Summer Sale Shopping

We started a new summer tradition the first weekend after T’s school year ended. We didn’t plan for it- it just happened. We were on our way home from washing a fire truck when we saw a huge sign- Yard Sale, 9am-2pm, Tons of kids stuff!

Since that weekend, we’ve spent almost every Saturday morning driving around our area looking for yard sale signs. The kids know and love this activity. They run to put on their shoes after breakfast, and come back to T and I asking “Are we go to a yard sale today?”

Sometimes we buy things, and sometimes we don’t. Mostly we all just love looking and chatting with people, but every now and then we come across a trinket or a gem that is just too good to pass up. Some of the highlights include the two umbrella strollers (like this one) that we bought for $3 each, the $1 doll stroller that Tiny just had to have, the $10 trampoline that both kids bounce around on every day, a brand new, still in the box, toy blender for $5, and a large stack of gently used books (mostly $0.50 each).

This is definitely one of Tiny and Buba’s favorite no cost/low cost activities (right up there with browsing the pet shop). The only downside is that we pick up things that they love, but don’t need. They have have way too many toys and books! Fortunately, my twin club’s fall sale is right around the corner. I plan to sell tons, and buy very little. That should even things out a bit. I hope.

But It’s Still Summer, Isn’t It?

We’ve done almost no swimming this summer. When T’s school let out on June 22nd, we started talking about taking the kids to “Grandpa’s pool” (the pool and tennis club where Grandpa is a lifetime member), but the conditions were never right. It was too cold, Tiny had an owie, it was too hot and way too humid, I was working, the kids were sick- it just never seemed to work out.

But during the two weeks that we suffered through Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease, the kids continued to ask about going to Grandpa’s pool. We told them that they couldn’t go until everyone was healthy again. That day finally came on Friday, and so on Saturday, we finally took the kids to Grandpa’s pool for the first time this summer. And this was when I discovered that Tiny’s swimsuit doesn’t really fit.

I bought it back in March- online from The Children’s Place. It was a little big, but not much and I figured she’d grow a bit in the next few months. I liked it because it had short sleeves (better protection from the sun) and ruffles on the butt (just so cute!)

The suit fits okay as long as it’s dry, but as soon as it gets soaked, the bottom part sags. I had to constantly pull the bottom half up so we wouldn’t get kicked out of Grandpa’s pool for indecent exposure. With the California cousins coming into town on Wednesday, I knew we’d be back at the pool several more times this week, so this afternoon we headed off to the mall in search of a new swimsuit for Tiny,

But of course, there are no swimsuits for sale in August. August is for back to school shopping, and the stores have already put out their fall displays- racks of jeans and cords and long sleeved shirts and sweatshirts. I get that some may want a jump on putting together a killer fall wardrobe for those first weeks back in the classroom, but hey, it’s still summer isn’t it?

T and I dragged Tiny and Buba from store to store (The Children’s Place, Sears, Gymboree, Hanna Andersson, Baby Gap, and Macy’s). Only Gymboree and Sears had swimsuits in Tiny’s size (size 12 months!) and that amounted to three options. We ended up buying a pale pink one-piece  from Sears (which cost $5 more than the one I bought in March!) that I don’t love, but that work for the next month. After purchasing the suit, we also checked Kohl’s, Carter’s, and the Disney Store, but none of those stores had any suits left either. I was thinking of making a trip up to Target tomorrow morning, but then I had this conversation with Tiny:

r: What do you think of your new swimsuit?

T: It’s good.

r: Do you love it?

T: I love it (said very unenthusiastically). I piddy sure I don’t need anodur one (she said with a tired grin).

I got the message. She doesn’t want to shop anymore. She doesn’t want to try on any more swimsuits. This one will do. However, when we talked to Grammy about our shopping adventure on the phone after dinner tonight, she said she’d check two more places, and I didn’t tell her not too.

My Little Fashionista

I’ve never been someone with the cool clothes or the cool shoes. My mother went shopping and bought almost all of my clothes by herself until I was in high school, because I just wasn’t into that sort of thing. I’m still not a big fan of shopping. It’s so time consuming- looking, trying on, exchanging for a different size. Right now, I have such a small amount of clothing that my entire fall/winter and spring/summer wardrobes fit quite easily in my dresser and half of the closet I share with T.

Tiny, I feel, will be very different from me in this area. She’s been wanting a say in what she wears each day since last summer (about 15 months old). Ever morning, I have to offer her choices or be prepared to listen to the consequences. She knows her wardrobe like the back of her hand, and she’ll request specific articles of clothing that are not presented to try to get me to offer her something different. And she LOVES shoes. At Christmas time, she threw a big fit when I had to remove her fancy shoes because I knew they were too small for her feet. She screamed, “NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO!” Even when I showed her the red marks and indentations the shoes had made on her feet.

So it didn’t surprise me at all that Tiny picked these shoes when we went shopping recently:

They were not at all what I had in mind when we headed to the shoe department at Target. I wanted a nice summer shoe- a sandal but with covered toes. Target had no such things for little girls, but it didn’t seem to matter. Because when Tiny saw those shoes with all the colors and sparkles, it was love at first sight. She put them on easily all by herself, and was just so happy to walk around in them that I knew we would be taking them home with us.

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.