A bargain-hunting birthday

Thank you to everybody who sent birthday wishes! With the post-holiday clearances in full swing, a good portion of my birthday was spent chasing the deals! :) If you haven’t been out, the week ahead promises prime shopping time for holiday items and toys.

Over the past 24 hours, I have pretty much finished shopping for birthdays and Christmas gifts for my younger children, as well as other children in our circle of friends and extended family too. Incredible but true! Want to see what I found?

You will be amazed to hear how little I paid for all of this. And if you’ve ever wanted to tag along on a shopping spree with me… here’s how I spent my birthday :)

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8:30am: Opened presents from my family and had breakfast with them at a local restaurant. After breakfast, my darling husband pointed out that we were in close proximity to Target and Wal-Mart, and we were now 8 days past Christmas — prime time for post-holiday shopping. He knows me well :) What better way to spend a birthday?

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10:00am: Wal-Mart. Their Christmas items are 75% off, and of course there are a lot of bargains on these items (their “formal” cloth dining room tablecloths in green, red, burgundy, gold, or white are $2.00, any size!)

But, as is typical with post-holiday sales anywhere, a lot of non-Christmas items that were brought in for the holiday are going very cheaply too, particularly clothing. I found lots of “winter” themed long-sleeve shirts for my toddler boys (think snowmen, forest animals, etc) for $2.25 each. My teen daughter scored a bunch of cute shirts and wild socks at a great price too:

All of these shirts have a Christmas gift box attached to them for easy gift-giving. That’s the only thing “Christmas” about them! They ranged in price from $1.50-$2.00. And at that price, of course I said, “Buy whatever you want!” :) She’s also a fan of wild and crazy socks, and Wal-Mart has these 3-packs of socks that come inside a giant plastic ornament. Again, nothing Christmasy about the socks themselves other than the packaging. These sock ornaments are just $1.25 each for 3 pairs of socks..! She’s a very smart shopper just like Mom :)

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11:00am: Target. I was slightly disappointed to see Target still at 75% off for holiday merchandise. (It will typically go 90% off a little over a week post-holiday.) However, even at 75% off, there were many deals to be found.

Target is a great place to buy things that aren’t typically “holiday” items after the holiday. We picked up a Rain-X automotive gift set with auto wax, car wash, wheel cleaners, interior cleaners and protectants. Regular price: $19.99. 75% off – $4.99. It seemed highly unlikely these would be around yet at 90% off day at that price — though if you find them over the next few days, they could drop to $1.99! There are a lot of gift sets on clearance for bath and body stuff too that are cheaper than cheap.

Christmas ornaments, cards, stockings and decorations are PLENTIFUL. It is difficult to even figure out if anyone’s been buying this stuff. Perhaps, like me, everyone’s waiting for that 90% drop.

Target is also a great place to pick up toys that have holiday packaging or theming, even if the toys themselves do not. If it’s remotely Christmasy in nature, check the price on it! We found the following toys, still in the toy aisle (not near the Christmas reductions) were ringing up 75% off automatically:

See and Say Junior (Dora, Blues Clues or Elmo):
Regularly $4.99, 75% off – $1.24. The toy itself has the same songs and animal sounds as the regular See and Say – it just has Christmas artwork on the stickers.

Etch-A-Sketch Junior:
Regularly $4.99, 75% off – $1.24. This Etch-a-Sketch has snowmen around the border of the toy. I think we can live with that :)

Sesame Street toy vehicles:
Regularly $4.99, 75% off – $1.24. The cars are mildly holiday themed, with a wreath or present on the car.

Disney Cars 2-packs:
Regularly $6.99, 75% off – $1.74. My sons are crazy about these Cars, and other than the Christmas packaging, the cars are identical to the ones in the non-holiday packages.

Lastly, we hit the Target Dollar Spot, as usually the previous month’s merchandise is 75% off too as the new stuff comes in. We picked up winter mittens, children’s silverware sets and 2009 wall calendars for just a quarter each.

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Afternoon: Home for lunch and naps for the little guys. My daughter made me an amazing-looking carrot cake, which we all looked forward to eating after dinner!

Evening: We headed to the sushi bar (my favorite!) for dinner We stayed long and ate much thanks to a gift card from my father-in-law. In fact, everyone was so tired that we postponed our cake “ceremony” until breakfast the next day. In our house, birthday celebrations usually stretch out over a couple days anyway..!

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The morning after: Over breakfast (carrot cake, naturally!) my husband’s friend called from Meijer to say that there were tons of toys on clearance. Well, “clearance” is one of my favorite words! We headed out again and entered into one of the largest and greatest after-Christmas toy sales I’ve ever seen.

Toys were reduced into the ridiculously-cheap range. Truly:

Mr. Potato Head “parts” packs: Reg. $4.99 – Sale $0.50
DC Comics action figures: Reg. $6.99 – Sale $0.99
Tonka Car Carrier trucks (semi trailer with/car): Reg. $4.99 – Sale $1.00
Playskool basketball hoop sets: Reg. $14.99 – Sale $2.00
Disney High School Musical dolls (Barbie size): Reg. $10.99 – Sale $2.00
Snowcone Machines: Reg. $15.00 – Sale $2.00
Shake N’ Go racecars: Reg. $9.99 – Sale $2.00
Uno card game: Reg. $7.99 – Sale $2.00
Diego Mega Bloks set: Reg. $17.99 – Sale $4.00
Fisher-Price ride-on firetruck: Reg. $24.99 – Sale $5.00
(This is a HUGE toy! I was shocked to see the price so low!)
Disney Cars 9-pack car sets: Reg. $24.99 – Sale $6.00
Remote-Controlled Thomas the Tank Engine: Reg. $19.99 – Sale $6.00
Rock N’ Guitar Elmo: Reg. $24.99 – Sale $8.00
TMX Tickle Me Elmo, Cookie or Ernie: Reg. $39.99 – Sale $10.00
Air Hockey table (full size, like you’d put in a rec room!): Reg. $129.99 – Sale $24.00

I spoke with a Meijer employee who said that instead of staggering the reduction schedule for the holiday toys, they are jumping straight to 75% off or better. Look for the large orange square clearance stickers with the bar code on them for the lowest prices – many of the things we bought today were in the 80-90% off range. All Meijers go on different schedules, so call and see where your store is at. I did call a different Meijer, and they said they are at 50% now – so if your store hasn’t dropped prices yet, it’s definitely worth popping in over the next few days and seeing what’s going on. We spent just over $100 on toys today at Meijer, and the total savings on our receipts was $554.74!

And I’m not done yet..! Those of you who’ve been in my Super-2 class know what big nationwide chain’s huge clothing clearance we’re waiting for this month too. After reading on another site (in another state) that this store would have that big sale this week, I stopped in to my local store today to ask employees about it — they said it is not this week, but likely within the next 3. Last year, this sale began around Jan. 11, so I’ll keep watching and waiting to see what I can find.

I know post-holiday is very tough for many people financially. But, if you can afford to do some shopping this month for these types of items, you will likely not see prices this low again — until after NEXT Christmas. It’s all part of playing the game — buying when the prices are at this seasonal low! I have often said that the must-have toys of the season are really at their must-have prices… in January.

Happy shopping, everyone! :)