SHC-MichelleH's Blog

Send Some Holiday Cheer with International Shipping!

For anyone looking to ship that perfect holiday gift to friends or family overseas, Sears.com now offers international shipping to 90 countries, providing yet another convenient option for customers to get everything they need this holiday, where and when they need it.

Customers can choose from over 300,000 products in a variety of categories including tools, children's and infant clothing, shoes, jewelry, and home fashions, and can have it delivered to locations all around the globe as Sears.com expands its reach to major markets such as the UK, France, Germany, Spain, China, India, Japan, Argentina and Brazil.

This is actually a pretty cool option because a friend of mine is working on a one year project in India and now she can get many of the conveniences of home through Sears.com. 

What's great about the option is that it's simple to use. Prices will be displayed in the currency of the customer's choice. International shipping fees, customs duties, and taxes are automatically added and processed at checkout, eliminating the need for the customer to pay additional fees upon delivery. There is also an international filter that allows customers to select only the items that are available for shipping to their selected destination. The eligible items for shipping are identified by the special globe icon located next to the products.

To learn more about international shipping, including the most up-to-date list of available countries, visit sears.com/international.

Send joy to someone you know overseas this holidays!

The Holidays are Officially Here!

It has been an exciting tradition in my family for years. My grandmother told me that the Wish Book came out in the 1930s. I remember as a kid looking through the Wish Book with my family. To me, it meant that the holidays were near!  Now, I am excited to be able to share this tradition with my own daughter.

I brought the Wish Book home last week to get some gift giving ideas. (If you’ve seen some of my other posts, you know I am quite the planner!) My daughter grabbed the book from me, immediately! Our course, she flipped right to toys and circled everything she wanted for Christmas. She’s really good at telling me what she wants! The Barbie® Dream Townhouse and Pink Scooter made the top of her list.

Then, my husband picked up the book and pointed out some things to add to his list – a turkey fryer and a new TV for our room. (Great choices!)

I just can’t get over the fantastic selection of gift ideas and the great prices wrapped in to the new Sears Wish Book. And the best part is, the traditional hard copy version is complemented by an exciting, online interactive catalog, so shopping for those special people in your life is a breeze anyway you look at it.

Next on the list – my parents in Texas!

A Vacuum for a Birthday Present? Absolutely!

My husband loves Dyson vacuums. He's never owned one, but being the technology geek he is, he stops and watches the commercials every time they come on. Well, after nearly five years of asking, I've finally decided to get him one for his birthday in November.

With such an assortment at Sears.com , I had no idea which Dyson vacuum was right for us. I found it extremely helpful to review the customer ratings and discussion forums on the vacuums page.

The community provided such great insight, I was hooked from the beginning. After about 15 minutes of research, I feel I am educated and ready to make that purchase next week. I'll keep you posted on which one I finally settled on.

Tips for Holiday Shopping

This holiday, things will be a bit tight for my family; as I’m sure it will be for many families across the country. Anything I can do to make my dollars stretch, even just a little bit, will help tremendously.

Between my husband and I, we have about 25 people to buy for this year with a $750 budget. We have one daughter, seven parents, seven grandparents, seven younger siblings, and six nieces and nephews – so it’s going to take a lot of hard work and creativity.

Over the next 6-8 weeks, I’ll write about my holiday shopping journey. Hopefully, we can work together to take control of our budgets and make our dollars work harder and smarter for us. Feel free to share what you have learned over the years. We're all in this together!

Below are a few tips that I will be implementing into my holiday shopping routine.

1. Set a Budget – This is a must! I have found that if I don’t formally decide on a budget (and put it in writing), I could spend up to 2-3 times what I had unofficially intended. And, this year isn’t a good year to get off track.
2. Make a Holiday List – We don’t realize just how many special people we have in our lives until we pull out the pile of presents from the closet and start wrapping. Be careful. This could throw off our budget! Take control by deciding from the start when it’s appropriate to provide a group gift or shop just for kids.
3. Don’t Forget About Those Gifts You Bought on Sale – In January! – If you are like me, you buy things when they are on clearance and put them away for future use. This could save you money or it could cost you. Most of the time, I find that I have way too many gifts for the number of people I have to buy for, because I bought things just because they were on sale. If you do this, just be sure to add the items you already purchased to your budget document/holiday list to help you pair up those great bargains with a loved one.
4. Buy Popular Items Now – Yes, I love sales, too, but popular items will sell out quickly, so get them while you can. If you don’t want a repeat of the Cabbage Patch dilemma of the 80s, purchase those special gifts now. If you aren’t able to purchase, see if your item qualifies for Layaway. For a small fee, you put your items aside and pay a little each week until you pay it off. Check out Sears’ new Online Layaway program for added convenience.
5. Get a Christmas Club Card –Purchase a Christmas Club Card online at Sears.com or Kmart.com . It is quick and easy, and you can earn a 3 percent reward just for purchasing. 

I’m SHC-MichelleH.

A thirty something, mom with one rambunctious 5-year-old daughter, a wonderfully supportive husband, a loving calico cat and a beta fish that fights with rocks. I’m also a budget conscious, working woman in grad school with absolutely no time for myself! I look for great bargains and anything that will make my life a little easier.  

I am not really a social media geek as much as I am a social media “people watcher.” I interject into conversations when necessary, but for the most part, I sit back and observe what others are saying. I do have Facebook and Twitter accounts because I love the brevity those mediums provide, but you typically won’t catch me blogging…until now!

Sears changed me. I am new to Sears Holdings Corporation (and the MySears Community) and have been an occasional Sears shopper for more than 20 years. While exploring Sears.com my first several weeks here, I realized that Sears provides an extremely robust online shopping experience. I totally appreciate the convenient tools they provide such as TV MatchMaker, Shoe Finder and Appliance Advisor. Anything to make my life a little easier is good news!

Check back soon, because I'll be blogging about a lot of interesting things, including life, love and Sears!