Bargain Shopping Lesson 2

I love to shop but even more than loving to shop I love to shop a bargain. So after a weekend of bargain shopping I thought it would be nice to share the wealth of knowledge on how obtain these out of this world deals.

Shop off season. Yep sounds easy but most people fall for retail tricks everytime. We are tired of winter and along with that we are tired of winter clothes. It is a true disciplined shopper that can walk into a store with all of the bright spring colors and adorable dresses and tank tops and go past it to the clearance racks.

I promise you though that you won't be sorry. So of course I started at the mall here in Wyomissing at one of new found favorite stores Bon-Ton. There I found Palmer's (Nike fleece lined and reversible) winter coat for $15.99 (originally $69.99) and Emily's (London Fog...but most importantly adorable) winter coat for $11.99 (originally $59.99).

Then I went where I always go when I want to get the kids some adorable clothes..the outlets in Lacaster, PA. I had the kids with me and thus my shopping time was limited but I only planned on hitting one store yesterday...Gymboree. I love Gymboree but their clothes can be REALLY expensive if care is not taken. What is nice about the outlet is that they always have at least 2-3 lines (yes kids clothes have lines which is more like they have themes) that are marked DOWN.

For a grand total of $123.54 I got

4 long sleeve t-shirts for Emily (adorable colors with ice skates, cupcakes, or snowflakes on them)
1 pair of jeans for Palmer
2 winter dresses for Emily
3 long sleeve button up shirts for Palmer
1 sweater vest for Palmer
1 long sleeve t-shirt for Palmer
1 pair of capri's & matching shirt for Emily
1 sundress for Emily and matching headband & sunglasses
2 pair of shorts for Palmer
1 adorable baseball jersey for Palmer
2 t-shirts for Palmer

*You noticed that there were some spring/summer clothes in that mix. Gymboree had some of last year's lines marked down too.

I will not lie to you and say that it was easy to ignore the SUPER cute new spring line that was out. However the joy of Gymboree is that I earned Gym bucks. The crappy part is that you can only use Gym bucks at the regular store and you have to use them during a select number of days (like 4 specific days) or you lose them (that's the catch). Gym bucks is money that you get when you spend a certain amount the next time you go you have a credit. So I earned $60 in gym bucks. The next I shop there I can get $120 worth of clothes for $60.

Bret had this theory that I can shop anytime I want to as long (since I budget our money he figures I will know better than he if we have the cash for it) as I have the kids with me. He seems to think that they limit the amount of time that I have and thus limiting the amount of money I spend too. Truth is he is probably right because I could get a lot done if I didn't have the kids with me. Emily is starting to like shopping for clothes too now so he may be in for some trouble. Over all it was a great day even though Bret was working. Hmm...he is working next weekend too....