Your monthly guest post from Rather Be Shopping …

As we near the middle of November, I have been getting inundated with some great online coupons that I wanted to share. There is absolutely no reason to pay full price on your Christmas shopping this year, especially when you shop online. I have noticed that retailers are really trying to spur on their sales by offering some great incentives. If you are planning on heading out on Black Friday, my best advice is to research, plan, and stay disciplined in order to avoid those impulse purchases. Oh, and also bring a snack, only rookies shop at the food court.

Hopefully you can use one of these online coupon codes to get money off your order or get free shipping! If your favorite store is not listed, please drop me an email and I will do my best to personally track down a coupon for you. Happy savings!

American Eagle Outfitters

Get 20% off your $50+ online order

Coupon Code: 49234198

Expiration: 11/15/08

See All: American Eagle Coupons

Ann Taylor.com

Save 20% off your entire online purchase

Coupon Code: 92400415

Expiration: 12/15/08

See All: Ann Taylor Coupons

Banana Republic.com

Save 20% off your $125 or more online purchase

Coupon Code: CELEBRATE

Expiration: 11/13/08

See All: Banana Republic Coupons

GAP.com

Get 25% off your ’On Sale’ Merchandise online purchase

Coupon Code: EXTRA25

Expiration: 11/14/08

See All: Gap Coupons

JCPenney.com

Get 20% off your entire online purchase

Coupon Code: MERRY

Expiration: 11/19/08

See All: JCPenney.com Coupons

Nike Store.com

Get Free Shipping on your online purchase (No minimum purchase required)

Coupon Code: GIVENIKE

Expiration: 12/20/08

See All: Nike Coupons

Nordstrom.com

Free Shipping when you spend $100 or more

Coupon Code: HOLIDAY08

Expiration: 12/19/08

See All: Nordstrom Coupons

Shoebuy.com

Get 10% off your order + Free shipping and no tax

Coupon Code: RBS10

Expiration: 11/30/08

See All: Shoebuy Coupons

Smart Bargains.com

Get 10% off your entire online purchase thru this link

Coupon Code: None Needed

Expiration: 11/15/08

See All: Smart Bargains Coupons

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Krispy Kreme would like to reward you when you come in wearing your “I Voted” sticker with a free doughnut.  A “patriotic” doughnut!

Ben & Jerry’s have also decided to reward you for voting and is giving away a free scoop of ice cream from 5pm - 8pm.

Starbucks is also giving out a free tall cup of brewed coffee as well on November 4th.

If you aren’t voting … well, then you don’t deserve free stuff, so stay home.

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Has anyone been watching Real Housewives of Atlanta?  Wow.  I am addicted to this show now. They really tried their hardest to find the most conceited bunch of women available in Atlanta didn’t they (not that we would bother watching if they weren’t).   Specifically, Kim, Sheree and NeNe.

Kim, the 29 year old (cough. maybe ten years ago) aspiring country singer who doesn’t sing, really annoys me.  Mostly because of that rats nest of fake hair sitting on top of her head.  But also because she is teaching her kids what it is like to be a “kept” woman to a man she calls “Big Papa” who doesn’t live with them, doesn’t want to be pictured with them, but buys her lots of diamonds.  Speaking of which, have you heard the rumor as to who “Big Papa” is?  Way to build self esteem in your girls.  Then last episode in which she befriends Sheree was basically an entire hour of the two narcissistic friends telling each other how beautiful and talented each other were.  It made me sick when they looked into each others eyes and said “can you imagine what it would be like NOT to be beautiful”.  GAG!

Sheree is the one who is divorcing her NFL husband for “seven figure lump sum” so her “kids can have the same lifestyle if not better than they had before”.  Cut to her trying on Jimmy Choos hand delivered to her home by her “shoe stylist”.  Maybe she means her lifestyle should stay the same.

NeNe is my favorite!  Sure she has a big mouth, says all the wrong things, and is a helpless gossip but I must defend her.  Kim, if you know that you friend NeNe hates your friend Sheree STOP INVITING THEM TO HANG OUT TOGETHER WITH YOU.  You are not “stuck in the middle”.  NeNe has always been upfront about her feelings (as extreme as they may be) and at least she is honest, so do her the favor of not dragging her nemesis along everytime you hang out.  You will save yourself and her a lot of grief.

Great I am talking to the characters as if I know them now.  That is sad.

Okay.  So also have caught up on True Blood as well. I embarrassed to admit I just finished the book Twilight by Stephenie Meyer and I loved it.  Yes, I know that it is a teen romance… sort of… but I can’t help it.  Who wouldn’t like a romance that has hot vampires in it?  So I may just be coming off the high of the book but I am really liking True Blood.  It also has a hot vampire and a romance, the perfect combination, and a murderer in the town to boot.  But I have to admit that I am a little curious where it is going to go once they catch the murderer.  I think they need another hot vampire

The only thing that continuosly bugs me on the show is Anna Paquin’s boobs.  Why do her boobs have to be so close to her neck??  It bothers me because mine are so big they are closer to my waist than my neck, which is distressing. Hers are so high it perplexes me.  Is that just a crazy wonder bra?? Does it come in a D cup?

Okay, so Heroes.  Loving the new season of villians but is anyone else scared of Suresh now?  What is he supposed to be The Fly?  Why wont they explain why he puts people into the cocoon?  Is he feeding on them?  They have yet to say.

Anybody think that Claire is wearing weave now.  In the first few episodes of this season it looks like her real hair is only about chin length and sticks out over the weave.

I have also caught up on all of my Brothers & Sisters, Hills, and Desperate Housewives.  I have a serious TV addiction. You can see why I need my DVR so badly now.

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This week is the first week that I have panicked about the economy.

I know.  You are thinking, the market has been up and down for a while now and you are just now starting to worry?  All the frugality and personal finance bloggers have been preparing for the worst, building emergency savings for months now.  And I have been spending as usual.  Even as I watched magazine ad sales fall steadily I still figured that I was a necessary piece of the puzzle at my job, and I was safe.

Then Friday at about 4pm I heard a woman on our staff walk around the office saying goodbye to fellow employees because she had just been let go.  True, she works in a whole different department and I barely know her, but I still couldn’t stop thinking … maybe my job is next.  You never really know when a layoff is going to happen.  You may hear rumors but you never really know until it happens.

The other art director on my magazine (my better half) is going on maternity leave in about a week.  My head has been spinning.  What if my company realizes they only need one of us when she comes back?  She has seniority so she would be the obvious choice to keep, right?  What if my magazines keep going down in size and number of issues?  Won’t that mean less work between us?  More reason to let one go?

I have been saving up t redo my kitchen.  Mr. Juicefairy and I are about half way there.  Now I am panicking, thinking maybe we should hold off?

But on the other hand I really have not one concrete piece of evidence that my job is in jeopardy.  In fact, I am pretty confident that if my co-worker or I got laid off, and the other was left with the work load of two people, that remaining person would drop dead from sheer exhaustion.  And redoing my kitchen or not is not going to save my job.  Who says I should be worried?  Don’t I have an emergency fund too?  Mr. Juicefairy and I have fairly low expenses, due to our frugality so if I lost my job we could float us for a while.

I guess all this frenzy about the economy is finally getting to me.  The fear has rubbed off on me!  Damn, I need to calm down. To relax.  Continue life like usual.  Anyway, I really want my new kitchen!

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Here is a shot that Mr. Juicefairy took of us holding hands post engagement.  Yes, my life has now been divided into pre-engagement and post-engagement.

I have been a good girl and have avoided  posting on my wedding plans and ideas so far, trying hard not to turn this into a wedding blog.  But I figured maybe you would like an update and some money saving tips for planning a wedding, since this is a “budgeting” blog.

I have only been engaged 5 months and I pretty much have most of it planned.  This wouldn’t be strange if I was getting married in 6 months, but I am getting married in October of 2009!  Yep.  I have planned most of my wedding and it is a year away.  I am nuts.  I guess since we had been talking about getting married so long I actually started thinking up ideas way before I got engaged.   So I just started the planning as the words “yes” came out of my mouth.  I have the venue, the bridal party, the photographer, the DJ, caterer, the day of coordinator and a plethora of ideas that I am holding off putting in motion.  But now I am actually a little annoyed because I want to do more but I don’t want to have nothing to do next year.  How boring would that be?  So I am abstaining doing and more wedding planning for at least a few months.  I think in January I will start designing my invites… is that too soon?

I have become a regular at some great wedding blogs, The Knot, Brides.com and not to mention meeting couples for my own wedding photography business has helped me pick up some tips to saving money.  Because while I am lucky to have a nice budget to work with, I am slowly watching it disappear!  Weddings are a racket!  They can get very expensive very quickly, no matter how careful you are.  Here are the big tips that I think all brides should know.  P.S.  If you are a wedding blogger reading this you probably already know these tips so don’t roll your eyes and think “amateur”.  This is for us newbies to the wedding racket

1. Send out postcards for RSVPs with your invitations, instead of RSVP cards in envelopes.  The postage for a postcard is a lot cheaper and it saves  you the money on the extra little envelopes as well.  (Below: An amazing invite I love designed by blogger, Darling Dexter for her wedding with a birds nest theme.  I love how original they are!)
2. Exclude RSVPs overall and leave and email address and phone number on the invite where people can RSVP.  A way to make it special is to create an email account for your wedding like ValerieandStuartsWedding@hotmail.com.
3. Bridal Bargains : Secrets to Throwing a Fantastic Wedding on a Realistic Budget by Denise and Alan Fields suggests  that you shop for a wedding dress during November or December if you can.  This is when bridal shops have their cheapest deals because new styles have just arrived for the next year and they are cleaning out inventory.  (Below: Image from Brides.com Something Pink gallery)
   
4. The same book had the great idea to buy your veil online.  Veils are a few hundred dollars in a bridal shop.  Try sites like www.wedding-veil.com and you can find very similar veils for closer to $50.  See the book for more sites.  (Save your  money and don’t buy the book.  Just borrow it from your local library like I did).
5. Invite less people!  This seems like an obvious one, but the more I count up how much it costs to have a wedding per person I realize that the best way to cut your expenses dramatically is to cut the fat on your guest list.
6. Don’t do a champagne toast.  Whether you buy the champagne through your venue or buy it yourselves it is still an extra cost for something that most people don’t even drink.  Unless you love champagne, have your guest toast with the drinks they already have in hand.
7. Be careful buying bubbles, sparklers, bird seed and so forth for the ceremony.  A lot of venues won’t even let you use this stuff so don’t buy it and get caught realizing you can’t use it.  Also, I have been to a lot of weddings where the only people that blow the bubbles are kids.  Unless you are having a grand exit with a receiving line people don’t usually use this stuff.
   
8. Don’t rent a limo for a whole day.  All those hours get expensive.  Think about having a limo just to take you and the bridesmaids to the reception for your grand exit but take a car the rest of the time.  Better yet, if you don’t have a bridal party rent a nice black car instead of a limo.
9. Check the outlets for bridesmaids dressed during prom season.  For example, I saw dresses at the BCBG outlet that were appropriate for a bridesmaid and only $39.  I think any bridesmaid would appreciate the getting a nicer dress for a cheaper price.  Think outside the box and try department stores and outlet clothing stores for possible options.  Once they tack on the word “bridal” the price goes up.
10. I didn’t realize this originally but it is much cheaper to get married in a church.  I am not religious, nor is my fiancé so we automatically looked for venues where we could have the ceremony and most places charged extra for the ceremony.  Usually the charge was at least $1,000 for set up of a ceremony, plus I need to hire an officiant.  At a charge you can usually get your pastor/priest and the ceremony for a much more reasonable donation.

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Yesterday Mr. Juicefairy and shot a wedding.  That is eight hours of stressing, standing and running around.  So to treat my poor feet I figured would go get a pedicure.  First off, I have only had a few pedicures in my lifetime so I don’t have a regular place.  I just went to the local Vietnamese pedicure factory where they turn out at least ten sets of glossy nails and mini massages in the span of 30 minutes.  While I was getting my manicure (hey I was there already, and they had a special) I was sitting back and people watching.  Shouldn’t have done that.  I watched as a gentlemen manicurist finished doing someone’s nails and went back to the sink, where women are directed to wash their hands mid-mani.  As he ran the water and washed his hands he proceeded to tip his head forward and hocked a loogie into the sink!  The same sink I was directed to wash my hands in 30 seconds later!

So I am still disgusted while my manicurist finished up my nails and directed me off to that purple light you dry your nails under (what the hell is that btw…is it UV light?  Is that bad for you?).  When I got up, trying to maneuver the magazine I had in my lap, I accidentally hit my arm against one wet nail, ruining the polish.  I apologized and asked her to fix it and she gave me these horrible disapproving eyes.  Because as you know she could have done three pedicures in the time it took her to fix my one botched nail! It wasn’t that big of a deal … I thought.  So when I finally went over to the purple light, got fidgety, and smacked the same nail into the counter, ruining it again … I kept my mouth shut.

Long story short my feet look just as good as my home-done pedicure and I can’t go back there because of loogie-man.  So how do I know the signs of a good nail salon?  Any suggestions?

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When I was a little girl I had a mini vanity.  I loved it!  Vanity tables always looked like a model’s must-have piece of furniture to me.  Like these women couldn’t be as beautiful if they didn’t have a pretty table and mirror to primp in front of.  I would love to have one again (for grown-ups that is)!  I have never had the space in my bathroom to lay out my makeup and jewelery while I get ready.  And I don’t have a chair!  How great would it be to spend time and sit while you did your makeup?  OK.  Not necessary but it would be fun someday if I had room for it.  Here are some pretty vanities to inspire your pretty self …

Complete with pretty faceted glass knobs for those who like “pretty” or “shabby chic”
Simply Shaggy Chic Vanity Table at Target - $99.99

Matching Shaggy Chic Vanity Stool - $37.99

For those who like “practical”
Brighton Desk-Vanity from Crate & Barrel - $399
The lift up panel can flip from mirror to cork board so your vanity can also function as a desk.

For those who like “traditional”
Hawthorne Vanity Set - $399
Includes the vanity, mirror and stool

For those who like “clean”
Cartwright Vanity Restoration Hardware - $99.99 - $599
Also available in Espresso

For those who like “unique”
Vinstra Vanity from Ikea -  $249

For those who like “modern”
Malm Dressing Table from Ikea - $179.99

Combo it with something like this …

Hemnes Mirror from Ikea - $49.99

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Anyone that know me knows I like sweet treats.  Well, tonight you will find me at Cold Stone Creamery for freebies!  Tonight participating Cold Stones’ will be having the World’s Largest Ice Cream Social benefiting the Make-A-Wish Foundation.  Tonight only, September 25th from 5:00 - 8:00PM, guests will be treated to a 3 oz. serving of Jack or Emily’s Creation. Jack and Emily are two Wish children that have made these cool combinations.

• Jack’s Creation — Marshmallow ice cream with OREO® Cookies, Chocolate Chips and Fudge
• Emily’s Creation — Nutter Butter® ice cream with White Chocolate Chips, Kit Kat® and Yellow Cake

All donations will benefit the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

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I am absolutely loving this white porcelain jug from globaltrade that was featured in the August issue of Domino.  The 10″ jug is normally $24 but with the Domino coupon (type “Domino” at checkout) it is only $18. I may need to buy one.

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