Friday Deals

I'm sure in a good mood this morning after my Oregon Ducks clinched the Pac-10 championship and a Rose Bowl spot! But seeing some of these good deals for weekend shopping was the icing on the cake!

*Friends and Family at Cost Plus World Market! Get 25% off home decor, furnishings, gifts and more, and 10% off food/alcohol. Use this coupon in store or use code FFONLINEDEC online. Is anyone else a sucker for their Beer of the World 10-pack like I am?



*Friends and Family at The Body Shop - 20% all merchandise in store or online (use code FNF2009). If you shop in store, you also get a FREE gift with a $20 purchase. Make sure to print up this coupon if you plan to shop in store. Ends Sunday.

*Love that Borders.com has coupons all the time (become a Borders member for free like I mentioned in this post) and this is a pretty good one! 30% off one item! Go here to get the coupon.

*25% off your order of $150 or more at jcrew.com. Enter code GIFTS. Totally wanting this vest...


*Take an extra 20% off Vera Bradley sale items! Enter code 20OFFSALE at checkout (thanks to Fantabulously Frugal for this one).

*Although it's not a Friday Deal per se, make sure to check out Ebates.com if you plan on shopping online for gifts. Ebates.com is a GREAT website I mentioned in this post, and it's a website that partners with over 1,000 stores to give you cash back on your purchases. I had not used it much but when I decided I wanted to get some great online deals on Cyber Monday, I thought I'd give it a try. Not only were all the online stores I wanted available, but Ebates was running a special of getting double cash back! I got about 11% cash back on my purchases! If you'd like to check it out and sign up, here's the link.

Happy weekend!

Holiday Help: Having a Greener Holiday

I have a few pet peeves about the holidays: crowds, rude people, traffic. Out of all of the things that bug me from Thanksgiving to New Year's, my biggest pet peeve is how much is wasted - wrapping paper, bows, decorations, food, and plenty more! Don't get me wrong - I'm not a scrooge! But over the years, I've gotten increasingly concerned about the environment and I'm trying to minimize my impact. I figured a lot of you are in the same boat. Here is how I'm planning to have a greener holiday:

*Wrapping presents with something I already have - newspapers are a classic, but what about old scarves or bandanas? What about placing a present in a basket or other container I have lying around the house? I also think it could be nice to get a gift in a reusable shopping bag - something I can use later! If I have to buy wrapping paper, I will only buy paper made of recycled materials. I also love to wrap presents with nice ribbon that could be used by the recipient again - I love to use old ribbons for headbands, belts, or an accent on my purse.

*Giving experiential gifts. I love this one! Last year, my husband and I got my twin brothers tickets to an Oregon Ducks football game. Since we couldn't buy tickets until July, the present they got to "open" were foam fingers that we hid in the house. When they found the fingers, we told them they'd need to use those to cheer at the game we'd be taking them to. It was pretty cute! I plan to do more of this during the holidays this year.




*Giving the gift of my time. I used to think these were so cheesy! My mom would always encourage me to make personal gift certificates, but I thought they were lame. Now, I love them and so do the recipients! Make a certificate for your parents and take them out to their favorite restaurant (or one within your budget) or babysit your niece and give your siblings a night out. People stay relatively connected with technology these days, but nothing beats a few hours of face time with those you love. I promise that will be a memorable gift.

*Giving a membership or subscription. As I've mentioned in other posts, I love giving magazines as gifts (just remember to either pass the magazine onto someone else or recycle it when you're done). Memberships are also great! One year, my mom got me a membership to AAA. With an unreliable car, that definitely got me out of a few pickles, plus it gave me ultimate piece of mind. Maybe you could find a cheap membership for a friend's favorite museum?

For other ideas on how to have a no-waste holiday, go to reduce.org.

What do you think? Is it important to you to give in a way that reduces waste? How are you incorporating being green into your holiday routine?

My Frugal Heart Beats for Twitter

I'm still a little new to the whole Twitter scene (melissawgaffney, if you'd like to follow me). It's kind of neat to see celebrities on there - Joel McHale and Bethenny Frankel are some of my favorite tweeters (is that the right use of the word?), but I think my favorite thing about Twitter is how instantly you can find all kinds of deals!

First off, you can follow some of your favorite stores. Much like Facebook, if you follow certain stores, they are likely to post special promotions or deals on Twitter. It's a good way to keep informed on sales all in one place. Since I never pay full price at Banana Republic, I like to follow their tweets letting me know it's 30% off sweaters and outerwear!

Here are some of my favorite deal tweeters:

1) Fantabulously Frugal - I love Lisa and her sweet, sweet deals! She keeps up with EVERYTHING! Check out her blog, too!

2) Free List - Free List is just like it sounds - it lists anything from classifieds in your town that are free! The posts can be a little overwhelming, but it's a good way to score anything from free skiis to free hot tubs to free cars (okay, no engine, but still). I'm following Free List Seattle, but there are lots of Free Lists. Check for your town!

3) Groupon - I've mentioned Groupon before, and now I'm in love with their tweets! They send out a fantastic deal every day for restaurants, spas, events and more for numerous cities! Last I checked, they were in 45 cities. Find the Groupon for your area!

4) Target Daily Deal - I can't spend time every day checking Target's site for good deals, so they tweet it for me! Their Daily Deal tweets are great! Just 3 days ago, Dyson vacuums were on sale for $299 - normally $400! Can't wait to see what they have for the holiday shopping season...

5) Travelzoo - if you love to travel, or just need to find deals on how to get where you need to go cheaply, you must follow Travelzoo. They have great travel finds ($29/night at the Tropicana in Vegas?!) for last minute getaways or they can give you a head's up when you plan something in advance.

Do you tweet? Who do you follow that makes you laugh, think, or save money? I'd love the suggestions!

Clothes Shopping the Frugal Way Part 3

So I finally made my shopping trip. As a refresher, here were the items I've decided to start with to round-out my wardrobe. I've put an X next to those which I have purchased.

Black Tank
White and black T's (short sleeved and long) X (One long sleeved black T, still looking for the others)

Black turtleneck sweater
Crew neck sweater X (three one red, one pink, one black)
Black pants X
Heavy sweater X (a tan over sized cowl neck)
Cashmere hoodie
Gray Flannel pants (I might choose another fabric aside from flannel) X (I got flannel and I love them! I even found a washable flannel)
Black round-toe pumps
Black knee high boots
1-2 additional pairs of neutral pants such a pin stripe X (a very dark grey/silver. What can I say? I like grey)
1-2 dressier blouses X (a burgundy colored blouse with a ruffle)

So overall I'm pretty proud of what I've accomplished. I spent about $350, which considering I haven't purchased clothes since March isn't that bad. I made my purchases at Express and Ann Taylor Loft. I consider these good quality stores. While eventually I'd like to move toward a beautiful pair of Theory pants, the fact is my closet was sooo bare, that my budget just wouldn't allow. So always buy the best quality you can afford. I'm proud of my self for not going to the cheapest of cheap stores and buying a ton of stuff I know will stretch out and pill within a couple of days.

I've worn Express editor pants in years past and they always hold up well. I highly recommend them for anyone who is looking to add some pants to their wardrobe.

The other thing I'm going to do differently is being very cautious how I launder my clothes. I plan to hang dry almost all of them, and then through them in the dryer to just wrinkle release. Even though they say they can handle the dryer and they may or may not shrink, they will still start to look older much faster.

I'm still on the hunt for the perfect black boots. Anyone have a pair to share?

No-Spend January

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and it was filled with the 3 Fs: family, friends and freaking good food!


So what about going a month without spending money? What?! A month without spending? Well, I'm definitely toying around with the idea. I L.O.V.E the holidays but come the second week of January and the excitement has worn off, I usually feel a little sheepish about how much I spent. So - a detox, of sorts.

This was the post by Sox in Budgets are Sexy that inspired me. Now Sox is pretty intense, and I don't know if I can quite do what he did, but I'm determined to reign in my spending and hopefully learn a few things, too.

Here's my proposal:

*No spending money on clothes, shoes or other accessories. Period. The holidays will have just happened, and while there will be killer sales, I can suck it up for a month. It's a high probability that I will get at least one clothing item for Christmas, and really, I have plenty of things to wear.

*No spending money on going out for meals or drinks. This does not mean that I can't eat out in restaurants; this just means I cannot pay for a meal in a restaurant. If my husband and I go out for dinner, no joint account money (thanks babe!). Do I have any friends that would like to take me out to lunch or dinner in January? :)

*No other incidental purchases, like coffee, nail polish, candy bars, etc.

*I WILL spend money on things that need to get paid - rent, groceries (I may have to look at upping my budget to account for how much more I'll be eating in), bills, and gas. Obviously, if an emergency expense comes up, I will have to pay for that as well. But we're not talking an I-was-hungry-and-so-I-got-Thai-takeout emergency; this will have to be something that will significantly impact my day-to-day routine (sickness, car emergency, etc).

What are my strategies?

- Be much better about packing my lunch. The expense of lunches out has started creeping up on me again. Stay tuned for another lunch post on how to actually eat and like what you pack for lunch...

-Preparing. I'll be getting work on my car done in December and going to the dentist/doctor to not have any co-pays or other forseen medical expenses taken care of.

- Host people at my house for dinner/drinks instead of going out.

- Getting tips/support from you all! :)

I'll be tracking my progress on the blog so you can hear about my triumphs and struggles. Anyone else want to have a No-Spend January with me?

Meal Planning Challenge

I've finally gotten this meal planning thing done and I have to say, it's been going very well and we're saving lots of money. But I still have a ton of food in my cupboards, it's always stuff that I'm sure I'll eat at somepoint and never get to. I'm now using it as inspiration for my meal planning. All that food that's sitting in my cupboards is just wasting me money. It's good to have staples, but some of these things need to go!

As a new weekly feature, every Monday I will posting my five challenge foods for the following week and look for your suggestions as well as search through recipes and utilize sites such as Recipe Czar. I will post my menu and recipes for the following week on Friday afternoon.

The rules are easy. I must use the below five ingredients in meals for the following week. I can use them in any combination, like two in one recipe, but I must use them all.

Here are next week's challenge ingredients. As an FYI we are traveling for Turkey Day so we won't have any leftovers.

Panko Bread Crumbs

Sundried Tomatoes

Canned Chicken (really not as gross as it sounds)

Cranberry Sauce

Roasted Red Peppers

Friday Deals

Thank goodness it's Friday! Busy weekend ahead of Thanksgiving prep, seeing friends and taking in "New Moon"! Here are some good deals for your weekend!

*Take 25% off your whole order at gap.com - enter code GIFT123. This offer is good until November 23rd!

*FREE clutch with a $25 purchase at Sephora (in stores or online). It's filled with 8 samples! Enter code CLUTCH4U if you order it online, and be sure to bring a print out of this if you get it in stores.

*$20 off purchase of $125 or more at onlineshoes.com! This offer expires on November 23rd and make sure to enter code 9GOBBLE.

*FREE scarf at victoriassecret.com when you buy a sweater! Enter SCARF09

*FREE CD (with U2, John Legend and Dave Matthews Band, no less) at Starbucks when you make a purchase of $15 or more! I got a bag of coffee, a latte, and a free CD yesterday! The CD is with the RED project, so part of your purchase goes to support AIDS relief in Africa. PS - if you have a Starbucks card, don't forget to register it! You get a FREE drink when you purchase beans plus you get a FREE drink on your birthday!

*Good flight deals going on - Southwest is charging $59 (and free bags!) for some one-way tickets. Clearly, these are just for selected cities, but hey, if I wanted to fly from Seattle to Boise, it'd only cost me $118 roundtrip! Make sure to read the fine print because exclusions apply.

*FREE shower gel and bubble bath sample from Philosophy when you become a fan on Facebook! If you sign up to receive emails, you'll get a FREE Amazing Grace perfume with a $15 purchase.

Happy Friday!