Harvery

I have always been someone who likes quirky cars.  My first car was a 1987 VW Golf.  Her name
was Patty and I loved her.  I loved her hatchback, I loved her crank sunroof, and I even loved when there was a short in the horn causing it to honk every time I turned the wheel.  Well, unless I was searching for a parking spot at the college dorms.  That was embarrassing. I said the only way I'd ever get rid of Patty is for a VW Cabrio.  So that's what happened.

Enter Lilly.  My dad located this lavender Cabrio my freshman year in college.  I wasn't sure about the color at first.  I mean, I like quirky, but that seemed a little much. But after owning Lilly, I really grew to love her lavender-ness. I really loved everything about Lilly.  I still miss her, especially on beautiful sunny days.

I love driving and I have so many fond memories with my friends, or just driving alone with the sunroof or top down, music blaring, and enjoying life. I really bonded with my cars and felt like they were an extension of me. So when I got married and we decided we needed something bigger and more reliable it was pretty rough. When we asked about trading in Lilly they said they'd scrap her. This was my dearest friend and I couldn't bear it, so we found a young girl who bought her for $500. At least I know she'd bring a little happiness to someone else for a while.

Jane.  Jane was a Jeep Patriot.  Perhaps her name is indicative of how I felt from her from day one.  Plain Jane. She served her purpose, but she was nothing special. I compare Jane to a college roommate. We were brought together by circumstance; we got along just fine and even had a few good times, but let's be honest, when this period of life is over we're going our separate ways and probably won't really keep in touch.

When Jane started showing her age (or her cheapness), it was time to consider what to do next. Like many a former VW fan I had turned my eyes on the Mini Cooper, but that doesn't necessarily fit the suburban mom lifestyle. I had just had a baby and it would make sense to size up as we were now a family of five, so I looked at all kinds of options that had third row seating. I had convinced myself that the benefits of the extra seating would be worth driving a very suburban SUV. You know, the kind with all the attributes of a van while refusing to actually be a van. I even test drove one.  But then I thought I'd test drive a Mini just to see if we could fit. Any you know what... Mini must know about suburban moms in denial. They made the Countryman just for us.  It has four doors, it seats 5, I could even fit the stroller in the back, but it still has all the character of a Mini. When we test drove it, they handed me the keys and said, "Take your husband. Put the car seats in and take your kids." So we did.  We all went for a test drive and I fell in love. I'll save you the details that followed, but suffice it to say, I ended up with Harvey. 

Harvey is everything I would want in a car. The kids love Harvey because he's fun and my husband loves Harvey because he's fun to drive. We have taken him on trips to Oklahoma with all five of us with no complaints. Yes, it's good to be in denial. So, to the "not a van" SUV that I probably should be driving, we will talk again in a few years. For now, it's me and Harvey (and the kids in the back seat) and I couldn't be happier.

My Love Affair With Free Shipping

As a busy mom with a full-time job time is my most precious resource.  While I still like to indulge in the material goodie now and then I don't really "go" shopping anymore as stores are really only open during my prime work and family times. If I can't get it at my Target during my 2 hour long post-bedtime grocery run, then I get it online.  Pretty much, that's how it works. 

Free shipping is something that I'm starting to demand.  I very rarely buy ANYTHING that costs more than $20, so I'm hardly ever willing to tack on a $5.99 shipping charge. I accidentally became an Amazon Prime member recently (forgot to cancel my trial subscription).  While I'm still not sure it's worth the price I've decided that since I paid it anyway I'm going to take full advantage.  But while Amazon has pretty much everything, it isn't always the cheapest and I'm a huge bargain hound.  So when shopping around free shipping is a must in order to beat Amazon's prices.  So I thought I'd share my favorite free shipping tips:

Target RedCard debit card (which is the greatest thing ever) is tied to your checking account so you don't have to worry about running up credit.  It saves you 5% off all purchases in the store AND online (and even on Target Ticket which I haven't yet fully explored).  In addition, you get Free Shipping on all online orders. So by the time you factor in a 5% discount and free shipping, they are pretty competitive with Amazon stuff.  Oh, and it doesn't cost me $99 a year for this benefit. As an additional perk you can register your card and select a K-12 school and Target will donate 1% of your purchases to that school. (Here if you have a card and need to do this).  As someone who (almost) always says no to store credit cards, I was on a Christmas shopping spree and I heard the clerk mention it was a debit card and I finally listened... and am so glad I did. Target, I love you! (How suburban is what I just said?!)  Amazon and Google may be trying to take over the world, but I'll bet Target could actually do it if they wanted to.  And I'd follow like a little sheep.

http://www.target.com/redcard/main

 One of my new loves is ShopRunner.  They are a subscription service that offers free two day shipping through several different stores.  While I'm not sold on paying for free shipping, if you have an American Express card you can sign up for this service for FREE!  Truly free 2-day shipping!  Yes Victoria, there is a Santa Claus and he delivers gifts to your door year-round. :)  And, for those of you who avoid buying on credit, you don't have to actually use your AmEx card to pay, you just have to have a card to get the perk of free membership then you can checkout with whatever form of payment you want.

They have a decent list of partners. I've used it for American Eagle, Delia's, Babies R Us, and Lord & Taylor, but they also include Nine West, Newegg, Tiger Direct, Radio Shack, and a bunch of other places.  Free shipping for free... the way I dreamed it would be.

https://www.shoprunner.com/americanexpress

Amazon.  You can pay the $99 to get free shipping on Prime items with the additional perks of video streaming, music streaming, and the like.  If you use these services or have a Kindle and live an Apple-free life it might be worth it.  I'm still undecided about paying for free shipping.  I'll re-evaluate next fall.  But even without Prime, some items do ship for free, you just have to pay attention to the shipping method and charges.

Of course other stores occasionally offer free shipping and many offer free shipping for orders over $x so you just have to hunt and wait.  But if you're looking for a random halogen light bulb, baby bottles, a certain item for a gift (all of which I've done in the last week) or things like that, it's nice to be able to shop around and just get what you need... from your bed in your PJs and have it delivered to your door for free... but that's just my opinion.