The Nifty Foodie's Life

I have been wanting to add some cute, classic centerpieces to our dinner table for quite some time. I was able to do this centerpiece for less than $20. I’m probably going to decorate it for every holiday too. I’m pretty excited!

Don’t hate on the iPhone pic!

This isn’t too fancy, but it’s pretty classic. I purchased two hurricane vases from Ulta, of all places, because they were clearancing out these vases because they were free with fragrance purchases around Christmas. Afterwards, they were both $6.99 to purchase!

Last night, I went to Hobby Lobby to buy some fabric (yep, I’m sewing now..can’t wait to blog about it!) and found these 2 candles for 50% off, as well as the marbles. Total cost? About $9.00…gotta love sales!

I can’t wait to dress these with some Mardi Gras ribbon and beads!

After a couple of months for no personal purchases, because of the holidays, I decided to put some money towards me!

The great thing is, I got each of these for quite a steal. I saved about $100 alone on these two items!

First gift to me were new shoes for work. I’m a flat shoes gal, thus the reason I chose the moniker of Mrs. Ballet Flat on Weddingbee. My current flats had the sole separating from the shoe, so some new ones were needed!

These retail on Nordstrom for $95, but RueLaLa had them for $45. I would never spend $45 on work shoes, ever. (Yeah, I’m cheap…) However, I had a $30 credit, essentially paying $15 for these! (plus shipping and handling)

For this next gift to me, I love to bake. I get even more excited with pretty kitchen stuff. I’ve been lusting over some Emile Henry bakeware, but again, I just couldn’t justify the $$ to spend on it. These retail for $45 each, but this pie dish was $25 on One Kings Lane. I had a $10 credit for this site, so the pie dish became $15 (plus shipping and handling).

I am so excited about the gifts to myself, but more importantly, I love a good deal, which makes it even more exciting!

I’m sure most of you are members of either sites, but if you are interested, here’s a brief description of each, with a link to an invite since these sites are invite only.

RueLaLa (invite) sells mostly clothes, but they sometimes sell home decor, kitchen stuff, accessories and makeup for up to 70% off.

One Kings Lane (www.onekingslane.com/invite/joinokl) sells mainly home decor items, but they also offer accessories, and kitchen stuff for huge discounts!

Have you gotten any good deals since the holidays?

I am from a pretty small town near New Orleans. I remember the library near the house, and I used to borrow so many books. I was such a dork…from Beverly Cleary to Babysitter’s Club to Goosebumps, I read like crazy. I don’t do that so much anymore, unfortunately.

However, with my latest obsession of becoming a foodie, I have found use for the library yet again: Cookbooks!

Living in a more urban area means more book choices, especially more recent book choices! So, I placed a hold on Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day and Hello Cupcake after reading so many great things about both.  Less than a week later, voila, the books were at my local library just waiting for me to pick them up!

I’m so excited about my new books and even more excited that I paid $0 for them!

Have you checked out your library lately for some fabulous freebies?

Image source

Seriously, I’ve never seen Oprah Magazine for this cheap! Amazon has Oprah magazine as the deal of the week, valid until this Saturday at 11:59pm.

$5 for the whole year (I think one issue is more than that!!)…grab a year for you, your mom, sister, or really, any gal in your life! 

Happy shopping!

Sephora recently sent out $15 off $35 gift certificates via email to all Beauty Insiders (or $20 off $35 for VIB’s). It is a tempting coupon, but you might remember that I told myself before Christmas not to spend on myself. Today, I’m happy to admit that I got PAID to use this gift certificate.

See, there is a small loophole with the gift certificate. When you make a purchase online, Sephora treats it as a gift certificate with NO minimum. Sweet right?

Here’s how to do it:

• Sign up for Bing cashback. Bing currently offers 10% cashback on all Sephora purchases.
• Use Bing’s click thru to get to Sephora’s homepage. (This is the only way you’ll get cashback…don’t just type sephora.com)
• Do a search for “$9″ and all items that are $9 will pop up. The reason for $9? Shipping and handling on a $9 purchase is $5.95 plus tax, which will put your total order a little over $15.
• Add your $9 item to cart. I personally purchased a Korres lip butter, because I’m a sucker for lip glosses.
• Go through the check-out procedures (add free samples…fun!), and under gift certificate copy/paste the codes that you were sent. You will have to put in a credit card number, but it won’t go through until a screen after you place it, to verify your amounts. ALSO, be sure  to use one of these codes for ANOTHER freebie (copied from Slickdeals). I went for the free NARS lipgloss duo sample, since the .

JCPCHOOSE – Choose from 2 Deluxe samples with any order – Shine and Protect Glossing Mist Deluxe Sample OR Smashbox Photo Finish Light Foundation Primer Sample
WISHME – Choose 1 of 3 minis: Nars Lip Gloss Duo sample in Dolce Vita/Striptease, Yves Saint Laurent Mascara in Black or 4 oz Philosophy Inner Grace Perfumed Body Emulsion
EYEPRIMER – Free Smashbox Photofinish Lid Primer deluxe sample with your online merchandise order.
PUREGRACE – Free 4 oz Philosophy Pure Grace Lotion
BEFLAWLESS – Free Bare Escentuals Flawless Definition Mascara Deluxe Sample
DDFWASH – Free DDF facewash (Glycolic Exfoliate Wash) 2-3 week sample. $10 Value

• If you did this right, your order should show the $15 off, leaving you with a total of less than $1. Yay! Place that order!

Here is my receipt to show that it works.

Now, remember the Bing cashback for 10% off? I’m getting 90 cents cashback, essentially meaning that not only were these two items free, but I got paid a small (like 14 cents small) amount to do this. Not too shabby I say! As of last night, my order shipped and the credit card was still charged 76 cents so this does work folks!

Thanks to Slickdeals for sharing this sweet deal!