Stretching the kiddos birthday money is easy...

So this year my 12 year old asked for what I think most 12 year olds ask for...money. With that money he somehow thought he could buy all the things he wanted: a long board skateboard, custom Lego figures, and of course video games. Lucky for him, he has a mommy that refuses to pay the first price I find, even when it isn't my money. My thought, if I can stretch his money to buy all the things he wants, I won't have to buy anything ;-)

First up, the long board. He had a specific Santa Cruz brand board in mind. Everywhere we found it, it was $140, whether it was $130 plus $10 shipping or $140 with free shipping. I almost gave up thinking, well maybe this is just the set price and Santa Cruz won't let their retailers sell it for less. But then I thought, well let's check Santa Cruz's website...to my surprise it was a lot cheaper to buy it from them direct! $40 cheaper! $99 and FREE shipping!! My son was super excited to save $40 to say the least :-D

Next, custom Legos...G.I. Bricks to be exact. G.I. Bricks is a website that sells custom military figures and weapons for use with Legos. And they are surprisingly affordable. My son sat on my computer and picked out the ones he wanted and then passed it over to me to finish the purchase up. I asked him "well did you get any discounts or free shipping?" ... in my house this has become an expected question lol. So I Googled it, as usual, but I found nothing. Unwilling to spend $5 on shipping for a $15 purchase I decided to check one more place...Facebook...and voila! There it was in their timeline, a coupon code for free shipping AND 15% off any order! He immediately saved $8, which he used to buy 10 more pieces :-) He was so excited! And it felt so good being able to help him stretch his birthday money.



After just two purchases we'd saved $48, almost enough for another video game! 

LESSONS LEARNED:

NEVER make a purchase online without looking for a discount code...never, ever, ever. There's almost always a discount if you just look for it. 

My favorite coupon code websites:

http://www.retailmenot.com/
http://www.couponcabin.com/

But it's really just as simple as searching "(store) coupon code", i.e. "Old Navy Coupon Code".

And don't forget to check the stores Facebook page, just about every retailer has one. x