Hidden Auction Blog

PayPal has teamed up with eighteen different retailers to present special offers for graduation and Father’s Day. The offers range from really lame to quite good, so take a look at their promo page and see if anything jumps out at you. Here’s the link: PayPal offers.

Rachel

Guess what? Those guys over at the Gap have combined checkout now for all four of their brands (Gap, Old Navy, Banana Republic, and Piperlime), which means that you can shop at any of their online stores and all your items will drop into a single shopping cart. Then you pay a flat $7 for shipping your whole order. Well, you will after May 31st. From now until then, you can get free shipping with the code 1CHECKOUT. Pardon me while I go shop…

Rachel

We are going to our church’s Family Camp at the beach for a week here coming up in June, and I was trying to figure out what to do for footwear for all the kids (we have six). In the past I have brought them rain boots for stomping around in the sand and water with (the Oregon coast is still fairly chilly in June usually), but then I also have to bring them some tennis shoes or flip flops or something in addition. This makes a minimum of ten pairs of shoes just for the older five kids (the two month old probably won’t go stomping around in the surf).

This year I was thinking about getting some of those EVA croc type clogs since you can wear them in the water and everywhere else, and thus I will be able to bring only one pair of shoes per child. Personally, I think the shoes are rather hideous looking but since basically I’m looking for shoes that the children will either a) lose or b) destroy in a week’s time, fashion loses out to practicality and price.

I did a bunch of price comparison and found that the cheapest ones can be found at Walmart or at Michael’s craft store (yes, weird place to buy shoes, isn’t it?). Walmart apparently thinks the shoes are ugly too because they have adapted the same EVA material to a couple of much more attractive shoe styles such as these Mary Janes in little girl sizes in a few different colors (my younger three daughters opted for these):

these tennis shoes in girls’ and women’s sizes in several colors:

and these sandals in boys sizes:

The regular clogs are also available and all of these shoes cost between $5 and $7.50 per pair. Not too shabby!

While Michaels has only the regular clog style, they are currently on sale for $5 per pair (and they aren’t too much more when they’re not on sale), and they are running a 50% off Memorial Day coupon that expires on Wednesday the 28th. You can actually get these in the store. This brings the price down to $2.50, which I’m sure you already figured out. Hehe. Beat that! Also, Michaels has a whole bunch of little doodads that you can stick in the holes in the shoes to fancy them up, which I’m sure children will like.

Since my feet are unlikely to grow again unless I come down with some weird pituitary gland malfunction, I decided to buy myself a proper pair of beach sandals this year. We take the kids out to the tide pools to go hack around and freak out at the crabs, and for the last several years I’ve worn my regular leather slides with the 1.5 in sole. This is not ideal footwear for climbing on slippery rocks or sloshing around in the ocean, but I didn’t have anything else that was better suited.

A few years back I bought my Hubby a pair of Merrell water sandals from Sierra Trading Post, and he lives in those all summer. They are anti-microbial and anti-fungal so they don’t smell, they have quick-drying uppers and tennis shoe type treads on the soles, and are well-cushioned for walking around in all day.

After being jealous of the ones I bought him for the last three years, I finally got a pair for myself, also from Sierra Trading Post (because they were $30 cheaper there). These are the Merrell Rapid Pulse II Sandals in case you’re dying to know

Ahhh, these are definitely the most comfortable sandals I have ever owned. I have two other pair of Merrell tennis shoes that I bought from STP and they are both equally well made and easy on the feet. Here is a coupon code for Sierra Trading Post:

20% off spring & summer wear: ASUM8

Enjoy!

Rachel

Well, this is Memorial Day weekend, which means lots of sales. Here’s a quick rundown:Gymboree
20% off all sale priced items

Crazy 8
20% off all sale items plus $10 woven shorts

Hanna Andersson
Outlets
~ $1 to $5 sale on select kids’ shirts, shorts, accessories. Four days
only, starts Friday the 23rd. Regular store running best of summer
sale, up to 50% off.

Payless Shoes
BOGO! Buy one get one half off.

Nordstrom
Half yearly sale

Victoria’s Secret
Semi-annual sale. This is my favorite. $3.99 undies that don’t ride up to your armpits. Time to stock up!

One more really cool thing: Gap has revamped their shopping cart so that purchases made at Gap, Old Navy, Banana Republic, or Piperlime now all use one unified shopping cart. So if you stick three things from Gap and two from Old Navy in your cart, all five items will show up when you checkout. Plus, there is just a $7 flat rate charge for the whole pile. How cool is that?? Okie dokie, time to shop now…

Happy Memorial Day weekend!