Swago Shopping Edition (US)

It's time for another round of SWAGO, and this board is all about shopping! What is SWAGO you ask? It's a bingo-inspired promotion run by Swagbucks, a website that rewards you with points (called SB) for completing everyday online activities. You can redeem those SB for free gift cards. If you've never used Swagbucks, participating in SWAGO is a great introduction to the site. Plus, if you have to buy holiday gifts, might as well get an extra SB bonus for yourself, right?

Here’s what you need to know to get your 400 SB Bonus (and don’t worry, you don’t have to make a purchase to complete a pattern):

• Shop Swago will begin on Tuesday, November 29th 9am PDT/12pm EDT, make sure you hit “Join” otherwise you won’t get credit for completing the action items. Each square on your Swago Board will contain an action item to complete.
• Once you complete the action item in a particular square the square will change color signifying the action item is complete.
• You have a limited amount of time to mark off as many squares as possible so use your time wisely.
• Be mindful of the patterns and their corresponding bonuses located on the right of your Swago Board. The patterns will vary in difficulty and bonus value.
• Once you’ve achieved a pattern the corresponding “Submit” button will light up. You can have multiple patterns available for submission, however, you can only submit ONE pattern so choose wisely.
• The game ends Friday, December 2nd at 12pm PDT/3pm EDT. So make sure to hit “Submit” on the pattern you wish to submit. If you don’t hit “Submit” before the game ends you won’t receive your SB bonus.

New Year, New Wardrobe...Almost?

With the New Year comes a lot of changes.  I'm starting school for one!! W00H0000!!  Another is that I have some pretty big Resolutions for the year.  

And, in looking at my closet and getting ready for school, I noticed something.  My wardrobe consists of mostly t-shirts.  And, I want to TRY to look a bit more professional for school.  So, I went shopping with the Belk gift card that I won. 

The other day, Mike took me to Belk to try to get me to feel better.  Retail therapy I guess you can say.

I didn't feel like buying much.  But, I did get a shirt for him and two shirts for me.  Here's the 2 shirts I got for myself.

Now, I wasn't paying attention to prices that day and figured I spent about $100.  But, when the total price came up it was only $54.97 with a savings of $99.22!!!  The purple shirt I liked because, well, it's PURPLE!  The white shirt is beautiful and matches a black shirt that I got at the beginning of December.  See, when I find stuff that I like, I usually buy the same thing in different colors.  Here's the two shirts together.

Today, I didn't plan on buying much.  Just some clothes for Monster.  But, when I went into Belk, they had restocked from the holiday shopping and there was a LOT of stuff on clearance.  Yes, I did get some clothes for Monster...that kid is growing so fast.  I got him two pair of jeans (with an adjustable waist) and two shirts.  They're going to look so good on him.

Then, we got a suit for Mike.  With him being in the upper level business classes, and both of us doing more community oriented activities, we needed to get him another suit, because just one won't do it anymore.

I can't wait to see how good he looks in this!!! And with Belk's prices, we paid less than $100 for both pieces.  It pays to keep an eye out for sales and coupons!!!!

Then, I visited the clearance racks in the Women's Department.  They had mostly long sleeve shirts on the regular racks, and I'm not into long sleeves much.  I found a bunch of shirts that I really liked, and the most expensive ones were these three that I got to match with the sweaters.

Each of these three shirts was actually less than $20 each!  That's a great price for them.  They will go with these sweaters and they will match just about all my pants and skirts.

Then I found these shirts, which, if you know me, yell "THE MARCI FACTOR".  They're unique and original.  They will match my other outfits, but that's not why I got these.  I LOVE the colors, and on the third one, the pattern.  

All three of these shirts will go great with the Lilla Rose Flexi of the Month, which is a Peacock.  I'm in love with it and can't wait to wear it. (Shameless plug here)

So, for all of the clothes that I got today, I SAVED more than I spent.  My total was $273.70 and my savings was $385.16!! This is why I love shopping at Belk!  

Christmas Shopping in Texas

Most of my friends and fans are saying it's cold outside.  

Yesterday, we were experiencing severe weather.

Like...Tornado weather!

That didn't bother Mike.  He told me, let's go eat something so we can do Christmas shopping.

Now, when Mike says shopping, I jump at the chance.  He would rather do ANYTHING before going shopping.

Like.  Anything.

So, we went to the Lufkin Mall.  It's not big, but hey, it's what we have in this itty bitty town.

We go into one store and I see it started raining again, so I say "lets go and look at something else", you know...to try to kill time until the rain stops.

The problem with that was...we had already bought the gifts we needed to get.

So, Mike said lets go look at those earrings again that we looked at last week.

Hey, the man is buying me JEWELRY...I'm not saying NO!

We head down to the store, talk to the same associate that we talked to last week.

He remembered us but couldn't exactly remember where the earrings were.  

Sooooo...we're looking.

We've got it narrowed down to a few different pair, and we're comparing them.  

All of a sudden, all three of use notice that the wind is picking up and the rain is coming down harder.

Now, we live in East Texas.  When there is a severe storm warning, everyone usually just goes about their business because we get severe storms ALL THE TIME.  No biggie right?

NOT!

Right after we said that the wind was picking up, it got really windy.  Like, shaking the ceiling windows windy.  Right above the Santa picture area.

The associate tells us to come into the store at that time because we were on the outside part of the display, which was on the corner of the store.  He quickly locked the earrings up again, and ushered us into the store.  Right at that time, the lights went out and the wind really rattled everything.  Everyone was running into the stores and away from those windows.  

I've never been shopping during severe weather, and I wasn't really scared...though the little kids that ran into the store with their parents were.  So, Mike and I did what we do best (apparently), we started asking the kids questions about anything to get their minds off of being scared.  There was a little girl with reindeer antlers and a kitty cat shirt on that we just started asking her questions about her antlers and shirt.  Her parents looked at us with that profound look of "THANK YOU"!!

It was over in a few minutes.  It was a shopping trip I will never forget.  And that little girl probably won't forget it either.  But, I got my Christmas present.  Yeah, I know it's not Christmas yet, but when you're there while it's being bought from your husband, you really don't want to wait!  Especially with these pretty earrings.  OMG they're so sparkly!!! LOL  

Daily Save The Trendy Tadpole

How many of you have weeds, I mean kids, that you have to buy clothes for this fall?  Well at The Trendy Tadpole you can get $32for only $16.  I don’t know about you, but the cheaper I can get clothes the better!! This deal expires in 4 days!!I think I'm gonna get this one for Monster.