It happens to the best of us. You’re walking through the mall minding your
own business, when WHAM the most perfect, can’t live without, pair of shoes or
outfit appears in a store window and makes your heart stop. You stare longingly through the store window
like a little kid whose mom just told them they can’t get a toy from the toy
store, because you know you just don’t have the funds to finance your dream
purchase. But it won’t hurt to just go take a little
peak at how much your “can’t live without” purchase is going to cost you right because
maybe, just maybe, the shopping gods will smile down at you and those peep toe
heels and killer top won’t cost an arm and a leg. You pick up the shoes or flip over the price
tag eyes closed and what awaits you makes you slightly sick to your stomach…those
shoes cost what??? $150, you have to be
kidding me! That’s your entire food
budget for the next 2 weeks, there’s no way can swing that unless you want to
survive on Ramen for the unforeseeable future.
So you put down your dream purchases, head down and feeling slightly
defeated thinking there is no way you will ever be able to afford them. Well SURPRISE you really CAN make your dream
purchase…here’s how.
I've found that patience is a virtue when it comes to buying
clothes because trust me if you wait for a little bit and you have signed up
for the email club of your favorite store a coupon will come around just in
time for a big sale and poof, your $150 pair of shoes you have to have can cost
you a fraction of that if you play your cards right. Stores are constantly changing their
inventory to bring in clothes for the next season even if it’s nowhere near
close to that time of year. What this
means to you? Clothes for the current
season will go on sale or enter the magical world of clearance just when you
need them. While that top would be
perfect for going out this Friday night, if you wait as little as 2 Fridays
from now the very same top may be on sale for anywhere from 20-50% off. As Mr. Rogers says “It’s very, very, very,
hard to wait” but in this case waiting will be worth your while.
How do you find out if your can’t live without top is going
on sale…sign up for the email clubs of your favorite stores. These email clubs will inform you of upcoming
sales and even give you discount codes and coupons to use while the sale is
going on. It takes 2 seconds to give the
cashier your email address and your phone number for coupons online and in the
mail and the rewards can be worth their weight in gold. Once you receive these precious money saving
emails make a game plan. Decide on
exactly what you want to buy, how much it is going to cost with all the
discounts, how much you want to spend total and most importantly stick to your
game plan! While running these numbers
may seem as painful as Freshman Algebra it will all be worth it when you
realize that what almost cost you $150 can cost you $60 or less if you play
your cards right.
Want some proof that this strategy works, take my most
recent trip to Old Navy. I have recently
decided to revamp my wardrobe from 5 year baggy old t-shirts that I fit 3 sizes
ago, to more figure friendly shirts that
show off the fact that I actually have a body instead of being a blob. Hey a single girl’s gotta rock what she’s got
right? Thanks to the fact I joined Old
Navy’s email club I knew that they were having a sale over the weekend where certain
items were $5, $10 or $15 and graphic tees were $4! To top that all off they emailed out a coupon
for $10 off a $50 purchase. I drew up my
game plan so I knew exactly what I wanted and headed over to the mall with my
sister. I ended up 7 different kinds of
shirts, from graphic tees, to work out shirts but my total would not have been
enough to hit the $50 mark I needed for my $10 off so I combined resources with
my sister. We had mountain of clothes
between the 2 of us…19 items in total and guess how much we spent…only $104.94
including the full price yoga pants my sister just had to have. We saved $96.14 because everything was on sale and we had the $10 off coupon
which took a few cents off each item.
Guess what the total per items was…only $5.52 per item (the MBA student
in me just had to do the math) and we ended up with pretty much a large chunk
of our spring and summer wardrobe taken care of in one trip! The icing on the cake was the fact I received
a coupon booklet of savings for the month and a survey which will get me 10% off my next purchase. Nothing makes me happier than the chance to save more money.
See my will power and crazy coupon watching can pay off and
these strategies can pay off for you too J
Happy shopping!
Until Next Time,
Broke Girl
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