MM wins

mana8503 · January 2015

After 6 months size, I have no clothes for E, so I really wanted to find a MM way to getting her spring/ summer wardrobe. Esp since it doesn't seem like she's going to be in 3-6 mon clothes very long. There's a consignment store sale in February/March, but I was also stalking the consignment/yardsale groups on FB. I replied to one selling newborn to 12 mon girl clothes. I ended up getting 4 trash bags of 9 mon and 12 mon spring/summer clothes. I counted 300 pieces for $150, so 50 cents a piece. I seriously could resale half of it and she'll still have too much. I was guessing on a budget of like $200-400 for clothes- WIN!!!

Anyone else have any recent MM wins?

brij2006 · January 2015

I still need to get the 2nd base for our car seat so that we can put it in H's car. It won't be used much, so I kept telling myself to not waste the money on it and we would just install the seat with the seat belt if he needed to put baby in his car.

But with BRU's 25% discount for bringing in used baby gear, I'm going to bring in a high chair we received 2nd hand but will never use. Then I also have $20 in reward bucks from their rewards card. So it will turn the $90 car seat base into a $43 purchase. Then we will have it installed in his car and not need to worry about getting the seat properly strapped in each time we take his car somewhere with baby. This way we will also have it if we end up having more than 1 child and things have changed to where we will need it anyways.

vlagrl29 · January 2015

brij2006 said:

I still need to get the 2nd base for our car seat so that we can put it in H's car. It won't be used much, so I kept telling myself to not waste the money on it and we would just install the seat with the seat belt if he needed to put baby in his car.
But with BRU's 25% discount for bringing in used baby gear, I'm going to bring in a high chair we received 2nd hand but will never use. Then I also have $20 in reward bucks from their rewards card. So it will turn the $90 car seat base into a $43 purchase. Then we will have it installed in his car and not need to worry about getting the seat properly strapped in each time we take his car somewhere with baby. This way we will also have it if we end up having more than 1 child and things have changed to where we will need it anyways.

That's great. I think I will be fighting DH next time regarding car seats when we have #2 - they say car seats expire every 5 years and the convertible seats we bought were already used (got on cl). I'm gonna want to buy new again and he won't. There will be a 5 year age gap between the 2 kids at least. I'm pretty MM when it comes to kid stuff, but carseat safety is worth the money IMO

brij2006 · January 2015

vlagrl29 said:

brij2006 said:

I still need to get the 2nd base for our car seat so that we can put it in H's car. It won't be used much, so I kept telling myself to not waste the money on it and we would just install the seat with the seat belt if he needed to put baby in his car.
But with BRU's 25% discount for bringing in used baby gear, I'm going to bring in a high chair we received 2nd hand but will never use. Then I also have $20 in reward bucks from their rewards card. So it will turn the $90 car seat base into a $43 purchase. Then we will have it installed in his car and not need to worry about getting the seat properly strapped in each time we take his car somewhere with baby. This way we will also have it if we end up having more than 1 child and things have changed to where we will need it anyways.

That's great. I think I will be fighting DH next time regarding car seats when we have #2 - they say car seats expire every 5 years and the convertible seats we bought were already used (got on cl). I'm gonna want to buy new again and he won't. There will be a 5 year age gap between the 2 kids at least. I'm pretty MM when it comes to kid stuff, but carseat safety is worth the money IMO

I'm the same way. I'll cheap out in many areas for baby, but car seats are not where I'm willing to do that in. Instead I've been trying to find the most reasonable way to purchase the ones we want that are still high in safety. Thankfully the Chicco Keyfit 30 is one of the best rated in safety, and it fits both of our cars soooo easily. It is also pretty reasonable when comparing to other seats.

Now the convertible seats are going to be a whole different ordeal. I am in love with the Britax seats, but we need something small-ish to fit into H's car, and we would like something that can easily be taken in and out for grandparents to use. The last thing I want to have to worry about is grandma not properly installing the seat in her car and it not being as safe. So we're looking at the new Britax Click Tight, but they're crazy money.

lifeonthehill · January 2015

H has a conference he wants to go to in mid February. Turns out a friend from work decided she was going last night as well. We had planned on him going for just one day but we were able to split the hotel room with her and it is only costing us $126 for the night. Now I am going with them so I can enjoy the hot tub and room service! Yay for impromptu getaways!

hoffse · January 2015

brij2006 said:

vlagrl29 said:

brij2006 said:

I still need to get the 2nd base for our car seat so that we can put it in H's car. It won't be used much, so I kept telling myself to not waste the money on it and we would just install the seat with the seat belt if he needed to put baby in his car.
But with BRU's 25% discount for bringing in used baby gear, I'm going to bring in a high chair we received 2nd hand but will never use. Then I also have $20 in reward bucks from their rewards card. So it will turn the $90 car seat base into a $43 purchase. Then we will have it installed in his car and not need to worry about getting the seat properly strapped in each time we take his car somewhere with baby. This way we will also have it if we end up having more than 1 child and things have changed to where we will need it anyways.

That's great. I think I will be fighting DH next time regarding car seats when we have #2 - they say car seats expire every 5 years and the convertible seats we bought were already used (got on cl). I'm gonna want to buy new again and he won't. There will be a 5 year age gap between the 2 kids at least. I'm pretty MM when it comes to kid stuff, but carseat safety is worth the money IMO

I'm the same way. I'll cheap out in many areas for baby, but car seats are not where I'm willing to do that in. Instead I've been trying to find the most reasonable way to purchase the ones we want that are still high in safety. Thankfully the Chicco Keyfit 30 is one of the best rated in safety, and it fits both of our cars soooo easily. It is also pretty reasonable when comparing to other seats.

Now the convertible seats are going to be a whole different ordeal. I am in love with the Britax seats, but we need something small-ish to fit into H's car, and we would like something that can easily be taken in and out for grandparents to use. The last thing I want to have to worry about is grandma not properly installing the seat in her car and it not being as safe. So we're looking at the new Britax Click Tight, but they're crazy money.

Still worth it. I would burn money on a car seat if I had to.

Heck H and I have talked about having one imported from Europe (when that becomes relevant) because the crash tests over there are more stringent than ours. Unfortunately, it's not legal to use them here since they didn't "pass" our (lower) standards. Not to re-hash a previous thread, but if the feds want to regulate something worthwhile, aggressively crashing car seats and actually publishing the results seem like a good place to start. Or you know, maybe standardizing certain aspects of back seats so that car seats fit the same way in every car (so there is no such thing as a "bad fit") could be something to look at. But what do I know.

End rant.

To answer the question, we bought a gallon of oops paint for $9 at Home Depot this weekend. It was almost exactly the color we had tentatively picked out for our new dining room. We'll only need a gallon of it, so they won't have to recreate the color for us to get more. I was pretty happy that we scored that deal. Not a huge savings, but every little bit helps!

kmurphy2131 · January 2015

I started using YNAB this month and we saved a lot of money. Typically we add everything up at the end of the month (mid month if I'm on top of it) and then realize what we have spent. It's never anything crazy and we make enough to cover all bills but I feel like I was overspending on groceries because I don't pay attention etc. This month we came in $200 under my grocery budget and I came in $100 under my "fun money" budget just by tracking it daily.

vlagrl29 · January 2015

Yeah making sure the grandparents have good car seats as well is a must. Luckily we are in the high back booster stage right now and it's just so much easier! DD will unlock her own belt once we are safely parked at our destination. Just FYI - I think the newborn carriers are a waste of money because they outgrow it so fast!

abrewer5 · January 2015

I did our taxes by myself using tubro tax! Saved us about $200-300 over using our regular CPA which is good.

Now I'm hoping I didn't mess anything up or miss something we could have deducted!

jessica490 · January 2015

Nice job!! That's really cheap for clothes!

For us, we are making another $5K payments onto our mortgage principle in about a week!

cbee817 · January 2015

vlagrl29 said:

Yeah making sure the grandparents have good car seats as well is a must. Luckily we are in the high back booster stage right now and it's just so much easier! DD will unlock her own belt once we are safely parked at our destination. Just FYI - I think the newborn carriers are a waste of money because they outgrow it so fast!

The newborn carriers are not a waste of $ if you have to drop off your infant everyday to daycare (esp if you live in places where it snows) or if you have 2 within 2 years of each other.. it's well worth the price to be able to have the baby in the carrier and then get your 2 year old out of the car. Trust me!

Xstatic3333 · January 2015

I didn't feel like I had a lot to contribute to this conversation, but just had a big win.

I've mentioned before that I am taking my dive instructor course this spring. As part of this course, myself and about 8 others involved in the course are traveling to FL and need a place to stay. This was looking to cost around $700-$900 a night for six nights at a cruddy motel, especially since H and I decided I needed to get my own room (everyone else involved is a guy).

Before the group booked anything, I went on Air BnB and found a BEAUTIFUL ten-bed room that would cost us each $330 for the time period total. We contacted the host and go the okay to book, but the system tried charge us more. Apparently it was a brand new listing and they underestimated how much they should charge, but are still going to honor our original offer since we already corresponded about it.

Also for that trip, I opened the JetBlue Amex just for the signup bonus to fly for free. I know its a controversial technique but we tend to fly JetBlue, so, oh well

vlagrl29 · January 2015

cbee817 said:

vlagrl29 said:

Yeah making sure the grandparents have good car seats as well is a must. Luckily we are in the high back booster stage right now and it's just so much easier! DD will unlock her own belt once we are safely parked at our destination. Just FYI - I think the newborn carriers are a waste of money because they outgrow it so fast!

The newborn carriers are not a waste of $ if you have to drop off your infant everyday to daycare (esp if you live in places where it snows) or if you have 2 within 2 years of each other.. it's well worth the price to be able to have the baby in the carrier and then get your 2 year old out of the car. Trust me!

In that case I'm sure

My parents bought one for them to use for our daughter and they barely used it at all. I sold it on CL and it still looked brand new. I only had the one kid so I didn't have to juggle 2.

KatieCutie05 · January 2015

I have scored a deal on just about every baby purchase we had to make. Actually i haven't paid full price on anything really.

Lets see my best ones were...

A $140 Ergo performance carrier - FREE. My MIL got 2 new baby bjorn carriers free from work. she thought they did different things but they didn't so i returned just one of the bjorns and got 150 in store credit to buy buy baby! Win!

A 350 dollar Babyjogger City Mini GT stroller for 70 dollars! (heres a hint - buy buy baby coupons aren't valid on babyjogger - but babies r us honors the coupons so i got 70 off plus a few returns and a gift card from christmas brought the total to a whopping 70 dollars!

Oh and our 500 dresser/changing table from babies r us - 20% Coupon and gift cards brought the total down to 150 dollars.

Oh yea, we got a free changing pad and our 130 high chair for about 70 i think - because i am too good at getting the best deals at kohls. seriously, its a sickness really. I don't waste money to get it either - it was all on essentials we needed anyway.

Um i got a 100 dollar pack-n-play for 65 on sale at amazon with a free sheet- but that wasn't that amazing

matching Crib, infant car seat, extra base, and crib mattress were all gifts.

We are expecting a decent gift card to babies r us from our registry benefits and are hoping to be able to get a good convertible car seat with that.

You don't have to get cheap stuff - its all about shopping smart (on sale with a coupon is the only way to go). And returning what you don't absolutely need.

GarnetAndBlack · January 2015

hoffse said:

brij2006 said:

vlagrl29 said:

brij2006 said:

I still need to get the 2nd base for our car seat so that we can put it in H's car. It won't be used much, so I kept telling myself to not waste the money on it and we would just install the seat with the seat belt if he needed to put baby in his car.
But with BRU's 25% discount for bringing in used baby gear, I'm going to bring in a high chair we received 2nd hand but will never use. Then I also have $20 in reward bucks from their rewards card. So it will turn the $90 car seat base into a $43 purchase. Then we will have it installed in his car and not need to worry about getting the seat properly strapped in each time we take his car somewhere with baby. This way we will also have it if we end up having more than 1 child and things have changed to where we will need it anyways.

That's great. I think I will be fighting DH next time regarding car seats when we have #2 - they say car seats expire every 5 years and the convertible seats we bought were already used (got on cl). I'm gonna want to buy new again and he won't. There will be a 5 year age gap between the 2 kids at least. I'm pretty MM when it comes to kid stuff, but carseat safety is worth the money IMO

I'm the same way. I'll cheap out in many areas for baby, but car seats are not where I'm willing to do that in. Instead I've been trying to find the most reasonable way to purchase the ones we want that are still high in safety. Thankfully the Chicco Keyfit 30 is one of the best rated in safety, and it fits both of our cars soooo easily. It is also pretty reasonable when comparing to other seats.

Now the convertible seats are going to be a whole different ordeal. I am in love with the Britax seats, but we need something small-ish to fit into H's car, and we would like something that can easily be taken in and out for grandparents to use. The last thing I want to have to worry about is grandma not properly installing the seat in her car and it not being as safe. So we're looking at the new Britax Click Tight, but they're crazy money.

Still worth it. I would burn money on a car seat if I had to.

Heck H and I have talked about having one imported from Europe (when that becomes relevant) because the crash tests over there are more stringent than ours. Unfortunately, it's not legal to use them here since they didn't "pass" our (lower) standards. Not to re-hash a previous thread, but if the feds want to regulate something worthwhile, aggressively crashing car seats and actually publishing the results seem like a good place to start. Or you know, maybe standardizing certain aspects of back seats so that car seats fit the same way in every car (so there is no such thing as a "bad fit") could be something to look at. But what do I know.

End rant.

To answer the question, we bought a gallon of oops paint for $9 at Home Depot this weekend. It was almost exactly the color we had tentatively picked out for our new dining room. We'll only need a gallon of it, so they won't have to recreate the color for us to get more. I was pretty happy that we scored that deal. Not a huge savings, but every little bit helps!

Britax is 100% worth it. We had DS in a Graco infant car seat (he was a preemie and we used it until he was 15 months old) and I got a good deal on a Britax Boulevard when he outgrew it. I bought a Graco MyRide 65 for DH to have in his car and we hated it.

We upgraded to Britax Pinnacle Clicktight (in both cars) and they are amazing. DS turns 5 in 2 weeks and he will fit in the 5 point harness for at least 2 or 3 more years. They are so simple to install.

short+sassy · February 2015

This wasn't a big savings, but I was ridiculously excited about it anyway. I bought a $25 Smashburger gc during Christmas to get a $5 gc coupon. But I forgot until almost the last minute that the $5 one expired on Jan. 31st. So I went on Friday, Jan. 30th to use it.

When I got there, they were giving out coupons for free fries with an entrée purchase. They handed me a wad of them (those expire in April). So I order my burger and fries, use my $5 coupon and my free fries coupon, and my total was $1.79. Then the manager tells me I can keep the $5 coupon if I think I will come back the next day. I'm crafty and ask if I could place another order and use the same coups. She said, "Sure, no problem!" I order a meal for DH also.

Two extra yummy, big burgers plus two orders of fries for less than $4. Score!

hoffse · February 2015

I just bought Microsoft Office for our new laptop for $9.95.

Win.

Xstatic3333 · February 2015

hoffse said:
I just bought Microsoft Office for our new laptop for $9.95.

Win.

Wow! Student rate?

hoffse · February 2015

Xstatic3333 said:

I just bought Microsoft Office for our new laptop for $9.95.

Win.
Wow! Student rate?

Corporate - some deal my firm negotiated so we could all have office on our home computers (and, presumably, keep working when we are done for the day...)

vlagrl29 · February 2015

You guys will probably kill me but I got 2 lulu lemon yoga tops and 1 pair of their yoga pants for $112 total at a consignment store. Full price for 1 pair of pants is usually $100

MM wins

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