Now that I’m school shopping for two boys, I’m really looking to save all the money I can while buying quality clothes that will last. My previous tips on school shopping still hold true, although I will say that 11-year-olds heading into middle school are much pickier than they used to be. I’ve really been pushing it with my boys’ wardrobes, and they need a lot.
Kohl’s had a few coupon codes that were promising, so I headed to their site to load up my cart. With my Kohl’s Charge (which I pay in full every month that I use it), I could take an extra 30% off. They were also offering an extra $10 off $50 on back-to-school items (ie. clothes!). In addition, I had a code for free shipping with my Kohl’s card.
Tip: If you have a card and your flyer in the mail gives you less than 30% off, or if you don’t have a free shipping code, head to a coupon site like Retail Me Not (my go-to) and find the codes there.
My cart quickly ballooned to $200+ and I was thinking of dropping some items when I realized that I could work the coupons to my advantage and save more by dividing up my purchases.
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Unfortunately Kohl’s doesn’t have a “save for later” function in their cart, but you can create lists and save items to them. I added all of the items to a list, then removed them from my cart. I was then able to add items from the list back into my cart in increments of about $50.
Now here’s how the coupons work at Kohl’s: the $50 threshold for the $10 off coupon factors in the price before any other coupons are factored in. The percent off coupons always come into play after dollar amount coupons are subtracted from the total. So the 30% off applies only to the remaining balance after that $10 is subtracted–a nice thing when you have a minimum threshold to meet.
I ended up making a total of four orders, all shipped free, at about $30 each. If I had just plunked everything in my cart and checked out (and let’s say it was $200 even), I’d have saved $10 on the clothes, plus an additional $57 with the 30% off. By dividing the orders into increments of $50, I saved $10 on each order, plus an additional $12 per order with the 30% off (yep, those coupons work repeatedly). I saved a total of $88–an extra $21!
The only downside to this (and not a big one) is that I missed out on earning any Kohl’s Cash. It was more important to me that I save the money up front, because as I’ve said before, I don’t consider saving in the future saving at all. Often times I’m at a loss when I have Kohl’s Cash to redeem anyway, because the redemption period doesn’t coincide with great sales and I don’t want to spend more than the Cash (which is what they’re counting on). I did earn a few Yes2You Rewards points on each order, so that’s something at least.
My older kid is more conscious of labels now, and at Kohl’s almost all of the big names–Nike, Adidas, Under Armour–are excluded from coupons. It’s frustrating, but honestly they’re all overpriced just for a name, anyway. I’ve had great luck thrifting like new brand name items instead, and my son doesn’t care where they come from as long as they look cool. There are plenty of other quality brands at Kohl’s that are coupon eligible (today I bought khaki pants for church, athletic shorts, plain hoodies, and a couple pairs of Lee brand jogging pants).
Whether you’re shopping at Kohl’s or someplace else, if shipping isn’t a factor read the rules of the coupon codes (they often work more than once) and decide if it makes sense to divide up your order. Make the rules work best for you.
P.S. Don’t forget your Ebates (now, in a questionable marketing move, renamed “Rakuten“) to get some cash back on your purchases!
I loved shopping at Kohls when I lived in Florida, there are some great offers to be had there and I liked their products and stores. I miss them now I am back in the UK.
It definitely makes sense to use coupons and offers wisely, as you said you can save a lot of money.
We are also saving through companies that give you cashback for going through their affiliate links when you buy online. We have hundreds of $$$ built up over the last year, waiting for a rainy day before we cash them in.