3 Top Ways to Save Money Shopping!

pic from youmustbetrippin.com

Yes!  You, too, can save tons of dollars while shopping.  I discovered these top 3 ways to save money shopping, now YOU can too!!

1. Wear shoes that hurt.

I was out running errands the other day and spotted a new Home Goods store in the neighborhood.  I walked in, decided I wanted to peruse before I got a big basket.  By the time I was done perusing, my feet were killing me.  I had one small item.  It was too far to go back to the very front of the store, get a basket, then hobble back to the bedding department.  So I checked out with my one small item.  Saved aproximately $200.00.  You can too!

2.  Skip the basket.

Building on story above, go into any large store without a basket.  Roam around until you are at the back of the store, you’re tired, cranky, and your blood sugar is approaching the single digits.  You will easily choose to come back another day when you feel better…and have a basket.  $$ saved?  Easily a mortgage payment.

3.  Reorganize your purse before you go out.

If you take 10 minutes to reorganize your purse and wallet before leaving home, I guarantee you will save money!  How?  By taking out your checkbook and your credit cards & realizing you couldn’t possibly need that much cash in your wallet.  Grab your American Express Card and off you go to the big stores.  Oh yeah…nobody uses American Express anymore.  $$ saved?  Maybe enough for a smart car!

See?  Just a few simple tips and you, too, will be saving tons of money!  Now take that savings and go buy lottery tickets…sigh…

Black Friday Haikus

pic from freakygossip.com

Up at 2 to shop? // no bargain hunting for me // old broad needs her sleep

Camping out again? // I refuse to wait in rain // Best Buy can bite me

Thursday paper full // advertisements but no news // priorities skewed

Enjoy Black Friday! // watch out for angry shoppers // I’m shopping online!

But It’s Only Julyyyyyyyy

I sneaked back into Target with nobody following me this time demanding their cart back.  There was no picture of me posted at the entrance and I breathed a sigh of relief.  Once again I had gotten away with my pea-brained antics.  Whew.

Down the aisles I went to get the items that I had forgotten previously due to the underwear incident wiping from my mind every other item I had originally arrived at the store to buy.

I needed a minor piece of patio furniture.  What better time to find this stuff on sale?  I’m such a smart shopper.  I go to the outdoor furniture section…………and what do I find?  SCHOOL SUPPLIES  Are you kidding me?  It’s July – too early to buy pencils and pens – I need a chair, dangit.  I need a chair NOW.  Where’s the garden stuff?  Where’s that cool patio set you had last week?  What the heck is Elmer’s Glue doing in its place?  Ack Ack  Major irritation attack.

I left Target in a huff (I used to leave in a Kia Sportage…).

Realizing what I truly needed to make me happy was a trip to visit all the Lucky Brand clothing over at Von Maur (one of our dept. stores) (yes Sueanne I am now a Lucky Brand girl for life – I bow to the master – you were right).  I found several wonderful Lucky Brand shirts on sale and one that wasn’t (ouch $$$$) and made my way to the service counter.  The very nice (all the sales people at Von Maur are fabulous – but then again it’s about 3,000 notches above Target) was standing next to the counter arranging some new items on a rack.  THEY WERE TURTLENECKS – OH FOR THE LOVE OF PETE…..TURTLENECKS.  It’s Julyyyyyyyy, not October.  I need new Tee-Shirts – it’s hotter than the 7th ring in Dante’s Inferno out there.  I made my purchase and left the store in shock (again, I usually take my Kia, blah blah blah).

Look, I understand that winter (ugh I even hate to use that word) merchandise is ordered way ahead of actual winter – but one would think the stores could at least wait until maybe late August to put it out.  I was so annoyed.  Turtlenecks.  I had a hot flash just thinking of it.

I feel bad for the kids – it’s like they just got OUT of school only to be bombarded by school supplies and the realization that they have to go back in another month or so.  Stupid Target could have waited a couple of  weeks.  So cruel.

And the kicker here?  I found Halloween candy displayed, too.  I’m just sure it’s from last year….sigh…

I Love Special Offers…

 

pic courtesy of http://thealexanderreport.com/page/2/

The article says there is a place online where you can go, put in your measurements, and a group of fashion-savvy sophisticated ladies will tell you exactly what looks good on your type of body.  Did you know there are actually 7 body types?  Coulda fooled me.  Anyway, then of course you shop for those particular types of clothes right there at their store.  Is that handy or what?  A personal shopper right online and all the fabulous fashions a gal could want.

I’m not kidding.  The sight is MyShape.com and they’ll walk you through it.  Back to body shapes — none of this pear, or apple nonsense on this sight – they call their shapes M, S, Y, A, etc.  What they stand for is anybody’s guess – but it’s really nice to say “your body shape is a Y” as opposed to “you have the outlines and curves of a humpback whale.”  Works for me.

They go on about how no two people are shaped alike…reminds me of the snowflake thing – but snowflakes don’t need clothes.

So like the kid with the “kick me” sign….I got out the tape measure and measured and put in the measurements to see what they came up with for my new wardrobe.

I was waiting for the phrase “extra fabric required” or “tent maker” to pop up, but I was pleasantly surprised that I’m not that abnormal after all – especially now that I’ve dropped 20 pounds.  In fact, they had some rather cool stuff and I just might have to break out the old Discover card today and do a little shopping.  Even though I’d like to drop a few more pounds, a gal HAS to have something fabulous to wear in the meantime.

After all I certainly can’t be seen in Sueanne’s lovely jewelry carrying Sue’s fabulous bags if my clothes are hanging off me, now can I? 

So ladies – go check this out, it’s pretty cool. www.MyShape.com

There goes the profit from selling the motorcycle….sigh.

But I Get Bonus Points Honey

courtesy of http://www.ctemploymentlawblog.com/tags/minimum-wage/

I regularly receive emails from American Express telling me how many reward points I have accumulated and enticing me to go shopping and redeem them.  Actually I only use my American Express when we travel, which isn’t often, so I don’t have that many reward points…a little over 13,000.

Now that may sound like enough points that I should be able to score something totally cool but I went to the American Express site and hooked up with their “partner stores” and guess what I found I could buy with my slightly-more-than 13,000 points?

It’s called “The First Years- miPump Double Breast Pump”- the store claims it has one handle which will give me the opportunity to multi-task while I pump. Unfortunately even with my just-a-tad-over 13,000 points I still have to pay tax and shipping.

Every time we go to the cabin in the woods and put the tab on my American Express card I have been so happy in the knowledge that I am racking up points toward something really cool and exciting.  And, yes, I am sure to some a new breast pump is cool and exciting.

Oh, there are other stores  where I can redeem my reward points.  I can actually buy one entire steak from Omaha Steaks, or a fruit basket with an apple and an orange and a big bow.  I can turn in my rewards points and receive a Rachael Ray small pan (oh don’t even go there), and I can also buy two boxes of Titleist golf balls (oh joy) a very, very small bottle of cologne in a fragrance I don’t even like, a  bouquet of flowers made up of mostly 3-day old carnations and greens , and a host of other goodies; none of which I want.

Guess I better get out there and do some more traveling soon and rack up those points so I can snag that nifty Learn to Speak Korean DVD set  that was offered for a few more points.   At least then I would finally know what the nice lady at my local oriental take-out place was saying to her husband as I place my order. I have a sneaking suspicion it is something to the effect of “Hey here comes that crazy lady who makes all the substitutions and doesn’t like sweet and sour sauce for crab rangoon – why us?”

Credit card companies…ya gotta love ‘em.  Buy more so you can buy more.