Miserly Mom...Christmas Sales and Beginning of the Year Clearance Sales

I am not an expert, but this year, I paid a little more attention to sales and bargains than I normally do, and I noticed that during the Christmas season, stores and businesses will do anything, especially during these tough economic times, to get you shopping there.

One such promotion was at a chain grocery store in our area. Their promotion was to spend $75 on certain brand foods and you get a free $25 gift card to either the grocery store or to a restaurant. I went online and made my grocery list to get the prices of items so that when I got to the store I would just spend the $75 and I would know exactly what to get. Unfortunately, their site was not specific enough and didn't give all the details and some of the items I purchased were not part of the promotion. I was a little disappointed because I had such a great plan, but since I was already on the way to earning my $75, I spent the $25 I needed to just to get my gift card. These were all groceries that I needed so nothing was really lost in that sense and I still came out below my usual grocery budget.

I got all the details of this promotion for a friend and told her my strategy and plan and she succeeded with it. She ended up only spending $75 and a few cents and got her free $25 gift card.

I chose a $25 gift card to TGI Fridays.

Another promotion was from Old Navy, one of their door busters. The deal was to be at their doors before opening and you'd get a numbered bracelet. When you spend $20 and present your bracelet, you'd get 4 free movie tickets. I got bracelet #18 and I spent $1 and got my 4 free movie tickets!

A few days earlier I received a $20 gift certificate for just using my Old Navy Visa 4 times before December 31st. Well, DearDaughter1 needed a winter coat for next winter and they were on sale at Old Navy for 50% off. The original price of the coat was $42 and on sale for $21. Since I had my $20 gift certificate with me, the total cost of the coat was $1! I felt really good with this deal because I spent $1 on Old Navy while they gave me $100 worth of merchandise (4 movie tickets and a coat).

For the past couple years, I've noticed that stores have clearance sales in January. They need to get rid of last year's items to prepare for all their new items. I wasn't quite sure when clearance sales occur, but it seems that Christmas stuff go on clearance immediately after Christmas and last about a week. Last year, I purchased all my Christmas cards for about 90% off. It was great because I got an awesome card that declared our Saviour's birth and there was a lot leftover. I am assuming that the "religious" cards don't get sold as quickly as other generic and politically correct cards. So, I was bummed that I missed out on the Christmas clearance this year because we were in California and I'm not sure what I'm going to do about Christmas cards this year.

Anyway, stores really get desperate for selling off last years' items by mid- to late January and that's when you can see items on sale for 30%-50% off their ALREADY marked down clearance items.

I especially like driving past The Children's Place and Old Navy because they usually have a huge sign on their window declaring these good deals. If the sign is up, I make the stop with the girls, if not, I just keep on driving. That way I don't get tempted to buy anything less than bargain prices.

I did more stocking up for the girls at The Children's Place and Old Navy and my total cost was an average of 75%-77% off the original prices. Many of the clothes I purchased were between $1-$3.

I also made up a maternity care package for my friend who is pregnant for the first time by purchasing her maternity clothes from Old Navy. My total cost was 85% off the original prices...and you know how expensive maternity clothes are!!!

Lastly, I did my birthday and Christmas shopping for the girls' friends at Old Navy for 2009. My total cost was also an average of 75%-77% off the original prices.

Target does clearance sales too, but so far, I've only seen mark downs from the original prices, which range between 30%-75% off. I bought a brand new plush Boppy for our little one for 50% off. I also bought a brand new crib sheet set for 30% off. I bought a few more other items, like birthday and Christmas toys for the girls, on sale and in total, I got about a 44% savings. I was just ok with these buys as my normal rule of thumb is to try to get items at 50% off or more.

Borders Books had a 75% clearance sale also and I purchased 3 classics for just $5. These books are not gifts, just ones I wanted to add to our collection, as I am planning to home school.

Speaking of books, http://www.christianbook.com/, has a mid-week special every week, between Tuesdays and Thursdays. A select number of books are marked down, up to 90%+ off original prices. These select books are changed each week. I bought my local friends' Christmas present 2 weeks ago from this deal!

One last observation...Wal-Mart has disappointing clearance sales, except for Christmas cards. I think because Wal-Mart already sells their items at such a low price and they don't have much to put on clearance, I've found that their clearance selection is low and clearance prices higher than other stores. So, if you do need to buy an item that is off season and not on sale, then Wal-Mart is probably the best store to go to for a good and low original prices, but not a very good place to go for clearance items.

Yeah, it seems like I've already spent a lot of money and it's only January, but I think these expenditures are great investments. It beats last minute shopping for gifts and spending orginal prices when I know I could have gotten a good deal on them. Again, I try to stay practical with gifts, sticking to clothes, toys, and books for children and good and encouraging Christian books for adults, maybe a Christian music CD. With these items I know they will be used.

Anyway, deals are out there...Just keep your eyes open and be willing to do a little foot work and a little investing.

(Note...I still need to figure out a convenient way for me to be a miserly mom with food.)

Handmade Craft - (Already Made) Scrapbook for Mom

2 great things: already made scrapbooks and technology!

A few months ago I got a free already made scrapbook at JC Penny as a promotional. It's your typical 12"x12" scrapbook and really nice looking, but it wasn't practical for me to use it for my pictures as I would then need to start a collection of 12"x12" scrapbooks, which we do not have room for. Therefore, as I thought about what to do with the scrapbook, I decided to give it to my mom for Christmas. I talked to my sister and we decided that it would be a scrapbook for my mom with all the grandchildren's pictures in it.

I am not a scrapbooker and with 2 little ones, coming up with page ideas would have taken soooo much time. The already made scrapbook comes with pages already made up and all I had to do was add the pictures!!! It was perfect... I just needed to decide what sort of pictures would go on each page, crop the pictures, and stick them on.

Well, there were enough pages to have a picture of my mom and dad, a picture of my mom, dad, sister, and I, and a page of both our families, in addition to 2 pages for each grandchild, 4 miscellaneous picture pages, and a page for a picture with my mom and dad with all their grandchildren.

My sister lives in California and I live in New Jersey...Right, cross country...Yet, through technology, we were able to coordinate things and get this memory book made for my mom, in time for Christmas.

It only took me several hours to print, crop, and stick all the pictures in the book. The already made scrapbook also came with stickers and other accessories, so I didn't even have to think about fillers. So, without worrying about captions on the pictures and just sticking the pictures in the book, the memory book was completed by the end of the day!

I would never have had the time to do something like this from scratch. I am thankful for conveniences like the already made scrapbook and technology. Amazing!!!

Home Life...The Unexpected and Chirstmas Shopping

We had another unexpected event last night. DearDaughter2 had a fever of 102 (degrees F), was breathing rapidly, and had a cough. These are 3 major symptoms for Pneumonia in infants and because DearHubby has Pneumonia, I too DearDaughter2 to the ER at midnight.

After 4 hours and an X-ray, it was confirmed that DearDaughter2 DOES NOT have Pneumonia. Praise the Lord. Yet, the trip to the ER was a long one and we didn't get home until 4am. I was scheduled to meet some friends at our local Chick-Fil-A at 8am. DearHubby was nice enough to go into work late to let me get a few hours of sleep, but "few" is such an understatement. I think I only got 2 and I was such a drag!

With this unexpected event, I was quite ineffective in everything today. I didn't make one meal and so we spent about $23 today on take out. There goes my goal in trying to be a miserly homekeeper. In addition, none of my chores got done today and so some things are in disarray.

One goal I did accomplish tonight was ordering all my online Christmas gifts. This year we are going to California to spend Christmas with my family. This too was an unexpected event in the beginning of the year and I hadn't planned on doing many Christmas gifts. However, it's been a few years since DearHubby has had a true vacation and he really needed a break. Being at home doesn't help him get much rest as he's always tempted to work on our house renovations and so we decided to go to California. As a result, I added my family to my Christmas gift list.

I am quite pleased with my shopping. My goal at the beginning of the year was to keep all gifts at least $10 or under. If I average out the cost of each gift, I met my goal of $10! There are a couple of gifts over the $10 mark, but I purchased other gifts at such a low cost that I was able to spend that extra money. I kept my gifts to 3 main categories, clothing, book, and gift card. I thought these 3 categories would be the most practical and cost effective.

Anyway, I just have a trip to Target to make some time before Christmas to purchase a few gift cards and the shopping will be done! I must say setting a goal, shopping throughout the year, and doing a bit of planning made this year of giving stress "free". The next step is wrapping the gifts and getting some local gifts delivered. Next week I hope to get my Christmas cards sent out.

Gift Ideas - Gift Giving

Although Christmas 2007 was one of the best Christmas-es I've ever had, I was a bit discouraged afterwards by the financial strain we've been experiencing. It wasn't necessarily because I spent soooooo much on Christmas, but the money I spent for Christmas took us beyond what my family could truly afford. Therefore, for the past several weeks, I've been mulling over the thought of gift giving and how to give nice, good, and thoughtful gifts without putting financial strain on ourselves.

At the end of Christmas 2006 I finally put the blinders away and admitted to myself that I do enjoy giving gifts. Not necessarily just at Christmas time, but on birthdays too. That was a huge step to take because I did live in a state of denial that I like to give gifts. What that resulted in was either purchasing really cheap gifts at the last minute just to have a gift to give and then probably later have that gift just end up being a waste of money because it's in the trash or I would pay full price for a really nice gift and go over our budget. The latter of the two happened more often and we would usually end up spending hundreds of dollars on gifts we couldn't necessarily afford. Therefore, when I finally admitted that we enjoy giving gifts, I finally set aside a good budget for gifts in the year 2007.

Unfortunately, I went into 2007 without a gift giving plan. Whenever an occasion popped up, I felt confident about purchasing a gift because I had a gift giving budget and it didn't bother me to pay full price for an item. Well, when Christmastime came, there was nothing left in my gift giving budget. In addition, I didn't start thinking about Christmas until 19 days before and I ended up paying full price for a lot of the gifts I purchased. I did limit my gift giving to only a few people; my DearHubby, my 2 LittleGirls, my EncouragingSister (accountability partner) from church and her newborn, my co-leader of the ministry I'm involved in at church, my 3 local DearFriends, DearDaughter1's best friend and parents, and DearDaughter2's little friend. In addition, for my family, I limited the amount of gifts they received to only 3, and so really the most I spent on 1 person in my family was about $40. However, all the little $5s, $10s, $15s, and an occasional $20 added up quickly and I spent far more than what we had in our budget, which was $0.

So, coming into 2008, I knew I needed a better plan. I was in the right direction for setting up a gift budget in 2007, but there were no guidelines for me to follow. So, before writing this post, I sought advice from several people to see how they give gifts.

One DearFriend has a Christmas fund set up with the bank. Money is automatically withdrawn from her husband's paycheck and deposited into this fund. Then, in October, she receives a HUGE check from the bank and that's when my friend starts Christmas shopping. She asks her family for a WISH list and basically tries to purchase as much as she can on that wish list, whether it's on sale or not. She shops until she has no more money left in the budget and that's all the gifts her family will receive. With regards to others outside of the family, I am guessing that just comes out of her regular budget.

Another DearFriend, who comes from a large family, shops throughout the year, keeping an eye out on garage sales and good sales in the stores. She limits her spending to about $5-$10 per person, but doesn't necessarily have a budget for gifts.

One last DearFriend keeps in mind a list of people she's giving gifts to, not only for Christmas, but for other occasions, and then as she sees sales, she purchases items for the person and occasion. These items are like an investment and she has an area in her house just to store gifts so that when an occasion arises, she is not rushing out to purchase a gift, but she already has a nice and well thought of gift to give. In addition, this friend has family outside of the state she lives in. Instead of purchasing a gift and having to spend money for shipping cost, she sends out gift cards.

After receiving all of my DearFriends' advice, there were 2 things I realized:
1. Giving nice and thoughtful gifts is an acheivable goal
2. Staying within a budget is also an achievalbe goal

The secret...DEVELOP a gift giving plan:
1. Set aside a reasonable yearly budget for gifts. This is the money you have to work with for the year and stay within the budget. If there is no more money in the budget, there is no more gift giving and a nice card will have to do.
2. Determine who you will be giving gifts to and for what occasions.
3. Keep a lookout on sales, especially clearance sales, and try to purchase items only when it saves you 50% off the item or more. Try to stay within the $5-$10 range. If it's a really good buy, spending between $15-$20 is acceptable, but really think about the occasion and the person.
3A. If there is a surprise occasion for someone that wasn't on your "list", start shopping for the occasion immediately and do not wait until the last minute.
3B. Send gift cards or cash to any one living outside a driveable distance to save on shipping costs.
4. Remember that it's OK to have these items stored in your house. It was a planned purchase.
5. Keep from impulse buying.

So, I put my plan into action this past week and I found great deals!!!
1. There were 3 weddings that DearHubby and I were invited to and we had not purchased a gift for any of the couples. 2 of the weddings already occurred and one will happen in February. Well, I saw an ad for a Target clearance sale and so MyGirls and I treked over to Target specifically to find wedding gifts. I had a particular gift in mind which I thought was on sale, but it was only on sale online. Well, blessedly, while I was browsing through the store, I ran into a beautiful carving set that comes in its own lovely wooden box. The original cost of the item was $20 and it was on sale for $10. I purchased 3.

2. Then we had another wedding that we weren't able to attend and the couple just moved into a new home. JC Penny was also having a clearance sale on almost everything and I found a lovely framed saying, "Live Well, Laugh Often, Love Much", which I thought would be a good combination wedding and housewarming gift. The original cost of the item was $30 and it was on sale for $15.

3. Then there was a clearance sale at Toys R Us. DearDaughter1's best friend's birthday is this month and DearDaughter2's friend's birthday is in March. I found the best deal on DearDaughter1's friend's gift!!! It was a Cuddlin Cutie doll on sale for $10! They didn't have the original price on the rack, but you would pay $45-$50 for the same doll on Amazon.com! That's about an 80% savings. I was tempted to keep the doll for DearDaughter1 herself, but DearHubby told me to keep my original intent and to give the doll away. He was right. Anyway, I also purchased DearDaughter2's friends gift for 50% off AND I purchased DearDaughter1's Christmas 2008 gifts for 50% off!!!

Although within the last week I spent quite a bit of money on gifts, I know that these gifts were planned and within our budget.

My next plan is trying to get creative and finding nice craft ideas that people would keep for under $5 to give as gifts.

As I come across these ideas, I will post them.

ONE LAST AND EXTRA THOUGHT:
A great gift idea for you and your hubby are new cell phones. Wait until the end of the year to renew your cell phone subscription and then upgrade your phones for free! DearHubby and I renewed our cell phone subscription at the end of 2007. Unfortunately, we did make an impulse buy and spent $50 (after rebate) each on new phones. It was still a good purchase because the original phone was about $230. However, we could have gotten an awesome phone for free also, we just chose to get ourselves the phones we wanted since it was at a discounted price.

Was it the End of the Season?

Last Thursday I wrote a post wondering if it was the end of the season for my friendship with some ladies...Mostly, I was wondering if I should cancel a lunch I planned for Friday...

It turned out that as I was feeling overwhelmed and debating whether to cancel the lunch or not, my friend who cancelled because she was sick e-mailed me and said that she was now well and available for Friday. So, I did have my luncheon.

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It actually turned out to be a nice surprise. Since I was so caught up in preparing for the luncheon, it didn't even dawn on me that this would probably be our last gathering before Christmas. However, these friends did think about it and brought along Christmas presents. I received a soup cook book, some tea cups and matching saucers, a scent diffuser, a book about being an at home mom by Donna Otto, and a Christmas wall banner (which turned out to be my favorite gift of everything I received). I was very overwhelmed by the kindness of these ladies as well as drained from the preparations that I did not have the opportunity to bring up my burden about the "group". Well, it was ok, this time, that I let my thoughts pass because I made the luncheon gathering my Christmas gift to the ladies. It had been awhile since we all had gotten together and if it weren't for my initiating the lunch, this would never have happened. So, the ladies did appreciate my efforts in coordinating the lunch and providing the food.

On to other concerns that I had...

Well, it did take me several days to recuperate from Friday's luncheon. In fact, I just got the last of the dishes done today...Yet, despite the loss of time from the luncheon, I was still able to do some Christmas shopping, planning, and decorating...

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I put up 99% of the decorations on Thursday. I have 2 bins worth of Christmas decorations, but I knew that since DearDaughter1 would probably get into them, I decided to keep everything very simple, which made decorating easier. So, I probably only used 1/3 of my decorations. My favorite decorations that I put up this year are our family stockings! I bought really cheap Christmas stockings and stenciled our names on them and hung them up in our entryway. Above our stockings is a Christmas ornament with "Jesus" written on it to signify that Jesus is above us all and He is the provider for all our gifts. This decor makes for good Christmas greetings for all that enter our home. The last thing I need to do is make a set of pillow cases for the couch pillows. I bought some material on sale at Wal-Mart and hopefully by the end of the week I am able to just hand stitch the material together with red thread for a more Christmasy feel.

On Saturday, I went Christmas shopping at a Christian bookstore. Here's what I've determined so far about gift giving...

For our family: 3 gifts per person (large, medium, and small) just like Jesus received 3 gifts

I got most of my shopping done on Saturday and I felt quite relieved. I sat down today to make out the rest of my "list" and where I will purchase them. The rest of the week will be trying to run those errands to get these gifts.

There's a lot running through my mind about Christmas time. These thoughts started formulating last year and I'm still working through them. I will need to dwell on them a bit longer and when I've come to a "clear" conclusion I will jot them down.

Well, this is the end of this post. Maybe now I'll spend some time making those pillow cases...

I'll start work on our Christmas cards too...

Gift Ideas - Christmas Shopping 2007

I was just telling DearHubby how dangerous Wal-Mart is...I just went to Wal-Mart today for bread and spent about 2 hours there. Well, the store was soooo crowded and every one's carts were filled with STUFF, so it was very tempting to fill my cart too. As I headed off to pay, I looked at my cart and thought to myself, "I almost fell into their money trap!" I did end up putting back everything that I didn't need and just got my bread. It was fun finding Christmas gift ideas, though!

The one idea which I think I will purchase for myself are the stacking tin containers for TEA, COFFEE, CAPPUCCINO, and a fourth container I can't remember. It was on sale for $9.99. I thought I would be able to make something similar for cheaper, but I haven't been able to find a tin can supplier.

On to other gift ideas from Toys R Us...

I was just browsing this week's circular and found 2 items that I thought are good deals...

I can get a Candy Land board game for $2.99 after a mail in rebate. The original price for a Candy Land board game is $6.99. That's 57% savings. I think that's a good buy!!! (Ok, just did a little research and the mail-in-rebate is a Hasbro Pre-paid VISA card.) Wondering if that's still worth it... (Gift for DearDaughter1)

I'm also thinking about getting a Melissa & Doug wooden puzzle for free if I buy 2. I'm still up in the air about this because I need to spend at least $20 to get a 33% savings. I bought a similar puzzle at a thrift store for $0.99. Hmmmm!!!

On the Toys R Us website, there's a whole bunch of stuff on CLEARANCE!!! I've bought some new CDs and have wanted a portable CD player to listen to those CDs in our bedroom. I found a Hello Kitty CD player on sale for $19.98. The original price for this is $49.99. That's 60% savings!!! I think that's another good buy!!! (Ok, just looked up a plain CD player on Amazon.com and I can get one for $17.57, including shipping...) Might just get the one on Amazon... (Gift for Myself)

Staples is offering an MP3 player with 2GB for $39.99 and it comes with 35 FREE downloads. The original price for this player is $49.99. So, if I say each download is at least $0.99, that's $34.65. I would be getting a $84.64 value for $39.99. That's a 53% savings. This one might really be a good buy. DearHubby's been wanting an MP3 player for a long time...And I checked them out on Amazon.com and you can only get a 1GB player for the same price... In addition, DearHubby just brought home a 12% savings coupon for Staples...Ooh, this item is sounding better by the second...(Gift for DearHubby)

I ran into a post, The Holidays are coming!!, on Tah-Dah's blog. She has great gift giving ideas there.

Anyway, I've never been one to give Christmas gifts, because I never wanted to get caught up in the materialism of the season. However, I'm finding that gift giving can be achieved and affordable if it is planned and in the upcoming year I think I will be more attentive to great deals.

I'm still formulating how to plan out gift giving. As I figure things out, I'll post those thoughts.