It was about 5 years ago this spring when my husband and I found out that we were expecting our first child. I being a computer nerd in many ways created a excel sheet that listed all the different items we needed in categories such as travel, cleaning, feeding, bedding etc. Then I put the average price range was for each of these items to give us a sum of what we might need to plan on spending for our new little one. The amount was shocking if you bought higher end items… and still large if you bought good deals. So here I will discuss the route we took in the world of strollers!

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Tags: baby, deals, family, infants, mom, strollers
Posted in Babies & Kids, Jesi | 1 Comment »

Shopping Confusion

Many years ago, before I was born, when you needed to buy something you went to the store, bought what you needed and went home.  Occasionally you looked for sales or stores going out of business, but the buying process was simple.  Fast forward to today and being a consumer is more difficult and complicated than ever.  When you want to buy something you have the choice of doing it in person, over the phone, through a magazine or online.  If you buy something in person you get the satisfaction of having it right then, but you don’t always know if you got a good deal on it.  If you buy something online, you can usually search for a good price, but sometimes the item takes a while to get to you and you often have to pay shipping costs.  The question I want to pose to you is how do you know if you’re shopping the smartest way you can?

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Tags: clothes, deals, food, frugal, groceries, sales, shop, shopping
Posted in Life On A Budget, Miriam | No Comments »

I am constantly looking for cheap deals on dress up clothes for my boys.  Yes, even boys like to dress up.  Just not as princesses.  But, they love to play pretend and want to be cowboys, firemen, race car drivers, super heroes, you name it.  So, this time of year is the best time to look at costume shops and of course, online places have the best selection.  Tons of kids costumes are on clearance as they clear out everything for the new line of costumes next fall.  I found a great clearance selection at buycostumes.com.  Of course, with the big Houston Livestock show and rodeo starting up, my kids are all about the cowboy stuff right now and they have a decent one on clearance.   It’s hard not to want to buy everything on there.  I wish I knew what they would want to be the next Halloween so I could go ahead and get it on clearance as well.  Ah well.  There’s always craigslist which I have gotten 2 costumes from for cheap as well.  Anybody need a Lightning McQueen….?

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Tags: costumes, deals, dress up, kids, pretend play
Posted in AmyW, Babies & Kids, Halloween | 1 Comment »

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Tags: computers, coupons, deals, family, free shipping, friends, gifts, household items, jewelry, sales
Posted in AmyW, household items | 2 Comments »

There is not much else in the retail world that can compare to the excitement of Black Friday sales.

You may have been a part of it yourself. Maybe you stood in line in the cold at your local Target or mall to get a USB drive for $4 or some crazy-good deal.

And Cyber Monday, even…maybe you took advantage of those deals online that are so hard to pass up as well. But those days have passed already. It’s time to countdown to Christmas and you are running out of time if you haven’t done your shopping and you are running out of time if you haven’t gotten the kind of deals you were hoping for for yourself.

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Tags: Black Friday, Christmas shopping, Cyber Monday, deals, retail
Posted in Black Friday, Christmas, Cyber Monday, Josh | 2 Comments »

It happens every year. I get all excited about what I may be for Halloween, as early as Spring or Summer. I will get crazy ideas about what the whole family could be as well and the ideas remain just that: ideas.

I procrastinate all Summer because, let’s face it, Summer is fun. Then I get sucked into the vortex  of pre-Fall, with Back to School worries and new TV shows (yes, I watch a ton of shows) and things at work usually pick up with many fiscal years ending in Seotember, etc. The next thing I know, it’s time to go to the Halloween party and I have no costume. So if this happened to you, let’s promise each other we will be more prepared next year.

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Tags: costumes, coupons, deals, Halloween
Posted in Halloween, Josh | No Comments »