Christmas gifts for less
Care to spend about 40% less on your Christmas gifts? Pick up a Sunday paper this week! Your local Michael's, Hobby Lobby, and Joann's Fabrics generally run catalog flyers in the the Sunday paper with a weekly 40% off coupon. The catch is you can only redeem the coupons for non-sale items and only one item per visit. This is fine news for gift shopping however since most of the items I would normally buy are often not the loss leaders in the flyers.
If you haven't actually walked all the way around one of these stores let me suggest a couple aisles that caught our eyes last week. First of all, the doll section. Michael's had an American Girl look-alike doll for $15. I kid you not. With the coupon that comes to about $9. Less than a tenth of the original AG dolls, which though lovely DO in fact get ratty hair and lost limbs. I can testify to that. : / There was a wall of clothing and accessories to go with the dolls, none of which remotely resembled a Bratz doll wardrobe. If you want authenticity you can purchase the lookalike doll at Michaels and get a vintage dress from AG.
Further on in the toy aisle there were classic wooden toys like lacing beads and alphabet blocks. There were also a number of kits - science kits, construction kits, pencil by number, beading, mini looms, pottery kits, hand sewing projects, and more.
In the actual stitchery section there was also a find - Jean-e-ology iron on embellishments for skirts, tops and of course jeans. You can take a simple homemade skirt, purse, etc and give it chain store appeal for about $3. Or $1.80 with your coupon <g> My girls were ALL over these fwiw.
Hobby Lobby has a similar offering and Joanns has a bit less. I plan to make a weekly visit to at least two of these stores while the kids are at piano lessons in coming weeks. Assuming I can keep shopping - sigh! The spirit is willing but the flesh is.... contracting. : p
Michel's carries the Thomas the Train line as well. That is a huge savings there. We've been buying a little piece at a time with our 40% off.
Posted by: Jennifer | October 17, 2006 at 07:35 AM