28 Ways to Save on Anything - Save at your favorite retailers!

Join me everyday in February as I share ways to save money on just about anything you need, want, use!

How to save money at your favorite retailers:

•  Go to their websites and sign up for their e-mails.  Lots of retailers send out exclusive sales and discounts to their subscribers.  I got a JCPenney coupon around Christmas time for $10 off a $10 purchase!  Score!  I needed a new bra.  I found one on the clearance rack for $12.89!  Used my coupon and it was just over $3 after tax!
• Shop the clearance racks at your favorite stores.  I looooooove the clearance racks at Kohl's for me and Target or Walmart for my son!
• Find out if they have a rewards card or a store credit card with special offers.  Now obviously, racking up major credit card debt is the opposite of saving toward a better life.  But hear me out.  For example, a Kohl's charge card holder (me) gets special savings for having a Kohl's card.  And they have awesome sales and Kohl's cash promos.  To get the extra savings I have to use my credit card.  BUT!  I can make a payment on my card in-store.  So for example, I have $100 to spend on Christmas presents.  I can go to Kohl's, get a ridiculous amount of stuff for $100, pay with my Kohl's charge, possibly earn $20 in Kohl's cash to use later if they happen to be running that promotion and then promptly turn around and pay off the charge on my card at the register with the $100 I allotted myself to spend.  And now, there are no charges on my card AND I've saved a ton!
• Shop the sales!  Just as with groceries, watch the circulars for the best price on what you need.  Also, if something goes on sale within a certain amount of time after you bought it, a lot of retailers will let you bring in your receipt and they'll refund you the difference in the price.

Here are some stores that offer savings when you sign up:

Clearance Kid's Clothes at Target!

My little boy is quickly outgrowing clothes.  I was THRILLED to stumble upon some GREAT clearance racks at my Target yesterday.  Target clothing clearance (esp. kids) can be real hit-or-miss.  So when I found TWO FULL racks, I hit them hard!  :)

I got a cute three piece set, a blue jacket, a pair of khaki pants, a short/shirt set, two pairs of shorts.  I spent less than $20.  In fact, my total came out to less then $2.15/per article of clothing!

Check out your Target and let me know what you find!

Retail Savings

Signing up for store newsletters are a great way to save money as many coupons and promotions are sent out to newsletter subscribers.  Here are some available store newsletters to sign up for:

• Betty Crocker Newsletter 

• Bisquick Newsletter

• Direct Buy

 

• Gevalia Coffee  

• Home Depot

• Levi's online store

 

• Shoe Carnival

Babies R Us FREE tote bag and clothes sale!

Print this coupon and go to Babies 'R Us by April 22.  The coupon gets you a FREE tote bag AND 25% all the clothes you can fit in it!!


I'm really tempted to go to Babies R Us!  They have FANTASTIC clearance racks.  I talked about this last summer which unfortunately was the last time I've been to BRU! :{ 


The coupon does not say anything about excluding clearance! 


Thanks Lisa for letting me know about the coupon!

Rebate of the Day - Feline Pine

Feline Pine Cat Litter has a rebate program. You save the "points" from the back of your packages and send them in for, among other things, a rebate on a bag of litter.

Get all the details and all the other things you can redeem your points for here.

Rebate of the Day - Bissell Products w/Target deal matchup

The 2/21 SmartSource has a mail in rebate form for Bissell products.
You can also download the form here. The rebate is valid on purchases made between 2/20/10 and 3/31/10. The rebate must be postmarked by 4/15/10.

Here are your options:

• Save $10 on Bissell products priced from $60 – $99
• Save $20 on Bissell products priced from $100 – $199
• Save $30 on Bissell products priced from $200+

Target is having a sale this week on Bissell products!

Get a $20.00 Target Gift Card wyb one of the following Bissel Vacuums:

Bissell Spot Bot Compact Deep Cleaner – $129
after Rebate & Gift Card: $89

Bissell Pet Hair Eraser – $149
after Rebate & Gift Card: $109

Bissell Lift Off Multi-CyClonic Pet Vacuum – $179
after Rebate & Gift Card: $139

Bissell ProHeat 2X – $199
after Rebate & Gift Card: $159

Rebate of the Day - Weed Products at Ace Hardware

The following three products are eligible for a rebate if purchased from Ace Hardware 1/20/10 - 2/28/10:

• $5 rebate on Roundup Weed & Grass Killer (36.8 oz.)
• $4 rebate on Ace Weed & Grass Killer
• $10 rebate on Weed Impede 2-in-1
  
  Print the rebate form here. Make sure you have your receipt(s) and UPCs and read the form carefully.

Children's Place - 15% off!

As the mom of a little boy, I know how hard it is to find cute boy clothes amidst the sea of pink at the stores. But the Children's Place is GREAT! I get the cutest things for my son there.

And now you can get 15% off your purchase. Click the banner above to print out at 15% coupon!

HOT NEW Bath and Body Works coupon!!

Get a printable coupon for a FREE travel size signature collection item with ANY purchase! Up to a $5 value!

Limit one per customer. Expires 2/24/10. Also has an online code so you can use this on online orders too!

NEW LeapFrog Tag Coupon - $5!

A new $5 printable off a LeapFrog Tag Reading System has just been released!

Mommy Cards

What are "Mommy Cards" you ask? Apparently they are the newest thing to hit the hip mom scene and now you can get 100 for $1.99!

They are business cards for moms! You can include your contact information, your children's names, allergies...whatever you think would be most important to give to a teacher, babysitter, another mom at daycare/playgroup, etc.

I think they are a great idea!

You know what else is a great idea? Vistaprint's 250 FREE business cards. I can't tell you how many times I've been in line at the grocery store using all my coupons and getting my groceries for half price or better and the cashier or a customer behind me asks, "How do you that?" Well, I can't explain it there standing in line. How great would it be to have my blog address on a business card I can just pull out of my purse and give to them!!

What to do with all those Chistmas Pictures?

Are your pictures from Christmas still sitting on your camera? What should you do with them?

Get them printed! And here are the best deals:


Get 50 FREE prints (just pay shipping) when you sign up as a new member at:
CVS




At SeeHere new members can get 100 Free 4x6 Prints with the code prints at checkout. Shipping charges apply.

Make a photo calendar and get one free at Photoworks!

Make a 5x7 photo book at Vistaprint for $7.99

Exclusive savings from the Home Depot newsletter!

You don't have to look hard to find savings on anything! I'd sign up for this because they do send out special savings to their newsletter subscribers and you never know when it might be on just what you need!



Lowe's will also honor Home Depot coupons! (I didn't know that! Thanks Kristin!)

Leap Frog Toys! Another coupon and a new sale!

Coupons.com has the following printable coupons:
$5 off any Leapster Learning Game
$4 off any Tag reading system book
$2 off any Tag Jr. reading system book

There is also a $4 off any Tag book or Leapster Game in the 1/3 issue of Parade Magazine (comes in the newspaper)

The Target BOGO sale on Leapster games is over but K-Mart has the Leapster 2 games BOGO now. This sale is for an unspecified amount of time but I wouldn't delay in getting them!

Prices range from $24.99 - $26.99. You can print from Coupons.com twice per computer. That would give you 2 $5/off and the Parade magazine gives you a $4 off (did you get multiple copies of the paper like I suggested? Great then you have multiple coupons!)

Remember, even though the sale is BOGO you can still use on coupon per game! So if you had 2 of the $5 printables and 2 of the $4 from Parade you could by FOUR games for $50, and use the FOUR coupons ($18 worth) and get the 4 games for $32!

So print these coupons and head out ASAP to get your deal! This would be great if your child got a Leapster or Tag system for Christmas. You can go out and get some extra books or games to save for their birthday! :)

Leap Frog Toy Coupons

Coupons.com has the following printable coupons:
$5 off any Leapster Learning Game
$4 off any Tag reading system book
$2 off any Tag Jr. reading system book

Target is having a sale until tomorrow (Jan 2nd) on their Leapster games...they are Buy One Get One Free!

Couponing to Disney reports that they are $24.99 each. So the BOGO deal would be 2 for $24.99. Since you can print two coupons per computer, you can get 2 $5/1 and use them both. You would get both games from $14.99! (That's less than $7.50 each!)

So print these coupons and head out ASAP to get your deal! This would be great if your child got a Leapster or Tag system for Christmas. You can go out and get some extra books or games to save for their birthday! :)

Haven't done your Christmas cards yet? Don't have time to get to CVS or Wal-mart's photo printing kiosk with that super cute Christmas picture to put on your cards? Check out Vistaprint. Most of their holiday cards are 50% off! Click the banner above to see. (Discounts only visible by following the link above.)

They also have free 4x8 photo cards. After clicking on the banner above, look on the side menu for "Free Products" and that will bring up a menu that has "Free 4x8 cards".

Their caricature labels are too cute also! I make some for our Christmas cards every year (our address is under our names, but edit out here, clearly, for safety reasons):
You can get 140 of these labels for $1.60!!

I made, I mean, SANTA (wink, wink) made this for Gavin's stocking. It's a photo book about his first trip to the beach. These are FREE right now, by the way!

These offers available only through this banner link:

Kmart Toy and Baby Clothes Deal

This is the first time I've posted about K-Mart. But I saw in their ad for this week that they have a BUY 2 GET 1 FREE sale on Thomas, Transformer, Littlest Pet Shop, and PLAYSKOOL toys.

Playskool has a ton of coupons out now for lots of their hottest toys. You can find them at Coupons.com and here.


K-mart is also offering a $5 giftcard when you buy $15 in Gerber clothing and a $10 giftcard wyb $25. You can find coupons on Gerber apparel here



Read more about K-Mart at the Forums at A Full Cup

Classic storybooks on sale at Amazon!!

I love books, always have. And I want to pass my love of books down to my son, but WOW, good books are EXPENSIVE!

I found this great deal on one of the books on the list of books I want to get my son. You'd better gobble this up if you want this book because it is a GREAT deal!

Amazon.com has Where the Wild Things Are for only $7!! And it's the Deluxe hardcover edition that's regularly almost $18 at Amazon. (I almost bought it at Books-A-Million last week and I think it was $15.95 there.)

While I was looking around I found an animated DVD of Where the Wild Things Are...and 5 More Stories by Maurice Sendak (Scholastic Storybook Treasures). It's just like the pictures in the book turned into and animation set to someone reading the story. There is a 2 minute video clip if you want to watch it. I think it looks wonderful! It's only $8.99 and Amazon is running a promotion where you get a 12-issue subscription to either Rolling Stone, Men's Journal or Us Weekly for only $1 with any DVD purchase sold and shipped by Amazon!

I also found The Polar Express in hardcover for $11.07!

If you bought these three selections your total would be $27.06 and would ship FREE!



You can check out the entire selection of Bargain Books here. They are categorized by age group making it easy to shop for everyone on your Christmas list!

Don't forget, Amazon purchases over $25 are eligible for FREE shipping!

Black Friday toy deals still going on at Amazon!

Here are some current offers for toys and games at Amazon.com

• $20 dollars off $100 on Fisher-Price toys with coupon code FPSAVE20.
• $10 off $50 on Playskool toys with coupon code PLAYSAVE.
• Get a free Amazon exclusive Gund teddy bear when you spend $75 on qualifying toys.

What are you waiting for? These deals won't last forever! Start shopping!

Clothing deals

I have ALWAYS been a bargain shopper when it comes to clothes, thanks to my mom! I got to wear department store clothes at Wal-Mart (or better) prices when I was growing up. When we went to the mall we always hit the clearance racks. It's the ONLY way I shop in department stores now.

Unfortunately, the store where we always got the best deals no longer exists - McRae's. Oh, how I loved that store!

But I have found a replacement department store where I go to for everything! KOHL'S. I always hit the clearance racks first. Especially since I live in the south, summer clothes go on clearance in August to make room for back-to-school fall clothes, even though, weather-wise, you can get two more months out of your summer clothes! Same goes with all the other seasons. And if you should find something that's completely winter in April, well, winter will eventually be back!

Kohl's has men's, women's, children's, teen, baby and maternity clothes, picture frames, candles, household goods (bedding, rugs, decorative items), kitchen ware (both cooking and serving items), jewelry, make-up, shoes, toys, greeting cards, giftwrap, and seasonal items all under one roof!

And I know that I should discourage the use of credit cards, but Kohl's offers extra discounts to their card holders that can be used on clearance merchandise. Plus, you can use your credit card wisely, by purchasing your items and completing the transaction with your Kohl's card. And then (at the same register you're at) make a payment on your card to pay off what you just bought!

For example. If you have $200 to purchase Christmas gifts with, your Kohl's card and a 20% coupon you could do this:
Go to Kohl's and pick out your items up to $250 (but I only have $200 to spend!! Just wait...)
At the checkout you must use your Kohl's charge to make the purchase if you want to use the 20% off coupon.
What's 20% of $250?? You guessed it! $50!! So all you are actually paying $200 (plus tax) for your items!
After transaction is complete, tell the cashier you want to make a payment on your card. Pay the $200 you had saved for Christmas gifts and it's like you never charged anything at all!!

And if you do this on a day when they are giving Kohl's cash (where you get $10 vouchers for every $50 you spend good on a future purchase) then you would have just earned $50 to use later!!

Kohl's is not rewarding me in any way for this post (though I wish they were!) I've just found so many great bargains there that I have to pass along what I know!! Kohl's motto is "The more you know, the more you Kohl's" and it's true!

Now, on to my next topic for snagging new kids clothes at a good price. Wal-Mart's clearance racks can boast some pretty good savings if you catch them at the right time.

I got this jacket that Gavin is wearing for $1. I can't remember if I got it 2 summers ago while I was still pregnant or if it was last spring when he was 4/5 months old. Either way, it was in the off season clearance rack at Wal-Mart. It was a size 12 months which, being an October baby, I expected it to fit him when the weather cooled off around his first birthday. You can't tell much about it, but it's a cute little hoodie with safari animals on it.



At Wal-Mart last week I got these two long sleeves size 18 months shirts (Healthtex brand - one of my faves!) for $3/each. They were on the clearance rack but didn't have a tag. I had the cashier check them when I got to the line. When they rang up $3 I said, "I'll take 'em!" They are a little big on him now but that assures me that they will last ALL winter. Great deal!!
I got this shirt at the same time I got the two above. It was on the off-season clearance for $1!! He wore it over the weekend. And where we live we're like to have days where the high gets to nearly 70 degrees through November (and even sometimes in December. I have worn short sleeves at Christmas!) So I have no doubt that we will get our dollar's worth out of this shirt.