Category Archives: My Deals

Austin Goodwill Outlet Haul

This past Saturday I was spending time with a friend who had mentioned she had started selling some old jewelry on the site Postmark and was interested in eBay too. I was telling her my experience about the Goodwill outlet in Austin, Tx. We were a short drive away so we decided to go. I had only ever been to the Goodwill outlet on one other Saturday night. This time it was super busy and hot. We did still manage to find some good stuff. Here is what I found:image6-14

I plan on selling this brand new Stephen Colbert book on eBay and keeping the Jim Gaffigan book. Ive already started reading it! Books were 4 for $1.

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I picked up this Little Golden Books out of curiosity. Turns out they really don’t sell for much on eBay but i might just list them anyways!

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A story book from 1981.

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We found so many old interesting books this visit. I believe the maroon book is a 1961 reprint from 1879, the blue book is the complete collection of William Shakepshere published in 1926, and the small brown book is a shorthand dictionary from around 1916!

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I found both these mugs to sell on eBay. If I sell just on I will make enough money to pay for my whole shopping trip!

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Lastly, I found four small like new Ikea plates I was going to buy a few months back, but for some reason decided against. I found two pyrex bowls, one anchor bowl, and a vintage Welchs Looney Tunes jar from the 80’s.

I also found a Maxi dress from Charminig Charlie (at least $40 in store), a pair of Jessica Simpson maternity shorts (at least $34 at Motherhood Maternity), and a cute tank top. My total was $10!

Throw Pillow Transformation- Frugal Decor!

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I’m really excited about my throw pillow transformation! I pulled a couple of pillows out of my sister’s donation pile after her yard sale. They were shabby and didn’t match my decor but for about $3.25 including shipping on Amazon.com I was able to buy these beautiful bright pillow covers! They are listed as burlap so I was worried they would be scratchy but they are actually soft! I couldn’t be more thrilled!

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Click my referral link below to buy your own! These are so cool that I also sent a couple to my long distance BFF and I wasn’t even the one who had to ship them which was a nice added bonus!

WayHomeDecor Cotton Linen Decorative Throw Pillow Case Cushion Cover Cute Elephant 18 “X18 “

 

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Why I Always Fly Southwest and Book Directly Through Their Website

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Why I Always Fly Southwest and Book Directly Through Their Website by Candice

Next month I am flying to Austin, TX with my husband to checkout places we could possibly live if we choose to move there. Then in August we are flying to California with my family for a wedding. When searching for plane tickets for both flights we used all the discount sites such as Kayak and Expedia. I always check these sites prices against Southwest directly and most of the time I find better flights at a lesser price on Southwest’s website.

For instance, my husband thought he found our flights to Austin through Delta airlines on a discount site. Both to and from had layovers in Atlanta and the flights were about $60 more than booking with Southwest. So we settled on round trip tickets with no layovers for $240 each. Here are a few of the reasons I love to fly Southwest.

  1. No baggage fees– Most airlines charge $30-50 per bag and I am just not okay with spending that much on top of my ticket.
  2. Seating– Southwest allows you to board the flight in the order you checked in, therefore you do not need to pay an additional fee to sit with your family members. This is going to be an advantage on our 6 hour flight to California. (or maybe a disadvantage, hehe)
  3. Friendly crew– Every time I fly Southwest the flight attendants are friendly and genuinely seem like they are having a good time
  4. They offer stops– The first time I flew by myself I knew I didn’t want to have a layover. I found out Southwest has stops where they stop at an airport to let people on and off and then resume flying. This whole process is about 20 minutes and is a lot less stressful than a layover. Also I learned that if you do have a stop you can change seats during this time if you are not happy with your original seating.
  5. Additionally, they are constantly having sales on their website with flights as low as $62 dollars.

 

What’s your favorite airline to fly?

Amazon.com offers Southwest gift cards available to save for your next trip or to give to someone who is going to be flying soon. Click the link below to check them out!

Thrift Day With the Girls

imageI had some great luck during a day I spent with my girl friends out thrifting. I really have been hitting the jackpot lately when it comes to name brand dress clothes. They are so expensive new!

In the picture above I got-

– 1 pair of jeans $1

– Blue floral skirt $.80

– Mossimo grey pencil skirt $.80

– Ann Taylor black dress $3 (see right in photo below)

– H&M black dress $3.80 (see left in photo below)

– Liz Claiborne maxi skirt $.80

– The cool basket $.50

– The “professor” rolling bag $5.00

– The cool stool that folds flat $3

– The cat FREE (she was free but I didn’t get her today she just wanted to be in the picture!)

Overall I’m very excited about what I got, especially the H&M and Ann Taylor dresses!

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imageThe cat loved the stool. With a coat of paint I think it will be a really cool piece to decorate with. I also bought the cat bed for $.50 but it is too small for her so I’m giving it to a friend.

My $2.99 Cabinet Before and After

2014-08-07 16.53.34I bought this ugly little brown cabinet (It’s actually drawers but looks like a cabinet) for $2.99 at a local thrift shop. Using one can of green spray paint I transformed it into something that I love having in my living room! It takes the place of a side table but with the added bonus of extra storage. I’m so excited about how this turned out I’m looking for more pieces to transform.

6-21-13 Recent Free In The Mail

imageI have been doing really well with some great stuff for free in the mail! Some great coupons for free products and some nice free coffee.

– Coupon for a free Pepsi NEXT 2 liter

– Coupon for a free box of Playtex Sport Tampons

– Coupon for a free Single Serve Package of Tai Pei Asian Garden

– 2 Large Free Samples of Gevalia Coffee

– 1 Free Folgers Coffee

– A Free H&M Organic Cotton Baby Onesie

– Free Finish Quantum dishwasher detergent

– Free Sample of Natralia Heel Balm

– Various other coupons with the Products

 

To see some of the other cool stuff I get for free click HERE to go to my Free In The Mail Category.

My $20 Goodwill Bench Before and After

BEFORE
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For a couple of months I’ve been thinking about how I would really like to have a bench in the small entrance way in our house. I was surprised to find the above bench for less than $20 at Goodwill despite the fact that it was a little scratched and a small dog had gotten a hold of it’s bottom right leg and chewed it up a little.

imageI knew that when I was done, will a little help from some of the stain sticks my mother and I have acquired through the years, that you would never be able to tell it had been damaged. What I didn’t know was that my new-to-me bench would actually look like new. I just wish I had taken a picture of the pile of shoes that used to sit where the bench is now so that you could see how much better it looks and you would never guess it’s already full to the brim of shoes.

*Stain Stick Tip*- Grab a small rag and wipe over the spots you have colored in. It helps to blend the stain into the grain of the wood so it looks a lot more natural and has less marker lines.

AFTER
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If anyone knows where this bench originally came from please leave me a comment. I would be curious to hear.

Getting Free Croft & Barrow Towels with Kohl’s Cash

imageEarlier this year I wrote about getting Croft & Barrow towels from Kohl’s for $1 each after my Kohl’s Cash. Well again I ended up with $10 Kohl’s cash and didn’t have a chance to make it to the store until the day it was expiring. I was sick and didn’t feel like shopping, but I didn’t want to waste the free $10 to spend on anything in the store. I even tried to give the $10 away to my mother but when that didn’t work I forced myself to head to the store. I ended up picking up some more towels. I already know that I like them, they are good quality, will last a long time, and who can’t use some nice bath towels? This time they were on sale for $4.98 each so I didn’t even have to pay a penny out of pocket. I wish I had thought of buying household items with Kohl’s cash earlier.

This is yet another reminder that saving money isn’t always hard but it does require effort. Was going to a nice store worse than working an hour at a job to earn $10? No, so I consider it time well spent.

The Financial Decisions That Have Saved Us $54,000 in the Past Two Years

Almost two years ago my boyfriend and I moved in together. We are currently choosing to live on less income so that we both can go back to school for graduate degrees. I decided to compile a list of the financial decisions we have made in the past two years that have saved us the most money. After writing this list I have to say that I’m really proud of us!

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1. Buying Our Cars With Cash– I drive a Chevy Cavalier that I bought for $2,000 and B drives a Nissan Sentra that he bought for $5,000 we could have easily spent at least $25,000 for these cars USED and that doesn’t even include interest on a car loan (See Our Experience as a One Car Household) Savings- $25,000

2. Renting a House in Our Original Target Price Range– When we were looking for a house to rent we originally decided we could spend $700 to $900 a month but quickly found that it would be very, very difficult to find a very nice home in that price range but we ended up picking out the house we are living in at $900 a month over houses in the $1200 price range Savings- $300 a month or $3,600 a Year

3. Renting a House With Free Water/Sewer/Trash Bill– We have a  water well  so we don’t pay for water but my sister and her fiancé used to pay $60 a month at their house (see Having a Water Well) Savings- $60 a Month or $720 a year

4. Working Jobs Close to Home– When I worked full time I commuted an hour each way to work. At one point I paid $100 a month just in tolls and I paid about $200 a month in gas Savings- $250 a month or $3,000 a year

5. Working Jobs Where We Don’t Have To Wear Dress Clothes– Dress clothes are expensive, there is nothing else to say! Savings- $50 a month or $600 a Year

6. Negotiating With the Cable/Internet Company- Our current rate would be $130 a month for a smaller package but instead we negotiated to $85 a month for a DVR/HD Channels/Internet/More Channels (See- How One Phone Call Saved Us $343) Savings $45 a month or $540 a year

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7. Buying My Treadmill for $30– I had budgeted to spend $200 on a used treadmill but none came along then I got lucky and got mine for $30 (see How I Got a Treadmill for $30) Saved- $670

8. Buying Our 46 in Flatscreen TV for $150– We wanted a nice TV after we moved into our new house so we were able to price shop and use gift cards (See How We got a 46in TV for $150) Saved- $400

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9. Getting Our Furniture Secondhand– Almost all of our furniture is high quality but second hand. We could have spent thousands on new furniture but we bought used and saved and our house still looks great. Saved- $3,000

10. Having a $200 a Month Grocery Budget– We try to eat healthy so we can easily spend a huge amount of money on groceries. I’m going to conservatively say that we save at least $200 a month by sticking to our budget. (See More About Our Grocery BudgetSaved- $200 a Month or $2,400 a year

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11. Buying Groceries and Household Items with Coupons– We save thousands of dollars by using coupons so I’m going to conservatively say that we saved a couple of thousand dollars in the past two years.  (See More About Our Couponing) Saved- $4,000

TOTAL- $54,000 We Saved Ourselves in 2 Years !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was really surprised when I calculated that total! The best part of this is that NONE of these are crazy things. These are regular every day things that with a little bit of extra time and effort saved us a substantial amount of money!

Why I Print My Coupons Through Swagbucks

I'm a Swagbucks Influencer - Start Earning Now

Many of you have probably heard about Swagbucks.com. It’s a search engine powered by google that allows users to earn points for searching and other activities and then redeem them for gift cards or other prizes. I personally have earned over $80 in Amazon.com gift cards.

I was very excited when they started allowing people to print their coupons.com coupons (the same coupons which can be found and printed on many sites) through their site and then earn 10 Swagbucks for each one you redeem. Those of you familiar with my site know that I use a lot of printable coupons so these Swagbucks add up quickly without me having to do anything I wasn’t already doing. In fact, it saves me time because their coupon interface is easier to use than the current coupons.com system which is hard to navigate. It does take a little while for the points to be added to your account but they are consistent about it. I look at it as just one more perk for using coupons.

verifiedgiftcardsAbove is a picture of my rewards screen showing some of the gift cards I have won. In fact, this Christmas I was able to use them to get most of my Christmas gifts for free! And our motto here is “Shopping is Better When It’s Free!” So if you want to give Swagbucks a try you can click on the banner (my referral) at the top of this post to join.

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