order from anywhere.

For instance, these online deals are available today, and many of them would make great gifts:

Providence-$40 worth of brownie gifts from Fairytale Brownies for $20.

Bakersfield-$35 worth of desserts from Fancy Fortune Cookie for only $15.

Buffalo-$115 worth of photo books from Photobook America for only $35. (70% discount!)

North Jersey-$12 worth of baked goods from Gimmee Jimmy's online store for only $5.

Sioux Falls-$50 worth of custom photo products from Harold's Photo Centers online for only $20.

San Francisco-(Deal Nearby)-$75 for photo scanning service worth $200 from ScanMyPhotos.com.

Louisville (Side Deal)-Choose from two custom photo bags by SnapTotes.com, a clutch ($29--normally $50) or a tote ($50--normally $80).  This deal includes shipping!

Omaha (Side Deal)-$50 worth of personalized gifts from Zazzle.com for only $25.

To sign up for Groupon, click here.  Once you have signed in, you can click on visit other cities to grab any of these deals.






Disclaimer:  The opinions expressed in this blog post are solely my own and I received no compensation for recommending either Groupon or Angela Clifton Photography.

hot deal! save big at kohl's

I am so excited about this sale at Kohl's today!  I have never really shopped here before, but I have been looking for new bedding for our master bedroom for months and I finally struck gold.  (I thought all white bedding would be easy to find, but amazingly enough, it's not!  And the few things I have found are SUPER expensive!)

They have a ton of stuff on sale (not just on clearance), and today they have two online codes that stack, allowing you to get 35% off any purchase and they are offering 99¢ shipping per item.

The codes:
utake20 - 20% off
AUGUSTLPS - 15% off
lowprice15- 15% off
You can use either 15% off code and the 20% off together!  To make it a better deal go through ebates and get 4% cashback.

Today I ordered a king size duvet set (included duvet cover, bedskirt, and 2 king shams), as well as a Vera Wang 800 thread count sheet set (in white, of course!), a king size down-alternative duvet, and 3 euro pillow forms.  (I'm still looking for the euro pillowcases!)  Altogether it was $740.00 worth of bedding.  I paid $219.97, a savings of 70%!

(Thanks, Southern Savers!)

free dry cleaning!

I don't know about you, but I have a lot of "dry clean only" clothing.  It drives me crazy!  With two small children, my chance of being able to wear the same shirt twice without washing it is roughly equal to my shot at winning the next Powerball.  But dry cleaning is expensive.  And even more annoyingly, it is inconvenient, especially when you factor in the effort of loading and unloading two kids in and out of their car seats just to pick up or drop off a shirt.  I'd (almost) rather go naked!

So when I saw this Dryel rebate deal this week (on Coupon Cravings) for a free starter kit AND refill,  I was all over it!  Especially since there are $2 off coupons also available which make it a net profit after rebate.  So not only do I not have to bother with dragging two kids in and out of the dry cleaner or have to pay $10 just to have a clean shirt to wear, I got paid to clean my clothes at home.  I am a happy girl!

As the icing on the cake, I also snagged 4 boxes of crayons for $0.25 each to add to my now ginormous pile of craft & school supplies.  Altogether, I spent $14.01 out of pocket for $21.82 worth of stuff.  However, after my $15.83 rebate I saved 100% and made $1.82 profit!

Combined with my Monday totals, I have now spent $29.34 for $161.35 worth of merchandise, an overall savings of 82% for the week thus far.