Getting a deal takes patience, research and sometimes luck.

I'm a woman who loves to shop, but with two young children, I have to stick to a budget. So how do I get to feel fabulous without spending a ton of money? Research, price comparing, coupon codes and lots of patience.
Whenever I need to buy myself new clothes (and that happens when you lose 40 pounds over 11 months), I refuse to pay full price...enter sales and coupon codes! Since I'm a plus-size gal (though I am finally down to a 14 - I was a 12 when I got married, but I don't think that will ever happen again), avenue.com has been my go-to shopping site. The quality is good for the price and I can get some stylish pieces. I mix in the occasional Lane Bryant purchase, but those take a little more work, since the price is higher than I'd like for the quality you get, so I have to have a really good sale and the perfect coupon code to align like the planets before I buy from there.
So, my go-to sites for coupon codes are retailmenot.com, couponcabin.com and coupon7.com. Another trick that I've learned is that if you have a lot of patience and a little luck, you can tweak the item numbers to get a better price on sites like avenue.com (I haven't figured out the system on lanebryant.com yet). The Redcats brand (Avenue, Roamans, Woman Within, One Stop Plus) sends me a lot of catalogs in the mail. It drives my husband batty because he thinks it's just a ton of junk mail and clutter, since I can just shop for the same things online. But, what those catalogs have is the secret to saving money. In a lot of them there is a little clearance section in the middle and those item numbers are worth their weight in gold. It doesn't always work, mind you, but sometimes, if you get lucky, you can take those last 4 digits from the clearance section and change the last four digits of other items on the site to get a better price. Then if you stack the right coupon codes on top of that, you stand to save a lot. On Black Friday, I had a code for 50% off and used that to get gifts for my mom (two sweaters and a nightshirt), my sister (a sweater and a nightshirt) and my dad (three thermal henleys), plus a little something for myself for less than $65.


Another way I like to save is on shoes. Women's shoes cost a lot of money. Too much money, actually, but I love shoes. As with much of what we buy here in the US, much of the retail markup is due to the name. Beyonce's Dereon brand has a gorgeous satin wedge that sells for $64.99 on heels.com. ShoeDazzle.com sells the same shoe for $39.95. Guess which fabulous shoe I'll be wearing for New Years Eve? And guess who didn't pay full price?

ShoeDazzle...the root cause of my shoe addiction...

So, how did I become addicted to shoes? I mean really truly addicted to the point where I have no room in my closet and still want to buy more addicted. I've always liked shoes. Before I was married, I worked an office job for a very large and well-known publishing company and had a nice, albeit small, collection of shoes. I'm very tall  (5'9" or 10" in flats) and am cursed with size 11 feet. I get that from my dad's side of the family. My mom and both sisters are between 5'5" and 5'6"; mom and one sister have size 7.5 feet, so they have no problem finding shoes they like. Though my other sister wears a size 10, finding shoes is not a problem (she owns a pair of sandals, a pair of sneakers, a pair of black flats, nursing shoes and a pair of lavender satin heels she wore to my wedding - that is the full extent of her shoe wardrobe).
So what does this have to do with anything? I love shoes, but I have big feet, so its impossible to find cute shoes in my size, so I had a few catalogs/websites where I could buy shoes within my budget and that was that. Fast-forward a couple of years...I met the love of my life while in between writing jobs (I filled those gaps in my professional writing career with retail jobs) when I was working at Macy's. I got my career back on track, got married and had two kids. Well, that writing job that I've had for the past 8 years is for a very laid-back company and I telecommute most days, so I don't need a ton of nice shoes and since my daughters are 6 and 4, I don't go out on tons of dates that require "going-out" shoes...but you know what? Buying shoes makes me happy. I worked very hard to lose 40 pounds of baby weight (that I had never lost due to stress-induced overeating because of our oldest daughter's heart condition and frequent surgeries), so in March of this year, my husband decided that I needed something for me.
That "me time" came in the form of a shoe club. One of my husband's female coworkers told him about ShoeDazzle. So I checked it out. I created a profile and took a fashion quiz so the stylists could determine the styles that were best for me. 24 hours later, I got my first showroom of 5 shoes, 5 purses and 5 jewelry sets. I wasn't impressed for the first couple of months and I didn't make a purchase, but by July, I was emailed a 50% promo and that was all it took to get me to take the plunge (I cannot resist sales). So I bought a pair of shoes and a matching purse and that was the beginning. Now, the thing about ShoeDazzle is that once you place your first order, it saves your credit card information and because it's a monthly CLUB, you have to log in every month and either buy something or skip the month before the 5th of the month or you will automatically get billed the $39.95 and get one store credit. Now some people freak out about this every month (just log onto Facebook and check out the SD page on the 6th of the month), but as a kid I was a member of Columbia House, so I get the whole "club" concept.
Regardless, I've purchased every month since July (I now have 25 pairs, plus 3 purses and two jewelry sets), so forgetting to skip the month and accidentally getting charged for a credit hasn't been an issue. The styles are fabulous and they carry more size 11s than most stores or clubs. Most of their styles have really high heels which can be an issue for someone of my stature, but I have found a few midheels and bought the high ones just because I couldn't pass them up.
Oh and I almost forgot to mention the best part - you can shop with your friends on Facebook - there is a whole community of shoe loving women just like me and customer service is beyond compare. The girls and guys of CrewDazzle make shoe shopping even more fun...how crazy is that?

Never pay retail for anything!

As a woman, I love shoes and I love to shop, but having worked in retail for a good portion of my adult life (to pay the bills during college and in between real writing jobs), I know that paying retail prices for anything is just not acceptable. The markup is outrageous and if you look hard enough and find the right coupon codes, you can get anything you want for less.
My current obsession is (as my blog title implies) divided between shoes and wine. Shoes win, hands down. I have 25 pairs of shoes in my closet right now that I have acquired since July of this year. I glance at my wine fridge and see a sad sight (only 4 bottles). Money is tight right now, but after Christmas, I'll buy more wine. And I have two more pairs of shoes coming this week, in spite of the lack of funds (as a mom of two young girls, it's hard to have an abundance of cash this time of year). But, if you don't splurge once in a while, you can go crazy with stress. My life is not glamorous as glamorous as I'd hoped, but after a couple of glasses of wine, my life is glamorous enough (the 25 fabulous pairs of high-heeled shoes and boots in the closet don't hurt either).