TheKarenD / Flickr
I share five must read blog posts about saving money every Friday.
Gas hike – $5 per gallon gas coming soon? Prepare for rising gas prices with these six tips. (MoneyCrashers)
Kids and money – Find out how to teach kids to manage money before they move out. (The Centisible Life)
Identity theft – Do you know your rights if your identity is stolen? Here’s what to do to get your credit back on track. (Time Moneyland)
Shopping addicts – Can’t stop shopping? You’re not alone. Deal with your compulsive shopping with these seven cures. (MSN Money)
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A baby nursery for less than $260!
Remember my post from October about looking for a pregnant Halloween costume? Well, the time has *almost* come. Here are nine ways I’ve saved money in preparation for parenthood.
- We compared the prices of popular baby gear on Amazon, Babies R Us, and Target to make sure we got the best deal on a car seat and other items we wanted to buy new. You’d be surprised which retailer was the cheapest!
- I stalked craigslist, Freecycle, and my local Mommy & Me consignment store to furnish our nursery, pictured above, for less than $260. I can’t believe how much used baby stuff is free or extremely cheap. Here are more places to look to avoid paying retail for baby clothesand gear. (more…)
By Bobbi Burger Brunoehler of BobbisBargains.
Urban Woodstalker/flickr
Do you know the main idea that separates people who live over-budget from those who live under-budget?
People who go over-budget do so because they think they must have NEW stuff. This often translates into buying at the highest price. Go to the mall and buy a new shirt. Top dollar. Go to the car dealer and buy a new replacement part for your car. Super top dollar. Go to the bookstore and buy a just published book. Very expensive.
Some people feel that it is “bad” or “uncool” or “low class” to buy recycled, used, or discounted. Well, if you are super rich and have money to burn, then, be my guest and buy retail. I surely want to go to your yard sales and I certainly don’t want to try and balance your budget.
swanksalot / Flickr
This is a post by BargainBabe.com writer Yazmin Cruz.
Pawnsearcher.com is a new site that helps you find discounted items for sale at pawn shops across the country. The site is fairly easy to use and best of all it’s free. You do have to create an account, however. Once the account is established, you can start searching for things like tools, electronics, and more.
In a previous post, Bargain Babe wrote about how to make money from spring cleaning by selling unwanted gold jewelry at pawn shops. If you’re looking for jewelry, you’ll want to check out this site.
Be advised that you won’t find
A swap item worth trading for. Credit: knitgirl63/Flickr
Another story that caught my eye in the May issue of ShopSmart magazine is where NOT to shop online. The thing is, I totally disagree! What do you think?
- Warehouse clubs – ShopSmart argues that non-members pay a surcharge of 5% online, wiping out savings.
I say, do the math. If you’re spending less than
jeffk/Flickr
I recently spoke to Michael Gold of TheThriftShopper.com about the three elements of thrifting, how some thrift stores fool patrons, and where the best thrifting can be found. Gold buys all of his clothes at thrift stores, most of his family’s furniture, all of their reading materials second hand.
What is one thing people don’t realize they can find at thrift stores? What people don’t think they can find at thrift stores is everything. People think that thrift stores are only clothes. Larger thrift stores are mini used department stores. I don’t think people realize you can go to Habitat for Humanity and buy a refrigerator. (more…)
Here are the best Los Angeles deals this week from BargainBabeLA.com.
Disneyland tickets are discounted for SoCal residents who take advantage of the 2fer ticket on sale for a limited time.
If you can’t wait for the baseball season to open, get $11 Dodgers tickets to their spring training.
In Encino, reader Franki recommends the newly opened One Dollar Bookstore.
The Long Beach Aquarium is free for teachers in the month of March. Wahoo!
Sign up to sell your kids gently used clothes, toys, and gear and make some serious cash.
Smashion.com is the answer to every woman who has a closet of clothes she never wears and doesn’t know how to sell. You can buy and sell clothes for free, which makes Smashion.com a lot more attractive financially than a traditional consignment store, eBay, or Etsy. Plus, the site leaves up listings indefinitely.
When I checked the site had 1,633 items for sale. Impressive considering they launched in October. There were 62 pairs of women’s jeans. All the clothes are new or lightly worn. Some items still have the tags!
One of the cool things about Smashion is that browsing the site feels like going over to your girlfriend’s house and trying on all her clothes. How awesome is that?! It’s fun to browse, and you never know what you’ll find, like this sparkly party dress that has got the seller doing her best moves, above. It’s going for $40.
Smashion is focused on fashion forward clothing. Most of the sellers are regular folks though there are also a few independent designers, too.
Clothing prices are set – no bidding – and payment is directly between buyer and seller through Paypal. Sellers agree to ship your new threads within two days.
In between searching for your next clothing purchase, you can chat with other frugal fashionistas about age appropriate clothes, fake handbags, and other trends. The forums page on Smashion.com has dozens of topics and is pretty active. The site also has a gallery section where people can share fashion inspirations with each other. And there is a blog that is updated daily with tips on how to dress for a specific situation, fashion trends, and reviews of up and coming designers.
Smashion.com comes at a great time. Who isn’t looking to save a few bucks these days – while still being able to afford new (to me) clothes?
I don’t have kids and I’m excited about a new site I just learned about called ConsignmentMommies.com, which lists kids consignment sales across the country. The site capitalizes on a newish trend – people buying and selling gently used kids clothing, toys, and gear at massive sales that resemble garage sales on steriods. There are 544 sales listed already.
You can search for sales within 5-100 miles of a particular zip code. A search in my hood resulted in two sales I already knew about and four new ones. Now if only I had kids!
You can post a sale on the site and review sales you’ve been to – all for free. Business listings are for a fee, however. A mother-daughter team launched the site in 2009 and they are still adding features, like a page listing all sales by state.
ConsignmentMommies.com also has a blog with helpful tips. One recent post shared pricing guidelines for maternity and kids clothing:
• Tee shirt $1-2
• Casual Top $3-4
• Dress Top $5
• Jeans $5
• Jean Shorts $2-5
• Shorts $1-4
• Pants $1-4
• Dress pants $3-6
• Casual Dress $3-5
• Dress $5-8
• Suit $10-$15
• Swim Suit $5-10
These sound like great prices to me! One parent I interviewed years ago said she made enough money selling her kid’s old gear, clothing, and toys, to buy what they needed for the next growth spurt. I hope this site helps you find a sale with great prices near you.
