Credit Cards and Shopping for Clothes

It's been awhile since I've written anything substantial here on MyBlog. There really hasn't been much to write about that I haven't written about before. It would have just been about the same old same old (at least for me here on MyBlog) about how I'm struggling with juggling my time between taking care of my home and the girls...and that the saga goes on...I guess I didn't want to write about the same old same old, especially when there were some things I wanted to do before flying out to California on Monday for 2 weeks.

Anyway, with the combination of truly having a difficult time juggling the girls and the home and my tendency to procrastinate, I had a lot of tasks pending to be taken care of...One of them was paperwork...In the midst of this pile of paperwork that I hadn't taken care of for 2 months was a bill from The Children's Place. I normally sort out the bills so that I pay them on time. Unfortunately, this was one that I missed. The bill was for $4.99. (Just a head's up, when The Children's Place has a sale, their clothes are cheaper than Wal-Mart!) Unfortunately, I got charged a late fee of $25. So I immediately paid the bill. Then, I remembered hearing that I can have late fees waived. So, I called the credit card company and if I hadn't paid the bill, I could have had the late fee waived. They told me that I needed a balance on the card in order for them to waive the fee. I asked them if I had $25 on the card would they then waive the fee and they told me "yes." DearHubby told me that $25 of something is better than $25 of nothing and so I went to The Children's Place to get $25 worth of stuff at full price because they didn't have a sale. At full price, all you can get for $25 is a knit jacket, a belt, and a pair of stockings....I don't ever pay full price for anything anymore and that just made me cringe, but as DearHubby said, it's still better than nothing. So, the lesson that I want to pass on is that if you incur a late fee from a credit card company, call to see if it can be waived before paying it off. I am still debating about cutting up the card.

I do have 3 other store credit cards; Fashion Bug, JC Penny, and Old Navy. I haven't used the Fashion Bug one in a long time. The JC Penny card is stored away some where. I did just activate my Old Navy card and I'm hoping to get $10 back from them just for using it outside of Old Navy and it helped me save 20% on my last purchase and I got 7 clothing items for about $23 at their Clearance racks. Now that's a good deal. My chiropractor's wife is due soon and I wanted to get them a gift. 5 of the items of the 7 were from Old Navy. Baby clothing can sometimes get really expensive and I'm glad I averaged about $3 per piece. They were really cute and I thought ahead and bought clothes for next season rather than this season, since the baby would quickly outgrow them now.

And thanks to Tah-Dah, at Beneath the Couch Cushions, I was able to purchase some items on sale at K-Mart and Kohl's. I don't normally shop at Kohl's, but I'm glad I went against my norm because when I went to Kohl's everything was 50%-80% off!!! Can you believe that some children's shorts or clothing can cost $44 at full price? That is ridiculous!!!

Anyway, so along with trying to get some tasks done here at home, I've been trying to hit the Clearance sales to stock up on clothes, especially for DearDaughter1, for next year. I had never realized how important thinking about clothing is, but when you have a little one who is growing quickly and has nothing to wear, clothing definitely becomes an important factor in child-rearing. One trap I don't want to fall into, though, is purchasing stuff we don't need. These sales can get really addictive and if you don't watch it, you can lose control!

I wasn't sure where this post was going before I started it, but I guess a discussion on credit cards and shopping is a good topic, so I'll end it here, while I'm ahead.