Retail Savings!

So, saving at the grocery stores and drugstores, while might take some time to learn, is pretty redundant after you learn the ropes. It's exciting, but, not as exciting as getting "stuff" for free or greatly discounted- especially if that stuff is name brands you normally would not be able to afford. You know- the have to have, want so bad, omg that is super freakin' cute kinda stuff!

Now, a lot of retail is shopping during "rewards" periods. For instance, I have a Gymboree addiction. I tend to buy clearance items with discount codes during Gymbucks earning time. This last time around, I got my five year old son 2 pairs of jean and 5 long sleeved shirts for 51.74. This earned me a $50 Gymbuck. For those that don't know, a $50 Gymbuck means that during redemption period, you buy $50 worth of merchandise, but only pay $25, so essentially you get 50% off. So, in this case, one of my best friends just had her little girl, so I used the Gymbucks to buy her a Gymboree blanket (LOVE these!) and matching outfit. I got all of it for $30.47. So, essentially, if I had bought all of the items between the two different orders at full price, I would have spent $230.50. Instead, I spent a total of $82.21, saving $148.29 or 64%. Tons of stores do this "reward" period from Children's Place to Old Navy to Justice to Victoria's Secret to Crazy 8 and Kohl's. It's all about being a *smart* shopper just like when you are shopping for your household products and groceries!

So, to give some more examples of shopping with coupons and retail, here is some things I've done recently:

Toysrus has rewards program called Rewards"R"Us. During the holiday season, I managed to grab up quite a few awesome deals in store and online (especially with my free shipping from my free Shoprunner account!). So, I received over $23 in "R"Us dollars plus a ton of other coupons. Last night, using $10 worth of the "R"Us dollars I managed to score $20 worth of FAO Schwarz for only 4.99 using the buy one get one 50% off sale.

Victoria's Secret also had a good deal of online deals going on through the holiday season, and using their Sexy Little Rewards program, I managed to rack up enough points to redeem them a few weeks ago for one of their Silk Series reward cards. It came in the mail a few days ago, and I got to go in store and pick out the reward of my choice from that level reward. I got a gorgeous duffle bag (see pic below) that was valued at $88 for FREE! The best part is that almost everything I bought during the holiday season was insanely discounted and/or used reward cards to purchase, so I never even paid more than about $40 to buy over $300 worth of products to begin with! *December was a double points month, so everything bought gave me double points*

Victoria's Secret Duffle Bag
(valued at $88.00)

And last but not least, if you are friend of mine, you know that I'm all about some Bare Minerals. I love their products and probably own way more than I should! I always am shopping their online clearance and picking up $60+ dollar kits on sale for $12-$20 and the best part is all the freebies they always are doing. I almost always receive over $50 in free products using online codes whenever I do an order for things like lip gloss, mascara, brushes, make up bags, and moisturizers! Then, of course, there is always things like last night for in-store...Right now if you stop by a Bare Escentuals boutique, you can receive a free Deluxe sample of the new Active Cell Renewal Night Serum. This is going on Jan 27-29 only. I scored my sample last night and can't wait to try it out tonight! Everyone wants to wake up to younger looking skin!

These deals aren't even some of my best retail savings, but they were recent, so I felt like they were the best ones to share! :) Pin It