Friday, October 22, 2010

Christmas Countdown: 63 days!

Time is completely flying by, and before we know it the stores will be in full blown Christmas mode. I'm already starting to see hints of Christmas when I'm out shopping, and it's making me really excited. Hobby Lobby has started putting out their gift wrap, and they have LOTS of pink and green! I almost bought these the other day when I was there shopping, but decided to hold off for when I had a 40% off coupon! How adorable is this wrap, though?




Sorry for the picture quality... I only had my cell phone with me at the time! I will definitely be going back to buy the pink wrap with the Christmas trees on it!

Sadly, our move will be right in the middle of the holiday season, which means that I probably won't get to do much decorating and baking! I know that it will be hectic time of trying to get settled and learn a new area, so I've been picking up Christmas gifts throughout the year and plan to have most of my shopping done and gifts wrapped before Thanksgiving! I'm almost done with the shopping, and I'll let you in on a little secret. Thanks to Target's wonderful clearance, we've bought over $500 worth of gifts for just over $100! At the beginning of this summer, I started discovering "perimeter perusing," which is where you keep an eye on certain items of clearance at Target, and also just browse their clearance (usually found around the perimeter of the store on end caps) for good deals. You can get some amazing deals, but be warned - it is very addictive!

You can find Target's general markdown schedule here, as well as a list of recent deals people have found. Target usually starts by marking things at 15% off, then it goes to 30%, 50% and finally 75%. Certain items will go to 90% off, but usually that's just holiday items, etc. I'm usually at Target two to three times a week anyway, so I just make it a point to check out the clearance areas to see what's being marked down. Once I find something I really want, I make sure to check back each week on the day it's supposed to be marked down. For example, right now I have my eye on a Garmin GPS unit, so I've been checking every Monday around mid-morning until I can hopefully find it at 75% off! This doesn't always work, since sometimes people will buy all of the item before it's marked all the way down or somebody will beat me to the good deal. However, I've been pretty lucky with my finds! Here are some of the things I've found and the prices that I paid for them:

Sony Pocket Reader - Originally $150, I paid $37! 

Kodak D830 Digital Picture Frame - Originally $130, I paid $32! We also bought two other digital frames that were originally $100 and we paid $25. 

Nike Vapor Headphones - Originally $30, I paid $7.50! I was going to give these to Mr. C in his stocking, but I'm terrible at holding onto gifts so I gave them to him the afternoon I bought them! Oops!

I've always been a big fan of Target, but now I'm loving it even more! Have yall found any great deals on clearance lately?

(Photos from here, here and here.)

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