Secrets to saving money

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I love finding a good deal and I love it even more when I can do it without a ton of work. 😉 I learned to save well when I was younger – my mom was the best shopper! Once I was married and had our first son, I knew that I was going to really need to put that plan to action if I wanted to save enough to be a stay at home mom. Today I am partnering with PatPat to share some great money-saving hacks with you.

Some of these aren’t secrets, but some are certainly pretty close! They aren’t things that we talk about on a typical day, but if we started sharing these tips with friends, it would make a huge difference! Sharing money saving tips is always welcome!

1). Find an app that gives you great deals. I recently discovered an app that gives you up to 90% off online. I found Pat Pat because this app is currently featured as a best new app on the Apple App store. PatPat is a shopping App/Website for moms, we have many trending kids clothes available for moms to shop. Through it, I found the cutest todder dresses for Allie and even adorable baby costumes for my cousin’s new baby.
Look at these dresses for Allie – both under $13! (I found them here)

2). Find Coupon Codes online. The trick is to look for coupon codes that aren’t on the normal websites. Find those sites that share the BEST coupon deals!

3). Shop only at Clearance Sales. We love to go to the Lowes Sidewalk Sales (90% off of their items!) – On the first OR last Saturday of the month, Lowes will occasionally have a sidewalk sale. I call on the Friday night before the first & last Saturday of the month (call very late- around 9:30pm) and ask them if they are having a sidewalk sale. If the answer is yes, be there bright and early! The sale starts at 7:00am and they are outside, with customers waiting!
At the last sale, I bought a ton of things! The price marked is the clearance price and they re-mark it for you until it is down to about 90% off.
An example of this is the great set of brand new wicker baskets that I bought (originally over $65) – I paid $1. YES, you saw that correctly… $1.
That is just the beginning! I bought a full-size brand new wicker hamper for $1. I bought a ton of kids things, too, for 10 cents up to $3 each.
My total was $33 and I saved over $300! We buy tools, household items, light-bulbs, tile… everything and anything for your home at 90% off! (Oh- and rugs!)
They mark them down after they have been on the shelves & aren’t selling or if something is wrong. I bought a box of 8 light bulbs for 10 cents because one bulb was missing! (They are the energy-saving ones, too!)

4). Shop the clearance racks first. I also shop the clearance first. As you saw in my other post on this is a great way to save. Once you find the throw pillows that you want on clearance, use the store coupon (most stores have one- ask at the register) to get an extra 15% or more off of your total.

5). Use your friends things. A friend of mine was literally going to throw away a beautiful $600 Pottery Barn Sleigh crib when she was done with it. I decided to use it in our daughter’s room (and passed along our oak crib to another friend).

6). Exchange! My friend and I did a swap. She needed a crib mattress (which I had) and I wanted a mini fridge (which she had). Neither of us were using what we had, so we just exchanged items. We both had what we wanted and paid nothing. I love doing toy swaps & clothing swaps.

7). Shop the mis-tints at the paint store. When I want to redecorate a room in our house, I decide on which color I want to do in the room. I normally stick to “seaside” types of colors, so they are easy to come by. I go into my favorite paint supply stores and I ask to see their mistinted paints (AKA: “Oops paints”). They are marked down to $5 a gallon. This includes the very expensive paint that runs around $50 normally, marked down to $5.

8). Use Coupons. Just like using the PatPat app, if you are at a store, you can use coupons (and you shoudl!) Many stores will take the competitors coupons. When we made a window seat/storage bench for our son’s room, I took my 40% off Michael’s coupon to Jo-Ann fabrics & they honored it.

9). Shop craigslist – I always check craigslist before I go to the store for big-ticket items. Now many things are better off buying new, but there are some items that I will buy used. I bought our kitchen table new at World Market. It is just what I wanted: it expands to fit over twelve and it is just the look I was going for. It was on sale, but was still expensive. To balance this out, I bought our six chairs on craigslist for $30 and painted them a seafoam green color. My husband then built a bench for our kids. It sits along the window-wall and it opens to hold all of my “not used very often” kitchen appliances.

10). My biggest one – do your research first! Start shopping online at place like PatPat, where you can find the lowest prices at up to 90% off. Always look onilne first, because many times, those prices are unbeatable!
(look at this TO THE MOON AND BACK one!)