I get deals all of the time! In fact, it really isn’t something to write home about.
But there are some deals that are just so fun and so memorable, that it is worth spreading the news in it’s own post… So I am writing home about this one and the story of on little deal I got!
Here’s how my deal story goes!
It was a rainy afternoon this week, which was kinda hard after so many days of fun outdoor play, early morning runs, morning breakfasts on the patio and evening outdoor dinners and chats.
We were cooped up and making the most of it! Well, our mail arrived…. and in it was one of the most fun catalogs that we receive… A Mindware catalog!
Have you ever seen these? Well, for a mom of 5 kids who are eager to learn anything and a cooped up workbook homeschool day….. this was a mind game on it’s own! We all took a break taking turns finding things we love in this catalog! I am telling you, it is awesome!
But the prices are not all that cool, but I am willing to pay for high quality educational toys over quanitity of random toys. Much of our kids’ Christmas and birthday’s are Mindware products.
So I was gathering a “wish list” as a homeschool mom, things that I could justify to Alex we needed to get and use a portion of our educational budget on. But there was one thing that I just had to have NOW.
Here it is! Maybe you think it’s cool, maybe you don’t, but for me…. it was AWESOME! I love history, we all love puzzles and in our homeschool this year, we are studying US Geography coupled with US History. This is one of my favorite subjects to teach!
So……. when you find an 800 piece US Geography map puzzle with history facts, and then turn it into a 4-d experience by also including 150 extra pieces of landmarks, mountains, and other topographical pieces – this was just pure awesome!
I totally wanted this!
Mindware’s price was $39.95 plus shipping.
I went to Amazon.com (of course, the home of where I double check prices on everything :)) and sure enough, they had it on sale for $29.09 and free shipping! BINGO – just saved another $10!
But I decided to take it a step further like normal and do a Google search to double verify this deal!
Yes, Amazon was still the best deal (as usual…) but I spotted something that really caught my eye…..
This came up.. Brookstone for $29.99 plus shipping of $8!
So why did this catch my eye if Amazon was obviously better??
Well, because of one of my favorite sites (besides Amazon) that I watch everyday – LivingSocial! I knew that they had a $50 Brookstone gift card for $25! BUT…. they also have a coupon code for 13% off today – which makes it $21.75!
The $50 voucher would also cover shipping…. which was $7.99. So for $21.75, I could get $42 of stuff and pay for the shipping too! That is better than Amazon’s $29.09!
So these are the steps I took:
- So today, I immediately got my Brookstone gift card for $21.75 from LivingSocial after the 13% coupon code and 50% off sale. The voucher was available immediately.
- I popped on over to Ebates, and searched for Brookstone to get 5% cash back on my purchase (BTW – if you are new to Ebates, you can get an additional $10 gift card back on your first purchase through them) and clicked on the shop now button – this will automatically give me 5% cash back, which on $50 purchase is $2.50!
- I then searched for my 4d Cityscape USA Puzzle – added it to my cart!
- I had money left to spend – Just over $20 – $8 shipping = $12 left.
- I bought an electronic math quizzer (timed quizzes for all levels of elementary math) and it was on sale too and it would be a perfect “hand’s on” math enrichment!
- Added it to my cart.
- I then did a quick search for any coupon codes on our retail coupon database (you can’t always apply a coupon code and a voucher on merchant sites as they often use the same box for both, but Brookstone had a separate coupon code box and a separate gift card/voucher box to apply both), however, there wasn’t any today (that’s okay :))
- I then applied my $50 voucher
- I had a few dollar balance to cover taxes for my state
- and I was DONE!!
So, in a few minutes from looking at this catalog….. I got this $40 game/puzzle/educational resource for $21.75, plus $2.50 cash back and an additional educational math game to boot! And this was just one of thousands of ways I could have spent this voucher!
AND…. I think I am way more excited than the kids to get it! I know we will have tons of fun with it!
Some savings stories are just too fun not to share!!
This is the process we go through before we buy anything (and nice for you to know so when we do post a deal, it is a good one because of this!)! We have shared this process for you to utilize too in an article called The Secrets To Finding The Best Deals On Anything.
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