one in, one out: february 2015

for each clothing, shoe, and accessory purchase i make this year, i am donating/selling/recycling a comparable item in an effort to better manage my closet.  check out my "one in, one out" tag for more of these monthly posts!

{what came in} 

item bought	price	original $
target metallic skinny belt - silver	2.26	14.99
j crew factory skirt - purple (via thredup)	2.97	9.49
ann taylor loft dress pants (via thredup)	2.97	16.99
sorel tivoli herringbone winter boots	50	120
cl by laundry marcie wedges	19.58	49.99
minnesota twins t-shirt	gc	17.99
impo tesla platform pumps	7.29	76
one wink casted crystal pendant necklace	0	50
	$85.07

i feel pretty good about the purchases i made this  month.  i finally invested in a proper pair of winter boots, whose price was cut in half thanks to using christmas money i'd been hoarding from my grandpa and  amazon.com coupon codes i redeemed from mypoints.com.  i felt pressured to put in an order from dsw.com due to a $10 rewards coupon i had that was expiring, but i've already worn the black booties at least once a week since they arrived, so i count that as a good purchase!  i also had a balance in my paypal account that i put toward the purchase, as well as the thredup purchase i made this month, so what i paid out of pocket ended up being pretty reasonable.

i have always considered myself a smart shopper - i look for ways that i can save money by using gift cards (i bought a new minnesota twins t-shirt for upcoming baseball games from target with a gift card i received from buying a new iphone) or promo codes on retailmenot.com or going through sites like ebates.com or mypoints.com so i get some money or points back that i will, in turn, eventually redeem for gift cards/codes like i did through amazon to buy my sorel boots this month.  i only put in orders at thredup.com on mondays so i can use the "mobilemondays" code and get an extra 10% off.  and the belt was so cheap because of a high-value cartwheel i used.  i know all of these methods helped me save a lot of money this month and stay under $100, which was my goal!

do you do a lot of "research" like this before you make purchases online or in a store?



thanks for visiting!  linking up with fran.