Wanted: 1 million pounds of batteries.
Call2Recycle is calling for Americans to recycle 1 million pounds of rechargeable batteries by Oct. 1. You can drop them off (along with cell phones) at any of 30,000 centers across the country. The aim to raise awareness about how easy it is to recycle batteries so they don’t wind up in landfills.
Are you up to the challenge?
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It’s tradition to load up on back-to-school stuff in August. But if there’s one thing I’ve learned over the years with my girls who are 9 and 11, it’s to wait and do most of our back-to-school clothes and shoe shopping in September and October.
We bought a couple of outfits each in August so they would feel ready for the new school year. But they can easily wear many of their summer outfits and last year’s clothes that still fit them well into September.
Stalling not only buys me time to take advantage of Columbus Day sales, and other money-saving opportunities that pop up as the leaves turn, it gives my kids a chance to tune into fall clothing trends and get a firm idea of what they really want by checking out what their friends are wearing. And that’s important.
Even when they were much younger, I’d later find August back-to-school clothes and shoes in their drawers and closets basically unworn because they turned out not to be the right thing by September or October.
Lesson learned: Timing is key, even with back-to-school shopping.
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Lay’s potato chips have made a big deal of how they’re made from just three simple ingredients: potatoes, oil, and a pinch of salt. The oils are healthier varieties, they say—canola and safflower—and the potatoes are grown on 80 farms across the U.S.
Want to get even more specific? You can find out where the potatoes in your actual bag of chips were grown by checking the chip tracker.
Recent consumer research shows that supermarket shoppers are hungry for information about where their food comes from, especially in stores when they’re trying to decide what to buy.
One easy way to find local produce (a healthier choice than chips any day!) is with the Locavore app for iPhone (also accessible via Facebook). It not only tells you what produce is in season locally, it points you to farmers markets and shares recipes to cook those local ingredients.
Read more tips for making smart choices and saving money at the supermarket in our September issue cover story, “Supermarket smarts,” on sale now.
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Early fall is a great time to hit consignment shops in the tony neighborhoods near where I live. This is when women who shop at all the best stores start emptying out their closets and I get to reap the rewards of their mistakes—the top that didn't quite fit with the tags still on, a great purse with a designer sticker at a price I can actually afford.
But today I hit one of my favorite consignment shops, reFINEstyle.com and you can too, because it's online. They're persnickety about what they take, so you'll find great deals on names like Marc Jacobs, Prada, Theory, Alice+olivia, and more. And you have the option of placing a bid on something you like or snapping it up at the "buy it now" price.
The site is also easy to navigate: You can shop by designer, new arrivals, size, color, and my favorite area—going going gone, where you can get further reduced prices on great stuff, like the adorable animal print booties by Isaac Mizrahi which were going for about $35 when I last checked the auction bidding.
And hey, if you've got a few designer duds hanging in your closet, gently worn or with the tags still on, you can sell them here too. They'll team you with a local stylist to take photos and upload them up to the site. But there's also a step-by-step video that tells you how to do this yourself.
I've got my eye on a Ralph Lauren zebra print bag. Let me know if you snag any bargains.
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So where are you in your back-to-school shopping schedule? Ahead? Behind? Right where you want to be?
According to the National Retail Federation, the average family in the U.S. is actually ahead of where they were last year. The theory is the hot, hot weather drove people into stores earlier this summer. How about you? And are you finding good sales out there?
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The personal-shopping website Shop It To Me has undergone a facelift that its administrators say makes it more fun to shop and a more powerful tool for finding what you want.
CEO Charlie Graham says, “Our Web site has looked the same since it launched four years ago. While the original site works well for millions of shoppers—in fact, we are currently recommending more than two billion products to our three-plus million subscribers every month—we recognized that it was time to take it to the next level.“We think this redesign not only enhances our style and matches the quality of our best-in-class partners, but also makes the shopping experience more fun,” Graham added, “all the while staying true to our mission of being the free online personal shopper.”
Check it out at ShopItToMe.com, and find out what’s new.Subscribe to ShopSmart today!
FanSnap.com
Best for Quickly spotting the best prices
Why we like it This ticket aggregator scans the top ticket websites to show you where to buy for the most reasonable prices. The site even shows you the best values of the moment as you’re browsing. FanSnap.com
Ticket websites can help you score great deals, but don’t forget about membership discounts. Signing up with entertainment guides, such as those from the New York Times or Los Angeles Times, can offer great ticket discount codes.
Check out other benefits you might have, like Zipcar memberships, airline miles, credit card points, Plum Benefits, and others. Never pay more than you have to again!
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An alarming report from the World Watch Institute, an independent research organization with its eye on the environment, says that the amount of food we waste every year here in the U.S. weighs as much as 74 Golden Gate Bridges! Earlier research estimates that we toss out about 14 percent of the food we buy, or about $600 worth a year on average. That’s a lot of money being tossed into the garbage!
I’m shopping at my local farmer’s market now that it’s open again (find one near you at the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s website) and I’m hyper-aware that I want to eat all that fresh produce before it spoils.
So the mushy tomatoes get made into tomato sauce; I just chop the tomatoes and sauté them in olive oil with a little basil, sometimes some garlic—super fast and yummy too! The starting-to-shrivel strawberries and blueberries get blended into breakfast smoothies. The celery tops and flimsy stalks, the sad onions, and whitening baby carrots go into a pot of water where I boil them into stock, which I freeze until it gets colder and I feel like making soup.
What are your creative solutions for using up food before it goes bad?
Subscribe to ShopSmart today!Is there no end to what you can find at dollar stores these days?
Along with deals on school supplies, wrapping paper, party goods, and all kinds of household stuff, Family Dollar stores are now selling goCash transfers in amounts of $50, $100 or $200.
In a new joint venture with Western Union, shoppers can buy the transfer cards at Family Dollar store checkout lanes. Once they have the cards, they call Western Union to start the transfer. The money can then be sent to any Western Union station in the world. One-stop shopping: Pencils and plastic cups to cash!
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I own several bathing suits. One I wear for tanning only because if it gets wet, it rides up and I spend too much time adjusting it. Then there’s the tankini. I wear it when I sit by the edge of the pool and splash my feet or go in the water up to my knees. I don’t swim in it because it floats up and as I’m trying to get out of the water at the same time I’m trying to pull it down. Then I have—or I should say had—“old faithful.” This year it gave way. It was so stretched out that it became what I call a “peek-a-boo” suit, so I tossed it.
I had been waiting for a sale on bathing suits. But I waited too long, because just when I needed one to take on vacation, I couldn’t find one. I went to the Cape for a couple of days in early August. While there, while my granddaughter was adopting a hermit crab (named Homer), complete with cage and instruction book, I was browsing the store. I’m a firm believer that you never know what you’ll find.
And there they were, a rack of bathing suits. A couple of them caught my eye right away. When I tried them on, one in particular stood out–it was black and white, and looked like a tankini, but it was one piece underneath and had a lot of elastic. It looked great on me, it felt great, and it was only $39.99.
I’m glad I waited to buy a suit. I didn’t have to settle for leftovers at the end of the season and I found exactly what I’d been looking for.
We’re leaving for Florida in September. Jack has decided he wants a new pair of trunks. My feeling? Wait until you get there—you never know what you’ll find. And I can browse while he’s looking. Happy shopping.
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