Bargain Becky

Click HERE to print off a $10 off $50 purchase at The Christmas Tree Shop!  Coupon good from now until 12/16!  Don't you just love a bargain?

If you need mens clothing, here's a sale for you.  Buy any sportscoat or leather jacket at JoS A. Bank, and get 2 pants and 2 sportshirts for FREE!  This sale ends today.  Go through Cashbaq, and get 5% back on your purchase!

Click HERE to print off a 30% off your entire purchase at Yankee Candle.  Coupon valid 12/3-12/6.  Thanks for the email Lori!

Yo!  Hope you guys are all doing great out there, scoring yourselves some great bargains.  We, on the other hand, are just hanging out, trying to not spend money.  I've sort of banned myself from all stores other than Shaw's and BJ's until the husband goes back to work.  I just don't want to be tempted by the wonderful bargains out there. 

Well here I am.  Sharing something that I just thought of yesterday.  A "do-it-yourself" advent calendar if you will.  I have to say, I'm very inspired my Mama Smiles (well, she will forever be known as Thrifty Craft Mama in my book).  Last night, I went to THIS WEBSITE and printed out 24 coloring sheets.  Then I went to THIS WEBSITE and printed out the letters for "Merry Christmas" and proceeded to cut them out of construction paper and tape them to my wall.  Everyday, my 3 year-old colors a coloring page, then we write the number of the day on it, and hang it on our kitchen wall.  He knows that when we have 24 pictures on the wall, Santa will come!  It's kind of good for him, because he sort of only knows up to 20 for numbers.  Maybe this will boost him into the 20s. 

I'll try to throw up another picture of our advent wall around the 14th and after Christmas.  My 3 year-old is very excited about coloring his picture everyday. 

Yeah Yeah Yeah.  Cyber Monday.  Blah.  But my favorite kid's store pulled through!  Crazy 8 is offering 20% off your ENTIRE purchase!  And, to boot, you get Free Shipping on any size order!  Why is this a huge score for me?  Because I have a $10 off $30 purchase coupon that I got at the Grand Opening of the Dedham, MA store.  So I grabbed a few things for my boys!  One in particular for my 2 year-old:

So I finally called and cancelled one of my credit cards! It had a credit limit of $5,200 - and a zero balance. What motivated me? Well I was sitting at the kitchen table reading my mail. I got some notices from Chase. I actually opened them up and read them. One stated that my APR on one card was going from 6.99% to 9.99% effective 1/1/10. No worries. Zero balance and it's just there for extreme emergencies (like if I max out the $20K on my 2 other cards....). Then the other Chase notice said that my APR on my other card was going from 14.25% to 19.25%! WOWZERS! I didn't even know any of my cards had 14% interest rates on them as is, and the thought of 19+% just blew my mind!

So I was livid. Granted, my "soon-to-be 19% APR" card has a zero balance, I'm just shocked by how high it is. I grabbed my cell phone, my two Chase cards and I was ready to fight these people! They always seem to nag me when I want to close cards, so I figured if they gave me any problems closing this 19% card, I'd just close them both and say good-bye to Chase forever.

Well low-and-behold, Chris Harrington answered my call (such a classy name for a Credit Card telephone guy!). I told him I wanted to close said Chase card and he replied "No Problem!" What! Where is the fight? I wanted a fight Christopher! He asked me why I was closing it and I responded "I just got a notice you guys are raising the APR to 19% and I think that is crazy." His response: "I understand". He offered to lower it but I told him I think I'm good with my other Chase card. I was on the phone for less than a minute with him, he closed my account effective immediately, and now I am here. Dumbfounded. When did credit card people get nice?

Big kuddos to Chase. Sure, you are trying to rip us all off by raising our interest rates on us, but at least you have hired some understanding, no-nonsense people.

Moral of the story? I think a lot of credit card APRs are going up the 1st of the year due to some new federal law about credit cards. If I was motivated, I'd research it before I blogged about it but I'm not that motivated today. Make sure you read those little notices that come in the mail to see if your cards are affected.

This week at Shaw's, Ronzoni Smart Taste Pasta is $1 a box (we love this crap - it's "healthy" but it's also not whole wheat pasta.  It tastes like normal white pasta).  You can print off $1/2 MFCs off Coupons.com and Smartsource.com.  So it comes to .50 a box.  Very good price for "good" pasta. 

Also, you probably have grocery shopping on the back of your mind (like I do), but if you scored a $5 CAT from the J.M. Smucker Company the other week, they expire soon!  Mine actually expires today...so I'll be going to stock up on some pasta.  Can't let $5 go to waste!

Thanks to all who played - and many thanks to Friendly's for putting on this promo!  Remember - if in doubt about Christmas gifts, give the gift of ice cream!  Friendly's is having a promo at their stores right now.  Buy a $25 gift card, get a bonus $5 gift card for free!  Check them out!  This promo is going on until 1/3/10.