Money Saving Tips – Sometimes Yaya

Deals After the Holidays

It’s probably almost an oxymoron to discuss saving money during the holidays if your name is not Scrooge. We are all spending and spending. The trick is that since companies are aware of your incessant spending, they don’t mind getting a bit cheaper and sharing some discounts and sales with you. But what happens when the holidays are over? The sharing season dries up faster than an icicle melts in the sun. But Yaya loves sharing (not to sound too much like Barney), so at least these tips might put some of that money back in your pocket.

image credit: DeviantArt user Heartpolkadotts

Easy Being Green
The holidays are gone but now starts with the tiny holidays and plethora of birthdays. Sometimes we can’t catch a break. I started a calendar without a year designation just so I can keep track of birthdays. Facebook is helpful, but not everyone is on it! My other secret for giving gifts? Instead of wrapping paper, make all of your gift usable. Use a reusable bag as a wrapper and a necklace as the bow. This distinguishes your present and most definitely makes it memorable.

Get Cash Back
My favorite website is eBates.com. The website lists stores you can click over to and after your purchase you get cash back to your account. Four times a year you get a check in the mail for the total of your purchases. To make it clearer? Yaya likes her some Sephora. So she clicks over to eBates and clicks on Sephora from there (you can also make sure which coupons are active here). She makes her purchase and gets an e-mail a day or two later telling her that 4% of her purchase will be given to her as cash back.

Never Miss a Coupon
Make sure to check retailmenot.com and couponcabin.com for any and all coupons for your favorite online sites. I honestly hate to pay shipping, especially for the sites that are available in person as well. I also hate pressing submit somewhere and seeing a missed coupon code.

Open a New E-mail Account
If you’re smarter than me, you know that stores like to e-mail you thousands of times a day. But sometimes, the e-mails you get are priceless. Open a new e-mail account so that you can still get your personal e-mails without it saying that there are 1,000 unread e-mails. Make sure to follow the brands you like on Facebook and checking if they have a Twitter account as well.

What tips do you make use of to keep money in your pocket?

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Get a fresh deal!

The holidays are beating down my door right now. I am the type to start shopping for people in June, so this year, my not so activeness (due in part to mounting bills!) is getting me closer and closer to a shop breakdown. What am I going to get everyone?!

It’s so hard to get the perfect something for someone while maintaining the perfect something price for you. When you look at one site, another site with a discount is passing you by. Ever have the moment where you press ‘submit order’ and you get a discount in your email seconds later? Yeah that.

So I’m passing along some knowledge to ya peeps. Fresh to my internet savvy-ness is Fresh Deals. The price lookup site not only shows you price comparison for the products you want (or finds products that you can’t find), but they also let you interact with each other. Post a question up, connect it to your facebook, and wait for the answer!

Example: You come across shoes that might as well have your name on then. But it’s a new brand. You want the shoes, not the drama, so you post a question about them running large or small. And that’s all it takes.

I’m lovin’ it for helping me out with my holiday list. My mom requested fleece everything for the holidays and is getting antsy for some fleece leggings. I think she expects me to become a millionaire and relocate her to a climate where it never hits freezing temperature. But enough about that, where the heck do I get fleece leggings? I’ve only come across those in children’s stores. So I type in fleece leggings and voila! Who knew there were so many e-tailers anxious to make my momma happy?

As I mentioned before, the site is also splendid at finding things you and single retailers may call ‘unfindable’. When I was posting the Stila tutorial yesterday, I mentioned that the Salome Eyeshadow Duo was sold out everywhere and that y’all kiddies needed to get your google on. But type in ‘Stila Salome‘ and you get a load of em!

I’ll be using Fresh Deals as my cheat sheet for the holidays. What’s your secret?

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Magazine Weekend: People Style Watch November 09

How’s your weekend going so far? I’m getting caught up in American football as I spend the day watching tv flipping from channel to channel and oohing and ahhing at highlight reels and tackles. Some of the time is spent on Twitter taunting friends who like opposing teams, and the rest is spent sending my cheerleading chants to the teams I’d like to win! What do you spend your Sundays doing?

http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?lt1=_blank&bc1=000000&IS2=1&bg1=FFFFFF&fc1=000000&lc1=0000FF&t=myowju-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&m=amazon&f=ifr&md=10FE9736YVPPT7A0FBG2&asins=B000P6YM08The weekend continues with People Style Watch, a favorite of mine I continue to pick snippets out of. You can see the previous features here.

Never heard of the handy dandy mag? This magazine is the fashionista sister of People magazine, with tips and features of celebrity and wallet friendly styles, along with trends, new brand features, compilations, and our favorite: coupons! The back page of the magazine is chock full of coupon codes for over 50 well known companies in this one for November, and some until the end of the year. If anything, this baby is worth the money for all the savings it’ll bring ya! (Don’t believe me? They have codes for a minimum of 20% from places such as Banana Republic, CVS, etc.)

The November issue has a bunch of tips from skincare to fashion, some from style experts and some from celebrity guests. Covergirl, Hilary Duff offers tips on how she does her own makeup and which items of clothing she invests money in, and in which she saves.

What methods do you use to save money?

Shoot me an e-mail to MyOwnJudge@gmail.com if you would like me to explore other/have topics and/or magazines, or for general opinions of what’s in magazine weekend.

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