Markdowns Can Be Lurking in Odd Places

I tried to go to my favorite thrift yesterday but it was so busy there wasn't a single parking spot available! So, I went to Walgreen's down the street to kill some time and see if I could find a deal! I was still on the hunt for Christmas Hershey's Kisses for my Valentine's Day goodies for school. I went down the Christmas aisle and the only candy they had were candy canes and really Christmas-y looking stuff like chocolate santas and Peeps. I went down the regular candy aisle and looked for any bags that had red or green wrappers or bows on the package, etc. I spotted the Hershey's Kisses - Caramel - wrapped in red and green and the packages had snowflakes on them. I took one to the register for a price check....62¢! Score! I got eight bags of those. I spotted some bags of Chocolate Mint Kises kind of hidden under the regular chocolate Kisses, so I took a chance and took them to the register. 62¢ again! I got three bags of those. So, I got eight big bags of Kisses for school for a total of $4.96. I went on to the Dollar Tree and got six packages of little Valentine's Day buckets for the kisses. I also found Candy Canes reduced to 50¢. I take two Candy canes and add a dab of hot glue to the tip of the curved part and on the end and them stick two candy canes together to make a heart. I add red curly ribbon (from Christmas markdowns too) and add them to the bags. The kids always love the candy cane hearts. The candy canes at Walgreen's were red and green striped but the ones at the Dollar Tree were red and white striped, so they were good for Valentine's Day. So, my point is, and I do have one, that I spent a total of $13.96 to make 24 Valentine Goodie Buckets. That's a pretty good deal and they will get good stuff.

I did manage to squeeze into a parking spot at the thrift after I left Walgreen's. I got a really cool vest with elephants on it for $3.00. It is all sequined and brocade - I think it is from Peru or something. It looks like a camel rider would wear it! I also found a seagrass basket, which is something I recently learned about. I paid 50¢ for it - it should sell for at least $25.00 if not more. The vest will go on ebay too.

Yesterday morning I set up my flea market booth. It took a few hours to set it up. It has a big 10 ft. window in front of it so I need to find some tall glass shelves that I can put in the window and display glass and pottery on it. It really is in an awesome spot right in front of that big window. I'll post pictures as soon as I get them downloaded.

Today while I was picking up groceries at Wal-Mart I noticed some Family Size frozen meals in the meat department. Each one had four servings of meatloaf and four servings of meacaroni and cheese in a reheatable container. They were $5.98 each, but they were reduced to $1.50. BUT! They also had $1.00 peel-off coupons on them. So, 50¢ to feed a family of four meatloaf and macaroni and cheese. I bought three of them. Have I ever mentioned that I am a vegetarian? (Someone somewhere will eat them someday!)

Hint of the Day: Look for out of place merchandise. Things get put in the wrong places and some times people even hide merchandise waiting for it to go on sale. I NEVER do that - it is very unfair!