Sale on Girl's Jacket!

I just love good deals. I get a lot of our kids' clothes at consignment shops and even church sales, but I can't pass up a hot deal on new clothes! Whenever a clothes company sends me a good deal via email, I scout it out and see what I can get on the cheap.

Anyway, The Children's Place currently has their "school uniform" collection on sale 25% off + free shipping. You can get another 20% off if you use the code TWENTY2. You can get some decent shirts for $5-$6 after the discount, but the big deal I spotted was a new girl's coat (sizes 2T - 5T) for under $14--including free shipping--after the discount. It's the "Uniform Bow Twill Jacket," and it comes in a navy and a khaki color. It counts as their school uniform collection for free shipping! Jackets are always so expensive, so I jumped on this deal and have a new fall coat on the way for Jo. If you throw in another item to get your total to $20, you will also get a $10 off $20 coupon emailed to you once your order ships to use later in September. It's only their uniform collection that has the free shipping, though, so stick to those items if you don't want to pay shipping!

Here are the details on the $10 off $20 coupon.

And here's a link to the jacket I found (don't forget to use code TWENTY2 to get the extra discount).

The $3 Christmas Present Piles

Santa pulled it off again this year!

We managed to create a pile of gifts for each of our kids for less than $3 each.

Up first is Oliver's. He got a new child's snow shovel from Home Depot. This past fall, Home Depot had a Facebook game in which you mowed down zombies with a wood chip mulcher to get free certificates. We used a $5 off of $5 purchase to get Oliver a free snow shovel. On Small Business Saturday, we went to a toy store called Timbuk Toys. As I posted before, we got a "Honeybee Tree" board game for Oliver and some jingle bells for Jo. After the $25 Small Business Saturday discount, they came to $2.28. I took Jo's summer clothes into a consignment shop and got enough credit to pick out the baseball mitt for Oliver. On Black Friday, I scored two baseballs for less than 50 cents. A fellow mom in MOMS Club was cleaning out her daughters' bookshelf, and she gave me a pile of Clifford books. They were in great condition, so they went into Oliver's Christmas pile. Finally, I went to JCPenney every day between Black Friday and Christmas Eve to get free buttons that they were giving away. Each button came with a code I entered online. One in four buttons was a winner. I won a substantial quantity of free $5 and $10 vouchers. I worked hard to make purchases of their exact amount to get items for free. Below, you can see Oliver got a toy birthday cake because he loves candles. It was on sale for $10, so I got it for free with one of my $10 vouchers. The Melissa & Doug stamp set was on clearance for $8. I picked up a $2 pair of socks and got the stamp set for free!

Here is Jo's pile. The mailbox was actually once Oliver's. A few months ago, I cleaned it up and replaced the batteries. I stowed it away in the closet so it would be fresh and new for Jo. I got the basketball game from a gift exchange from MOMS Club. We brought in some toys we no longer used and got this in return. The wrapped gift was a bathtub coloring set that I got for free with my Pampers rewards points. I posted previously about good rewards programs, but I ended up saving the bumble bee flashlight and the Dumbo puzzle to give to the kids next year instead. The bathtub fishing net was also free. We ordered a Christmas present on Amazon that came to $20. We were going to have to pay $5 in shipping, or we would get free shipping if we spent $25. So, I searched the website for a $5-$6 toy, since I would pay that much for shipping anyway. Jo loves taking baths, so I chose that for her. The book was saved from Oliver. I paid for the box of Kleenex (which she loved). You can also see the jingle bells poking out from behind the wrapped gift, which, as I mentioned from Oliver's pile, came from Timbuk Toys on Small Business Saturday.

And, so, once again, Santa pulled off a good but affordable Christmas. All told, we spent about $7 in our piles of presents from Santa. In addition, we got a number of gifts using the JCPenney vouchers for next year. Santa plans ahead!

$10 Photo Book Deal

LivingSocial has a deal going on right now. For $10, you get a 20 page, hardcover photo book from Picaboo. I've never used Picaboo before, but the designs look promising. I just purchased this deal and plan on using it for the travel photos I'll have from our upcoming trip to Scotland (remember when we won airfare?).

You can find the $10 deal here. I think a photo book would be a great (and now affordable!) gift idea for grandparents. You can also use it to create a book for your kids (you can see what I made for Oliver on Shutterfly here for ideas). Enjoy!

The $7 Present Pile

Oliver has been tossing and turning all night. I wonder if it's the excitement in the air or the glow of the tree from downstairs. His last little wake up was at 3:45am. He went back to sleep; I didn't. My mind wandered, so I decided to get up and brew some coffee to wait for Christmas festivities to begin.

I got home from visiting my parents and sister very late last night. Andrew and Oliver had gone home hours earlier for Oliver's bed time. Once home, I was excited to set up gifts for Oliver, and I pulled his wrapped packages from the closet. A few fell with a bang and woke him. From upstairs, I heard, "Ma. Ma. Ma." That little guy melts my heart. I waited a few minutes, and he went back to sleep. I arranged his packages under the tree and felt so proud of myself for being able to prepare such a wonderful Christmas for our little man.

As most people know, we don't have much money. I was very fortunate this year to come across enough deals, contests, and giveaways to win a large pile of presents for almost no money. Black Friday, I stood in line at Sports Authority at 4am and got a free $10 gift card. With that, Oliver got a padded bat & ball set. They also gave me another $10 gift card, which I used later to get a kick ball and a gift for next year (I paid $2 for those items). With Jingle Cash at Walgreen's, I picked out a fireman toy that was on sale to stow away for next year. A website called GILT gave away $20 for a limited time for joining their site. Andrew joined and got a bead toy (like the kind you see in the waiting rooms at doctors' offices) for Oliver, completely free. I joined and got a soft, monster bowling set for Oliver, which cost me $3 after the $20 discount. From a blog giveaway, I won $15 to a website called Ecomom and got Oliver a dinosaur puzzle for free. From a giveaway on another blog, I won a gift card to a website called Slimy Bookworm, and so I got Oliver three books and paid just $2 in shipping. I won a gift card from Amazon and used it to get Oliver a few more free books. I'd also won a gift card to a website called Jasmere, which works (sort of) similarly to Groupon. One day, a natural toy vender (Natura Toys) was featured on Jasmere, and so I got Oliver a toy for this year and a toy for next year for absolutely no cost. In addition to the toys listed here, I had a few stowed away for today from earlier (just in case I couldn't afford anything), including a wooden train and an animal puzzle.

I'm anxious for him to wake up so we can open all these gifts! I can't wait for next year, too, when he'll be (almost) as excited as I am.