Posts Tagged ‘frugality’

As I’ve been thinking about what to pack for Relevant ’11, I thought I’d put together a list of ideas for creating outfits inexpensively, even if your tastes draw you towards designer jewelry or fashionable shoulder bags.

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1. Shop thrift stores. This is where the majority of my clothing comes from. Shopping at thrift stores doesn’t mean you have to look like you’re wearing hand-me-downs. I have Anne Klein boots, Charlotte Russe dresses, Geoffrey Beene and Eddie Bauer jeans, GAP skirts, and more that I’ve purchased from thrift stores for just a fraction of their original cost.

2. Check eBay. If you’re willing to wait a season for that dress you love, go ahead and set-up an eBay watch. You’ll get e-mail alerts whenever someone posts something that matches your parameters.

3. Hold a clothing swap. If you have several friends who are roughly the same size, plan a clothing swap. Each lady will go through her own closet and pull out all the items she never wears. Once you’re all together, have fun “shopping” through each other’s clothes. You’ll clear out your closets, have a great time together, and go home with something new to you that didn’t cost a penny!

4. Scour the clearance racks. Big department stores like Macy’s and JCPenney’s typically have huge clearance racks. It takes some work to go through them, as they’re usually not organized very well, but all that hunting can definitely pay off. Pair your clearance finds with a coupon and you’ve got the potential for some amazing deals!

5. Be a savvy online shopper. If you really love the designer fashions, sign up for daily deals sites that specialize in boutiques. And, regardless of where you shop online, always check for coupons and cash back offers through third-party sites before making your purchases. Sometimes the companies will send out exclusive deals to people who are on their mailing lists, so make sure you sign up for e-mails from the places where you like to shop.

 

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6. Don’t discount the discount stores. TJMaxx, Marshalls, Ross – they all sell designer apparel at less-than-designer costs. Of course, if those prices are still a little steep for your checkbook,  like they are for mine, you can always go in and look only at the clearance racks. Just go in with an open mind toward what you might find – I’ve stumbled across some fabulous deals. (My favorite discovery was a pair of bright red sandals with a small heel. I wear them all the time and people always stop me to exclaim over them.)

 7. Evaluate your closet. Try mixing and matching your clothes in new combinations. Some of them will make you laugh (or cringe!), but you may find a “new” outfit or two just by trying out some different ideas, or simply adding new accessories. Do you really need a sixth blue shirt or another pair of pink sneakers?  Do you have a skirt that’s been hanging in your closet for two years that needs a complementary top? Write it down and put that note into your purse. Keep a list with you so that when you’re shopping and you come across the perfect sweater, you’ll know if it will complete a partial outfit in your closet, create a new one, or if it will just mean you also need to find a new pair of shoes and another pair of pants.

 

It makes me so happy to find good flowers on clearance. Each of these sets of flowers was marked down to $1, making the total for this bouquet just $3.00! I especially love the spider mums.

The gorgeous vase was a thrift store find.

I’m not the type of person who gets a new hairstyle every spring, takes weekend spa breaks, and is on a first-name basis with staff at the local nail salon. Actually, I’ve only had one professional hair cut and two manicures in my entire life, and I’ve never even set foot in a spa. (Though I do love getting back rubs from my husband.)

My personal experiences aside however, I do have several family members who enjoy massages, facials, manicures, and frequent changes to their hairstyles. I’ve been working on ideas for several spa gifts that fit within a {very} small budget. Here are some of the ideas I’ve come up with so far. I’d love to hear your ideas, too!

• Check daily deals sites for great discounts at local salons and spas.
• Take online surveys or shop through websites that give you points to redeem for gift cards.
• Chances are good that you know someone, or have a friend who knows someone who is a hair stylist or a masseuse. See if you can barter services with them.
• Buy a gift card to a national chain from a gift card swap site.
• Put together a “spa at home” gift basket. Items could include: nail polish, polish remover, nail file and buffer, scented candles, sugar scrub, loofah, instrumental cd, facial scrub or mask, and tea.

Yesterday I moved the bowl of fruit from my dining room table to the kitchen counter and brought in a tiny bouquet of daisies. Set into a small creamer  and placed atop a couple of vintage readers, they make a lovely, simple centerpiece for our table (and a cheap one, too!).

Daisies are such happy, friendly flowers. Even these miniature ones are bright and cheerful.

Sometimes I just can’t decide whether I prefer b&w or vivid color.

 

“If I had my life to live over, I would start barefoot earlier in the spring and stay that way later in the fall. I would go to more dances. I would ride more merry-go-rounds. I would pick more daisies.” {Nadine Stair}

 

{I’m playing with some new watermark ideas and toying with the idea of getting back into photography.}

{These were a gift from my mom for the first of my three dance recitals this spring!}

It doesn’t take a designer bouquet to pretty up your house. Something as sweet and simple as a $5 bunch of daisies or tulips will do quite nicely. Consider placing them in more than one vase, or in something unique, such as an old coffee pot or several colored Coke glasses.

If you change the water and snip off the bottoms of the stems every other day, you’ll prolong the “life” of your flowers. Don’t toss the entire arrangement when a few of the blooms begin to wilt . . . just get rid of the spent flowers and rearrange the one that are left.

Clearance flowers can also be a great way to save money on flower arrangements. Look over the bouquet carefully and see if there are a good amount of nice blooms or buds left. If there are, you can toss the wilted flowers and arrange the remaining ones into a new display.

What other ideas do you have for creating floral displays without spending a fortune?

If you follow any coupon or frugalista blogs, you’ve probably already seen this deal today, but I’m going to share it anyway, on the off-chance that you might have missed it.

Groupon is offering a $50 Dormzy gift certificate for just $25 today (November 30, 2010). This is a decent deal, but it gets even better.

If you use the $50 to purchase select products, you can submit your receipt for a $20 rebate from P&G.

Plus, if you purchased your Groupon via Ebates, you’ll get 3% cash back. (And if you’re new to Ebates, you’ll receive a $5 sign-up bonus, which can make your entire purchase FREE after rebates!)

Here’s the breakdown:

• Sign-up for Groupon.
• Sign-up for Ebates.
• Search for Groupon via Ebates and click on the link.
• Locate the Lexington Groupon and purchase. It should be a $50 Dormzy gift certificate for just $25.
• On December 2, go to Dormzy and purchase qualifying rebate items (there seem to be four – Herbal Essence shampoo, Herbal Essence conditioner, Secret deodorant, and Olay body wash). Get whatever combination you want. You’ll receive free shipping because your order is over $49.
• In the message box on the checkout page, ask nicely for an itemized receipt with purchase prices, for rebate purposes. (Thanks for this tip, Prudent Patron!)
• When your package arrives, fill out and mail in the rebate form.

It seems complicated, but it’s really not. And there are no coupons to clip, or stores to rush to – you can do it from your sofa, desk, bed, or kitchen table.

You paid $25 OOP (out of pocket) for the initial Groupon, but got back $20 from the rebate and $0.75 from Ebates.com, which should bring your total somewhere in the ballpark of $5.00.

{Those are my referral links above. If you sign-up for Groupon or Ebates through my link, I will receive referral bonuses. If you don’t want to be a referral, just type in the url for the website and sign-up through their home page.}

27 tubes of Colgate toothpaste - These were on sale at Kroger this week for $1.50, and they were included in the Buy 10 Save $5 promotion they were running, which made them each $1 when I bought 10 participating items. I had gotten a hold of 30 SmartSource coupon inserts from this week, so I had lots of $1/1 Colgate coupons. (I’m giving away a couple of the coupons, so I only used 27.) That made all that toothpaste free!

I got these at two different Kroger’s, and I did not go out the first day of the sale and wipe them out – I made sure there were still plenty left for other shoppers.

Half the toothpaste is going to Operation Christmas Child, some of it will be going to the local domestic violence program, we’ll keep a little bit, and some of it is going to various family members.

6 cans of Cream of Chicken soup - These were included in the promo as well, at $0.50 each when you bought 10 participating items. Since I had 2 $1.50/3 coupons, these were free. (I bought 4 other items that were already on my grocery list to bring me up to 10, so I didn’t spend any extra to get these.) We use this in casseroles, so I plan to keep all of it.

StoveTop stuffing & Pepperidge Farm cookies - I bought these in one transaction, along with 7 of the toothpastes. That brought the cost of the stuffing down to $0.75/box and I had a coupon for $1/3. The cookies were on sale for $2.27 with a peelie mail-in-rebate on the front. My total was $4.52 + tax, and I used a $3 catalina I had received for buying some spices last week. That brought my total down to just $1.61. What will make all of it free is that when I submit the rebate I’ll receive either $2.27 (the cost of the cookies), or $3.39 (the regular price of the cookies). I’ll make back the entire $1.61, plus a little extra to help with, or cover completely, the cost of the stamp.

(Lest you think we only eat processed foods, this is not all that our diet consists of!)