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Plastic Jungle Expands Discounts on BIG Purchases: Read One Customer’s Story

Michelle — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 21:46:31 +0000

Step by step, a Plastic Jungle fan shows you how to save $100s by combining discounted gift cards, coupons, and rebates.

It is fair to say that most households have wish lists. From house to house, these lists can be as diverse as the inhabitants. You could be pining for fresh electronics (new TV or gaming system), or home improvements or furniture, or maybe a special accessory, such as a pricey designer purse or a pair of shoes. Often, wish lists develop when you move into a new space, as our Plastic Jungle fan, Marcy B., relates.

In her letter, Marcy B. outlines how she went about saving big on renovating her window treatments in her new home. She explains that it wasn’t a matter of combing the Internet, or paging through Val-Pak coupons, but a matter of patience and a small amount of planning.

Thanks to marketing and promotions, all shoppers get the idea that we could save big, but jumping the hurdle to map out the steps can be a stumbling block.

Her letter explains her simple process, step-by-step:

Dear Plastic Jungle:
Thank you for helping me save more than $500 on a purchase I recently made at Home Depot!
My husband and I had planned to invest in blinds for our house this year, and were pleasantly surprised to have spent less than we budgeted on higher quality blinds than we planned on buying.
How we saved BIG…
(1)  Last year my husband and I started talking about the design and feel we desired for the blinds.
(2)  At Home Depot we discovered a modern style of blinds that we loved.  When we looked at the price, we noticed there was a special 20% off manufacturer sale.  At this point, the cost was not in our price range, until…
(3)  I called the store and spoke with a manager about stacking a coupon with the sale.  The manager said I could.  I wrote down his name and immediately…
(4)  I went on eBay and bought a 10% Lowe’s/Home Depot coupon for $1.50 (shipping + handling included).
(5)  That same night, I went on PlasticJungle.com and purchased enough Home Depot gift cards (for 7% less than face value) to cover the purchase.
(6)  One week later, I received the coupon and gift cards and physically went to Home Depot to purchase our blinds.  We saved 20% through the manufacturer’s sale, 10% with our coupon, and 7% with our Plastic Jungle gift cards.
In total, we saved $595.11 (33%) on our BIG purchase!
I cannot thank you enough for helping us save BIG!
With sincere thanks,
Marcy

You are welcome, Marcy! : )

Marcy's Living Room Before the New Blinds

Marcy's home with her new blinds. Success at a discount!

As it turns out, Marcy is also a guest contributor for a parenting site: MamaModerne.com, and she wrote up her story as an article, “Saving Big on Big Purchases”. Check it out for more details on how to save when it comes time to pull out that wishlist.

What’s on your wishlist?

Consider the following categories. When you’re dealing with a wishlist, it’s OK to be greedy. Writing out what you want might help you prioritize your wants and needs. (Well, that sounds like another blog post!)

Consumer Electronics: get gift cards from Best Buy, Kohl’s, Target, Walmart, Sony Style, Apple Store, Office Depot, Staples, JCPenney

Home Improvement: get gift cards from Home Depot, Lowe’s, Ace Hardware, Bed, Bath & Beyond, Target, Bloomingdale’s

Furniture: get gift cards from Crate & Barrel, Williams-Sonoma Home, JCPenney, Macy’s, Walmart, west elm, CB2

Designer Apparel & Accessories: Zappo’s, Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom, Bloomingdale’s, Macy’s, Bergdorf-Goodman, Tiffany & Co., Burberry, Coach

Pick up any of the above gift cards on Plastic Jungle’s Buy Gift Cards page.

Get thinking, and let us know if you’ve got any strategies for saving with discount gift cards.

You Said Who’s Having a Sale? Quality Finds from Around the Web

Michelle — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 19:58:28 +0000

Work is dragging. You’ve got an event coming up. The kids are outgrowing everything from toys to socks. NCAA March Madness is your inspiration to get a new TV. All the spring magazines have you itching to update your wardrobe. And please, anything to not see Charlie Sheen on a headline!

Time to find an exciting sale. Cheap shoes, Michigan sweatshirts, HDTVs, and sale clothes are just a click away. And remember, you can add to your savings by purchasing a discounted gift card to pay for your hot sale finds.

Our first stop would be Sale.com, whose home page is a shopping addict’s crack, compiling some of the best apparel discounts on the web. Enter the retailer you’d love to see a sale from, ie Abercrombie, and voila, the site’s sale page pops in, along with a list of promotions and offers. Sign up for Sale.com alerts to get first crack at fresh promotions, coupons, deals, and sale merchandise.

Sales on Now around the Web:

Nordstrom:

Get Women’s Coats on sale for up to 40% off.

Shop Nordstrom’s Shoe Clearance – hurry, this is a hot one and the best brands and styles sell out fast.

Shop Nordstrom’s Designer Collection Sale for quality-made on-trend brands and looks.

Aeropostale:

Save big with Aeropostale’s Spring Break Sale featuring $9 Camis and Graphic T-shirts for girls and guys.

Best Buy:

Act now to save 5%-15% on a wide selection of HDTVs on brands including RCA, Philips, Samsung, LG, and Panasonic.

JCPenney:

Time to freshen up the house with JCP’s Spring Home Sale, where you’ll save 30-60% off housewares, linens, and more.

Shop deep discounts on JCP’s Clearance page, with final markdowns at up to 80% off retail.

Zappos:

This online retailer always has free shipping & returns – but have you found Zappo’s Sale page? Shop shoes from 100’s of brands, as well as accessories and clothes on sale. Even hard-to-find men’s shoes are on sale here. Yippee!

PetSmart:

Get deals on thousands of items, from Kong to Advantix & Advantage flea & tick products online and in stores at PetSmart’s Everything Spring Sale.

Borders:

It’s a shame Borders is closing so many stores, but their loss is your gain. Find clearance merchandise in the stores that are closing; here’s a list of closing Borders stores. As well, get to Borders Hot Deals / Weekly Deals page to score discounts on remainders, music under $10, and even bestsellers and upcoming new releases.

Right now, get up to 15% off a Borders Gift Card on Plastic Jungle >>>

Sports Authority:

The NCAA Final Four is around the corner and it’s time to gear up! Save on NCAA gear for the entire family at the SportsAuthority.com Outlet – Fan Gear page, and most of it will ship for only 99 cents!

If you’ve got a “slow-day shopping distraction” ritual, please share it in the comments of this page. Remember, if you’ve got time on your hands, maybe you could create a little cash flow by trading in your unused gift cards. Thank me later! And be prepared, the weekend is almost here.

Get Lucky in March. Shop Designer Deals, Sales and Discounted Gift Cards

Michelle — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 14:50:42 +0000

You might have heard of Covet.com or Gilt Groupe, promising exclusive savings and deals on the hottest apparel, accessories, and even décor and travel. If you’re to believe their hype, you’d think you could pick up a magazine, pick out a few outfits and a weekend getaway, and go online to find it all at 20-80% off. Is this possible?

Well, yes, it could be. Are you ready to shop at a moment’s notice? Do you have disposable income ready to snap up that hot bargain pair of jeans or that all-inclusive resort? Are you obsessive about never paying retail? OK then, let’s talk!

These sites offer good deals, and with a little check-in at Plastic Jungle, you can save even more. Here are some tips:

Get Thee to Covet.com

Covet’s hook is that you take a preference test, they call it the “Stylyzer”, based on the looks you like. They use familiar celebrities with trademarked looks: think Reese Witherspoon’s “Classic Preppy” JCrew looks, or Kate Hudson’s Hippie “Boho” Free People outfits, or Pink’s Urban melodrama via Diesel or Moschino.

After you finish your Stylyzer quiz, you get sale alerts for apparel and accessories that fit your profile. “Shop without Sin” is their tagline. In their sale alerts, you can buy sale or clearance merchandise from all over the web – Nordstrom to Ann Taylor to Zappos and plenty of other merchants whose DISCOUNTED GIFT CARDS you can purchase here on Plastic Jungle.

So: You get an alert for a sale, you jump onto PlasticJungle.com, purchase a discounted eCODE for the merchant with the sale, and wham-O! By the end of the day you’re saving an extra percentage off an item you’re very psyched about that is already on sale. Coordinating merchants include Nordstrom, Zappos, Macy’s, Saks Fifth Avenue, Banana Republic, and many more.

Try also: Shop It To Me

As “Your Personal Online Shopper”, the Shop It To Me web bot crawls through department store and boutique sites looking for sales on the brands and designers you love. At your request for frequency, they’ll send you a “SaleMail”, an email loaded with items from your faves the minute they go on sale.

Other sale sites, such as Rue La La, Gilt Groupe and HauteLook (more designer clothing and haute travel), or Zulily (moms and kids gear), or One King’s Lane (amazing home décor), have awesome sales “boutiques” that sell items direct from the designers. You need to sign up, and there are no personal profiles to select specific brands, but the savings are substantial and come right to your email inbox. (Super Shopper Hint: these sites are amazing for introducing you to new brands.)

Remember, if you have a favorite brand, such as Armani Exchange, Coach, Victoria’s Secret, Ann Taylor, even Burberry (or a hundred more merchants), you can always check Plastic Jungle for discount gift cards. If none are in stock, set an alert so that when one does come into stock, Plastic Jungle will automatically email you so that you can snap it up to get up to 35% off.