"Real Simple" savings!

I'm addicted to the magazine "Real Simple". (Ugh. Does it bother anyone else that I can't underline the title and therefore can't properly cite the mag? Just me then?)

I should have participated in the $5 subscription sale (via Amazon.com) that all the major savings/coupon bloggers posted back around the holidays, but I didn't.

For those of us who weren't that cool, and for those who did subscribe but haven't received their first issue yet because it takes 6-8 weeks for everything to kick in (A!), *here is a $2 coupon towards the purchase price of ONE individual magazine. (Sorry, I just felt like I needed to preface that the coupon is not valid for a subscription.)

*the information in the survey is in response to a recent purchase of a "Real Simple" office or cleaning item; Target carries the whole wonderful line of varied office supplies and solutions, as well as cleaning utensils, so just select whatever floats your boat and then you're ready to submit!

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Oh, but that's not all!!!

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Are you - or anyone you know - getting (or planning on getting) married anytime in the foreseeable future? You can get a free one-year subscription to Real Simple when you buy a copy of Real Simple Weddings: 2010! (Current Copy Pictured Below)

Unlike Martha Stewart, The Knot, InStyle and all of the other weddings glossies, Real Simple Weddings is produced annually, so no need to buy a new (or twelve) $10 magazine(s) as the seasons change, which they do four times a year.

I've also found that RSW is mostly comprised of actual tips, time lines, real wedding photos and ideas - it's one mag that takes you from "Hell yes I'll marry you!" all the way to the "I dos", which is completely unlike the other "bridal guides" which devote 475 of their 500 pages to ads of dresses, venues halfway across the country, tent rental-ists, "balloon designers", pictures of $10,000 cakes that are too-pretty-to-eat yet taste-like-Styrofoam-when-you-do and engagement rings. (Which I think is a bit odd - the majority of the people who purchase a wedding magazine are already engaged, so why devote so much attention to engagement rings?)

(Anyway.)

Real Simple Weddings is hands down my favorite in the wedding section of the news stand. Yes, it's pricey compared to the others ($13.95 vs. $9.99) BUT if you purchase the current 2010 issue, there is a tear-out post card (between pages 128 and 129) good for a FREE YEAR of Real Simple! (Make sure that the card is there before you leave the magazine stand.) I'm not sure if every issue has the card, so for-sure check it out before you buy it. (There should be a sticker on the front cover - I'm thinking that only the issues sold at Target contain the card, because I don't recall seeing the sticker-ed copies at BN, and because Real Simple and Target are partners in crime, BUT I could be 100% making stuff up right now and all the issues could in fact contain the card. I don't know.)

The fine print of it all: the offer is valid now through the end of January 2011 and is a one-per-household thing. If you already have a subscription: they will tack the free year onto your already existing account. How great is that?

If $13.95 is just too pricey, use the above $2 coupon - it will for sure work at Target, not sure about news stands and bookstores. Or if the copies at BN (Barnes & Noble) and Borders DO in fact offer the freebie, wait for one of the awesome 20% or 30% off coupons to come around again, because you have until NEXT January to redeem.

If you want to buy the mag but can't justify it because the engagement is still a ways off, don't worry - all of the information is completely relevant, despite the minor changes in current pallet trends; all of the check lists, spread sheets, tips on whom to invite and how to politely tell your in-laws that they can't invite every member of their garden club ... *breaths* ... haven't changed that much in the three years that this special issue has been around.

(I feel like some of you are pondering my knowledge of this topic; no, I'm not getting paid by Time Inc - I wish! - I've just been dating the bf for what will be 7 years this weekend and I've been planning this wedding for the past 3. In fact, I'm pretty sure I'm getting engaged this weekend, but whatever happens I've decided that we will be getting married this fall whether he likes it or not :-P I was just soooo excited to have found this free magazine offer that I HAD to share it with all of you!)

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And with all of that, I am going to bed. I hope you have a GREAT day!

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~K