Total Saved: $261.20

I love that many stores now list the amount of money you’ve saved at the bottom of your receipt. As someone who tries to bargain shop as much as possible, there’s nothing more satisfying than seeing a big, fat number in the amount saved section at the end of a successful shopping trip.

And this is one of my favorite times of year to shop. Stores are already beginning to bring out spring clothing (which seems absurd here in New England where we are bound to have many more cold days ahead), and so the end of season clearance sales have begun. I love to shop these sales, as I take full advantage of the low, low prices to buy ahead for the following year. My general rule of thumb is that I won’t pay more than $3.00 for a clearance item. Exceptions are sometimes made for sweaters, sweatshirts, or heavy pants, but in general, $3.00 is my max. Yes, this end-of-season shopping is a bit of a gamble, but I’ve gotten really good at predicting the sizes I’ll need, so I feel it is completely worth the risk. (Plus, if my kids never wear the stuff, I’m pretty confident that I can get most of my money back by reselling the clothes at my twin club’s rummage sale.)

So I was like a kid in a candy shop this morning when I saw the 70-80% off display of Jumping Beans clothing at Kohl’s. I scoured the shelves looking for any pants or tops that were sized 18 or 24 months (because my almost 2-year-olds are still wearing 12 month clothing) and came up with 33 items. I think I ended up with only 4 or 5 shirts and the rest were pants, but I got a nice mix of lightweight (for cooler summer days), mid-weight (for spring), and a few heavyweight (for winter). I was able to find more for Buba than for Tiny, but I’d gotten more for Tiny than Buba when I shopped at the Children’s Place over the weekend, so it was almost even.

I wasn’t paying a ton of attention as I threw all the clothes into the storage area beneath our double stroller, but was hoping to spend around $50. So I was a little disappointed when the cashier asked for $68.80. That is, until she announced that my total savings for my purchases was $261.20! I’d gotten an additional 20% for using my Kohl’s card (along with a coupon that came in the mail), which meant that I’d spent just over $2 for each piece of clothing. Not bad at all.