No Sale? No Coupon? No purchase.

   One of my personal commitments to saving our household money is to never buy clothes or cosmetics at full price. It might sound impossible at first, but it's very do-able. In addition to shopping the clearance rack only, sign up for e-coupon mailing lists at all your favorite stores. I get $10 coupons regularly from DSW, Ulta, Kohl's, Victoria Secret, Macy's and Old Navy. True story - I wanted a new dress for a fundraiser banquet we were going to with Ian's boss and coworkers. I had a $10 coupon for Kohl's. I went by there on my lunch break and went directly to the sale rack. I found a black, racerback, maxi dress with a ruffle around the neckline. It was on clearance for $8. What am I saying? That I got a brand new dress FOR FREE! I got many compliments on it that night and it is now Ian's favorite "going out" dress that I wear. #win

   Combining sales and coupons: I routinely stock up on coupons for household cleaners, toiletries and cosmetics that I use and wait for them to go on sale. This equals massive savings. 

   This week, I'm running very low on cosmetic face powder and my go-to pink shimmery eye shadow just bit the dust. I noticed in a sale ad for Ulta that Loreal cosmetics were "Buy 2 Get 1 Free". I happen to use Loreal powder and blush and had a bunch of coupons for them. I'm also a big fan of Ulta brand eye shadow and all Ulta cosmetics were "Buy 2 Get 2 Free". So, I picked 2 face powders and a blush (1 of these will be free), and used a $3 off coupon for each powder that I purchased = $14.99 savings with the free blush. I picked out 4 Ulta eye shadows (2 of them were free) = $14 savings. THEN I had an Ulta coupon from the ad, $3 off my entire purchase. So what would have cost $55.97 plus tax really only cost me $24.89. That is cutting my bill by more than half! And it's for stuff I really needed anyway.