Good Deals

I married a professional deal-finder. I think it's genetic actually. My in-laws are pros at shopping yard-sales, Goodwill, Ebay, etc. Owen's Mom can find brand-new or hardly used items for dirt cheap. We love this because we always get awesome gifts from them! Owen's sister, Gina, is great at finding deals too. One way she saves thousands of dollars (no joke, thousands) is by using The Grocery Game. This online program helps busy moms coordinate their manufacturers coupons with the deals already happening at their favorite stores. Gina once spent $8 for $90 worth of groceries/hygiene products! Absolutely amazing!!

Anyway, back to Owen, he can find incredible deals. Lately he has found our family some great ones. First, our new cell phones. We had gotten rid of our phones because we I didn't want the extra expense. But I knew we would need them once we were back in school so we could find each other on campus and take turns watching Miriam. But, I was dragging my feet with the whole process because I knew we'd have to pay for new phones, the activation fee, as well as the first month. Then, Owen did some research. Here's what he found:

By looking on LG's website, he discovered that by ordering your phones and signing a 2-year agreement (with the provider of your choice) directly from them we could get paid to get new phones. Yup, that's right! We got paid $50/phone just by buying from LG. Even better though is that not only does LG provide this deal but Motorola, Nokia, and probably some others do too! So, next time you need a new phone...check the manufacturer deals first!









The LG Scoop - slider phone.

These are our new, cute and trendy phones. Owen has the orange one and I have the turquoise. I think he picked pretty well.

Another steal he's gotten recently are a pair of brand new Dr. Marten's at DI for $6...they still had the paper in the toes!









Last summer we didn't have much of a chance to do much yard sale shopping because Owen worked every day of the week except Sunday. But, he did happen to take my birthday off, and we hit up two yard sales and just happened to find this:














We paid $20 for this adorable crib that had only been used a couple times (they were the grandparents) and it was going for so cheap because they were missing all the screws to put it together. They even sent us with the instructions that came with it and in the instructions was a phone number for the company. Owen called to see about ordering the correct screws and they sent them to us...for free!!

Then, once we were done selling alarms for the summer we returned to Idaho only to find that Rexburg is a baby item yard sale GOLD MINE! Just about every sale we went to had baby items, and most of them new or hardly used. That's where we found most of Miriam's clothes and this cute changing table. This wasn't quite as much of a steal as the crib, but still good. We paid $10 for the table, but the top shelf was cracked due to some jumping one of the previous owners nieces (she gave us the full-detailed story when we were looking at it) and it was a white wash color with the top knobs and corner pieces painted a funky blue color. So, a new shelf piece ($2.00) and a couple coats of paint ($4.50) and we got ourselves a pretty nice looking changing table, in my opinion.














Plus, luckily we were able to get two garbage bags full of NB-3T baby girl clothes through Freecycle and my sister-in-law, Tara is also loaning us some cute clothes. Overall, the entire tally of money spent on Miriam so far (excluding cloth diapers) is under $200. So, I'd like to think that I'm becoming a professional deal-finder myself!

And since things are finally starting to heat up around here, yard sale season is starting to slowly creep up on us. I'm so excited!

I also can't forget to mention the kindness everyone showed to us at Miriam's baby shower and by giving us their hand-me-down baby things. Without that, I'm sure we'd have to be spending much more for our little one. We were given an awesome stroller from my sisters, Mom and Grandma, a baby bathtub from my sister, Heidi, custom bedding made by my Mom, a cute quilt from Owen's Mom, and lots and lots of clothes. We have been so blessed...THANK YOU!