Rhea Lana Haul

09/18/2015

I have heard about Rhea Lana and Duck Duck Goose since my aunt's had children twelve years ago. If you haven't figured out by my blog posts yet, I LOVE a good deal! I'm like the ultimate jew, I hate paying retail for almost anything, for me most thrift/resale stores are too expensive!

I scoured online for Rhea Lana Hauls. I had heard good things about them, but I also heard about their lines... I wasn't down to wait in line unless I was getting REALLY good deals. Today is one of Rhea Lana's final days at a location near me, and they happened to be right next to another store I was shopping at. Since it is one of the final days today is Rhea Lana's 50% off day, so I decided to check it out.

Here is my haul:

In total I spent $23, here is what I got:
6 cloth diapers
3 receiving blankets
Eddie Bauer Head Support
NWT Old navy fleece pants
2 Christmas sleeper pj's
3 Sleep sacks
An I love Daddy sleeper
Christmas Dress

To the right you can see my receipt.

I am SUPER thrilled with my haul, but I wouldn't have bought these if they weren't 1/2 off. The retail for these new would easily be over $100, for $23 I'll take used ones (in great condition!).

I have NO idea what day 1 of Rhea Lana's looks like. That is supposed to be when you get the best deals and it IS when you get the best selection... it is also the busiest! My friend was in line for 3 hours at Rhea Lana's, my time was like 10 minutes.

Rhea Lana's will be at another location near me next month. I'm considering consigning some clothes, but I'm not sure if it is worth it. Thoughts!?

Dirt Cheap Haul

09/16/2015

The weekend before last I headed out with my mom, one of our stops was Dirt Cheap. If I'm in the area near Dirt Cheap I always stop, there is no telling what there is in store!

Since it is September many stores are putting their summer merchandise on clearance, surprisingly Dirt Cheap is no exception. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Dirt Cheap they say their prices are 40-60% off retail and then they have additional sales on top of that. Their clearance summer apparel for women/teenagers came out to just $1/per item! I found quiet a few clothing pieces for me, and my mom got a few too!

My Finds:

 In the picture above you can see I got:
3 Pairs of Shorts
- one of these the black pair (hard to see) are from Motherhood Maternity!
Girls Elsa Leggings
Champion Workout tank with built in bra
5 Shirts (most of these are from Rue21, so cute but not high quality but for $1 they are good!)

This picture shows off the dresses, romper, and two maternity tops I got!! I was astounded to see these were also just $1!
On the very left are the two maternity tops, also from Motherhood Maternity. Their clothes in store are usually in the $30-$40 range per piece and even used can cost some dough! I will probably sell the very first one as it isn't really my style, but I love the white one!
The third item in is a romper. I'm a huge fan of rompers personally but I'm not sure if I will like the style pattern on me... fortunately I have until next summer to figure out (and give birth and get into the size to fit it)
The 3 items on the right area all dresses! 2/3 are Lily Rose dresses and the last is a Lauren Conrad, these all sell at Kohl's and retail can be $40 and up per dress!!

I'm super excited by these finds! The retail of these items would easily be over $250 in store, I paid less than $20!

My mom also got some great finds like a LONG SLEEVE maternity shirt for just $1, some dockers shorts $1, and some capri's!

Kroger Haul

09/15/2015

I know I have discussed in past posts why I love Kroger, but today is a great example. Kroger's sale prices and their manager specials make them the best grocer around for my shopping!

At Kroger I picked up:

15 cans Campbell Soups $1/ea

Organic Milk $1

Chocolate Organic Milk $1

Organic Yogurt (big container) $1.25

4 boxes Organic Baby Bella's .99

Kefir Strawberry Milkshake $1.00

Organic Yogurt (small) .25

Olay Shaving Cream $1.25

Berry Juice .99

Organic Spinach .99

Everything listed above is manager's specials except the soup. The soup was on the buy 5 save $5 deals, and doesn't expire til next December! I was planning on buying 30 but many of them were already gone in our favorite flavors.

Since I'm sharing all my manager specials I do want to say that I don't wind up with this kind of haul every week, and the store I go to is actually a SMALL Kroger! I have 4 Krogers nearby-ish, all about the same distance away and by switching up which Kroger I went to I was able to judge them all based on what was important to me

1. Manager's Specials - I love to get a good deal

2. Product Freshness- I HATE to spend money on "fresh" fruit/veggies for it to be bad in a day or 2

3. Selection- I like buying Organic as much as I can (and if I can afford it)

4. Butcher/Bakery/Deli/Flowers- Having fresh fish, chicken, beef, baked goods, etc is always great

4. Location- It is always preferable that the store is in a good location

5. Employees- Friendly employees are always something that is appreciated

6. Store Size

The above 6 criteria are in no specific order but are all things I consider when shopping.

The store I go to now doesn't have the friendliest employees, is small so not a huge selection and no butcher or florist, and is in somewhat sketchy location! I love this store for: its small size, being pregnant that is a huge plus, the fact the produce is always fresh, even the markdowns last several days, markdowns go hand and hand with fresh produce/product but in addition to it meaning the store keeps their selection fresh it also saves me a LOT of money!

My favorite find of the day was the baby bella's. One of my pregnancy foods is sauteed baby bella's and to buy them full price for the organic ones is like $4/box, $3.29 for non-organic! I eat one box of these sauteed per sitting so I'm saving quiet a bit on these (not to mention I'm cheap so 4 at retail wouldn't be in the budget)!

My biggest tips for getting a great haul are:

1. Check out different stores (no not every shopping trip, but establish which ones are best)

2. Determine what days are best/when the store does markdowns

-in general Tuesdays and Wednesdays are the best days for deals, around 1!

Our Dog Food Picks

09/08/2015

I previously wrote an entry on how to choose dog food. To paraphrase when choosing dog food:
1. Check Ingredients, the first 2/3 or 3/3 items listed should be a meat/fish
2. Check DogFoodAdvisor.com it isn't perfect but is a good resource
3. Check for recalls, this was one thing I left out of the other entry but is important!

I, personally, love giving my dogs a variety of food. We always switch up the food with every new bag we need to buy. With a 65 lb dog and a 25 lb dog we generally buy the largest bag available, from 25-30 lbs, which lasts us over a month. If you chose to buy your dogs different food then it is important to transition them over.

Our dog food brand picks are:
Fromm
TOTW
Chicken Soup

Two of these brands are made by Diamond, which some people have a huge problem with. Fromm is independently owned and has NEVER had a recall; Unfortunately my little dog didn't like the bag of Fromm we tried so next time we will try a different flavor of Fromm.

I'm sure there are other great brands/lines out there but these are all moderately priced ones. For a large bag we usually pay around $45.

If your buying your dog food from the grocery store please PLEASE go to dogfoodadvisor.com and type in the dog food and see the rating and why it is rated so low. When I first got Nina I gave her Purina and thought I was giving her good food, changing her and more importantly Shadow over to a better food made a big difference!