This is a story about a girl, a wedding and shoes. Sound familiar? Can you relate? It’s also about saving money and being thrifty and I know you can relate to that!
We have a wedding to attend and I have a dress I love that is leopard print; but I “needed” shoes. I had not bought dress shoes in quite some time and because the dress is printed I wanted a solid color. While we were on vacation last week my Mom and sister and I popped into the huge shoe store DSW. It was fun to shop there and even though I scoured their Clearance area for something perfect, nothing jumped out at me. I think it was the size I needed because my sister found 2 awesome pairs of shoes in her size (8). She paid $40 for 2 pair which had retail prices of over $200! Score!
Anyway, we went next door to TJMaxx and I picked up a pair of shoes for $32 that were OK. They were red suede and cute, but I wasn’t “in love” with them. However I knew we were getting back into town on Tuesday night and the wedding is Saturday so my time frame to shop was slim. (Keep in mind we live in a rural area and the nearest mall is 30 minutes away).
As I thought more about the dress and the shoes I had bought I decided I’d go out to the mall and see if I could find a pair I liked better. I wasn’t necessarily looking for cheaper shoes, but I knew if I was going to spend $30+ on shoes I wanted them to be something I liked and that I would wear more than once. I started at Target – they had nothing. I then popped into Payless where I never really shop and was pleasantly surprised at their selection. They had 3 pair to pick from that would work and that felt good on. I narrowed it down to two and decided to buy them both and take them home to try on with the dress.
Before I went the the register to check out (this is where the money saving part comes in) I pulled out my iPhone and did a little research. I went to my RetailMeNot app and searched for discounts but all they offered were online coupon codes which did not help. Then I went to Google and when I typed in “Payless coupons” I saw a result that was for in store savings. Hooray! The article told me that to save 20% on my purchas all I had to do was text PAYLESS to 747474. I sent the text and within a minute received my discount code! Proudly I took my phone to the cashier who rang in the discount.
The moral of this story is that you should always do a little research before you pay retail at the mall. So many times stores offer coupon codes or discounts and unless you do a little research you are missing out and leaving money on the table. Google the store’s name with “coupon”, take a peek at their Facebook page, visit shopping sites like RetailMeNot.com. You can even download apps to your phone to help make this simpler. Off the top of my head here are some examples of stores that offer coupons frequently: Michael’s, JoAnn Fabrics, Old Navy, Hobby Lobby, etc.
And in case you are interested, here are the shoes:
