Buy More, Spend Less

Today I went to Ulta, armed with multiple coupons and knowing they had a sale going on.

I may or may not have another post about Ulta to come... don't judge me, that store is awesome.

Anyways back to today! What I had:

-$5 off any two Almay cosmetics.  This AMAZING coupon is available through Swagbucks (learn more back here).

-$1 any one Cover Girl cosmetic item (from the newspaper).

-$5 off a $10 purchase, get yours here.

Ulta has been having buy one get one 50% off all their drugstore brand cosmetics for a while now, I feel like they do this sale a lot since their prices tend to be about $0.50 more than say, Target.

At first I was just going to get the 2 Almay products and use the Almay coupon.  If I would have done that I would have spent: ((6.99*50% off) + 7.99) - 5 = 6.49

So then I thought, well that doesn't really make sense because if I spend 3.51 more I can use my $5 off $10.

So THEN I remembered about my Cover Girl coupon.  I found an eyeshadow trio so my total came to: 6.49 + (4.99 - 1.00) = 10.48 - 5 = 5.48
Full price total: 19.97 (I got 73% off!)

By buying the eyeshadow I actually SAVED a dollar... crazy right?  I knew I'd done well when even the cashier was impressed! 

The prices in the picture are determined based on what my receipt said, I'm not exactly sure how they decide how much of each coupon gets applied to each item but thats what I looked at.

I got: Almay intense i-color eyeliner in black pearl, Almay intense i-color shadow stick for hazel eyes, and Cover Girl eyeshadow trio in golden sunset.

Now use the links above to get your coupons and GO get some deals!  Don't forget to tell me about them in the comments too!

Happy Shopping!

Online Rewards Sites

I mentioned Swagbucks and Bing Rewards before but I wanted to do a more in-depth post on them.  I have been using Swagbucks for over a year now and Bing Rewards for only a few weeks.  I actually learned about Bing Rewards through Swagbucks and I will talk more on how to two are related later in this post.

If you are skeptical about using these types of sites let me tell you I am the queen of being skeptical!  But after using Swagbucks for over a year and earning many rewards I can tell you they are reputable and I've never had a problem on there!

Swagbucks is a website with a lot of different things.  They have games, surveys, coupons, promotions, and are also a search engine.  All of these things can earn you "swagbucks" which can be redeemed in their rewards store for gift cards, merchandise, or entries into "swagstakes" (aka sweepstakes).  The best reward they offer (in my opinion) is the $5 Amazon gift card for 450 swagbucks.  You would think you might do better saving up for a bigger amount but you actually save more getting $5 at a time!  It takes me one to two months to earn one, depending on how active I am.  Not much, I know, but it is literally FREE MONEY!  So why not? :)

The top ways I earn swagbucks are:
1. Search - I do maybe 10 random searches each morning (literally some are like this: sjfdkjh) and eventually it will pop up that you earned (usually 5-15) swagbucks.
2. Swag Codes - Periodically there will be a Swag Code that you can enter for 3-6 swagbucks.  Each one is worth a different amount.  I get emails from sbcodez.com that tell me whenever one is available.  Each code is usually active for an hour or two but since I check my email on my phone ALL the time, I am usually able to enter them in before they expire!
3. Daily Poll - get 1 swagbuck a day for answering a (usually silly) question.  Super fast and easy!
4. Toolbar - if you have the toolbar on your browser you automatically get 1 swagbuck a day!

There are TONS of other ways to get swagbucks but I can not vouch for the reliability of those since I don't do them (like surveys where you enter all your information or linking your credit card to earn points while shopping).  If anyone HAS done these things without "side effects" please let me know so I can earn faster :)

Sign up for Swagbucks here!  And start earning today!

Onto Bing Rewards:

Like I said before I heard about Bing Rewards through Swagbucks, there was an offer where if you signed up for Bing Rewards you got 25 swagbucks, so I did!  And I actually like Bing Rewards a lot!  I  have not earned my 1st reward yet but I am on my way!  The main way to earn points on Bing is by using it as your search engine.  You get 1 point for every 2 searches, up to 15 points a day (30 on Sundays).  So if you just use Bing as your main search engine you will probably earn that many with no problem!  If you don't use a search engine that often then you can just do quick, pointless searches (like I do on swagbucks!).

The reward I am working towards is... 500 Swagbucks!  Yep a reward on Bing is 500 Swagbucks.  Bing also has a $5 Amazon gift card as a reward for the same price (525 points) but since it only costs 450 swagbucks for the $5 gift card you are better off using your Bing points to get the Swagbucks and then get your Amazon card there.  Make sense?

At 15 points a day it will take just over a month to earn the Bing reward!

So go and sign up!  Click here

Again, here are the links to sign up:
Swagbucks
Bing Rewards

Good luck!


Note: I am not affiliated with any site mentioned, I am simply sharing these sites so you can earn free gift cards like me!

What is Deals Actually?

Welcome to Deals Actually!  Thanks for stopping by!  I hope this blog helps everyone to become a real bargain shopper.  If you're wondering where the name 'Deals Actually' came from, there are two reasons:

First, I always see store advertisements that say "Sale of the Year ... 20% off" or specials on tv that tell you about saving "up to 50% off".  I get a very confused look on my face when I see these signs and advertisements.  I personally do not consider these "deals" anything special.  Yes, technically they are sales, but considering retail usually has 100% markup I need a bigger discount!  So I am setting out to share my ACTUAL deals, and hopefully show shoppers 'the light' on getting real steals!

Second, ever heard of Love Actually?  Yep, that's it!

I have a couple rules of thumb when I am shopping (I hold to these for clothing and shoes, a little more lenient on other items):

NEED OR WANT?
If it is something I need, I obviously have to get it, BUT I try to use some sort of coupon, or at least price compare between stores.  I am always looking for last minute coupons, usually using Google.

50% OFF? NEVER!
If I am just shopping for fun (Retail Therapy anyone?) I like to get 75% or more.  Depending on the store and brand of the item this can vary but I definitely never get something if it is only 50% off!

COMBINE
Macy's is my go to store when it comes to 'combo deals'.  They have great clearance prices and then I always combine with a coupon!  Big savings even bigger!

GOOD THINGS COME TO THOSE WHO WAIT
Maybe your mom has always told you this too, and it really is TRUE!  More often then not, I see a new top I love or find a cute skirt for half off, and of course I don't buy it (see above).  But since I shop often (see below), I am usually successful in getting said item... eventually.  Patience people!

SHOP OFTEN
When you only go out and shop for things that are necessities, you tend to impulse buy.  Not good!  This leads to overspending.  Shopping more often can actually SAVE you money!  I rarely even look at the full price items, straight to the sale areas for me!

BE WILLING TO SPEND NOW, TO SAVE LATER
This goes along with shopping often.  Lets say you see some nice black pants, in your size, for 75% off.  But you don't need black pants right now.  Buy them anyways!  I guess this is kind of what extreme couponers do with a 'stockpile', but way less 'extreme'.  You'll probably need new black pants eventually so why not buy now so you DON'T have to spend later?!

FREE MONEY
Yeah you read that right, free money!  I love any and all apps, websites, etc where I can earn real money for doing things I would do anyways!  Here are my favorites (click on each to sign up!):
Swagbucks (I get Amazon gift cards!)
Bing Search (I get more Amazon gift cards!)
Shopkick (I get Target gift cards! This is a mobile app)

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