I am not much of a shopper, much to my mother’s chagrin.  The woman can spend days at the mall, while I start to feel itchy after just a few hours.  It’s not that I’m not materialistic, I totally am, it’s just that the thought of adding more stuff to my life makes it hard to breathe.  But I like the idea of things.  So I’m an avid window shopper.  I browse catalogs I’ll never buy from and hold my breathe when I pass the window at J.Crew.  So while I’m stuck at school all day Wednesdays, I thought we could have some fun via blog.  Let’s window shop!

Here’s what I’m coveting this week –

1. The Cooperative Lace Shift Dress from Urban Outfitters.

Shift dress, check.  Pockets, check.  Lace but not see through, check.  Yep, this dress is adorable.

2. The Harness boot from Urban Outfitters.

I know it’s an itsy bit early in the year for boots but these are just so cute.  I rode horses for years as a kid but I think I overlooked the amazing outfit potential.

3. The Technicolor Tweed Jacket from J.Crew.

At $595 I will clearly never purchase this, but that doesn’t quell my obsessive love of blazers any.  I love that there are only three buttons on this one too.

4. The tuxedo tank from Gap.

How cute would this look under a blazer??

5. The cascading ruffle tank from Banana Republic.

Have I mentioned that I like ruffles?  I like how this top feels girly yet casual all at once.

Coupon Chief

I want to always be completely upfront with my readers so I am letting you know that I was compensated for this review.  Please know that I always (compensated or not) will give a fair and honest assessment of any product I review.  Also, know that if Coupon Chief hadn’t contacted me directly, I probably would have blogged about this site anyway as soon as I found it on my own.

Part of the reason I don’t actually buy the items I covet in Window Shopping Wednesdays is a lack of funds.  Actually, let’s be honest, when Adam’s making doctor money I’ll probably get over my fear of too much stuff in a hurry and start shopping a lot more.  But as a student I don’t do a lot of purchasing and when I do I scour the internet for coupons first.

Googling “store name + coupon code” isn’t exactly difficult, but you do have to wade through a lot of crap once you get your search results.  One of the most frustrating things is finding a coupon code, filling up your online shopping cart, getting excited about your purchase, and then realizing at the last minute that your code is a bust.  When I did our grocery shopping online in New York City I spent more time looking for current coupon codes than I did looking at the items I was actually buying.  It would be much easier if there was a single site to search through, one that gives you only (mostly) codes that are up-to-date.  Enter Coupon Chief.

Coupon Chief (http://www.couponchief.com/) is one of the fastest growing coupon sites, with over 250 thousand visitors a month.  They have over 50 thousand coupons for over 15,000 stores, making them one of the largest databases of online coupons on the net.  The database is easy to navigate and they keep up to date by constantly gathering information from their users about the usability of the codes listed (when you use a code a small screen pops up for you to click the coupon worked yes/no).

I mock-shopped for each item listed in today’s post to test out Coupon Chief myself.  I was able to easily find at least one coupon that would save me money on each purchase (or at least on shipping).  From my experience, here are the pros and cons –

great things about Coupon Chief

• You can browse by popular tag, an alphabetized list of stores, or through the search bar.
• Every fashion store that I could think to look for (J. Crew, Banana, Sephora, etc) was listed, as well as several grocery and drug stores.
• The coupons are clearly marked with, and ranked by, success percentages.
• One click copies the coupon code and opens a new window for the store’s website.
• After you use the coupon an easy pop-up system opens for you to label the coupon as successful or not in order to help them rank the coupons correctly.

not-so great things about Coupon Chief

• Wegmans was not listed (though Publix, Whole Foods, etc were so this may be a more regional complaint).
• Some coupons with a 0% success rating are still listed.
• Only coupons for online shopping are available, no printables for in store use.

Overall, I highly recommend using Coupon Chief when you pick up some of the fabulous finds from my window shopping post 😀