Sale: Kate Spade... Also a bit of info on chaining discounts

It's that time of year again! Kate Spade is offering 30% off in-store and online from now until Sunday, Oct 21st. All you have to do is use the coupon code: F12FFUS 
 
Using seasonal sales like this and a bit of planning can be an excellent way of scoring pricier clothing for a lot less. In order to keep from compulsively picking everything since it's on sale (discounts can really mess with one's ability to make good financial choices, right?) I tend to pre-identify the pieces I want to pick up, typically months prior when they're new arrivals. That way I know I'm buying things I really love rather than just being swayed by a big discount. By the time the fall sale hits, these pieces have usually already made it to the sale section, then by waiting just a bit longer for the Friends & Family sale I end up getting a double discount for my patience.

On top of that, I chained in a 7% discount from ebates.com. Ebates gives you additional discounts from online stores and then sends you a rebate check once every quarter. The percentage discount isn't huge, usually anywhere from 3-8%, but any bit helps.

Enough with the theory. Here's how it actually looks in practice: 

•  In this particular sale I picked up this adorable dress. I liked it when I saw in in-store (it's always nice to be able to do this if you eventually intend to buy online), but at $428 I wasn't ever going to pick it up at full price.

Cute, isn't it?!

• Months later it ended up in the sale section at $256 (or about 40% off). That was getting better, but still more than I wanted to pay. 
• Holding out for the Friends and Family sale (30% off of the sale price) dropped it down to a more approachable $179.
• Then adding in the Ebates rebate took another 7% off of the Friends & Family price.
• This gave me a final price of just under $167. That's just 39% of the original price.

Yes, I'm the first to admit that the final price is still not super cheap, but Kate Spade clothing holds up substantially better than most cheaper options, so I'll have it for much longer than a dress bought at a lower price point. To keep my clothing budget vaguely reasonable, I also make an active effort to buy less clothing overall. Once again, this goes to the idea of choosing to own less, but have what I own be higher quality pieces that will last a long time and be items that I won't tire of after a season or two of wearing.

Link: Add some (temporary) personality to a rental unit wall

That rental unit white wall color does an amazing job of making your home look kind of bland. But unfortunately most people with an apartment, rented condo, or dorm aren't able to change out the ubiquitous white with anything permanent.

Thankfully, there's some great options out there now for temporary wall coverings that look great but also peel off the walls easily (and without damaging the boring paint underneath. Check out this article on Apartment Therapy for 10 sources for your new best friend: removable wallpaper.

I'm personally rather keen on this Trellis Pattern from Swag Paper:

*Happy people drinking coffee not included

And for some reason this cartoony mountain range option from Blik has really grown on me:

It's so easy to put up even Bruce Willis here can do it!