The Deal: Stocking Up on Christmas Supplies

Yesterday, Tim and I drove our middle daughter back to college…it was a fun trip with a some laughs and a nice chance to spend some time with just her.

We stopped to pick up some groceries for her at Target and, low and behold, they still had some Christmas items on clearance…I assumed they’d all be sold by now! I’m not one to travel to the stores for after Christmas sales, you see we live at least an hour away from a Target or a mall.

I made sure our daughter had dinner items in her cart to get her through at least the next few days (you see it’s supposed to be ungodly cold…down to -70 with the wind chill). (Hibernating weather) The governor even closed all public schools for tomorrow!

A funny side note, here in Northern Minnesota our school doesn’t close even when it’s -50 with a wind chill…you can say we’re rather hardy up here. It’s -25 right now and was down to -31 last night…without the wind chill. In fact I just told Tim “It actually doesn’t feel too bad out there – it’s only -24!” (Forehead thunk moment) My daughter said something similar a couple days ago!

Some people even get out skiing, dogsledding, running or walking in that weather…there’s the cutest older couple (I’d guess they’re in their 80’s) that walk every day – no matter the weather. I’ve even stopped my car and told them what an inspiration they are.

Yeah, yeah, yeah…your chuckling to yourself because you can’t see me doing any of those…you’re right…yes, I hibernate. 🙂

ANYYYWAYYYYYY…

Back to the Christmas clearance sale story…

I left my daughter in the snack section and I was on a new mission:

I bypassed the Christmas decorations…such bright beautiful ornaments…self control…self control…

But then I found the bows {sigh}…I love all the bows…there’s curly ones, big ones, little ones, and now there’s even snowflake ones! I do recycle bows every year (I told you I was thrifty), but sometimes they get squished, right? Would I ever pay $4.00 for one bow? ABSOLUTELY NOT! But will I buy it at 90% off? ABSOLUTELY!

I loaded up on about 30 gorgeous bows (some at 4 on a card for $4 – original price). PS…decorating tip – you can wrap presents in anything and if you add a bow, it’ll look gorgeous!

OK, pause…

I know I looked quite the sight as my arms were loaded with curly bows sticking out everywhere! No worries…I’m a woman on a mission.

Next aisle, I find fork/spoon combos for toddlers. Ah-haaa! These are not sturdy little utensils, mine are already wiggling apart (of course those little hands “tapping” them on the counter, dropping them and stabbing at their food doesn’t help! 🙂 ). Oh…plus the baby is getting older and needs this size. 5.00 – 90% off. I’ll take 2!

And…then there were Christmas lights.

Picture a light shining down from Heaven and the angels singing “AAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!”

We – yes we (ok Tim didn’t look thrilled) – bought 10 boxes of icicle lights and 3 boxes of regular strings! All white, of course…another joke between Tim and I…he wanted to put a string of colored lights on the garage…which is attached to the house…and the house has all white icicle lights. The alarms in my head went off and I loudly said “YOU CAN’T DO THAT!” {sigh…another shining moment for me} I calmly said, “If you want to put the colored lights on your shop – go ahead.” He now has a beautiful brightly colored shop.

And all is right with the world.

Back to the deals…(Wow, I do digress, don’t I? Oh, look, a chicken!)

I added in a few gift tags, 4 boxes of Christmas Cards (which won’t be enough, but it’s a good start), and 4 dog toys (FABULOUS…one more treat for each of the pups and their Christmas shopping is done!).

Now here’s for the REALLY good part…

Drumroll please…

How much did we spend on Christmas goodies which I’ll tuck away for next year? $45.00

How much would I have spent had I purchased it all at regular price? $255.00!!!!!

“AAAAAAHHHHHHH!!! The angels are singing again.”

The checkout lady was all smiles as she announced, rather loudly: You’ve just saved $265!!! (There were deals on some of the groceries too.)

Even my husband was shocked. Amazed. And fluffed up a bit about what savvy shoppers “we” were.

What did I do when I found out how much we saved? I, somewhat loudly, said “YESSSSSS!” Fist pump and all. I may have even had a little strut as I walked out of the store…with a peppy little “Hmm, Hmm, Hmm”.

Oh, ps…I let the “we” comment pass since I always say “Honey, wouldn’t it be great if “we” did this to the house?” 🙂

Pps: The gorgeous quilt in the picture…I purchased at 1/2 price – $40.00…at a wonderful little antique store. It’s a hand stitched quilt from the 1930’s. As I look at it while it lies on my lap, I think of the hard, patient work someone put into making it. The love it was stitched with. And I wonder who they was making it for? A newlywed couple? A grandchild? Whoever it was, it’s now my turn to treasure it…some 70+ years later. {sigh} What a wonderful keepsake.

OK, THE DEAL of the day: Check out any of your favorite stores for Christmas sales now – at this point they’re getting desperate to get it out of their stores! Where did we shop again? Target!

Have a wonderful Sunday…and stay warm!

Patty O