Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Markdowns Galore

Nothing thrills me more than the idea of a treasure among 400 odd items at The Salvation Army.  I walk in and my D.I.Y brain starts instantly turning "has beens" into " must haves". As far as I am concerned there are two types of people in this world; those that love the pursuit of the hunt and those that don't.

With that being said I love getting a good deal. Here are a few more of my tips and tricks for saving where I can.

1)When I go the the Salvation Army or Goodwill I try (try, doesn't always mean do mind you :p ) to go on Wednesday's. Why Wednesday's? Because each town, city and state has their own markdown day and here in NOVA, our's is on Wednesday! 25% OFF of an already great deal?!?!  I'll take it!

2)Always ask for a better price or a coupon. If I don't have a coupon with me, I simply ask if they have an extra. Surprisingly it works 50% of the time. Michaels is a great store to do this at. I love to do arts and crafts and Michaels is the Mecca of all things crafty. They also have cute seasonal and home decor items. They always have a 40% off ( full price items only) coupon in the paper and if you forget it or can't pull it up on your phone they are more thna happy to honor it for you. Also look out for additional coupons for sale items.

3)Take advantage of savings programs!!! With my health insurance I can ONLY pick up my prescriptions from CVS pharmacy. However, everytime I go in I make sure to show my CVS card to earn points. I end up with coupons and "CVS bucks"  for free stuff all of the time.

4)Magazines. I have a slight obsession with US weekly. Instead of paying the $4.00 off the newstand every week I invest in a yearly subscription.

5)End caps and clearance sections are one of my favorite places to shop. End caps are the "shelf" at the end of an aisle and are basically loaded with overflow of clearance items. My local Marshall's has THE BEST clearance aisle in their home decor section. It's definitely a hit or miss, but oh when it's a hit!

6) Know your markdown days! These vary by store obviously, but for the most part go as follows:

Marshalls: Wednesday
Children's Place:Wednesday
Target:Mondays- Kid's clothes, electronics
            Tuesdays-Women's,Lawn & Garden,
            Wednesday-Men's, Toys, Decor, Movies, Music and Books
            Thursday-Shoes and Housewares

7)Two things I love are MAC makeup and recycling. Put them together and you get the back to MAC  program. For every 6 empty containers you bring back to a MAC store or mall location  you get a free MAC lipstick!!!




5 comments:

  1. I may have taken advantage of your CVS card before ;) lol I guess these are tips I've never thought of. I got to a shop a little on Tuesday and was excited to get some clearance items at Lane Bryant. Then I got an email yesterday with a 30% off coupon on everything. I was perturbed! I couldn't make it back to the store because I was 2+ hours away :(

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  2. Call the store and see if they will honor your coupon anyways. Sometimes a store will let you do this, but typically they tell you that you have to bring all of your items and the coupon plus receipt back in with you. Worth a try!

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  3. I had no idea about the MAC program! How awesome is that! I adore Michaels and I'm always forgetting the coupon so I'll have to try that.
    If you ever head over to the woodbridge side, B-thrifty has 50% off everything in the store days (they text you the day before- typically all holidays and some sundays. Village thrift has color coded stock, so something is always 50% off. The best part of those places though, is that everything is organized so well! Clothes are by size and color, everything is "like with like".

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    1. I forget my coupons to Michaels more times than I bring them and they are super nice about it! And as long as it's full price you can use it on ANYTHING! Even magazines, candy or their dollar section!

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  4. LOVE LOVE LOVE that you coupon/save money like me and my mom!!! :) Oh and Michaels and Joanns have an app for coupons and can actually scan the coupon right from your smartphone!

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