IT MAKES "CENTS" TO ME FOR FRIDAY - NOVEMBER 15th

Hi everyone,

How are you today? How has your week been?  My week has been crazy and good and everything in between.  We're starting to get into the "BUSY" season at work. It'll stay busy until the end of the year.

I very rarely spend money on new clothes because I am on a really limited budget, so it's not worked into my budget, even when I really could use some new clothes. However, today was payday, and I decied that some new shirts for work were really needed. My goal is to have enough work clothes in my closet, that I could have one new outfit to wear every day of the week for 7 days, so that I don't have to wash the same thing over and over again.

I happened to be working in a department today that sells Ralph Lauren clothes for women. So I took a look at some basic long-sleeve tops. I ended up purchasing two black and one dark gray top.

Now listen to how I saved some serious "cha-ching" aka money, on the tops that I purchased today.  Most employees at work have a store credit card that they use.  We are required to have one in order to get the employee discount. However, there is also the option of having a prepaid store card. That's the one that I took, since I MUST put money on it FIRST before I can use it. 

So I happened to be looking at these tops, because I've purchased Ralph Lauren tops in the past on clearance and I've always had good luck with them. They also wear really well in the wash and still look good. so I know it would be a good deal, even if they were full price.


I saw these tops.  They are normally $32.98 each. However, they had a clearance tag price of $29.99 each.  When I checked the final price at the register, they were ringing up at $24.99 each. That's great !!! There was also a "use your card" discount of 20% on sale and clearance.

So I used my prepaid card and got 20% of the current clearance price. That dropped the cost of my tops to $19.99 each at the register.

So with all three tops together plus 7.5% sales tax, my total came to $64.47..

But wait, it gets so much BETTER.  Since I am an employee, I also get an additional employee discount of 20%. So that will bring my overall total down to $51.58.

Before I go into how much of a percentage I actually saved, let me throw in a picture of the cute little pocket on the left arm of each of the tops.  I don't normally like pockets on the front of any top. This is small, subtle and on the side. So strictly from a style viewpoint, this is fantastic.

Okay, if I had paid regular full retail price for all three tops and 7.5% sales tax, this would have cost me exactly $106.36.

However, since they were on clearance, there was a 20% "use your card" discount and my 20% employee discount AND the fact that I paid cash on my card FIRST....well, now my 3 designer tops only cost me $51.58 with tax.

That means I saved a GRAND TOTAL of 52% off the original retail price with tax. I'm really proud of that.

Now my next goal is to start building my collection of work pants. I literally have one pair that I wash every day. In fact, I will wear one of my new tops to work tomorrow.


Next week, I'll share more about how I give every dollar a name. I get paid every week, which is really nice. It's making "giving every dollar a name" much easier.

That is the news from the ocean shores of California today. Love and hugs to you all, Heather