Back to School Shopping at Kohl's

It is almost school time for my littlest.  It's not actually Back to School for her, it's her very first year in preschool!  My boys have actually already gone back to school but they didn't really need clothes this year.  Avery, on the other hand, was VERY excited to get some new clothes for school!  Lucky for us, we got a complimentary $20 Kohl's gift card from Kohl's and Influenster for the purpose of reviewing!  (As always, the opinions are all my own.)

We live in Northern California and it is still HOT when school starts here.  Like really hot.  Like my face might melt off hot.  The only benefit to this is being able to get an amazing deal on clothes since most stores have their summer clothes on clearance.  Avery should be able to wear the summer clothes until late October.  Even then, we can layer t-shirts under sweaters and leggings under skirts to extend her clothes into fall.

For all of the clothes we got for Avery, we spent $44.36 before tax (I also got a shirt for me for $4.08) and received $10 back in Kohl's cash.  We purchased 3 pairs of shorts, 2 skirts, and 3 shirts.  On a side note, we would have spent a lot less but a certain adorable child NEEDED to have the blue flower skirt with the gold waistband even though I tried to talk her out of it.  I also tried to talk her out of the graphic t-shirts and steer her towards solids but she would not be steered.  My daughter couldn't be swayed.  I know, it's shocking.  She also refused to model any more outfits.

Here are my tips for getting the most out of your money at Kohl's:

~ Shop the clearance.   I look in clearance before anywhere else.  I know that the clearance section is where I'll find the absolute best deals.
~ Look for coupons in the mail and the newspaper and try to remember to bring them with you.  (That last part is key!)
~ Buy off season.  August is a great time to get amazing deals on summer clothes!  The black pair of shorts was only $3.57!  You can also buy bigger sizes and save them for next year.
~ Look for online coupons.  If you're like me, you'll forget your coupons at home.  You can just do a quick Google/Yahoo search for "Kohl's Coupons" and sometimes you'll luck out and find a coupon online.  In this case, I found a 20% off my entire purchase coupon!
~ Shop when there's Kohl's cash.  If you know you're going to be spending $50, shop when there's Kohl's cash so you can get the $10 back.

I'm really happy with our haul!  The colors all coordinate really well so she can mix and match outfits.  I definitely went over the $20 gift card I was given but I was super happy with the deals I got!  These are some of the best deals I've ever found on clothes!

Do you have any tips for saving money on clothes?  Leave me a comment, I'd love to hear them!

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Plus Sized Outfit for ONLY $50 with Thrift Plus!

I cannot tell you all how excited I am for this collaboration!  I reached out to Thrift Plus after they started following me on Instagram and together we decided that I should do a post where I get a whole outfit for $50!  A three piece outfit for a plus sized girl for $50?  I love that idea!  I love nice clothes but I also love saving money!  If you love saving money, read to the end of my post for a COUPON CODE!

 Thrift Plus is an online boutique where you can find new and in excellent condition plus sized clothing.  It's all the convenience of online shopping but at a thrift store price!  They sell items from size 10-32!  They have a lot of items in the larger range which I find lacking on most sites.  They also buy excellent condition used clothing and even have a process where you can send in pictures for pre-screening.  All orders of $50 or more ship for free.  They just started in Sept 2016.  c

Thrift Plus is run by Miranda Schultz and her husband Kevin who does the photography and the technical side.  Miranda is a plus sized gal who loves plus sized fashion.  She was selling off some of her gently used clothes on Facebook and saw how many women were longing for beautiful plus sized clothing at an affordable price.  Miranda started Thrift Plus to help plus sized ladies around the country.  She is the cutest and I wish we could go to coffee!

Onto the outfit!  I managed to get a three piece outfit for $50.  I happened to be shopping on a weekend where there was a $5 off jackets or coats coupon.  Not only did I get three pieces, I got some good name brand stuff!  If you have any question about how an item might fit, you can ask Miranda.

Here's the break down:
Ambition 3/4 Sleeve Black Blazer $14.99 on coupon for $9.99
Eloquii Blue Cross Front Peplum Top $19.99
Ashley Stewart Black and White Scuba Circle Skirt $19.99

GUESS WHAT?!?  Today, Thrift Plus is giving ALL of you a 20% off coupon!  Just use code Ashley20 and you'll get 20% off.  I'm so excited that I get to share this with you all.  You have to hurry because there's only one of each item in the shop!  Can you get a full outfit for $50, too?



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New Swagbucks Group

Hi friends!  Oh my gosh, it's almost midnight and I haven't blogged!  I almost messed up NaBloPoMo!  BUT I didn't!  Good thing I'm still awake, I guess.

I'm doing a really quick post today to let you know that I've started a Facebook group for my Swagbucks referees where I will help people earn Swagbucks and get free gift cards.  I have been doing Swagbucks daily for YEARS.  You can read THIS POST on why I think everyone should do Swagbucks from 2011!  I go to Starbucks daily and rarely pay for it out of pocket.  I use my Swagbucks to cash in for Starbucks gift cards.  I honestly feel like it's easier to earn Swagbucks now than ever before.  If you'd like to join Swagbucks and be in my group, sign up using my referral link: www.swagbucks.com/refer/HeartHugs then email me or message me on Facebook letting me know you want to join.  This would also be a great way to earn a little bit extra for Christmas.

Hope you are all doing well!  

7 for 7: My Little Clothesline

Hi friends!  I hope you're having an awesome weekend!  I'm sad that today is the last day before school starts up again.  I really enjoyed having my boys home and having tons of pajama days.  I hope you are enjoying the giveaways!  Be sure to scroll through the last week for TONS of giveaways!

Giveaway Rules: Join me each day this week for a TWO new giveaways.  (There *might* be some bonus giveaways too.)  To enter the giveaways, you'll need to use the Rafflecopter that I post at the bottom of each blog post.  Each giveaway will be open for 14 days from the day it starts since it's a holiday week and I want to give people a chance to enter.  All readers are welcome, US or international, unless a giveaway specifies.  Winners will be announced on my blog and my Heart Hugs Designs Facebook Page.  Winners will have 72 hours to contact me or a new winner will be drawn.  Good luck to everyone!

Today, I have a giveaway from one of my very favorite places to shop for kid's clothes, My Little Clothesline.  I have blogged about My Little Clothesline before.  They sell gently used kids clothes at a phenomenal discount.  They have AMAZING Bargain Boxes where you get 5 pieces of clothing for $5 or 4 pieces in the bigger sizes.  They have clothes my kids enjoy too like Super Mario shirts for the boys and Hello Kitty jammies for Avery all at low prices!  I have 3 kids, I buy a lot of clothes and I need a good deal.  This is a good deal.  Also, Lauri so extremely pleasant to work with!  She is a super kind soul and I'm so glad that through her store, I've gotten to know her a little bit.

What's that?  You want to see a picture of Avery in a bunch of her My Little Clothesline clothes?  Oh, you don't?  Well, too bad, I made a collage.  ;)

And I buy the boys clothes from there too.  

Lauri so graciously gave me a $20 gift certificate to the store to giveaway to one of you lucky readers!  You can make $20 go a very long way at My Little Clothesline!

Enter here:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

How to Dress Your Baby Fashionista on a Budget (AND A COUPON!)

Hi friends!  I hope you are well!  We are doing ok.  The air conditioning is broken in the van and with the 100 degree heat, we are staying at home.  It's not as fun as it sounds.  ;)

Today, I'm writing a post about one of the way I dress my little Avery soooooooo cute on a tight budget.  I'm a super thrifty mommy but I still love having Avery wear super cute and fun clothes.  I love buying secondhand for clothes but I usually don't have time to scour thrift stores or garage sales.  Not to mention when I go places, I usually have 3 kids in tow.  When I heard about My Little Clothesline, I was super excited!  (***This is NOT a sponsored post.***)

My Little Clothesline is an online store which sells gently used kids clothes from size newborn to 14+.  They have been around since 2009.  They have great clothes sorted by size and gender so it's easy to shop.  The owner, Lauri Smith, is a super sweet lady!  She is actually the sister (or maybe sister in law) of my friend Kim Kesti.  She is a mom of 4 kids so she knows the importance of quality clothes at an affordable price!

  The shipping time was super fast!  In just a few days, I had the clothes.  ALSO!!!  My Little Clothesline offers Bargain Boxes.  They are like grab bags of kids clothes.  For just $5 you get 5 pieces of kids clothes for sizes newborn-3T or 4 pieces for 4T and up.  You can choose the size and the season of the clothes and they will send you a grab bag.  I've bought two and I was BEYOND happy with them!  The grab bags contain amazing quality stuff and I paid just $1 a piece!

This is the contents of my two Bargain Boxes.  For $10 total, I got dresses, tops, pants, capris, overalls, etc... 

Do you wanna see some pictures of Avery in the clothes?  Of course you do!  ;)

This is a top I picked out for just $3!

 This is a dress from the Bargain Box.  Seriously?  I would have paid the full $10 just for this dress!

I also got some GREAT brands for Avery like DKNY, Baby Gap, Gymboree, etc... I actually bought a pair of shorts on there for Brady too for $4.  If you haven't tried shopping secondhand for a 7 year old, it's VERY hard because kids that age are extremely hard on their clothes.  It's just so nice to be able to look from the comfort of my home and when I can shop in peace without the kids bugging me.

I reached out to Lauri and let her know I was going to write the review and GUESS WHAT?!  She gave me a coupon to share with all of you!  Enter code: hearthugs before checkout to save 20% off your whole order!  That is an AMAZING deal!  Coupon expires on July 10th, 2014 so HURRY!

Have a great day, friends!  I hope I helped you save a couple dollars.  :)

Top-It Raley's Pizza Review

Hi friends!  I hope you're having a wonderful day!  We are doing ok over here.  It is hotter than hot where we live!  We are spending the day indoors and maybe later we will take Parker out to celebrate his birthday because his celebration got cancelled when our van broke down in a major intersection on his birthday.  He had to spend the majority of his day waiting for a tow truck.  Poor guy!

Today, I'm writing about this awesome new program I'm trying for Raley's grocery stores.  It's a completely free program called Try-It where they give you coupons and free samples so you can (you guessed it) try it.  If you have Raley's in your area, I would HIGHLY suggest you sign up because who doesn't love free stuff?  Seriously.  You can sign up HERE.

***Note: This is NOT a sponsored post nor do I get anything if you sign up.  This is just a money saving post with some pics of the kids.  I did however get items to sample at a discounted rate.***

The first thing we got to try is the Top-It Pizzas.  For signing up for the program, we got a 50% off coupon for this, a free pizza cutter, and a few $1 off coupons.  The concept is that there are plain cheese pizzas and then you can get a topping kit to top it yourself.  We picked the 4 meat topping which has pepperoni, sausage, ground beef, and bacon.  The pizza was a nice size at 16 inches.

My kids had a great time adding the toppings!  It's the perfect way to have the kids help with dinner.  It's fun and you can teach them about fractions and whatnot.  The kids wanted olives on the pizza too so I grabbed some from the cupboard.  My husband doesn't like olives so I told them they could put them on half.  This next picture is Brady using his arm to show half the pizza.

After we topped the pizza, we baked it up and I couldn't even get a picture before people dug in and started eating it.  It was a very tasty pizza.  The crust got crisp on the bottom and stayed chewy on the inside.  There was TONS of pepperoni which is great.  I just wish there was more of the other kids of meat too.  We ate most of it and the leftovers the next day were good too.  I will definitely be using my coupons and buying more of these pizzas!

I hope that someone local can benefit from this post either by signing up for the program or finding a fun new dinner idea.  Have a great day, friends!  

Saving Money with Apps Part 2: Shopkick

Hi friends!  I hope you are well!  Today, I'm continuing my Saving Money with Apps series (for Part 1, click HERE) by talking about Shopkick.

***NOTE: These are NOT sponsored posts.  These are tips on saving money that I have tested and work for me.  During these posts, I will use my referral links if possible.  You do not have to sign up under my link if you don't want to (but I would be really grateful if you did.)  I'm just trying to help other people save money because I enjoy saving money.***

Shopkick is a different way to "save money" because you earn "Kicks" and you can cash them in for gift cards.  I personally use Shopkick to feed my Starbucks addiction.  I've gotten a BUNCH of Starbucks gift cards from them.

HOW IT WORKS:  There are different ways to earn kicks and they are pretty easy.

1. Walk Ins.  Shopkick offers a certain about of kicks when you walk into certain stores like Target.  I'm at Target A LOT for diapers, groceries, etc... so this is SO convenient for me.  All you have to do is open the app when you walk into the store and it will give you the kicks.  The kicks are added with the phone recognizes the PA system at the store so if it doesn't work right away, find a place where you can hear the PA system really well and it should work.  There are walk in kicks for lots of stores like Old Navy, Best Buy, Macy's, etc...  They are location based, so the app will pick the stores that are close to you.

2. Scans.  There are items in stores that you can scan for kicks.  You just find the item for example Covergirl Foundation and you scan it with your phone's camera and it will give you kicks.  You do not have to buy the items.  You just can them and you get the points.

3. Purchases.  If you link up your card to Shopkick, they will give you kicks when you purchase certain from certain stores.  For example, if you spend $50 at Target with the card you linked you can earn 200 kicks and 1 kick for every dollar at Best Buy.  This is awesome if you already buy things from these stores.

4. Going through lookbooks.  The different stores will put together lookbooks of products in their store.  Look for the lookbooks with a blue star in the corner.  The blue star means that lookbook has a bonus in it.  Usually it's only 1-5 kicks but if you are just stuck somewhere doing nothing (ie waiting for your kids to get out of school) then looking through the books is a fast and easy way to earn a couple kicks.

OTHER Bonuses:

A. Coupons.  A lot of the places in my town have coupons through Shopkick.  Things like $10 off $50 at Sports Authority, 20% off at American Eagle, or $1 off Huggies diapers at Target.  You know me, I love coupons!

B. Gift Cards.  Sometimes Shopkick will offer a gift card just for walking into a location.  I've gotten SEVERAL $2 Target gift cards just for walking in.  It happens a couple times a year but $2 free is still $2 free!

C. Donations.  If you don't want to use your kicks for yourself, you can donate them to charities like Ronald Mc Donald House or Red Cross.


I hope this post helps you!  :D  If you would like me to invite you to Shopkick, either leave a comment with your email or email me.  Have a great day, friends!

Saving Money with Apps Part 1: Endorse

Hi friends!  I hope you are all doing well.  We are ok.  Avery is teething but other than that, things are pretty good.  Brady is out of school right now which is nice.  Perhaps, I will make one of those Summer Bucket Lists that I've seen going around.  :)

Today, I'm starting a new series on my blog called Saving Money With Apps.  I've had several friends ask my how I go about saving money.  One of the most simple ways to by using a couple apps on your smartphone.  Please note that these are NOT sponsored posts.  These are apps that I've come across in my attempts to be more thrifty that have worked for me.  However, I will be posting my referral links in the posts.  These are the same referral links that everyone is given to invite their friends.

First up is Endorse.  Endorse is the app that I have made the most money back from, hands down.  Here's how it works.  You download the app to your phone (iPhone or Android) and then each week they will send you offers.  You have 6 days to redeem these offers.  You redeem them by buying the items listed on the offers and uploading a photo of the receipt.  Kind of like a rebate but you don't have to mail your actual receipt or wait forever for a check.

There are a couple different kinds of offers.  The first type are ANY brand offers.  These are for ANY brand you buy.  Some of the ones I've gotten are 50% cash back on any brand diapers, 100% cash back on any coffee, and 10% cash back on any brand gasoline.   Then there are brand specific offers like 50% cash back on Mountain Dew or 10% cash back on Quaker oatmeal or 20% cash back on Tide.

In addition to cash back, you will earn points for uploading your receipts.  You can redeem these points for gift certificates to Donors Choose which is a great program where teachers post things they need for their classroom and you can donate to them.  I've found Brady's school on Donors Choose and have been donating my gift certificates so they can buy things for their computer lab.  It's a really nice added bonus from Endorse.

HOW DO YOU GET CASH BACK?  That's what you really want to know, right?  After you submit your receipt, Endorse will review it.  If it meets the criteria, you get the cash and points added to your account.  Then whenever you want, you can cash out via Paypal.  This method is super fast.  I usually have my money in a few minutes.  OR you can request a check and that takes a couple weeks to come in your mailbox.

PROS:
~ You can shop at ANY store.
~ There are a lot of offers where they accept ANY brand.
~ Getting money back is fast.

CONS:
~ Some weeks, you won't have offers you want/need.
~ If your receipt gets ruined (too crinkled, ink fades, etc...) they might not accept it.

Personally, I've made hundreds of dollars by using this app in the last few years.  Usually from the 50% back on diapers and 100% back on coffee (hello Starbucks.)  But even if you save $5 a month, isn't it worth downloading a free app?  If you sign up, please use MY REFERRAL LINK.  I will get one whole dollar if you do.  ;)

Let me know how you like this series.  Again, I want to turn my blog into a lifestyle blog and one of the BIG things in my lifestyle is saving money.