Money Saving Mom®

Today is a day when we celebrate our blessings and reflect on all the wonderful things we have to be thankful for. It’s a good thing to stop and express our gratitude — we all have much to be thankful for.

However, some of you are probably really struggling this Thanksgiving. Maybe your husband recently left you, or your child has been diagnosed with a terminal illness, or you are battling an addiction, or your finances feel like they are in shambles and you are just digging yourself into a deeper hole because of unemployment and ever-mounting bills.

Life is hard and messy sometimes — and just because it’s Thanksgiving doesn’t mean that the pain and burdens are lifted. If this Thanksgiving finds you in a difficult place in life, may I encourage you to read my post on Hope for Women Magazine on Choosing to Be Thankful Even When Life is Hard?

Here’s a snippet:

My husband was rummaging through old financial statements not too long ago, and we were aghast to read some of the numbers. During the first year he was in law school, there were six months when we made less than $900 — and some months it was as low as $650.

I recall that season of our lives fairly vividly, but seeing those numbers on paper again after a number of years was a shock to our systems. I’m still not sure how we made it on so little!

During those years, we lived in a little basement apartment that only had four windows on one side. I could plug the vacuum cleaner into one outlet and vacuum the entire apartment without ever switching outlets…Click on over to read the full post.

Our struggles during the lean law school years pale in comparison to many of the struggles you are facing. But I hope that the words I shared might encourage some of you.

Don’t lose heart. Don’t lose hope.

Choose gratitude today — even when it feels impossible. It might not change any of your circumstances, but I promise that it will transform your attitude and lift your spirits.

A Heartfelt Word of Thanks to Each of You

By the way, can I just say thank you to each of you for everything you mean to me and how you bless me on a daily basis?

Thank you for your kind words and constructive criticism. Thank you for reading here, commenting, and emailing.

As those who know me well can attest to, my years of blogging have been a journey of growth, learning, and stretching for me. It’s not always been easy and I’ve made oh-so-many mistakes along the way, but God has taught me much through it and changed me from the inside out as a result of blogging.

When I began blogging back in 2005, I thought I pretty much had life figured out. Now, 8 years later, I feel like there are very few things in life that I have figured out, but I know one thing: blogging has been the catalyst for life-transformation for me. {If you missed my post on this from last month, read it here.}

It’s brought me from a place of insecurity, legalism, and being a people-pleaser to a place where I feel whole, free, and truly happy in who God has made me to be and what He has called me to. And you’ve been a part of that journey with me.

Whether you’ve read here for years or just weeks, THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart for reading here and being apart of the Money Saving Mom® Community. Words cannot express how much you mean to me and how much I’ve learned and grown as a direct result of each of you. I love each of you and am eternally grateful for you.

Happy Thanksgiving!

photo credit

We’re excited to have Sears as one of our monthly sponsors in November. We had the opportunity to interview them and get to know their company and their Personal Shopper program a little more recently:

Tell us about the history of Sears and the Personal Shopper program.

Sears is most likely a household name. Sears Holdings offers a lot of great brands, products, and services. Sears, Kmart, Lands’ End, are our retail stores with well-known brands such as Craftsman, Die Hard, Kenmore, Ty Pennington, and Sandra Lee.

In 2012, we introduced the Personal Shopper program as an added benefit to our Shop Your Way members. The program is member curated and is a free service to Shop Your Way members.

Personal Shoppers are available to assist their clients, primarily online, when looking for gift ideas, fashion inspiration, and decision-making assistance on any purchase. The Personal Shoppers do not do the actual buying, but rather help the member to research and select the perfect product.

As an added benefit, Shop Your Way members earn points on all eligible purchases that can be used for future purchases. Members also receive special savings and added benefits.

What product or service does the Personal Shopper program offer?

Personal Shoppers help members save time and money by being available to them to help recommend products. They also inform their clients about great services and additional saving opportunities that Sears and Kmart has to offer. In return, they earn a commission off all eligible sales.

The main focus on Money Saving Mom® is saving money and making our dollars stretch. How does the Personal Shopper program help us to do that?

As a Personal Shopper, you get clued in and informed about great savings events and hot deals available at Sears and Kmart. Like saving $0.30 a gallon on gas.

You can also learn about services we offer that help save time too! For example, we have a service called MyGofer available at select Kmart stores. This service is similar to Peapod in that we offer home or office delivery (in select regions) in addition to curbside pick-up service for all things housed within a Kmart! Personal Shoppers not only learn about these great savings, but they can take advantage of them as well.

In addition, as a Shop Your Way member, you not only save on great everyday products, but you also earn points back on your purchases. Those points add up quickly and can be used to take money off your very next purchase.

Does Sears do any charity work in regards to the Personal Shopper program that you’d like us to know about?

We have a couple Personal Shoppers who represent various causes. For example, one Personal Shopper in particular has a special needs son. She is a Personal Shopper and promotes the program to her family, friends, and community as a way to raise funds for her sons’ medical treatments.

We also have an early education program participating in the program as a Personal Shopper. The school promotes the program to their families as a way to raise funds to add technology to their classrooms.

Is there anything else that you would like for Money Saving Mom® readers to know about the Personal Shopper program?

We also offer an invite only Concierge Personal Shopper program for our most engaged and top performing Personal Shoppers. Concierges earn a higher commission rate plus a weekly stipend. As a Money Saving Mom® reader, we’ll automatically send you more information about the program.

Just sign up to be a Personal Shopper and we’ll send you an email within 24 hours about our Concierge program.

Interested in becoming a monthly sponsor or advertising with us? Find more details here.