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Sales of note for 9.10.24
(See all of the latest workwear sales at Corporette!)
- Ann Taylor – 30% off your purchase
- Banana Republic Factory – Up to 50% off everything + extra 20% off
- Boden – 15% off new styles
- Eloquii – $29 and up select styles; up to 50% off everything else
- J.Crew – Up to 50% off wear-to-work styles; extra 30% off sale styles
- J.Crew Factory – 40-60% off everything; extra 60% off clearance
- Lands’ End – 30% off full-price styles
- Loft – Extra 40% off sale styles
- Talbots – BOGO 50% everything, includes markdowns
- Zappos – 26,000+ women’s sale items! (check out these reader-favorite workwear brands on sale, and some of our favorite kids’ shoe brands on sale)
Kid/Family Sales
- Carter’s – Birthday sale, 40-50% off & extra 20% off select styles
- Hanna Andersson – Up to 50% off all baby; up to 40% off all Halloween
- J.Crew Crewcuts – Extra 30% off sale styles
- Old Navy – 40% off everything
- Target – BOGO 25% off select haircare, up to 25% off floor care items; up to 30% off indoor furniture up to 20% off TVs
Anon says
Do you have 529 savings plans for your kids? DS is a toddler and we don’t have one for him yet. We’re not putting much in savings right now since we have daycare costs.
Anon says
Yes. Our kid is 3.5 years old. We started when they were about 1 and put $200 a month in. Along with some extra gifts grandparents have put in. The account is already close to $9k now. Especially if your state has a tax detection for 529 contributions, it couldn’t hurt. But this is also factoring that we’re comfortable with our emergency savings and our retirement planning.
Anon says
We do; we opened one when our 5 year old was born and relatives have given us small amounts of money for it over the years for birthdays and holidays. For the first few years we contributed $5k/year to maximize a state tax break, but recently we have stopped doing that, both because inflation has made our budget a bit tighter and because I’m cautious about overfunding it. We basically have enough in there already to cover State U (we are university employees and get a huge discount on tuition) and although we want to save more in case our child ends up getting into a good private or out of state public college, I’m not sure that additional savings should be in a 529.
Another potential college savings vehicle is I-Bonds. There are major tax breaks if they’re used for education, although it only applies if you’re below a certain income threshold. We qualify, but most people here probably don’t.
k says
We started one pretty early, and my parents started one for our son too. It’s a balance between putting money in his 529 and saving money for retirement, though. As lots of personal finance experts have said, you can borrow for your kids’ college education but you can’t borrow for retirement!
Mary Moo Cow says
No. We have what is estimated to be the cost of college saved in a plain money market account. We did the math and determined that using a 529 would save us about $300/year on taxes, and DH said the labor administration costs wasn’t worth that to him. We’re not counting on grandparents for school expenses, so a 529 also wasn’t enticing to us as a way for grandparents to contribute. We also have plenty in retirement savings that is sacred and additional savings that we’ve mentally earmarked as extra college/wedding/fun retirement that we could tap for college.
Anonymous says
Yes. It is extremely important for my husband and I to be able to fully fund the cost of college tuition, room and board for our child. We work with a financial advisor and we calculated out what we would need to do this, based on the cost of tuition at the college where we met and how it’s increased over the last decade plus. Our son is four and we’ve been fortunate enough to receive large annual bonuses, and a good sized portion of the bonuses for the past four years has gone to a 529 and a separate investment account that is allocated for education expenses so as to not overfund the 529. Ideally we’ll be able to continue with our current plan and have these costs fully funded within the next 3-5 years.
TheElms says
Yes, we have separate ones for both kids to get the state tax breaks. We initially were saving aggressively into the 529s but due to likely inheritances that will go to the kids we’re putting more money in an investment account now so its easier to use for other purposes if the inheritance happens.
Anonymous says
Yes. I have 3 kids and our goal was to have $25k in them by the time each kid started K. My oldest is entering 4th and we have about $150k across the 3 of them. We put money in when we can- I do $1k on birthdays and each fund gets some during bonus season. Our tax refunds go in there usually. My FSA rebate checks go in there. My youngest is out of daycare and starting K this fall so I’ll repurpose that money too.
Our goal is to have a third the cost of 4 years of private college banked for each of them. We’d bankroll the rest through savings and/or money market savings. Right now we have about $300k in non retirement money market funds.
Anonymous says
What if one of your kids doesn’t do to college, gets a significant scholarship, or goes to community college? Are t you worried about overfunding it?
Anon says
With three kids it’s less of a gamble because the money can be transferred to the one(s) who need it.
Anon says
Yes but no specific strategy. We will probably stop contributing sometime in elementary school as we don’t want *too* much money in there. It’s tricky because there are so many variable to consider: how much will tuition be, will our kids even go to college, maybe they will win merit scholarships somewhere, etc.
Anon says
Yeah with only one kid I’m very cautious about having too much in there. We have $50k currently, which is enough to cover four years of local State U and are not funding it aggressively at this point. If our kid is a top student and gets a full ride, the money can be used for grad/professional school and if our kid isn’t academically inclined and ends up going the community college route, we’re comfortable giving away the extra to help nieces and nephews with college. But I don’t want $300k in a 529. I don’t love my nieces and nephews that much ;)
Anonymous says
Our local state U is over $40K/year.
Anon says
Yes, we are very lucky in this respect. Ours is $10k/year for in-state tuition and as employees we have a further 50% off that, so four years of tuition is only $20k. It’s a LCOL area so living expenses are not outrageous. I know many public universities are much more.
Anonymous says
We don’t have a 529 because that didn’t make sense for our situation, but we do have money market accounts for each kid that we fund with a few hundred dollars each month. My oldest is 6 and it’s already a significant amount of money. DH is a financial advisor and doesn’t love 529s because they’re a bit restrictive. But he does encourage everyone to save some amount for their kids.
Anonymous says
Nope. The idea of saving anything beyond retirement contributions while we were paying for child care and paying off law school loans on non-Biglaw salaries was laughable. By the time those expenses were gone, it was too close to college for a 529 to make much sense. Besides that, we only have one child and didn’t want the money tied up in all the restrictions.
Spirograph says
Yes, we actually have two for each of my three kids because my dad started one for each when they were born (and continues to put $$ in for Christmas and birthdays) but we didn’t open and start funding our own until they started aging out of daycare. We prioritized maxing our retirement contributions and didn’t have the income to do both until a combination of promotions and oldest kid in K. We do not have a goal for fully funding college, but contribute the max to each kid for state tax benefits.
Anon says
Picky eaters & school lunch — my soon to be kindergartner is quite picky (like “eats ~20 foods” picky) but has managed fine in daycare even though she doesn’t eat most of what’s offered at least half the time. She’s made it clear she expects to have a homemade lunch every day in kindergarten, but I see no reason why she can’t buy school lunch. Am I being too harsh/unreasonable? It does seem like a lot of people switch from school food in pre-K to sending in their own food in K, but I don’t fully understand why…
EDAnon says
My son eats school lunch. We send extra for snack so he has something if he doesn’t like lunch. We are also very generous donators of classroom snacks so that the extras are always something he likes (if he got extra hungry). He also generally liked the snack at after school so that was a backup.
We do pack his lunch for summer camp (because we have to) and our other kiddo is switching to a daycare that doesn’t do food (😢), so I might change my position on school lunch. I will say that my kiddo doesn’t care much for food and has not asked us to pack his lunch.
anon says
We packed lunch for my Ks for a couple reasons. First, my kids eat super slow at school when they’re distracted and talking to their friends, so having a packed lunch means they will at least be eating the entire lunch period, instead of only the 15-20 minutes left after they go through the lunch time. Second, it’s cheaper (for us) because we send them leftovers, etc.
Anon says
Thanks. The time thing is a good point, mine is a slow eater too.
Anonymous says
My kid won’t eat packed lunches because she hates the texture of any food that’s been sitting in a cooler bag. She eats the processed chicken product, fries, and/or bread from the school lunch and throws out the veg, fruit, and milk. That’s the best we can get her to do.
Meg says
If she wants a packed lunch, have her pack it. You will have to supervise, but I promise by second grade you won’t and by upper elementary you won’t even have to remind them to do it (you want to eat you remember). Plus, for a picky eater they are more likely to eat what they pack.
Anonymous says
My son’s preschool didn’t provide lunch so we have continued to pack, even though all school lunch is free in our area. He does get school lunch on pizza day, which I adore. I’m a former picky eater and remember how much anxiety I had about not finding things I liked in various situations as a kid, so I caved. If you can hold strong, do it! Now that he is 11 he is starting to try more things, thanks in part to sleepaway camp, so I think school lunch might have been helpful in expanding his horizons. But I think they have better food at camp than at school for $$$ reasons.