The Greatest Invention Since. Well. Sliced Bread, I Guess.

Do you like clothes and shoes and make-up and jewelry? No? Then what are you doing reading this blog? Wait. That's a little rude. It's OK if you don't like that stuff. But you might not get terribly excited about this post. Although. I guess you can pretty much shop for anything at Wal-Mart, so, yeah, disregard that. And keep reading.

I have discovered the MOST fabulous new thing. You know I found that Wal-Mart has some really cute tops and darling shoes but I have stumbled on something even better. When I went to the Wal-Mart web site to see if they had just one more of the darling striped sweaters I wanted and needed with every beat of my heart, once I put the sweater in my online cart (they only had one color in my size - oh, the pain) it popped up with a message that said the item qualified for free shipping with "Site to Store". Well, I am all about the free shipping, so I read the fine print and, apparently, they just ship all your stuff to your local store and you stroll on down there and pick it up.

Huh. Well, that sounded pretty easy and pretty cool, so I clicked on it, sat back and waited for an email from them. Once I received my notification, I went to the store, stood in line at Customer Service for 10 minutes because I had not actually READ the email which said to go to the "Site to Store" desk, went to the correct location and PICKED UP MY PACKAGE. Well. That is just pretty fabulous.

Of course, I got home and some stuff did not work for one reason or another (the striped sweater was perfect) and all I had to do was TAKE IT BACK TO THE STORE. I didn't have to fill out a return slip, pack it back up, pay shipping, then wait for my refund. I went to Customer Service (yes, you go there for a return) and got my money back. Instantly. So supremely cool.

When I told my mom about this, she said "Oh, so it's kind of like ordering from the Penney's catalog and picking it up at the store?" Like people have been doing since 1963.

Oh. Well. Yeah, I guess. But this is, like, TOTALLY DIFFERENT. OK, not really. But sort of. I actually went to the Penney's site to check and, although they do ship, they don't offer to ship to the store. But they ship to your house. Which is TECHNICALLY even more convenient. But does not reinforce the theme of this post, so disregard that.

The advantage to shipping to your home is the convenience of walking out to your mailbox to get your new items but, as far as I'm concerned, that is outweighed by the advantage of being able to return things to the store because I invariably order something that does not work for one reason or another. And then I have to package it up, pay to mail it and send it back. Now, I can just take it to the store.

So, check it out and let me know what you think.

Little Crumbs Add Up To Big Crumbs

OK, I have discovered something EXTREMELY COOL and I have to share it with you. Look over there on the right, at the top of the page. See that link to a site called "BigCrumbs"? You know how people have all these links on their blogs to make money or to cost you money or just to waste your time? Yeah. This is NOT one of those.

I found it recently by accident on another blog and it said something about making money, so, even though I was HIGHLY SKEPTICAL, I went there. And, y'all. I am a convert. Here is what is does basically. Whenever you shop online, just go there through BigCrumbs instead of directly to the site. Uh. First sign up on BigCrumbs so you have an account. OK. Now go there, then to...say, Wal-mart.com. Where, as you know, they have very cute tops. (And don't forget to go there as I immediately did the next day when I shopped some more at Wal-mart and went directly to the Wal-mart site. You HAVE to go through BigCrumbs or you won't get credit for shopping.) Then, just shop normally. In a few days, you will GET MONEY IN YOUR ACCOUNT.

It works, I'm telling you. Now, it's not a lot of money. I think I spent about $50 on the Wal-mart site and got maybe a couple of dollars back. But that's really just found money. Money you would not have had if you were not a member of BigCrumbs. And you would be shopping online anyway (yes, I mean you Carole) so you might as well get some money back.

I waited to make sure it was on the up-and-up and I actually got some money back before I recommended it and it seems to be. They have been in business for two years. Ebay is on there and so are a ton of other online shopping sites.

I'm trying not to make this sound like some sort of gimmick or advertisement, because it's really not. It worked for me. Apparently, they are in partnership with all these online shopping sites, who pay them part of what people spend to shop, so they can afford to give some of it back to the shoppers. I guess it's convenient for people to have all those shopping sites together.

Now, if you are going to do it, please click over there on my link and sign up, because if you go through my blog, I get some fraction of a cent for everyone who signs up.

And who knows?

If, like, 10,000 people sign up. I might get enough for a new pair of shoes.

Hey. It could happen.