So here is one of my all-time favorite money-saving tips. Maybe you already know about this but if you don’t, here’s a great reason to maybe stop by Target. Twice a year, Target has a very large toy clearance. It’s actually more of a wipeout. These are not the seasonal toys left over from Christmas, but toys that will be discontinued, repackaged or replaced. I have even found toys in the past that for whatever reason, were on clearance and then full price back on the shelf the next month or so.
The clearance sale begins shortly after Christmas and is usually gone by the first week of February. All Targets follow a different mark-down schedule but the toy clearance prices are pretty close across the board. As far as what one Target has compared to another, will actually vary pretty widely by store. My closest Target is actually in another state since I live near a border. This particular store had a few decent items immediately following Christmas at 50% off. Most will start at 15-30% though. In the first week of January you can expect to start seeing clearance throughout most of the toy aisles. In the second week they may even add a little more and some items will be up to 50% off.
I happened to stop by my closest Target today and found they moved all the toy clearance to a single aisle and some of the aisle was at 70% off. Even if an item is still priced higher, I recommend scanning them because maybe a sticker was missed and the clearance price is lower than the ticket. That happens to me more often than you would think. Anything not sold after this mark down will go as low as 90% off. While I plan to do a whole blog about this later, it’s worth mentioning that not many items make it to 70 or even the better 90% off. One of the Targets near me in my state doesn’t even have much of anything on clearance while the one I stopped at has a very full aisle still.
If you are like me, and have a very large family to buy for, this is the best way to stock up gifts for birthdays and Christmas! It’s amazing how many gifts I was able to get over the past few years and for so little. Even my own kids occasionally got way more than they should have because I bought so many items that made it to 90% off. I will tell you this, if you are a building set household and find any Legos, Mega Bloks, etc. on sale at 30 or even 50%, consider that the jackpot. I usually snatch them up at that price and then hope there are some left at a lower price a week later. They will price adjust them with the receipt. Out of the eleven billion-dy times I have bought them at the decent 30 – 50%, there were none left when I returned. I think I have gotten a price adjustment all of like 2 times.
Another thing that might be worth mentioning: I don’t always shop this particular sale since it is right after Christmas and most of the kids in my family already got toys from the current selection for Christmas that they wanted. If there are really cool ones that they didn’t, I pick those up for birthdays that fall before the next sale. I usually wait for the next sale and save up all my gift cards so that I can go absolutely spending-spree crazy when the time comes and not think too much past my list of children’s names and ages. It’s so much fun! Of course, sometimes there is a cool Spiderman on sale and he already knows what to do. Since I’m such an awesome fan, he just hops right into my cart and comes home to sit on my office shelf where he can pose for my daughters Barbies.
There are quite a few other semi-annual sales going on right now, too. I will try and keep you posted but since most are almost over, I will be continuing with organizing first. As far as Target goes, there is also a Target Cartwheel today for 20% clearance clothing of which there is also a ton to go along with the toy clearance. While they start putting out all of the outdoor stuff and new seasonal items, check the aisles for last season. I have found lots of Pumpkin-flavored foods, kids hooded towels, candles, door mats, picture frames, bedding (also has a Cartwheel), rugs, dishes, appliances and so much more. So many items and so little time! I hope you find what you are looking for but I almost never pass up looking at the toy clearance at this time of year, it’s by far the best way to save boatloads of dough!
The House of Xen 