by Ashley
Hi all! Happy Monday!
Sorry I’ve been a bit quiet over here lately. Last week was a tough one. The girls missed two days of preschool due to illness (the frequency of illness this Spring has been crazy!), then I got sick, throw in some Dad-related drama and by Sunday night I was just barely keeping it together. I’ve written a whole post in my head about Easter and now here we are 2 weeks later, my phone seems to have swallowed our pictures (not really, I can see them on the phone…but they will NOT send when I’ve tried to email them to myself and I’m having some upload error when I’ve tried to manually plug-in to my computer.) So…I’m giving up on it at this point. You have to know when to pick your battles, right? ; ) Cliff’s Note version of the post: I hoarded saved free stuff we got from our neighborhood & church Easter egg hunts. On actual Easter I didn’t have to buy a single thing. I re-used eggs, re-distributed candy (they don’t need much anyway), and filled in some empty eggs with pennies. We had 60+ eggs total and baskets were overflowing. We did dye easter eggs (using food coloring – no store-purchased dying set), but the extra dozen eggs were literally the only thing I had to buy! The grandparents both sent little Easter packages so the girls did get some new stuff (stuffed bunnies, sunglasses, a couple outfits), but hubs and I spent zero out-of-pocket and we still had a fabulous Easter! It can be done frugally, folks!
Moving on….(and, sorry there was no photo to accompany that. Like I said, I have to give up and move on at this point)….
Has anyone ever heard of the app, Wish?
It’s an app you can download and shop for cheap stuff on your phone. All of the items are coming from overseas (I believe they’re all Chinese manufacturers). The app essentially gets rid of the middle-man and puts consumers directly in touch with the manufacturers. Because of this, you can get stuff for pennies compared to store-bought stuff. According to this article, this is the first ever site that was designed specifically for people to shop through the app. No need to use a bulky computer or go to a phyiscal store. The shopping process really couldn’t be easier.
I’ve actually been using Wish for a few weeks to buy random things here and there for our cruise. Check out these adorable swimsuits I bought for the girls:
(don’t ask me why i could get this photo and not the Easter ones. I don’t know)
They do have some down-sides. The big one is that the sizing is pretty consistently off. Everything is a bit smaller than standard American sizes, so I’ve always ordered up a size. The shipping takes awhile, too, up to 2-3 weeks.
But that being said, I’ve been receiving crazy compliments on everything I’ve gotten so far. It’s cute stuff and for CHEAP!
I hesitated to even share anything about this app with you guys. The main thing is that I was worried it was totally exploiting children labor and I didn’t want to contribute to that or suggest anyone else do so either. But my understanding from doing a bit of research is that the Wish app vets out the different manufacturers and will drop people who do not conform to the app standards. Admittedly, I don’t know that this is 100%, as I’ve seen some knock-off Polo or other name-brand items and I can’t be sure what’s going on at the manufacturing-level. But the app represents these places as the same types of places who sell to American stores already. The only difference is you don’t have to pay the mark-up because you get the item directly from them. So that puts my mind a little bit more at ease.
I want to be 100% up front that this post is not sponsored, nor have I received any type of compensation for this post. Actually, they have no idea that I even blog here. I’m just passing it along because I’ve been so impressed with the app. If you have the time to spare and are okay with ordering things without trying them on (and, read the reviews! They’ll help guide your sizing decisions), then this is a great way to save serious money! I think it’s on-par with second-hand prices, only you’re getting brand new stuff that’s really cute and fashionable.
You’ll see a mention about Wish in my next budget update (coming soon – probably Friday) because I’ve bought some clothes from there that will be appearing in the clothing line-item of my budget.
Let me know what you think if you use Wish.
Are there any other really cheap direct-to-buyer apps I need to know about?
Hi, I’m Ashley! Arizonan on paper, Texan at heart. Lover of running, blogging, and all things cheeeeese. Freshly 40, married mother of two, working in academia. Trying to finally (finally!) pay off that ridiculous 6-digit student loan debt!
I need to check out that app- thanks for the recommendation! I blogged about a cheap (less than $5) way to buy baby moccasins from China and had the same concern. I love a good deal but not at the cost of child labor. Ps I love your Easter ideas!
I love Wish. I use the Geek and Mama apps often and have gotten some super cute baby/kids clothing. A typical outfit is around $5 shipped and I’ve been very happy with the quality. Other than that I have bought some pens and a purse. Pens were great, but the purse was funky and had a terrible odor. It’s hit or miss I guess.
With children’s things I’m always concerned about safety. Lead paint is the most obvious but there are other toxins as well. For clothing, the question is, do they meet fire safety regulations?
This is a country with companies that chose to add melamine to their baby formula in order to make it seem higher in protein. The US has proven itself just as bad, at least on a small scale (Flint), so I suppose I shouldn’t pick only on China. But I feel there is more oversight from reputable companies who have maintaining their reputation and having to fight lawsuits in the US to help keep them from cutting too many corners.
We certainly can’t protect ourselves/children from all dangers, but we can at least choose to go with less and promote the purchase of safely manufactured items, rather than cut corners and hope for the best. If it was just a matter of ending up paying for something that was unusable, I might not speak up, but we are talking about safety here as well.