A perfect day

Ahh, what a beautiful day yesterday. Sunny, breezy, and warm - the perfect day for . . . thrift store shopping! While Jeff and Hannah were out running some errands, John Ryan and I took a trip to the CHKD thrift store near our house. I found some Stride Rite white dress shoes for Hannah for $1.98 (just in time for Beatrix Potter Day at school tomorrow) and a fun Barney fold-out book for John Ryan for $0.78. Score!

Later on, after Jeff went to work and the kids had their naps, I decided to take them to Riverview Farm Park, which is always great for free fun. I love that the kids are getting old enough to entertain each other - this is a cell phone pic of Hannah pushing John Ryan in the swing.

After the playground, we hopped on over to Jeff's Starbucks for drinks - on the house! When Jeff is working, he always makes our hydration a top priority. An iced venti nonfat chai, an iced tall chai, and an apple juice later, we were much improved. And a bonus - a customer had left their copy of the Sunday paper in the bin so I collected all the coupons and inserts. Yay for me!

The best things in life really are free, or $3.00 at the thrift store.

5 reasons to love (or at least tolerate?) Walmart

Okay, I know how some of you out there feel about Walmart. It's too busy, parking is a nightmare, the lines are too long, it's dirty, they have sweatshops in China, etc. etc. etc. I do not have any control over these things, nor do I make any excuses for them. They are bad.

However, I have a few things to say in defense of Walmart. In fact, I have to admit that despite all of the things mentioned above, I am rather fond of Walmart. Honestly, if it weren't for Walmart and its low prices, I don't know how my family could afford to buy groceries every week without spending hours clipping coupons or driving all over town to chase the meat and produce sales.

Besides Walmart's cheap prices, here are a few other things I've come to love about it:

1. Their slogan, "Save money. Live better." Walmart rolled out this new slogan in September 2007, its first new one in 19 years, and I love it for its simplicity and for the way that it echoes my own motto: "Living rich doesn't have to be expensive." Todd Sullivan, a contributor to Seeking Alpha, a stock market analysis website, says, "What they have done is turned a logical ad campaign that said 'shop here because it makes sense to save money' into an emotional one. Now the message is 'shop here so you can have more fun and do more with your kids'" (i.e. with the money you save).
   
   
2. Their low prices.
   I know I mentioned this already, but it bears repeating. Of all the places I shop, Walmart is consistently cheaper in the things I purchase most often (groceries, paper products, and toiletries). And again, this is without coupons. When I do have coupons to use, that makes it even more inexpensive.
   
   
3. Their selection and array of products.
   I can get everything in one place, and this is as good as gold for a busy mom. If I wanted to, I could get curtains, toilet paper, and lettuce all in one shopping trip.
   
   
4. Their "Site to Store" feature.
   With Walmart's Site to Store feature, you can order practically anything from their website (which includes thousands of items not available in stores) and have it shipped to a store near you for free. This works especially well if you want to avoid long checkout lines. The Site to Store pickup area is usually located at the back of the store and I've yet to see a line there.
   
   
5. Their efforts to provide environmentally- and health-conscious options.
   More and more I see organic items springing up on Walmart's shelves. Of course, this seems to be true everywhere right now, especially with it being so trendy to be green and sustainable. But kudos to Walmart for at least attempting to provide more options for their customers, including their recent decision to use only cows not treated with rbST for their Great Value milk (in both Walmart and Sam's Club).
   

All right, I think I'll stop there before I come off as some kind of crazy Walmart-lover. While I appreciate Walmart for the things mentioned above, I do recognize the hazards presented by shopping there. So I will conclude with my tips for making a trip to Walmart the best experience possible:

1. Plan the time of your visit very carefully. I go on Friday mornings, when it is not too busy, there are virtually no lines, and the shelves have just been stocked. I do not even attempt to go within a five-mile radius of Walmart on the weekends. If you go on the weekend, nothing you or I love about Walmart will be worth the torture of the parking lot.
   
2. Make a list and stick to it. If you end up buying a lot of stuff that's not on your list, then the low prices won't make much of a difference to you.
   
3. Plan a route and stick to it (e.g. first health & beauty, then home improvement, then baby, and finally grocery). If you deviate from your route, you are likely to deviate from your list.

Save money. Live better. Yes indeed.

Reader tips of the week

1. From Julia:

Harris Teeter - If you happen to shop at Harris Teeter, they have buy one get one free Ben & Jerry's ice cream all week. Also, their reusable grocery bags are buy three, get two free.

2. From Kristin:

RetailMeNot.com - This is an incredible resource for online coupon codes. Anytime you're planning to make an online purchase, visit retailmenot.com first to find out if there are any discounts available for that merchant.

3. From Me:

Michael's - I just went to Michael's today and discovered they have a lovely selection of $1 items - notepads, stickers, stamps, pens, pencils, you name it. Of course you can find all these things at the Dollar Tree too, but at Michael's they just seemed a bit cuter.

SnapTell

This one is for all you iPhone owners out there. Even though this doesn't include me (yet! I'm holding out for a pink one), I thought this was too cool not to share.

From Apple:

"You're at the mall and see a DVD, CD, book, or video game that looks really interesting. But, you start wondering, can I get it for a better price? And what kind of reviews did it get? Pull out your iPhone. Start up SnapTell. And take a photo of the cover. SnapTell will deliver information, reviews, pricing from other vendors, even directions to other stores. Best of all. It's free."

How does it work? It uses advanced image recognition technology developed by SnapTell to instantly match an image against millions of product images. Get the app here.

Now if only they'd develop one to help you compare prices at the grocery store.