<p>What I loved about the mirrored Advent calendar…it did not look Christmassy, you could use it to count down to anything. Use the little drawers all year. Target also had oodles of Christmassy Advent calendars.</p>
<p>To the poster who asked about Michael’s crafts coupon. I rarely shop there so I had no idea I was lucky to find an item that I wanted that took the coupon. D1 wanted a boxed set of markers for making greeting cards.
My feet hurt. I went to Sports Authority today and used a $25 dollars off purchase of 100 dollars. I watched what I spent carefully to not go over 100. I saw a few other items for holiday gifts but figure there will be another coupon next Sunday.
Also went to Borders and used a 25% off coupon on Apples to Apples to bring to Thanksgiving.
Then to Costco and bought flowers for my MIL for tomorrow. I was surprised Costco was pretty quiet.
And my best buy of the day was renewing my library card. I haven’t used it in years. Checked a couple of YA books for D3.</p>
<p>I got a great buy at American Eagle last week. They had buy two shirts, get one free - and it counted for sale and clearance shirts. I got three shirts for under $30!</p>
<p>I’ve been looking for an advent calendar without luck. No Trader Joe’s nearby but could try Starbucks - but even the 1/2 price is still a bit more than I’d like to spend, but my kids count on having one - I would also love to send one back to school with D1.</p>
<p>Our Costco was a zoo last night. They ran out of my favorite potatoes!!! It was quite unusual to see only food items in people’s carts: shoppers rushed past the flat screens and headed straight for the turkeys and pumpkin pies. Ususally at least someone will haul a big box to the checkout!
I looked through their clothes section and got a very nice Michael Kors down parka for D for $60! That is a good buy, because similar coats on sale at Macy’s were almost twice as much.</p>
<p>Christmas Tree shop had kiddie Advent calendars with chocolate for $1 apiece. Also cheap ginger bread house kits. </p>
<p>I am already out of money for the month because I had my car winterized, tires rotated, oil and filter changed, etc. Also had to get work done on some trees that are endangered in hopes of saving them over the winter. It’s going to be a long 10 days till the next pay check and that is already promised for the mortgage.</p>
<p>Season 3 of The Office–$19.99 instead of $39.99 at Borders with a coupon and my Borders Reward Card. Of course, I spent a bunch of $$ while there on presents, so I’m sure Borders came out ahead…</p>
<p>I had a coupon for Borders…and used it to buy a DVD of The Golden Compass for the 3 young children I’ll be seeing for Thanksgiving. That, the 99 cent Advent calendars from TJs and a gingerbread house kit from Costco will entertain them for a while. They wouldn’t think it Thanksgiving if I didn’t give them the Advent calendars.</p>
<p>A while back when all my kids were still at home I secretly made 5 gingerbread houses from scratch. Templates for the house walls, roofs and all. Never again!</p>
<p>Barnes & Noble has a 40% off coupon if you use mastercard. Check for it online.</p>
<p>I’m a bit puzzled about what happened today. My youngest son has been wanting a computer game in the worst way. I did buy it for him for Christmas and have it put away. It’s his main gift. He had a friend over today who has the game already, but he can’t play because his computer does not have enough memory or video card or something. The kid brought his game here, and they played it on S’s computer. The kid and game are gone, but my S still has the game on his computer where it was downloaded. I didn’t think you could do that. Is the game still good for the kid? What about the game I bought for Christmas? Is it now just a duplicate? Is this legal?</p>
<p>My D’s love American Eagle and they have free shipping today and 25% offyour entire order, so her on sale sweater is less than 15.00 and I save gas…speaking of gas though, my stop and shop card saved me gas with it’s points, at their station yesterday, I paid 60 cents a gallon!! (filled up for 9.00) All the grocery shopping lately paid off. : )</p>
<p>Apple is running a sale online and in their stores today. I-pods are on sale and they are offering free shipping.</p>
<p>I dropped my wife and daughter at the mall and am in the office with my son (he’s working on his labs). Mall traffic and parking lot were a zoo.</p>
<p>Beat the Apple store one-day sale price on an iPod Nano 8 Gb at Target: $145 sale price plus a $15 target gift card.</p>
<p>I was thrilled by this buy.</p>
<p>At Old Navy there has been a fitted red knee length trench type style coat I’ve been eyeing up for my daughter. Regular price $49.50 - today 1/2 price!!! Paired this with a cashmere sweater 1/2 price ($29.50) and a $10 off coupon, got both for under $50!!!</p>
<p>Flat screens were flying off the shelves of our local Costco today. Sony offered significant discounts on the spot, and there were some other good buys. It was totally opposite the scene I saw there before Thanksgiving - no one was buying food today! I got the iTunes cards for the young ladies with my coupon and a Garmin with a coupon, too.
H and I went to Fry’s after lunch. Big mistake. Best sellers (judging from what I’ve seen in people’s carts): all things Wii and flat screen TVs.</p>
<p>On our drive back home today from Austin we stopped off mid-afternoon at the new outlet shops about 30 miles outside of Houston. It was EXTREMELY crowded and we gave ourselves 45 minutes to look around before hitting the road. I braved the crowds long enough to find a great deal at the Ann Taylor outlet – a v-neck cashmere sweater regularly $138 for $41!</p>
<p>I’m proud to say I drove home 120 miles on the Interstate today past 2 huge malls, one an outlet mall and didn’t stop. I did buy enough gas to get home and my annual Starbucks holiday coffee for which they will donate 5% to AIDS in Africa. I think gift cards for the children and checks for the adults will once again take care of my list.</p>
<p>Oh yeah, I did manage to score one Starbucks Advent Calendar…thanks for the tip!!!</p>
<p>Still need to find one more…</p>
<p>I think our best buy today was a 11-piece Pyrex bakeware set at Macy’s for $19.99. When I used my Macy’s card, I got another 10% off.</p>
<p>I got our Trader Joe 99 cent Advent calendars (with candy) and at Bob’s Clothing store, my D got a pair of suede boots on sale for 40.00 from 60.00, I had a 10.00 Bob’s cert. from using my Bobs card and a gentlemen gave us a 30% off coupon upon arriving. We felt good leaving…
The rest was done online.</p>