Do Your Homework or Lose Dollars!!!!!

Who doesn’t LOVE to shop? Especially for one of a kind things that will make your kids stand out and give them a little edge in their look. I used to swear by Old Navy. Having two boys, their clothing was inexpensive for us as young parents they held up so that I could pass them on to the little one and they were very stylish. After having my daughter in 2007 and then another boy in 2009 that gave me a total of 4 kids under 4. I saved everything with them being so close together and was able to cut a lot of costs by doing so. I toted up clothes as my oldest grew out of them. I labeled the tote with size and sex and stored for the next one to come along to wear them.

It was a little different with my daughter though. By the time I had her I was 22 or 23 and all of my friends, and by all I mean ALL, had girls. They were so excited their weird freak of a girlfriend who had the only boys was finally having a girl. Quickly I learned other reasons why, other than just pure happiness for me. I became their Goodwill stop. Instead of donating anything and after selling to Once Upon A Child I received everything from them by the trash bag loads!!!! It was AWESOME!!!!! I am cheap I really am. I love shopping but it better be at the lowest possible price or it isn’t gonna happen. So when friends would show up daily with goodies I was thrilled!!! Obviously not every item in the bag is useable but going through the items picking my favorites and toting them up for the future really helped my family save a lot of money. I was so thankful for every bag even if I found only 1 item I could use. Even better I turned around and donated the rest to our local Crisis Pregnancy Center. SCORE all the way around.

So now at this point I’m having my third son with no worries because I just started to pull out the 0-3 month boy tote and started the cycle all over. It was amazing. I have my step mother, Debbie Head, to thank for those skills. Very proud of myself for all the money I saved by doing this and thankful to her for teaching me to be so frugal even if it wasn’t intentional. It is true when people say kids see and hear everything. Oh, and it stays with them for life if it is taught the right way.

Now I want to take you to my life December of 2011. I am preparing for my only daughter to turn 4 on me. She is absolutely beautiful and I love her to death. She says the cutest things and is very special to me for different reasons than her brothers. She is just my peanut. Her personality is rough and tough with the boys but loves to look good being that way. She doesn’t like the Easter dress style of clothing she is more simple and classy. I am realizing as I pull out her 4T clothes that I have collected over the years that she really just has remnants of outfits and nothing really goes but she has clothes. So I get inspired to SHOP!!!!! YAY!!!! With her birthday coming up we have birthday money to spend and that’s what we do. I buy this little “thang” a whole new wardrobe but pinching pennies along the way. Of course with her birthday being 4 days after Christmas toys were being bought as well.

My new store to swear by is TARGET, thanks to Ruth Anderson!!!!! I love all their clothes for toddler girls and they are exactly my daughter’s style. If too much is going on in the outfit she won’t wear it so at Target I found a perfect balance! In addition to that they have these dazzle track pants and shorts for boys and they are my boys’ favorite bottoms to wear. They don’t care for jeans too much and I found them at Target for $9.99, the cheapest price anywhere. Then as an added bonus they were $3.01 cheaper on Target.com with shipping FREE over $50, which I hit buying for 3 boys. TIP: Never leave for Target without going online and looking for printable coupons for items you may be purchasing. They often have coupons for clothing items and shoes as well as accessories and you can use them on top of clearance prices!

So now Dylainee’s birthday has come and gone all our purchases were finalized and they are either hanging up in the closet or in her shoes basket. By this time I’m a little bit still in shopping mode. I think… I’ve been to Target, shopped at Once Upon A Child, and Target.com had some purchases from me as well. Oh, wait…EBAY!!!! Who doesn’t LOVE Ebay. Another way to get a great deal if you are smart about it. Let me say when I got on I was appalled. Thank goodness I am smart about it.

DO NOT EVER BUY ANYTHING WITH TAGS ON EBAY WITHOUT CHECKING SALES AT THE STORE IT CAME FROM FIRST!!!!! NEVER!!!!! Because I had been shopping vigorously at Target for my daughter I could quickly notice items still available at Target or Target.com. When I saw the prices I was angered!!!!!

This dress designed by Gwen Stefani was an eye catcher for me. They carry it in red as well. Imagine how angered I was to see this dress retailing at $25 in the store that I purchased for $17 on clearance priced at $39.95 on Ebay with $4.95 shipping!!!! I understand VERY unique and pretty dress. I love it, I own it. This dress is still hanging in stores and I can still purchase it online!!!!  I would be more ok with this listing if it was sold out everywhere like she claims in her post. BUT it is NOT! Maybe in some areas but not all. 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/HARAJUKU-MINI-TARGET-BUBBLE-DRESS-CLARET-NEW-GIRLS-SIZES-2T-3T-4T-5T-/110776314044?pt=US_Baby_Toddler_Girls_Clothing&var=&hash=item5f7891402d

The link above will take you directly to the listing. Are we aggravated yet???? Well here is more!!!!

These leggings are shown in a post on Ebay for sale for $5 each with $2.26 shipping for one pair. First of all you buy them full price for $8 so who can’t find some leggings in any Wal Mart for $5??? Then to make matters worse these are all pairs I noticed still available on clearance at Target. The kicker??? Oh 4 of these styles are only $1.75 online and FREE shipping over $50. The other 2 are $3.50. I have also seen these prints still in the store on clearance as well but I can’t swear to you the cost but I would bet you a pair that they are cheaper than $7.26, the Ebay cost. Now like I said before if these were no longer available for sale and you were looking for these specific pants…go for it. But honestly are any of us really doing that on an everyday basis?? Here is the link to the Ebay listing.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Circo-Infant-Toddler-Girls-Legging-Pink-Purple-Brown-Stripe-New-CUTE-/250959304286?pt=US_Baby_Toddler_Girls_Clothing&var=&hash=item8012c01724

Here is another link to a pair showed above listed for $5.99 buy it now and you can buy it now on Target for $1.75!

http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-GIRLS-5T-MULTI-COLORED-STRIPED-STRAIGHT-LEGGINGS-PINK-PURPLE-YELLOW-/200699453551?pt=US_Baby_Toddler_Girls_Clothing&hash=item2eba9ea06f

Onto some very cute simply classy dress’ that I as well bought for my daughter from Target.com.

These dress’ range from $8.50- $13.99 on the listing from Ebay that I found and again most of these dress’ are still available online at Target.com . As I compared prices each dress is marked up $1.50-$2.25ish more than the store is selling them. These dress’ qualify for FREE shipping over $50 from Target.com and each dress ships for $2.96 each on Ebay.com. I feel obligated to mention if your size isn’t available in the store or is completely SOLD OUT where you can’t buy a larger size to stock up for next year(still getting dress at good price) then I can see someone buying these. Here is the listing link.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Toddler-Girls-Circo-Genuine-Kids-OSHKOSH-Dress-Short-Sleeve-New-/250958731971?pt=US_Baby_Toddler_Girls_Clothing&var=&hash=item8012b89e54

I just want to warn all of the families out there that you need to BEWARE of those trying to make a buck without doing any work when times are as hard as they are. I also need to mention I didn’t see it just happening with Target but Old Navy was a big one as well. As a normal stay at home mom I felt Ebay was supposed to be a site to make a little supplemental income and still get great deals. I no longer feel this way and hardly ever use Ebay unless I am looking for more expensive items that I can trust buying from the site. Those being ones with return policies and high or almost perfect feedback. Even then you must do your homework. Ebay was to save money so you are already there for that reason unless of course you are looking for rare items and then Ebay is wonderful.

Something to Live By

While on my Facebook account I came across this photo on my mother-in-law’s profile, Tama Duvall. I love it and wanted to share it with all of you. Oh how simple life could be!

Dylainee Rose Collections

Some of you may know I am the owner and operator of Dylainee Rose Collections and you can find me here, http://www.facebook.com/pages/Dylainee-Rose-Collections/162049457162704  on www.facebook.com . Or click the “like” button on the bottom right hand side of the screen. I wanted to share with all of you my favorite bow to make. The one pictured is the one I made for my daughter. These are initial bows and they are so cute on.

Also was gifted the NEW Canon T3i for Christmas and wanted an excuse to show off the AMAZING quality!!!! I love Canon and would NEVER consider buying any other brand. I think mainly I was sold on it while in high school after learning any Canon lense would work on any Canon camera model new or dinosaur old!!!!! How amazing!!!!! I love making my pennies stretch and this is definately one way I do so.( www.canon.com )

Breaking the Ice

Didn’t really know how to get this blogging started. In order to NOT over think one thing in my life I decided to go with one of my favorite quotes. Giving you an idea of my humor.

 “Never criticize your wife’s faults. It might have been those faults that kept her from getting a better husband.” unknown  

Welcome to my NEW blog!!!!!! Thank you Kalli Pruett-Burgess for exposing me to this quote! I get a laugh out of it every time I read it.