Shopping on the Cheap

I’ve been saving up and bookmarking all sorts of cheap online shopping places. Part of it is so I can start to ‘think’ about what I might need for a little baby one day, and others are just because I love to find amazing deals when I am shopping for new things.

For the most part I shop vintage and used. Two reasons: I hate the packaging that new things come in (think for example all those boxes and styrofoam electronics are packed in!); and, I want to keep stuff out of the landfill. The third and most selfish reason is because it is often cheaper. Frugal, frugal!

But sometimes a new item is just a pure act of spoiling. And everyone deserves spoiling sometimes. If I do buy new, it is often online, on sale, and with free or cheap shipping.

Here are some places I’ve kept an eye on in the last few months:

Beyond the Rack: think Winners, but ONLINE! You need to sign up to get the bargains.

Zappos: shoes out the wazoo! Very good deals on sale items, some really good brand names. I like to get my runners here and cute summer sandals when I need them. They ship to Canada for $10USD flat rate so buddy up and combine your orders!

Baby Half Off: Daily deals!

Green Baby Bargains: for eco-friendly baby stuff!

Mama Bargains: More than one deal a day, so check often! Looking for something in particular? You can suggest it to them!

Baby Steals: great finds on this one, you just need to act fast as its popular!

Eating ‘Clean’ and Frugality

We are trying out a new fad around our house: eating clean. We tossed the idea around of trying a detox, but they seem just a bit too extreme for us. Our bodies are made to cleanse themselves of toxins, I’m not sure I need to drink only cayenne pepper and maple syrup in water to help that along!

From the Eat Clean Diet website:

Eating Clean is eating the way nature intended. You eat the foods our bodies evolved to function best on, and that makes you feel – and look – fantastic. When you Eat Clean you eat more often. You will eat lean protein, complex carbs, and healthy fats. These practices keep your blood-sugar levels stable and keep you satisfied. The best part is that if you need to lose weight it will happen almost without you having to try. And yes, you can have a treat now and again.

Best of all, Eating Clean keeps you feeling great and full of energy. In fact, you can forget all about the days when “dieting” meant feelings of hunger, lethargy or deprivation.

Eating Clean is not a fad; it’s a way of life. When you Eat Clean your body will react by losing weight if you need to lose, maintaining a healthy weight if that’s where you are, and even gaining weight if you are too skinny. But regardless of whether you want to lose, maintain or gain, you will feel better than you ever have before.

What I wonder is how cost effective this will be to our grocery bill? We don’t spend a lot on food because we are excellent shoppers and love to cook gourmet meals on a budget. I think we are successful at this. What I’m interested to see is how we’ll do with the prescription of foods offered by the Eat Clean Diet.

Has anyone tried this? Or does anyone follow it and have recommendations on what to keep in mind while we try it out?

What I Did with Credit Card #3

For the time being, I’ve left Credit Card #3 open and decreased the limit to $500. The thought behind this is to keep the amount of credit available to me at a minimum without closing the account entirely. Once I’ve paid off Credit Card #2 to 75% of its limit, I will cancel Credit Card #3.

I’m really hoping that come May when I check my credit score it will be in the higher bracket. I don’t have a number to compare it to as I simply just order my free credit reports annually from Equifax and TransUnion and they don’t come with a score. But once I do get my score, I will keep track of it yearly to watch it slowly climb up higher.