two new favorites

i like good deals. one of the things that i realized while living in palestine is that you can always get a better deal. always. this knowledge does make it a little tricky for me when i'm shopping, because i'm always convince that i can find it cheaper if i just wait - but, it also helps me to find new awesome ways to get good deals. and i have recently found two.

the first site is for all you bookworms. it is called PaperBackSwap. it's a huge online community of readers who want to share their old books and get new ones. basically, you post books and mail them to people who request them. you get one credit for each book you send. when you sign up, you get two credits for just posting 10 books. when you request a book, you don't have to pay anything for it - the owner just sends it to you, yours to keep, and then you read it. we got the help and secret life of bees with our first two credits. and we've shipped four books so far (two of which we laughed at every time we saw them on our bookshelf...), so there is more to come. it's a fun site and there are tons of books to choose from. check it out.

the second site is for all my mom friends. maybe you already know about it. it's called thredUP. it's a clothes swap site. basically, when you sign up, they send you flat rate boxes that you can pack full of your kids' old clothes and list. then you can look at other boxes that are listed and get one. each box costs $15.95 ($5 to the site and $10.95 for shipping), but when you ship a box you don't have to pay for shipping - you just print of a shipping label from the site and stick it in the mail. i just got a box for matthias yesterday and it had 14 articles of clothing - all in great shape, spring clothes. he's in desperate need of clothes. so it came out to just over $1 per item - which is a pretty fantastic deal if you ask me. plus, i got to avoid going to a store, rummaging through clothes, trying to find the best deal - i did that all while sitting on my couch. because it's a swap site, you get credits for the boxes you send and you can only pick boxes if you send one. when sign up, you get two free picks, but after that you get one pick for every box you send. it's a pretty great way to get rid of old clothes and find new ones. i'm totally hooked.

so there you go. two fun sites with a little community involved and a lot of great deals.