Last year when they proposed I join the Love Your Body Club at The Body Shop, I was a little hesitant. It costs $10 a year, and I don't usually pay for rewards cards. But at the time, I was buying a large quantity of stuff, and the 10% discount nearly covered the membership costs. Since then, I've saved a TON of money on my Body Shop shopping sprees and gotten some exclusive deals and freebies too. This was one of those times.
One of the perks is their point system - for every purchase over $20, you get 1 point. For every purchase over $50, you get 2 points. When you make 4 points (which means spending $80~100), you get $15 worth of store credit. When you make 8 points, you get $25 worth of store credit and free membership renewal. I made it to 8 points about 8 months into my membership, and had my $25 sitting there, ready to be spent.
Except I didn't really need anything, so I was holding on to it until the right moment. Well, that right moment came. I received a $5 (off $25) coupon in the mail, so now I had $30 in store credit. Not only that, but this weekend they had a secret LYB members only sale that got you 25% off any purchase of $20 or more - that's in addition to your 10% regular discount! So now I had to go!
I shopped online before I went, because I always seem to get there and blank on what I need. I've tried a couple Tea Tree products and liked them, so I decided I'd get the Tea Tree travel kit ($25) to sample some of the other products, the Tea Tree face mask ($15) and maybe pick up a body butter if I needed something extra.
When I got there, the salesgirl mentioned that for the price of the travel kit, I could get the three full-sized products for the same price! There was a promotion going on (that wasn't advertised very prominently) which discounted the full-sized items!
The breakdown:
Face wash $11
Toner $11
Face lotion $13
Scrub $13
Mask $15
Tea tree oil $9
Original total: $72
Promotion for set of 3 skincare: minus $10
8 point gift: minus $25
$5 off coupon: minus $5
25% off $20 sale: minus $8
10% off LYB discount: minus $2.40
Grand total: $21.60
I could have spent a lot less, but faced with all these cool tea tree items and a discount, I ended up getting more than I planned. But when it came time to check out, I actually stunned the salesgirl into speechlessness. That's right - my couponing skills are so amazing, I even surprise the employees, haha! She said she's never seen anything like that before, although I personally don't think it was that amazing!
Now I have everything I could possibly want from The Body Shop, I think it's time to lay off the shopping for a bit!
