Category Archives: Our Frugal Stories

How I Got My David’s Bridal Bridesmaid Dress for $12.50 aka How to Get a David’s Bridal Bridesmaid Dress for Less Than Half the Price

bridedressdbdressAs I have previously mentioned, my sister is getting married this summer. She found a beautiful and very affordable wedding dress at David’s Bridal.  I then found a floor length bridesmaid dress for almost the same price but unfortunately they couldn’t order it in time in the light purple color you see above. Bummer! But she is having a small wedding and I am the only bridesmaid so we didn’t have the problem of needing to find several matching dresses.

We decided to look at some department stores or even Ross and T.J. Maxx but we got distracted by a new little resale shop in the same shopping plaza and decided to check it out first. It turned out to be a high end resale store and what did my sister pull off the shelf but a David’s Bridal Bridesmaid dress in the exact color and length we had tried to order for $25 AND the lady informed us that it had been in the store for several months so it was half off for ONLY $12.50! I tried it on and it fit! I don’t even need to get it altered! I just saved over $100!!!!!! I can’t believe it!

But an even crazier part of the story is that my sister is a bridesmaid in her friend’s wedding later this summer and just bought the exact same dress in a different color from David’s Bridal for $150. We started thinking about this and realized that you can buy David’s Bridal Bridesmaid dresses on eBay for around $25!!!!!!!! I wish we had known this sooner but now that we know we will be saving a lot of $$$$$$$ by never having to buy Bridesmaid dresses at the store! I am passing this HUGE savings secret on to you and all of my girlfriends!

6-10-14 Shopaholic Savers Update and a Recommitment to Frugal Living

buttonFirst of all I want to thank all of my readers who are still visiting this website despite the lack of updates lately. This past year I haven’t been able to keep up with ShopaholicSavers.com as much as I would have loved to. Here is what my life usually consists of-

– My Family and B (my bf who I live with)

– Teaching several classes at a large university

– Being a full time Master’s Degree Student

– Conducting my own research studies at the university

– Working a second job at a restaurant

– Sometimes working a third job for my friend’s online business

– Maintaining my household

I know this sounds crazy even to me! But you can understand why there are several things that I love that just got squeezed out of my schedule because there are not enough hours in the day. These Included-

– Running this blog

– My online eBay business

– Couponing all the time

At the moment I am on summer break! Yay! So I have finally restarted my eBay business, I’m trying to get back into couponing, and here is my first post back on this blog! A lot has changed in a year! I have been so busy that some of the more time consuming frugal activities in my life have been reduced (including couponing) but others have started or stayed the same. A year is a long time to recap a lot of frugal living activities but I want to hit some highlights-

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– I saved up enough money to buy a new-to-me car with cash because my car that I bought off of eBay for $2,000 nearly 8 years ago is nearing 200,000 miles and these things don’t last forever. However, my little car just keeps on chugging with a minimal amount of maintenance. So while I would like something newer, nice, more reliable etc. It still gets me back and forth from the university 45 mins away without any major problems so I can’t justify buying a new-to-me car yet (even if I might want to).

– While we are on the subject of the car I should mention the savings of not getting things fixed that don’t have to be fixed especially because I am uncertain of how long I will really be driving this car. So here are some things I haven’t fixed- 1. The windows roll down just fine but are really, really finicky about rolling back up but eventually they always do (even if it’s the next day) so they haven’t been fixed, 2. My gas gauge isn’t entirely accurate anymore, I’ve noticed the needle going back and forth too much but my mechanic said this will be around $300 to fix so instead I set the trip meter when I leave the gas station and it really hasn’t been a problem, 3. After I smashed the car into a pole and my mechanic was able to fix it for cheap the paint on one fender is slightly another color (see above photo). This slightly embarrasses me that I work so hard and have a good job and drive a slightly two colored car. I wish it didn’t bother me but it does, but so far I haven’t repainted it, although there is a local place that will repaint the entire car for $189 and since this may make me more likely to drive the car for even longer (and save even more money) painting the car might not be that bad of an investment.

– I switched a $35 prescription to generic and it’s free! Yay! That’s a savings of around $400 a year.

– B started a new job at a local hospital and instead of going out any buying new dress clothes he went to our local thrift shops and bought everything he needed including three pairs of dress pants, dress shirts etc. in mostly name brands for around $30. You can’t even buy a pair of men’s dress pants for $30 at a regular store.wpid-C360_2013-07-24-15-49-25-881.jpg– We found a cheaper brand of healthy rat food. Walmart sells theirs for $2 a bag as opposed to $16 at the pet store. We have to buy around 3 of the $2 bags to equal the same amount of food but this is still a huge savings.

– While I did mostly take a break from couponing, I also lately haven’t found the coupon deals to be a good as they used to be. Probably because couponing is now so popular, stores are being more careful about coupon rules and deals. So instead we have switched strategies and are shopping at ALDI and Dollar Tree more often. There are some great deals to be had there and we are still saving money and saving time too. Not that I won’t still coupon but at the moment this is saving more money.

– I am currently working towards a Master’s Degree for FREE! That’s right! By working for the university they are paying for my Master’s Degree! How exciting is that? I would not say that this is easy as far as time, energy, and effort go but free tuition is amazing.

– I am recommitted to living a more chemical free, eco-friendly lifestyle. We still do not buy any paper products (besides for toilet paper) and I have been buying only chemical free cleaning and personal care products. Some chemical free products can be more expensive but some are cheaper (I will do a post on this soon) and not buying paper products saves a lot of money.

– We have recommitted ourselves to eating healthy. Again this is one of those things that can be expensive but I have found some tips that have saved us a lot of money that I will share soon.wpid-20130615_182543.jpg– We were given a $2,000 Ragdoll cat for free that we love! More on that soon.

– We have spent a lot of time at home this year. We love our home. We work hard to make sure it is a calm, peaceful place. Loving being at home can save you a lot of money. Often we would rather cook at home than go out to eat at restaurants or watch a move from the couch rather than the theatre.

– We have also been enjoying going to the beach (We live in Florida!). We bought a $20 beach pass that will soon pay for itself and so for a couple dollars gas money we get to enjoy the amazing beaches and ocean around us!

– My sister is planning a fabulous and frugal wedding that I can’t wait to tell all of you about because if you are planning a wedding she could save you a lot of $$$$$$$

– We are having the opportunity to travel this summer and make up for a year when we were too busy to get away. We are crossing more places off of our dream places to visit list and we couldn’t be more excited. Stay tuned for a traveling on the cheap article.

So this article represents my recommitment to frugal living. I won’t say I ever gave up on frugal living but now I want to save more! So come back and visit and see what frugal fun we are up to.

My $1.50 Coffee Pot

imageWe were very sad when our Black & Decker coffee pot died. Enough has been said about saving money on coffee by brewing it at home but we do make our own coffee every day. I do love waking up to a hot cup of coffee. After the death of our coffee pot, we made coffee every day in our french press (given to us by my aunt because she had an extra one) for about two weeks. This, in my opinion, took longer and used more electricity. I decided that I didn’t want to go to the store to buy a new one. I was determined to buy one second hand. Not because I couldn’t afford a new one, but because of the principle of knowing I have seen a million coffee pots at thrift shops in my lifetime. Lo and behold, I found one at one of our favorite thrift shops for $1.50! And it’s a Black & Decker (brands mean nothing to me unless it’s to brag about how cheaply I purchased an expensive item). And it’s actually nicer than our old coffee pot.

This only encourages me to purchase more items second hand. It saves money, helps the environment, and helps the non-profit running the thrift shop.

Free Replacement Otter Box Phone Case

phone1-no nameI have a great phone, a Galaxy SIII, that was a gift for my birthday from B last year. I decided on this phone because it helps me to run this website and also my online business. Knowing that I’m a slightly clumsy person my brother added on to this gift and bought me a very expensive (but cheaper than a new phone or warranty) Otter Box case for it. I LOVE, LOVE that case because I didn’t buy the warranty that came with my phone and I am sure that the case has saved my phone over and over, aka when I dropped it in the parking lot, splashed it with water in the restaurant dish pit, etc. Unfortunately the silicone outside cover has expanded over time and no longer fits well and it has also started to wear out in a few places.

Today at work, I ran into a lady who sells phones for a living and I happened to mention that I wanted to use the warranty to replace my case but had lost my receipt. She informed me that the phone store I bought it at would be able to print a copy, so I stopped on my way home and they did. When I got home I called Otter Box and gave them some serial numbers off of the case and they sent me an e-mail with a link to upload some photos (including the one above but with my name on it) and apparently they are sending me a new case. Yay! I didn’t even need the receipt!

I will post an update when the phone case arrives but that was great customer service, it has saved my phone and now I get a replacement for free? Definitely worth the price my brother paid for it!

*I am not an affiliate of Otter Box nor have I received any compensation for writing this article

 

AT&T U-verse Anniversary Gift- Free $15 Visa Gift Card and a Movie

imageFor our 2 year anniversary with At&t U-verse they sent us a Free $15 Visa Card and a Movie. We have to follow some steps online to redeem them but it’s still a nice gift. The idea is to get take out with the gift card and then a free movie through their service but we can use the gift card for anything we want.

Overall, we have been very happy with U-verse as a cable and internet provider. They are much cheaper than other service providers in the area and the deal we currently have gives us over 200 cable channels, HD channels, 2 cable boxes, and a free DVR for little more than we would be paying just for internet service. I know having cable is a frugal taboo but we often like to stay home instead of going out (aka spending even more money) so for the price of one dinner out per month this has been very worthwhile for us.

The Best Way to Use ‘Free Item’ Coupons

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I love getting coupons for free items because I love getting stuff for FREE! However these coupons present a unique opportunity to get even more stuff for free.

The Best way to use free item coupons is to combine them with other sales or deals!

I especially love if there is a Buy One Get One Free deal with an item I have a free coupon for. Then you can get two items for free. Even when that isn’t the case, you can still often find other great deals to use because Free Item coupons are a companies way of getting you to try a product that they are usually also promoting in other ways.

In the picture below are two examples-

-I had a coupon for free Playtex Sport Tampons and I was able to combine it with a Publix coupon that said if you buy Playtex Sport Tampons you will get a Skintimate Shave Gel for Free so I got both items for FREE!

– I also had a coupon for a free Pepsi Next 2 Liter that I combined with a Buy 2 Pepsi Products Get One Free Sale and I only had to buy one 2 Liter and got two FREE!

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Make Your Own Small Pet Food Mix

imageAs some of you might already know, we are the proud parents to three really cute ratty babies. Rats are not the most common pets to own and I think that this is part of the reason that their food is $15 a bag if you buy the special rat food mix at the pet store. Since we have owned our rats, we have done a little research on what they can and can’t eat. We have also acquired through various means some various foods that we can feed them.

We had-

– Dog food- one pet store told us to feed them this

– Rabbit food- I got a great deal on it

– Squirrel food- a friend gave it to me

– Whole wheat organic cheerios- aka people food that we didn’t like but they love

So I decided to mix them all together to make a rat food mix that actually doesn’t look too different from what they sell at the pet store for a lot less than $15 and they love it. I should also mention that we feed our rats a large variety of fruit and vegetable that we are also eating. Our little rats eat a lot better than people in some third world countries.

 

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6-25-13 Thrift Shop Finds

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I’m starting a new job soon and business clothes are expensive. See my article How To Buy and Dress in Business Clothes for Less.

I have been buying business dress clothes slowly as I find good deals on them to help me build up my new work wardrobe. Although the picture above doesn’t show the clothes in their best light, I was really excited to find about 10 dress shirts from New York and Company, St. John’s Bay, and Gap all for $1.99 each. I spent about $20 which is less than I would have paid for one shirt at one of these stores.

I was also excited to find the below vegetable holder/washer so I took a bigger picture of it. It was only .99 cents and it helps keep produce fresh longer and even better it’s dishwasher safe. I happen to know that these can sell for A LOT more than 99 cents.

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Shopaholic Savers Weekend Update- So I was really trying to save money this month and then…

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Life Update-

So for those of you who don’t know my work life right now consists of-

1. Conducting a Research Study under a fellowship for a large university.
2. Working as a server on weekends at a restaurant
3. This Website
4. My online eBay/Amazon book store business– this one has currently been put on hold because I am so busy with everything else but I hope to pick it up again soon

I try to pay my bills with the money from waiting tables so that I can save the rest. I was doing well this month trying to save money and not spend much so I could focus on working from home. As you can see from the pictures this didn’t end up working out too well.

imageRemember my post a couple of months ago about how excited I was to fix the mirror on my car by myself? Well then I had one really bad day financially which involved missing my exit on the highway, getting a parking ticket, and then hitting a pole while backing out in a parking garage (it was in my blind spot, I swear!). All together this was almost $300 worth of mistakes in ONE day! Uggggg!!!!!

However, I am grateful that I do have an emergency fund to cover it. And I’m grateful that we have a fantastic mechanic who went to the junk yard and found parts for my car and then primed it for a lot cheaper than I would have paid anywhere else and he did this very quickly.

So here is the question- Should I pay to have my whole car painted?

The whole car is in need of a paint job because it’s an older car and I think I could get this done for less than $300 (Hopefully!). Then it would look really nice for my new teaching job at the university in a couple of months. I bought the car for $2,000 off of eBay seven years ago and I have taken excellent care of it. I am planning on driving my car until it dies but I don’t know if that will be *knock on wood* years from now or sometime sooner. However, it really doesn’t look that bad (see below). It really could look a lot worse. So what do you think?

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$3.99 Better Homes & Gardens Goodwill Lamp

imageWe needed a little lamp for our living room and we had been using our desk lamp until we found one. Luckily the next time I was at Goodwill I found this new in the box, Better Homes & Gardens, lamp with the shade for $3.99 in their Target close out section. When I got it home I realized it needed a little bit of super glue in one spot but other than that it was fine and now I can have my desk lamp back on my desk where it belongs.

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