Rhea Lana's Made My Day!

Yesterday began the Rhea Lana's season, and I started the day off at 5:45. I was showered and out the door in time to stand in a FREEZING COLD line with my super mom pass in hand. I chatted excitedly with the other moms in line around me about what sizes we were looking for and our experiences with finding the perfect bargains in the past. Then, 8AM came and we were off. It's most like shopping on black Friday, only everyone, for the most part, is a LOT nicer. With our lists in hand we each headed to our own respective areas of the VERY well organized PACKED store. I first went over to the exersaucers where I scored this exercauser for only $8!!(Baby NOT included.) These retail for around $119. That's a savings of $111.

After that I headed down "everything you could possibly need for your baby lane" and got this baby monitor for only $8. These exact monitors retail for $49.99. SO, we're at a savings of $152.99! That's just after TWO items.

I stopped and looked at random things I didn't really need, then went over to "diaper bag central" where there was every type of diaper bag you could imagine. I ended up with this one which was new with tags. It's by Carters, but is made identical to a skiphop bag. I wanted one with the stroller hooks, and this one has that and a lot more! It's big, cute but not girly, and it was only $7.50!! It retails at $34.99, so that's a total savings of $180.48!!

Next, I searched through blankets looking for my muslin swaddlers I've been wanting! I was praying the whole time for the Lord to bless my efforts to save our family money by giving me something that I didn't really NEED, but REALLY wanted. I was sad when I got to the last bucket, thinking that it was silly to think that I'd actually get some and THEN, I started to go through the bucket and found not one, but TWO sets. One of them was new with tags. Priced at.......$10!! I ALMOST bought a package earlier in the week with some of my shopping money for $49.99! I just wasn't going to spend that for blankets, and I'm so glad I didn't! We're sitting at a total savings of $220.47! And I hadn't even started looking at clothes yet!

I decided this time I'd not get shoes because the last two sells only about half of the shoes actually fit the kids and I ended up needing to go buy a different size. While there are some shoppers who will take a cut-out form of their kids feet I just have some picky feeted children, so I'd rather have them with me now when I buy their shoes. I did, however, flash by Bubby's size because he needed some summer shoes and he doesn't care too much what he wears. I found these CUTE Baby Gap flip flops sitting on the top. His are just plain khaki, but OH so cute! They retail at $16.95. I got his for $5. That's bringing our running total for savings to $232.42. Side note: I HIGHLY recommend buying Baby Gap if you plan to hand down clothing. It is, by far, the most durable of the kids clothes, easily laundered, and wears and fits well. It's totally worth the added expense if you ask me, which you didn't, so I'm just throwing that in for free...

The only girl I usually buy for is Olivia unless one of the other girls is in need of a certain item. Because we have stair step girls most of their things are easily handed down, so we do throw in a few items here and there to make them feel special, but this time I only needed to buy for the oldest thanks to a friend(shout out to HB) who totally loaded up my middle little up with fun spring/summer clothes. SO, I headed over to the(GULP) size 8s. BOOOO! I can't believe she's growing up so fast! She's actually a little small for 8s, but since there is no such thing as a 7.5 in girls clothes we are forced to buy 8s this year. I spent a total of $54.50 on 14 items including two pair of nice jeans(retailing at $20 each), 4 sets of CUTE carters pjs (retailing at $16 each), 3 shirts(retailing at $5 each),  2 pair of shorts(retailing at $19.99 each), 2 sun dresses (retailing at $16.00), an adorable 2-pc set that she said makes her look "more grown-up"(retailing at $35.99), and a BEAUTIFUL blue silk dress that she's going to wear for Easter(retailing at $35.99). You may be getting tired of my savings, but I'm NOT! That's a total of  $440.48! WOWZAH! By the way, these retail prices are both current and accurate. I looked up identical items online TODAY in order to get the prices.

Once I was finished shopping for Olivia I headed over to the JUMBO section of TINY baby clothes for boys. Since Isaiah was born in January and Eli will be born in March their sizes are a little off  to start with. I think they'll end up being OK in the long run, but all of Isaiah's newborn stuff is wintery, and I knew Eli would need some spring and summer stuff. SO, I was looking only at churchy/going out clothes. I got him 17 pieces(probably WAY too much, but I LOVE shopping little boy clothes!!) for $59.50. Almost all the things I got him were new with tags. Mostly Carters rompers, an ADORABLE pair of linen pants and a button-up shirt and a plaid romper both by Ralph Lauren, a new suit he'll wear for Easter, and a couple Old Navy and Gap rompers(do you see that I HEART rompers! They are SO easy!). All of this retails for about $361.50 plus tax bringing MY total savings to $742.48!!!

SO, to recap, I spent 152.50 and saved $742.48!! PLUS, because I follow Rhea Lana's on Facebook, and shared a post about the upcoming sale I won a $35 gift certificate which I used to go toward the total. That made the total out of my pocket $117.50!! So far, I've MADE $191.00 on my items I entered into the sale, so I'm in the positive by $73.50 and the sale opened to the public TODAY!

SO, RUN, don't walk to the GLR sale this week. You can get all the information for the sale including dates, hours, and location from the website. You can also learn how to earn your own early shopping pass for future sales. "Like" the facebook page for coupon savings and pre-sale passes!!

I'm so thankful to Rhea Lana and her staff for providing me an outlet to provide for my family in such an amazing way!