What a week, y’all! For the first time all summer we only had one obligation (a doc appointment for me) all week so we were able to chill at home for two days straight without ever leaving the house. I totally didn’t put on makeup or do my hair for two days straight and it was awesome. This also gave me plenty of time to shop the Amazon Prime Day sales and I got some gooood deals. B did, too!
Here are some of my
favorites from this week…
O N E – Prime Day… How We Approach It and Pay Off
Purchases Easily… and Some Other Thoughts
This year there seemed to be
more people than usual hating on the Amazon Influencers for “promoting too many
things” during the sale, and the main thing that struck me as outrageous was
that many of those people went so far to say that Amazon influencers were “peer
pressuring” people to buy beyond their means.
I, personally, was not directly approached or targeted, but I still
wanted to speak my piece about that statement.
Y’all.
As an Amazon influencer AND
A RESPONSIBLE ADULT I only recommend the things that I either truly love or will/are
buy(ing) for myself and I never ever purchase
things that we can’t afford. I read
plenty of blogs and have made plenty of purchases through said blogs, but I
have never once felt “peer pressured” to buy something, nor have I bought
anything that didn’t fit in with our budget.
My job as an Amazon influencer is simply to let you know those products
and deals are there... not to make you feel forced to purchase them. Especially
if you don’t have the money. It’s called
self control, people! And if you don’t
have any self control, then might I add that it may not be wise for you to be
following influencers in the first place…
I freaking love a good deal
and all I want to do is share my enthusiasm for said deals with my audience in
case you love a good deal like I do. My
intent is NEVER to send any of you in to debt just to get a good deal. The target audience for my blog is adults
(WHO ARE IN CHARGE OF THEIR OWN ACTIONS/FEELINGS/SELF CONTROL), and I think it
goes without saying that if you can’t afford something, you shouldn’t buy it. Period.
(Hence the reason you won’t see me walking out of Nordstrom with 85 bags
of clothes during the NSale. Or ever for
that matter.)
That said, I thought I’d
share with y’all how B and I use Prime Day to purchase so many of the things we
know we’ll need/want while they’re deeply discounted and how we save up to pay
off our purchases immediately.
For starters, we never ever spend beyond our means. Period.
If we can’t afford to pay something off without incurring interest, we
don’t buy it (with the exception of our house, of course… I mean what can you
really do about that?!).
We opened an Amazon Visa credit card (it has no annual fee) several years ago because it gives us 5% cash back on all of our Amazon
purchases (and Whole Foods if we had one), 2% cash back at restaurants, gas stations, and drug stores, and 1% cash back on everything else. Lord knows we buy most of our stuff on Amazon
so we might as well be rewarded for it in the process! We use this credit card to make all of our
Amazon purchases throughout the year as well as some other random purchases
throughout the year, and we pay the credit card off each month so we don’t
incur interest. Since we know we’ll be
paying our credit card off each month and never rolling over a balance, WE ONLY
SPEND WITHIN OUR MONTHLY BUDGET. This
ensures we don’t spend beyond our means.
We let all of our Amazon
points accumulate throughout the year, and by the time Amazon Prime Day rolls around,
we usually have several hundred dollars' worth of points saved. This allows us to go ahead and buy the
back-to-school items we need, fall clothing purchases, any big ticket items
that may be hugely on sale, and even get a jump start on our Christmas shopping
all during Amazon Prime Day while everything is majorly on sale.
Overall, we save tons of
money from getting all of the great deals, but we’re also able to pay the
entire balance off immediately with our accumulated Amazon points + whatever we
have in the budget for Amazon for that month.
It’s a win win, y’all!
Another thing to note is
that during Prime Day, Amazon gave us an additional 1% back on all of our
purchases meaning that we got 6% cash back on everything we purchased! Those points will begin our new yearly
accumulation and by the time Prime Day rolls around next July we’ll be sitting
on another pile of points for our shopping for next year.
For those of you who are
avid Amazon shoppers, I highly recommend that you get an Amazon Visa. If you do shop at Amazon and you don’t have
one, you’re leaving money on the table.
You can sign up here if you’d
like… but also, please know I’m not “peer pressuring” you. You know your financial situation better than
I do… I’m just letting you know that the service is available in case you didn’t
already know. ;o)
Also, fun fact... D. Barrett, the name that you see on the sample credit card below? She is a real person and Brian knows of her through work. They use her name for all of the Chase credit card promo pictures. #TheMoreYouKnow
Also, fun fact... D. Barrett, the name that you see on the sample credit card below? She is a real person and Brian knows of her through work. They use her name for all of the Chase credit card promo pictures. #TheMoreYouKnow
T W O – Favorite Prime Day Fashion Finds
And speaking of Amazon
purchases, I was able to snag a couple of cuuuute pieces that were discounted
and I thought I’d share them with you.
This top is by far my favorite! The stripes, the fit, the ruffle sleeve. It’s all perfection. And I was truly surprised at how great the quality is. The top is thick and sturdy and not at all see-through, which is important since it’s white. I’ll start wearing it in early fall with jeans and booties, and as fall and winter progress I’ll be pairing it with a utility vest or a puffer vest and tall boots. It’s a great transitional piece for fall! It comes in 11 different patterns and colors (including a couple of pretty florals) and it’s only $18.99. I was able to get mine for $16.14 on Prime Day, so it wasn’t hugely discounted, but at least I saved a couple of bucks!
My other favorite purchase was
this twist-front top. I’ve had one of
the long-sleeve tops for a year or so AND I LOVE IT, so I added the short
sleeve version to my wish list a while back.
It ended up going on sale during Prime Day so I snagged two of them for
just $13.59 each. They are regularly
only $16.99 each so they are still a great deal even when they aren’t on sale.
They come in 14 different
colors and styles and they are also made very well. The fabric is sturdy, but not too thick, and
they are also long enough to cover your hiney in the back which means you can
wear them with leggings. Yes!
T H R E E – Nsale Leopard Tank
I’m not a Nordstrom
cardholder as I don’t ever shop there unless the NSale is going on, but my
friend Emily was kind enough to grab the leopard cami for me before it sold
out, and I love it so much! It’s soft
and breathable, but not see-through, and the quality is great. My only complaint is that I wish it was
slightly longer. Fortunately it’s long
enough to wear tucked in so I decided to keep it! I’ll be wearing this one now with shorts
while it’s hot, and then when the weather turns cooler it’ll be nice to wear it
with jeans and a long cardigan.
It sold out almost
immediately when the sale opened to cardholders, so if you weren’t able to get
your hands on one, check back as they are supposed to be restocking most pieces
today.
F O U R – Natural Deodorant Update
Well, I’ve officially tried
three different natural deodorants over the last few months and as of
Wednesday, I’ve officially gone back to my trusty-rusty, aluminum-filled antiperspirant/deodorant.
Sigh.
Over the last four-ish
months I’ve tried Native deodorant (from Target), LaVanilla (from Amazon), and
Dove 0% Aluminum Deodorant (purchased at CVS with a coupon). Here are my thoughts on each of them…
Native – this one was by far
the best natural deodorant I tried with regard to keeping me feeling fresh and
smelling like a rose all day. It didn’t
feel too wet (although it wasn’t perfectly dry either), and it wasn’t sticky at
all, but it went on white so you could see it in my armpits all day and that
meant that it also rubbed off on ALL of my clothes. I would have loved this one if it wasn’t for
the white marks.
LaVanilla – my next try was
LaVanilla since it had gotten so many great reviews, and I first reported that
I liked it really well after a few days' use.
Well, y’all, I WAS WRONG.
LaVanilla turned out to be the worst one of all. I liked it because it felt pretty dry and it
went on clear and it didn’t rub off on my clothes, but after just a few hours out
and about, it did NOT keep me smelling fresh in the least. I’m not even a sweaty person… I sweat a lot
less than your average person, but I just could not get this deodorant to work
for me. I had to apply it, like, 3-4
times per day to keep from smelling and at that rate I would have been flying
through so many sticks of deodorant we would have gone into debt. And I don’t want to spend beyond my means. ;o)
Dove 0% Aluminum – I loved
the scent of the Dove deodorant and I loved how it went on clear, and it did keep me smelling fresher longer than
the LaVanilla, but that’s where my praise for it stops, y’all. The Dove felt really wet for a long time
after I put it on and then throughout the day if I would get hot and sweat a
little it felt very sticky. It claims to
have 24 hour odor protection but I was lucky to get 6-8 hours from it.
Basically, the entire time I
wore the natural deodorants, I felt VERY aware of my armpits at all times. If I wasn’t feeling wet then I was feeling
sticky. If I wasn’t wet or sticky then I
had white marks all over my clothes. If
I didn’t have white marks all over my clothes then I wasn’t smelling as fresh
as one would like. So yeah, I’m now
three days back in to my beloved Degree UltraClear Invisible Solid AND I HAVEN’T
THOUGHT ABOUT MY ARM PITS ONCE (except to write this post – ha!).
When I wear this stuff I
stay dry as a bone, there’s not a single mark on my clothing, nothing feels
sticky, and it gives me 24 hour odor protection. Plus it's only $6.99 for a two-pack! So yeah, this is an instance where I’ll just
pick and choose my chemicals… there are plenty of chemical-filled items that I’m
willing to part with, but this ain’t one of them!
F I V E – NSale Reminder
I’ll be doing my shopping
for the NSale today when the sale opens to the public. I need a pair of my trusty rusty Zellas, some
of my favorite undies, and I might
order this BP cardigan. Don’t need to
buy anything else because… I wouldn’t want to go over budget! ;o)
Ok, I’ll stop now.
The sale opens to the public
today at 12:30 PM EST. I’m told that
Nordstrom should be restocking items that sold out during the cardholder sale,
so if there’s something you missed out on, be sure to check back!
And now for the funnies of
the week…
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| But not really... because I have self-control. ;o) |
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| Now THIS... this is true. |
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| Olivia, every day. |
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| Yep. |
And in case you missed it, here’s
what happened on the blog this week…
This weekend we have the
first of Jacob’s birthday celebrations on deck and we’ll also be attending a
birthday party for one of Jacob’s friends… it’s going to be a good one!
Happy Friday, y’all!
*Linking up with A Liz Adventures and Carolina Charm for Five on Friday, A Little Bit of Everything for Friday Favorites, Meet @ the Barre for Friday Favorites, and Polka-Dotty Place for High Five for Friday.
