We Shopped the Carter’s Friends & Family Event with a Printable 25% off Coupon Valid Thru 12/24 (#CartersFam #MC)

I participated in an Influencer Program on behalf of Mom Central Consulting for Carter’s. I received a gift card to facilitate my shopping trip and to thank me for participating. All opinions expressed are my own.

You all know that I am a shopper at heart, so you may be as surprised as I was to find out how unaware I was of two things.  The first thing is that Carter's sells clothing up to a size 6x for girls and size 7 for boys.  I always thought that, once my children passed the toddler and preschool stages, they were done with clothing from Carter's.  I was mistaken!  The second thing I learned is that there is a Carter's Babies and Kids retail location not too far from us.  Once I got over the shock of my lack of knowledge, we ventured out to pay a visit to our local store.

I was pleased to find a huge sale going on when we arrived at the store.  This, along with the Carter's Friends & Family Event coupon in my wallet, made me even more excited to shop for our nearly 7 year old twins!

The Carter's store was divided by age groups and gender.  The girls' section was full of cheerful brights and pastels.  My favorite section was the denim for girls, which came in skinny and boot cut in a variety of washes.  My philosophy is that a girl can never have too many pairs of jeans!

Since our daughter is a daddy's girl, we bought her not one, but two graphic tees that let the world know it.  We also found two pairs of skinny jeans, one in a faded denim wash and the other in a pastel.

The boys clothing did include some bright colors and pastels, but there were also plenty of choices for neutral colored pieces.

I ended up choosing a graphic tee, a graphic thermal, and three pairs of pull-on cargo pants for our son.  He was thrilled because, even though he looks so cute in them, he dislikes wearing jeans.

Now, if I have you wondering whether you have a Carter's store near you, you can find out by using their store locator.

Before you shop, you must remember 3 things!  First, be sure to print the Carter's Friends & Family Event coupon below to save 25% off your purchase (some exclusions apply).  This coupon expires on December 24th, 2013.

TO PRINT:  Be sure that your printer is on and ready to print.  Click the image below to enlarge.  Then right-click on the image and choose print.  Use your browser's back arrow to return to this page.

The second thing you need to remember is to checkout the enormous amount of clearance merchandise in the store.  Even though the coupon does not apply to clearance items, it is very much worth a look.  The third thing you should remember is, if you are not a Carter's Store Rewards Member, you should sign up while you're in the store.  I did and received $10 in rewards for every $50 I spent.  I spent a little over $100 on clothing for end-of-winter and springtime and received $20 in rewards that I will be returning to use after the Holidays.

A few other things you may not know about Carter's stores . . . 

• There are building blocks, wooden puzzles, and other wooden toys in-store to help keep your children occupied.
• The store carries Melissa & Doug toys, making it possible to shop for infant, toddler, and kids clothing, as well as toys, all in one stop.
• The stores also sell children's shoes up to a size 12.

Remember, if you shop, come back and tell me all about what you purchased!

9 Money-Saving Tips for Parents

Parents are often faced with many obstacles when it comes to raising their kids, and saving money might be one of the biggest ones. That’s why today, we’re going to present 9 helpful tips that will help you to save money, but still be able to provide.

The desire to provide only the best for your kids is something all parents have, but as many can tell you, this is also an easy way to go for broke. Luckily, there are plenty of ways you can shop for the must-haves and the luxuries, while still maintaining a stable budget.

So what can you do? Here are a few tips:

1. Thrift Shops: Because sometimes the key to saving money is learning how to “pop some tags.” Thrift shops are great places where you can find items for both yourself and your kids, whether it’s clothing, toys and games, or furniture, and best of all, it’s available to you at a fraction of what you’d find elsewhere.

2. Consignment: From clothing to home décor and even more, consignment shops are great places to find high quality goods for less. On the flipside of that, if you have no more use for some of your items, you can put them up for sale for others to enjoy, while also making a little cash for yourself.

3. Make A List: It’s one of the oldest tricks in the book, and it’s still around because it still works. Before you go shopping, create a list of everything you need. This can help eliminate the temptation to impulse shop.

4. Rewards Programs: You may be loyal to a certain brand or store, so why not get rewarded for it? See if your favorite place has a rewards program set into place. Doing so makes you eligible for future discounts, exclusive promotional items, and can even sends you notifications on upcoming sales events and more.

5. Hand-Me-Downs: Have any friends or family around you with kids of varying ages? If this is the case, consider creating a system where every so often, you swap clothes. This can help you save money on having to buy new clothes once your child outgrows their old ones. Plus, if it’s still in good condition, you don’t have to feel bad about having to throw it out or discarding it.

6. Shop Out Of Season: This might sound odd, but sometimes the best times to shop for certain essentials is to buy it at the end of the season. For example, stories tend to put summer apparel and accessories on clearance to make room for their fall inventory. Likewise, fall must-haves will be discounted once winter begins, and so on…

7. Join The Club: From memberships to places like Costco or even exclusive online clubs, this is a great way to grab what you need for less. Yes, this might include a membership fee, but if you’re a frequent shopper, you will get more than your money’s worth.

8. Don’t Spend Money You Don’t Have: This might seem like a common sense tip, but you’d be amazed at how many people fall into this trap. Unless you have the money, and it’s something that tends to be more of a want or a luxury than a necessity, it’s probably best to put off buying it. Plus, eventually everything goes on sale…

9. Coupons!: Convenient, accessible, fail-safe and most of the time, they’re free! Coupons are one of the best ways that you can still shop for some of the brand name goods that you know and love while avoiding paying full retail for them.

And of course, DefinitiveDeals is your place to get all of the savings you want. Thousands of coupons are at your disposal from some of your favorite stores. Now you can save a few dollars while shopping for all of the essentials. Best of all, it doesn’t cost you anything to use them, because as we like to say, “life is meant to be enjoyed.”

To learn more, check out our official website here.

"Win Your Way" . . . a ShopYourWay Rewards Sweepstakes Destination for Sears & Kmart Shoppers (#WinYourWay)

I am someone who loves to shop!  Since I give away so many cool products on 3G2S, I also think it's pretty fantastic when I occasionally win something myself.  Well, I have been exploring the Win Your Way Sweepstakes portal that is available to ShopYourWay Rewards Bonus Members.  These sweepstakes ask you to complete a task to be entered into a drawing to win products, including but not limited to trips, jewelry, appliances, apparel, tools, and gadgets,  or ShopYourWay Rewards Points, which seem to range from 5,000 to 25,000 points.  You can then redeem your points for qualifying products at Sears, Kmart, Lands' End, and mygofer.com.

I have to say that I was extremely surprised at the number of active sweepstakes that were available in the Win Your Way portal.  Many of the sweepstakes ask you to shop around and mark a certain number of items with "Like" or "Want", or to share these items with your ShopYourWay followers.  The "Just Kid Around" sweepstakes below asked me to mark 5 items that my children would love to "play around in."  I found this entry to be super-easy and lots of fun since I enjoy browsing for children's fashions anyway.  The "Location, Location, Location" sweepstakes only asked me to follow my favorite Sears or Kmart store location for my entry to win 5,000 points.  I highly recommend that particular sweepstake if you are looking for one with a quick and easy entry.

(Click any image to enlarge)

Once you have entered a contest, it will show up in the "My Sweepstakes" tab, which you can visit to see all your complete or incomplete entries.  Both this tab and the main sweepstakes page also shows you how many entrants there are in each contest.

The ShopYourWay's sweepstakes portal is extremely user-friendly.  If you have questions, just click on the "FAQ" tab to bring up the window below.  This window contains frequently asked questions, including how to become a ShopYourWay Rewards Bonus Member for free.  Just click on each question to reveal a concise easy-to-understand answer.  You will receive an email confirmation for each sweepstakes you have successfully entered.  All winners will be notified via email and on the online newsfeed.

For every Win Your Way Sweepstakes entry, there is no purchase necessary. See this page for details.


This is a sponsored post with Brandfluential.com. I am a "Win Your Way" blogger, though all opinions are my own.