This week I have been to my local Kmart three times already. Yes, I am loving all the free Bumble Bee Tuna and Starbucks I have picked up this week. But it wasn’t until yesterday that I diverged to other areas of the store only to find out that Kmart is having a HUGE clearance sale on toys. They have a lot of toys on clearance for up to 50% off AND this week only you can take an additional 50% off that clearance price. You could be walking away with toys up to 75% discounted. Lissa, from Savings Cents recently blogged about all of her toy clearance finds here.
Actually, I am not surprised that Kmart is having a toy clearance sale. I am also waiting for toys to go on clearance at Target this month. In the past two years, Target has clearanced a lot of toys up to 75% off on the last week of July. I did not track it down for 2007, but last year I blogged about it here. Last year, clearance toys got to 75% off the last Thursday of the month. I have already started noticing a lot of toys on clearance at my Target for 30-50% off. But I am hoping (almost expecting) they will hit 75% off by the end of the month.
Why does this clearance happen? to make room to the new “Hot” toys of this year’s holidays. The toy clearance at Target is usually a huge event and if you want to take advantage of it, you most likely have to be there early the day that they are marking the toys down.
This is my advice to you:
Do NOT bust your budget by hunting these clearance deals. Yes, getting toys at 75% off is a good deal but it is NOT a good idea to do it unless you have the money to pay for it. Going into debt to take advantage of a deal is NEVER a good idea.
Do NOT overbuy. If you hit the sale, trust me it will be hard not to overbuy. I will be very honest and admit that I overbought last year’s clearance. I still have toys leftover from that clearance in a storage closet. It is nice to have them for birthdays and what not, but from a “common sense” point of view that’s money that I could be using elsewhere right now. Please try very hard to create a list and shop for that list.
Do NOT feel left out if you miss the sale. Last year, Amazon had a LOT of really amazing toy deals during the first 15 days of the month of December. I blogged about a lot of hot toys that were up to 50-75% off. You can see a couple of those blog entries here and here. Really, really good deals. If you can’t afford to shop the clearance sales now, this is the time to start saving money to shop the Amazon deals in December. Also, don’t forget about Swagbucks. I am accumulating all of my Swagbucks to use them for my holiday shopping. There’s 5 months to go and plenty more Swagbucks to be earned.
It is smart to start thinking of the Holidays now. It is a good time to take advantage of clearance deals. But it is only smart to do it if you can afford to do it and shop smart. If not, start saving money into a fund to use for your holiday shopping and keep reading this blog because it is my fun job to help you stretch your dollars. And trust me the deals will be there come December and I will be here hunting them down and sharing them with you.
