What's better than frugal spending? Free stuff!!!

I just have to share my latest little victory in the shopping world.

Over a month ago I went to Victoria's Secret (which I'll refer to as VS for the rest of this entry) because I had one of those "Free Panty" cards. Whenever I get these, I always use them because, well, they are free. So I went in and I got my free panty. Since I was there and they had their other panties on sale, I bought some of those. When I paid for my purchase, I received a promotional card that said:

Come back to VS between December 1- December 24 and use this card on your purchase. It's a secret, but you'll get $10, $25, $100, or $500 off of your purchase.

I dutifully put the card in my wallet with my other "coupon cards" and went on my merry way.

Yesterday I went to the mall with my husband. He wanted to get me a little something extra for Christmas and wanted me to pick out what I wanted. I said "well, I love a particular parfume VS sells and I have this gift card, so lets check it out."

We went into the "beauty" side of the store only. (As a side note, I don't normally buy my lingerie and undergarments at VS because they are above my "priceline" for those items. I will buy undies if they are on sale, but I've literally never owned a VS bra because it is hard for me to palatte the price tag.

I looked around for a gift set of my favorite parfume, but I didn't see any in that area. I decided that I didn't want my "coupon card" to go to waste, so I selected two tubes of gloss, on sale for 2 for $12.

I went to the cashier to pay for it. She rang it up, I gave her my card, and she swiped it. It didn't say that I owed anything. I thought that was strange because I figured it was $10 and that I would have a balance of a little over $2 to pay. She looked funny too. She checked the balance of the card and low and behold, I had received a $100 card!!!! I was very excited and so of course went on a mini shopping spree. We went to the other side and I found on a table a gift set of the perfume I wanted (Yay!) and as an added bonus, it was 40% off!! Then I bought two bras (buy one, get one 1/2 off). After I used my card we only owed $25.

So, for $25 out of pocket, I got two beautiful bras (retail $48 each), a parfume gift set (retail $58), and my two tubes of lip gloss.

Moral of the story - always check into the deals that are presented to you. While some may seem like cheap marketing ploys, some may earn you money!