CAA Blogger Challenge – Finding Discounts at GAP & Banana Republic

I recently had the pleasure of announcing that I am one of the contestants in the CAA South Central Ontario Blogger Challenge. For the next 4-8 weeks(or however long it takes one of us to WIN) I’ll be competing with Aimee from Extreme Couponing Mom.

We will be using a CAA No-Fee MasterCard with a limit of $2500 to shop at the CAA partner stores and blog about our experiences. The first blogger to save enough money with their CAA membership to cover the cost of a new CAA Plus membership + Plus Associate membership (totaling $209.05) will receive an East Side Mario’s OR Husky Gift Certificate worth $100!

My first shopping trip was to Payless ShoeSource and believe me when I say I wanted to keep on shopping! Since my husband has Fridays off work and the kids were in school we decided to head off to Vaughan Mills Mall where I knew there were 2 clothing outlets which were CAA partners, which means I would get a discount when I showed my CAA membership card.

My husband is an utter nut and thoroughly enjoyed our “Mission to Shop”! As we drove there we had the iPhone app from CAA open and were exploring other partners who showed up on the screen along the way.

I didn’t even know there was an app for CAA, it’s a handy tool which I’m sure we will use in future because it shows partners we use often like PetroCanada (you get 20% more PetroPoints as a CAA member).

We arrived at Vaughan Mills and my gorgeous life-partner parked at the Bass Pro Shop so he could browse “While I was fresh”. Huh, well he’s right that I tire easily and probably wouldn’t want to browse after we’d shopped so I happily followed him and sat in boats, 4 wheelers, held rods to feel the “amazing weight balance” and even found my friends from the south. Oh how I love Duck Dynasty!

CAA Discount at the GAP Factory Store

The first store we were heading to was the Gap Factory Store, my darling husband wanted to continue to use the CAA app because he found it amusing watching me follow it but I insisted we use the information board. As we approached the Gap Factory Store my heart leapt when I saw the HUGE 60% off sign in the window, I knew this was going to be FUN!

When we were planning this shopping trip I was concerned that I may not find many items in my size, I fall between a women’s size 12 and 14 and have found those are usually the sizes which aren’t in stock at factory stores.  I’m so glad I was wrong in this case! There is a large variety of sizing, from XS to XXL to suit many body types and styles.

We decided to split up and meet up once we had looked around our respective departments for a while. I expected hubby to reappear at my side in a short amount of time because of his in and out shopping style. Once again I was proven wrong and it was me who ended up searching him out.

When I found him with my arms overflowing with clothing to try on I was disappointed to find him with nothing in his hands. He had been carrying so many clothes around that a clerk had kindly put his items into a change room.

We went together to the change rooms and began what would be a hilarious 45 minutes of poses, model-like facial expressions and amusement for the staff and customers. We had such a fun time doing mini-fashion shows for each other (and everyone else) that we’re convinced we could do this more often!

At the cash register we dumped armfuls of goodies for the friendly clerk to ring in and reminded her that we had a CAA membership. Once all 16 items were rung in the clerk asked to see our CAA membership card and applied the 10% discount to everything, even sale items.

GAP Regular Price without discounts: $529.82

GAP Price after Sale discounts applied: $391.32 (Tax = $47.35)

GAP Price after Sale Discounts and CAA Member Show Your Card and Save Discount: $ 352.19

With this purchase, by using my CAA membership card at this CAA Partner I’ve saved $39.13.

CAA discount at the Banana Republic Factory Store

Our second destination was Banana Republic Factory Store where again I was pleasantly surprised at the selection of beautiful items available in my size. There were so many clothes which caught my eye and when I saw that all women’s clothes were 50% off for Mother’s Day I was over the moon!

This is a higher end store and I had a bit of a laugh at their sign identifying “Lounge Wear” which I generally call clothes these days.

Hubby and I had split up again in this store and met at the change rooms for fashion show #2. As the friendly clerk led me to my change room she asked what the number of items I had was. My response was “A TON” which brought a man who was in the next stall to hysterics…yeah sometimes I have that effect.

We enjoyed trying on the clothes and showing off the different looks, we were choosing clothing which perhaps we normally wouldn’t have and actually liked some of them. There’s something about getting clothing at a discount knowing that you can stack on a further discount for CAA membership which gave us permission.

In hindsight I should have taken photos of my husband as he tried on clothing and next time perhaps I’ll have him snap the shots of me so I don’t end up with these goofy change room shots.

Banana Republic was a store which we hadn’t shopped at before but we’re really glad we did. Both my husband and I found various summer items which we really like AND we managed to save a bundle by going to their Factory Store and using our CAA 10% off.

Banana Republic Regular Price without discounts: $407.84

Banana Republic Price after Sale discounts applied: $262.94 (Tax 34.18)

BR Price after Sale Discounts and CAA Member Show Your Card and Save Discount: $ 236.65

With this purchase, by using my CAA membership card at this CAA Partner I’ve saved $26.29.

To say that we’re happy with our purchases would be the understatement of the year, even my husband who still owns some pants from high school saw the value in the savings. He ended up with 5 shirts, 2 pairs of shorts and 2 pairs of pants.

Each of our daughters now has a super-cute summer outfit from the GAP…you didn’t think we could actually avoid the children’s section did you?

And what about me? Oh well I may have managed to buy some incredible pieces I cannot wait to wear!!

That’s 2 gorgeous maxi dresses, a shorter strapless dress, 5 shirts, 1 tank and 3 very cute pairs of capris!

It has been years since we’ve shopped for ourselves and oh it felt so good!

Take a look at the savings we had, in total between the store discounts and our CAA Member Show Your Card and Save Discount we saved $348.82!!!

There’s no denying there’s value in our CAA membership!

As of today, by using my CAA membership card at this CAA Partner I’ve saved $103.47.

Watch for more shopping experiences which I’ll share on all of my social media avenues.

If you’d like more information about CAA you can find them on the CAASCO Facebook Fan Page or on Twitter at @CAASCO.

Disclosure: As a chosen blogger for the CAA Blogger Challenge I am being compensated for participating. All opinions and experiences are my own.