The early bird gets the...

DEALS! Yes, the early bird gets the deals. It dawned on me the other day...I should be shopping year round for the various "drives" we have at work. There's always the food drives, sometimes a drive for the local BETA house, school supplies, and of course Toys for Tots. This year I was very last minute on my Toys for Tots shopping and I didn't get as much as I would have liked because well...it was expensive. So I've already started rounding things up for 2012.

Today I went to Beall's Outlet hoping to snag the remaining FL Gator flags, but alas...I snoozed and losed. No flags. But I snagged a cute sweater for myself - it was 50% off. I had to wander the clearance aisle of course - you just never know what might be there. Frankly, not a lot today. Then I saw the rack of kid stuff on clearance that didn't have a giant "Clearance" sign on it. Sweet!

I picked up a backpack for $3, 3 themed school supply sets for $1.25 each (Spiderman, Dora and Disney Princess), and a mesh bag full of sand toys for $1.79. In the Christmas clearance section I picked up a cute toddler book for Georgia next year. It's My Little Pony Christmas something or other and it has little tiny lights that light up and twinkle in the back. It was $1.49. Picked up a couple of other things for stocking stuffers.I figure I did well - I mean my sweater was originally $16.99...throw in the tax and you're at the $18 I paid for all of it. 


If you support Toys for Tots or pick Angels off the tree, or fill shoe boxes for the homeless or to send goodies overseas for our troops - I highly recommend peeking at what is in the clearance section of the stores you shop in - stores don't always clearance "junk" they clearance "last one" and "returns" and "making room for more new stuff" you just have to look thru the junk to find it - make some one's Christmas!