Saving Money with Clearance Sales

Now is the time to stock up on your summer clothes and school supplies for next year! The stores want to get rid of short sleeved shirts, shorts, swimming stuff and back to school supplies. They need to room for winter clothes and . . . gasp. . .Christmas stuff!

I went to Target and hit their 75% off sale for things I'm donationing to Grundy Mountain Mission. I got 30 notebooks, 15 packs of loose leaf paper, 15 rulers and 180 pencils for just over $6! The Target near me still had backpacks and they were clearanced to under $4, some were under $3! I didn't see any great deals on clothes yet, but my Target very rarely has any clothes more than 30% off and I'm too cheap, uh, I mean, frugal to pay more than 50% off of regular prices.

I went to JC Penny today and saw they have their 70% off signs up. Yeah!! I used to LOVE those signs when I worked there! The stuff is usually marked down 40-50%, then you take an extra 40% off making it at least 70% off. I miss my employee discount of that extra 20%. (sigh) BUT, today I had an extra 15% off! There is a deal on the back of the JC Penny receipts that if you fill out a survey for them they will e-mail you a coupon for an additional 15% off of your next store or catalog purchase. So, with my coupon in hand, I went scouring the clearance racks! I only found 1 shirt for me, it was $30, I payed $7.64. I'm not sure yet that I will keep it, but I think it will work with a pair of pants I got at a Dillard's going out of business sale recently, so I have to try the outfit on together to see. I got rompers for Jake to wear next year that were regularly $10 for $2.54. I got Drew and Blake TALKING tee shirts for $3.56. That's right, they talk and they are still washable. They have Disney characters on them and they were originally $15!! I got Drew and Jake matching Ohio State outfits for $4.58, they were $18 originally. I think I did pretty good. I had 2 of the 3 boys with me at the store so I was just grabbing everything that struck my fancy and I will look through the bag tonight to decide what I will keep and what I will return. I purchased 35 items for $127.50 and I saved $363.72, a savings of almost 75%. That is about $3.64 per item. That's a pretty good deal, especially since a lot of the items I purchased were entire outfits!

Of course, my favorite place to shop is a local consignment store that has an "everything you can stuff in a bag for $5" sale every month. I look forward to the last Friday of the month like Christmas! I have too much fun! My husband is much better at stuffing the bags than I am, I think my record is 25 items and his record is 31. That is where I get most of my boys' clothes because they have great name brand items like Gymboree, Gap, The Children's Place and Carter's clothes!

So, be sure to check out your local favorite chain stores for great clearance deals! And if you have any local consignment stores, call and ask if they ever have any special sale days, all they can do is say "no" and they might even say "Yes!"

Happy Savings!