Mission Accomplished: I have officially become like my mother.
My mother taught me to shop year end clearance sales. Now I share this wisdom with you. For my kids, I shop during the year end clearance sales for next year. Then the next year I just fill in the gaps from what I didn't purchase last year. Last week, I got out all of their clothes for this summer, took off the tags and washed them. (Needless to say Mallary's wardrobe this summer will be mainly from Old Navy) Do you see the prices on those tags? Well, that is not the price I paid (most of the time). I use my Gap card and purchase during the 20% off sales, Stuff and Save Sales, and usually every now and then they have the 50% off clearance prices. (and don't you worry, my Gap card has never ever not been paid off) So, yes. That is 20% off of 2.99. You can't even buy clothes that cheap at thrift stores, and cheaper than dear Target. Sure, they aren't wearing this seasons fashions, but who really cares? I think they are still very, very cute!!
You may be worried that you don't know what size your child will wear next year, but really you can guesstimate. You can judge how fast your child grows by how much they have grown already. Are they a size ahead right now? Most likely (not always) they will be a size ahead next year too. I have only been burned three times. That's pretty good considering I have two children, and Trevan turns five this year. That's a pretty good track record. But, I have gotten burned, three times I said, and here is the third.
I got home from Hawaii, and Mallary's feet had grown while I was gone. All of her shoes were too small. Well, last year I bought these cute shoes at Gymboree on sale for her to wear this year (shoes are admittedly a little trickier, that was burn number two as well) so I went to get them out thinking they would be perfect. (This is where I have turned into my mother) I tried them on Mallary's feet about two months ago, and they were still too big, so I put them back in her shoe rack, then totally forgot about them (my mother)! Of course, just my luck, the shoes were too small!!!! I was so mad at myself for forgetting about them!! But, now I will have a cute pair of unused shoes to pass on to the next baby girl I have, unless I forget about them then too... and I didn't mind having to go shopping to get her some new kicks...
Her new shoes are soo cute!!
Her new shoes are soo cute!!
7 comments:
Cute, CUTE shoes! I love!!!!
You are my hero! Someday I need you to teach me this method. (Admittedly, I haven't had to practice on anyone yet, but I already know I'll be bad at it!)
All bow to Holly!
Our Old Navy did not do the famous half-off clearance sale back in January. I was so disappointed. I was just in there recently, and they still have the clearance racks full of the same stuff that's been there for months.
Once they get a new line, go back and check, because that's when they mark down everything again. They don't do the half off clearance sale if there is still room on their clearance racks. (I asked about it once) If you keep going in and their clearance racks are stuffed, you can bet they'll be marked down soon, or they will do the half off.
But it's been months! And they do have some new spring stuff out since then. This is all the old fall/winter stuff that is actually taking up a lot of room. But most of it I don't really like anyway - I got a few things that I wanted already on regular clearance. And I am pretty sure I won't be doing anymore c'ville trips until July at the earliest. The one last weekend about did me in.
This is how an old navy worker explained it to me. Every time a new line comes out (there are more than one spring line, summer line, etc. they have multiple summer lines that come out at different times)the line that has already been out goes on some kind of sale, and usually but not always, something from an older line is moved to clearance. So every time a new line comes out the older stuff gets closer to clearance or marked down even more on clearance. As long as there is room on the clearance racks they don't do the 50% off of clearance. They said they do that only when they are running out of space and need to make room for new clothes coming out. Anyway, maybe that will be helpful to you to gauge when stuff will go on sale?
Makes sense.
Our store here, for at least 3 years in a row, did the extra half-off winter clearance the 3rd Friday in January. So predictable. So I thought that was always how they did it. But maybe there's a different manager now. At any rate, I live too far away to pop in all the time and check on things. Nowadays, I'm relying more on Target.
I need to go shopping with you more...
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