Do you have a method

 

for Christmas shopping? Do you wait until a month before? Do you have a Christmas Club? Do you just set so much money aside for a few months? What is your method?

Due to our bad economy right now, I’m sure there are lots of you dreading Christmas shopping…. I know, I am. We don’t really have a method per say. We try to set money aside most years, but something always comes up, or something. We would like to do a Christmas club again, but haven’t found one yet down here… that is our mission after Christmas. I’m not huge on paying full price for anything anyway…so Christmas is usually a scavenger hunt for me.

However, I like to put money away for those moments when you find that really good deal, so you don’t have to feel guilty about spending money that was meant for something else. Like this past week, I hit a great clearance sale at our Local Target (I just happened to be in the right place at the right time) They had marked most toy clearance down to 75% off. Here is a peek at what I got!!

I know, you can’t really see anything… They are hiding in my closet! There is three big bags of toys there….. I managed to find one big set of Lego’s (a lady had come in to buy up the rest of them) When I say big set I mean the ones that go for $100. Plus a smaller set, some animals to go with there farm and jungle themed sets we got them, wooden fake food for the girls to play with, a couple Mickey race cars for Sage, and a Hannah Montana Barbie accessory for Rachel. Plus I had bought a few other things a while back at Toy’s R us, so they are almost done for toys, now just need to get them some books, and a couple outfits and we are done for Christmas.

This also works nicely for me, as I buy things when I get a really good price and stick them aside for Birthdays as well. Never know when you are going to have that Birthday invitation come home from school, and no time to run to the store!

I’d love to hear what works well for you?

Sweetbay

Being from the Northeast, stores here in Florida are very different. I do a lot of shopping at Walmart or Public’s, but nothing is like the Hannaford’s back home. I have been figuring out what stores have what, and where to go to get things we are most used to. Well, today a Sweetbay Opened up near us, well 20 minutes away. Close enough for me! For those of you not familiar with Sweetbay it is run by the same people as Hannaford. Same logo, just a different name.

Needless to say I was going to be at that grand opening today. I was there at 8am, hoping to be early enough for the fabulous prizes, and beat the crowds. I certainly didn’t beat the crowds, but got some awesome stuff. Open walking in, they gave us a free pineapple and a TG Lee mini chocolate milks, which made the kids happy. Then inside the produce they had samples of fresh strawberries. They were delish! Then in the deli they gave out samples of cheese, and turkey! In the floral section they gave us all free carnations! We made our way through the store, grabbed a few of our favorite Hannaford Brand products, and headed to the checkout. Upon checking out, they gave us coupons to give the guy outside the door, for a free reusable bag filled with Hannaford products like, honey nut cheerio’s, vanilla wafers, spaghetti, and apple juice! (while supplies lasted) It was a wonderful experience and we will be going back every few weeks, until the one only 5 minutes down the road gets built. It is very nice to have a familiar store. If you would like to see what Sweetbay has to offer, click Here.

What a deal!!!

Tis that season for new mods to be brought in at stores. Target is getting ready to redo their toy department.... Which meant Clearance... and lots of it! I was so excited about that. So, of course being me, I had to go check it out. I'm glad I did. I found Monopoly Jr. (ages 4 plus) , and Scrabble Jr. (ages 5 plus) for the kids. Considering we left so many of our kids games behind, this was a great thing. I like variety and we have a weekly, game/movie nights at our house. How much did I pay for these you ask?? Well, I got one for a 1.97 and the other for 2.49. Awesome deal! Of course there were many other deals, that I did not get to in time. Like 40 dollar sets of Lego's for 7 bucks...which would have been awesome, since a certain little man is having a birthday soon. I'm working pretty hard on getting my gift tote stocked back up!
I also found another really neat item, which I will share on my next post. It's so cool, it needs its own post!

Deals of the day!

Besides our fun trip to the Children's Discovery Museum....we went to a few stores in augusta. As you all know with the cost of gas, its best to do everything you need to do in one day. So we decided to make it a nice long day in augusta. (Sadly, I do have to go back in a couple weeks, cause I need to go to Sam's Club to stock up on some stuff) Our first stop after leaving the musuem... was The Christmas Tree Shop. One of my most favorite stores to go too... While wandering around and looking at stuff I found this CLEARANCE rack.... I couldn't resist as I love clearance, and hate to pay full price for anything! It was a rack of curtains that had been on display. Of course this means their was not more than one or two sets of any particular set of curtains. There really wasn't a huge selection, but enough to make me happy! I found this one set of Apple curtains. (cause my kitchen is Gingerbread and apples) I have some already but they don't pop out at me as the right curtains for my kitchen. So, being on clearance if it was the right price I decided to try this set. The price was 1.97... Can you really beat that anywhere else??? Not likely... so I decided to get them. I would just have to find another fabric, maybe a solid to go with them for my other window. I was so excited.... Or atleast I thought I was... until we got the register to pay. I put them up there and she rings them through... Can you guess what they came up as????? Most of you are probably thinking a regular price, as that is what usually happens to us all. Well, in my case, I got them for cheaper, way cheaper! I couldn't believe my eyes, the reciept said..... .19 cents, YES! You are reading that right. Can you believe that??? I was so excited I could have jumped up and down! So there you have it my deal of the day!! We proceeded on to Petco... the kids wanted to look at the animals. Then we went to Target, cause it is nice to go anywhere other than Wal-mart every once and awhile. We found lots of cool stuff we would have loved to have, but it was not what we could afford. However, we did find a Slip'n Slide for the kids, for only 8 bucks... and in their really cool dollar isles, I found me and the kids 4th of July socks.. Yes, I am silly and try to get them some holiday socks whenever I can. :) They like to have them too. I just think it is something fun for them to have and enjoy on the holiday! I think that is all we got there... and by then it was 5:30ish, so we headed home. Deciding to stop off and finishing off our really nice day with a really good sandwich from Big G's!!! The kids got their favorite, peanut butter, honey, banana sandwich! Andy try a new one, the HoJo, which was clam strips, lettuce, tomato, american cheese with tatar sauce.... (he got his on a wrap) and because I am so picky...yes I admit it. I always make my sandwich, a ham, bacon, american cheese, lettuce, tomato...on wheat! We all love there sandwich's as the bread is so soft and good, and the food is wonderful! Prefect end to a prefect day!