South Hills Shopping Tour Results

My husband and I put in a shift today...a shopping shift that is! We did the South Hills tour today and found mega bargains up and down Route 19 from Upper Saint Claire to Washington, PA. At Boscov's at the Village, you can find special deals on Lenox holiday items. Some as low as $5.99! My favorite stop was Ross Dress for Less in Washington. WOW...what an awesome store! I'm going to have to update my website to include that one as my faves! It's sorta like a TJ Maxx or Marshalls, but much cheaper if you can believe that. Too many bargains to list...but my husband found a georgous pair of Steve Madden shoes for $19.99. Unbelieveable! My tour could never be complete without a stop at the Washington store of Gabriel Brothers. Tons and tons of beautiful Liz Claiborne hats and scarves for only $4.99. Talk about the perfect $10 gift that retails for over $100. Today was one of my best shopping tours yet! Anyone want to join me for one????

$300 Coats for $19.99!!!

Get to Ollie's Bargain Outlet QUICK!!!! No lie...they received a huge shipment of designer coats for only $19.99 and the leather for $29.99! I bought a georgeous Kenneth Cole black down coat and a super cool camel colored Bernado mid-length leather jacket just this afternoon! Other brands of interest are Calvin Klein, Anne Klein, Guess and JLo....Don't forget your wallet!!! Whooohooo!!!! To find locations near you, please visit www.olliesbargainoutlet.com...Good Stuff Cheap!

Great Cookware Deals!

Just finished browsing the clearance section at cooking.com and found tons of great gifts for the people in your life that love to cook...or buy them all for yourself! Here's a quick link to the site...I know you're gonna love it!
Clearance


Happy Shopping!

Great Cookware deals!

The Gift of Giving

Here is a great gift idea for your young children, nieces, nephews or extended family friends. Purchase a money-holder holiday card and put a $10 or $20 bill inside. Write a handwritten note that states they must spend this money to help someone else. Explain they can donate the money or create a project that will make even more money for their designated charity! Offer to share your help and expertise. Overall, this is a gift that really benefits the giver, giftee and beneficiary of the goodwill that YOU catalyzed! One person can make a difference...encourage our youth to take the lead in making our world a better place. And be sure to be there to cheer them on along the way!

Are you a smart shopper? Take the Quiz!

Free Fun Quizzes at FunQuizCards.com

Gabriel Brother's Designer Jeans Update

As of yesterday, November 9th 2007 I found the following designer jeans at the following Gabriel Brother's locations:
Unionown:
Juicy Jeans: $39.99
True Religion: $79.99
Ed Hardy: $69.99
Belle Vernon:
Seven for All Mankind: $69.99
Juicy: $39.99
Ed Hardy: $69.99
Go get 'em Tiger!
Love,
The Gift Therapist

Gift ideas for $5 or less!

RULE OF THUMB: BUY IN BULK AND SPLIT IT UP!!!!

Who doesn't love food? In my experience, some of the best well received gifts have been gifts of chocolate, gourmet coffees or teas, and homemade goodies straight from the kitchen. If you are not skilled in the kitchen, fear not! Here is a great and affordable way to give the gift of food on a shoestring budget! One of my favorite bargain stores that has a wonderful selection of gourmet goodies is none other than Big Lots. Their specialty foods section has it all! Now here's how you put together a gift for five dollars or less. The key is you must first be able to spend approximately $25 right out of the gate and I'll explain why later. Next, you must choose a theme for your gift. For example, let's say you want to put together an office gift for co-workers who love coffee. Go straight to the holiday food gifts section. Find an assortment of prepackaged gourmet coffee. Depending on how many packages are in the box, you will pay between $6-10 for the assortment. Then look for some gourmet cookies that would compliment the coffee or any other sweet treat that catches your eye. Make sure your buy 2-3 packages at $2-3 each. Then head over to the kitchen wares section. Find 4-5 unique holiday coffee mugs for $1-3 each. When you get home, you want to line up your mugs and split the coffees between however many mugs you bought. Then, take out the cookies or candies and place them into a clear plastic baggie and tie it with a pretty curling ribbon. Put this baggie inside of the mug. Place into a gift bag with the gourmet coffees and you are good to go! Now you have 4-5 gifts that you can give for under five dollars! These make great office gifts, emergency gifts and hostess gifts for the holiday. Good luck and happy shopping!

Joe's Jeans $29.99!!!

Only the best shopper in the world can find high end designer jeans at this price! Gabriel Brother's in Belle Vernon had an unmarked generic rack of designer jeans in their ladies section a few weeks ago and I found $180 Joe's Jeans for only $39.99. Last year, Gabe's (as we locals call it) got a huge shipment of Antik Denim, Paper Denim and Cloth, Seven, Luck and, are you ready....True Religion!!! I have to admit, I get starry eyed when I see high quality designer jeans at such great prices! Gabriel Brother's ROCKS!

I LOVE EBAY!

The rumor is true...you can buy and sell ANYTHING on Ebay! After being a registered buyer and seller on Ebay for three years I can personally attest to the simplicity and safety of this site. From fantastic bargains to making great sales, I don't know what I'd do without this site! I am not currently selling anything, but you can view my profile on ebay by plugging in my username: scootercat128 (long story) to verify my credibility! I love this site because you buy or sell used or new! So this site is a great option for finding collectibles, buying big lots of maternity or baby clothes or just splurging on a pair of high-end designer jeans! I have sold everything from clothing to perfume with absolutely ZERO problems. Because Ebay is a community and is very close knit, the other sellers provide a lot of support for newbies in their community section to help you out along the way. Also, their feedback section is priceless, as this is what keeps buyers and sellers honest. Before you purchase anything on Ebay, please check the seller feedback rating as well as their shipping rates. Before you try to sell yourself, you'll probably want to make a few purchases yourself to get your feedback rating up so that people will trust buying from you. If you haven't visited Ebay, what are you waiting for....it's free and FUN!!!! Download these priceless e-guides from my site by following this link: www.thegiftherapist.com/store

Unique Gift Idea

A great and economical gift idea that is often overlooked is the gift of photos. With so many digital options available, making customized calendars, t-shirts, photo-books and prints is now a snap! After my husband and I got married, we purchased our wedding proofs on CD and made a beautiful wedding album online for $85. Our photographer would have charged us over $1000 for a similar product. We used Photoworks and would highly recommend this service to anyone and everyone who needs a quality gift at a great price! Right now they are offering FREE SHIPPING! Take advantage of this now while it lasts!

Awesome Online Store!

Wow...this is a deal! Name brand clothing at deep discounts...dirt cheap to tell you the truth! Take a gander at their website and get started early on your holiday shopping. At these prices you can't go wrong! Be sure to check out their clearance section and bargain bin for items up to 90% off their retail price. Happy Shopping!

Major Gift Wrap Savings!

As much as I LOVE the Dollar Stores in the area, I have to warn you that their products are not always the biggest bargain out there….especially when it comes to wrapping paper, gift bags and ribbon. For example, Ollies Bargain Outlet is currently selling beautiful, high quality holiday wrapping paper for $8.99 for 400 square feet per roll. Now the Dollar store on the other hand is selling 15-25 square feet for $1.00. If you do the math…$2.25 for 100 square feet off of the Ollies Roll would equal 4 rolls or more purchased at the dollar store…or $4 compared to $2.25. Paying the 8.99 is really a bargain in the long run! Also, if you have time to shop online, please check out http://www.papermart.com for a huge selection of affordable gift bags, wrap and bows at bulk prices. I’ve ordered from these folks before and my experience with them was wonderful. Rather than pay $1 each at the dollar store, stock up now with neutral colored bags that you can jazz up with colored ribbon and tissue paper and use them all year long…or split your order with a friend! Gift wrapping can be very costly, so please do yourself a favor and shop around! Happy Shopping!

The Perfect Gift Basket

Why spend tons of cash of wooden baskets when you can go to Goodwill and buy them for under $2? I prefer buying my baskets at GW because you can often find a high quality basket at a fraction of the price you would pay at a craft store or even Wal-Mart. Sometimes you can find a decent basket at the Dollar Tree, but I find them too flimsy for heavier items. If you don’t want to spend the cash on the basket, find an old shoebox or mailing box and wrap the outside with brown mailing paper or gift-wrap…tada! You have a functional and sturdy gift box to showcase the gift. Don’t waste your money on “basket grass”…make your own from tissue paper, or shredded brown lunch bags. Fill the bottom of the basket with crumpled up newspaper or junk mail then place of layer of your home-made “basket grass” on the top. Now you are ready to start filling with your best bargains!

Ready…Set…Christmas!

The holidays will be here in the blink of an eye, so I wanted to remind of all you the cardinal rule of Holiday shopping….SHOP NOW! Other than a few odds and ends, I am already done! No, I am not superwoman or a compulsive shopper….I am a strategic shopper all year long! By shopping all year long, I am able to keep a running inventory of my “secret stash” in my gift bins that I keep in the pantry while effectively sticking to my pre-established budget. The best part of this strategy is that by Christmas, I often have a budget surplus and can purchase something extra special for my wonderful husband while still sticking to my original budget. How cool is that? I don’t frequent the malls very much, but I do make at least two monthly visits to my favorite bargain hunting stores. You can find more info on my faves directly on my site. But an equal amount of gifts come from unique items that I may find at the grocery store (non-perishable of course), drug store, and local supercenter stores. Buying in bulk can be your friend when you have a list of people to buy for but don’t have the energy to buy them each a different gift. Buying in bulk can save you money if you take the time to research the prices! So if you haven’t started your shopping yet, try this…when you get your next paycheck, withdraw $25 to be placed in a seperate shopping wallet for you holiday shopping. Do this every payday. If you can only afford $10, do that! This way, you will get a jump on your holiday list without the last minute panic or overspending on your credit card becacuse you waited until the last minute! You’ll be surprised at the bargains you’ll find when you are not looking! Good luck and Happy Shopping!

Winter Coat Bargains!

OK folks…the weather is starting to turn and you may be in the market for a new winter coat. Before you hit the large retailers, please visit Gabriel Brothers FIRST! Right now they have a great selection of name brand winter coats, including Liz Claiborne, Anne Klein, and London Fog for under $50. From dressy to casual, they have it all right now. Unfortunately the selection for men is pretty lame right now but that could change in a moments notice! Good luck and happy shopping!