Shopping Goals: January 2016

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January is a good month to pick up Christmas clearance items (I know, stater of the obvious am I).  I have found in the past that if you are looking for satellite Christmas items (like some piece to a Christmas village for instance) you can find a lot of things 90% off this time of year just because the stores are desperate to get rid of their Christmas items to make way for Valentine's Day merchandise. 

The last like three years I have found toy clearance to be utterly disappointing.  Target used to be my go-to spot to look for after Christmas clearance, but then they started cutting back their inventory more and more and they take forever to get anything up to even 75% off  and by that time what little they had that was kind of okay is gone.  Wal-Mart toy clearance markdowns up here, in my experience, is now a joke.  We're talking like 10% mark downs on toy clearance.  Wal-Mart will still have toy clearance up here into March or even April.  Fred Meyer is kind of scattershot.   Some years they have great clearance and sometimes it is just non-existent.

Kind of makes me glad that I just started making gifts for all the kids.

Now, there are some things on Christmas clearance that I do keep my eye out for.  Christmas shaped crackers (in the shape of snowflakes, etc.) can sometimes be found decently cheap this time of year.  I stockpile Ziploc coupons in preparation of the Christmas themed throw away plastic containers going on clearance and the Christmas themed Ziploc bags.  Christmas candy has a good shelf life and can be saved for snacking throughout the year or even for Halloween candy, depending on what it is.  Giant Hershey kisses or chocolate bars can be used for baking or candy making later in the year and if you don't have allergies to worry about chocolate melting discs and other candy making supplies can sometimes be found for next to nothing this time of year.  Sparkling cider or grape juice are good things to watch for on clearance as well.  It's still juice and can be used in jello salads, in cooking and baking or can be drank (of course).  

This year, like last year for me, unless I find those things REALLY cheap, I am going to be passing on them due to lack of funds.  I am praying that a few of the local stores might have some abundance of meat that they didn't go through due to lack of interest.  I've found really good cuts of beef super cheap in years past and great deals on pork roasts and ham.  I would not be able to afford much, but any little bit of beef or pork that I can put into the freezer is not a bad thing right now.

My mom sent me a gift card for my birthday.  I'm going to be using it to it's fullest extent to buy some things for the pantry and also toward some things for my "sewing pantry". 

Shopping Goals:  January 2016

Amazon.com (this is where the majority of my shopping is going to be done this month)

Food Items:

• Chock Full O' Nuts Coffee  Best coffee I've found and super cheap on Amazon.
• Chef Boyardee Whole Grain Beefaroni, 15-Ounce Cans (Pack of 12)  My husband likes raviolli and is willing to try this in a warmer for lunches at work instead of going out to eat for his lunch, which I'm hoping it works (along with other things of course) to help us save some money.
• Royal Gelatin, Sugar Free, Orange, 0.32-Ounce (Pack of 12)  I actually got this a bit cheaper yet (a bit over 3.00), but it's still cheap jello.
• Hormel Beef Tamales, In Chili Sauce, 15-Ounce Units (Pack of 12)  These will be used to pad out Mexican food nights.  I love to put these along side enchiladas when I'm sick as well.  Tamales go for well over 2.00 per can at the store, so to me it's worth it to buy them in bulk.  Once again, I was able to get these cheaper by ordering 5 things on my Subscribe and Save (I ordered two orders of the coffee, which is enough to last me a month) and also by seeing it a BIT cheaper one night, so I was able to get the 12 cans for little over 15.00.

Non-Food Items:

• KLOUD City White 70-Yards Length 1/4" Width Braided Elastic Cord, Elastic Band, Elastic Rope, Bungee, Black Heavy Stretch Knit Elastic Spool 
• Knitted elastic 1" 50 yards - White

I was reading on various blogs about an outfit called WAWAK and how you could get bulk sewing items, such as elastic really cheap.  And you can.  If you don't live in Alaska anyway.  What they wanted for shipping nearly gave me a heart attack.  So, I went on Amazon and found out that you can get sewing supplies CHEAP and in bulk too.  And they ship here the way they normally ship, so it's awesome!

I'm hoping to get some bulk zippers and such later in the year, but for now having enough elastic that I don't have to worry about buying the small packets from Jo-Ann's for a long while is definitely worth it.

Regular Stores:

• Cat Litter
• Water Softening Salt
• Pasta (we are eating this quite a bit and my son has also been eating it as part of his feeding therapy, so we're running lower than I had planned on)
• School foods (I'm running low on things like squeeze yogurt and things for the kids, so I'll be looking for sales on those items) 

Jo-Ann Fabrics:

• 2 yards of faux leather for further repairs to the loveseat

The loveseat is starting to shred out on the back cushions, so I'm going to need to repair it before it gets worse.   I will be looking for a good coupon to stack with my 10.00 off 30.00 coupon from my Jo-Ann calendar (the fabric I need is like 28.00 per yard regular price...ouch!) to get the fabric as cheap as I possibly can.  This goal is also based on whether we have ANY extra disposable income this month.  So far, it's not looking good, but we shall see.

So, there you are folks.  My shopping goals for the month.  How about you?