Tuesday, October 11, 2016

Collective haul

Mostly cause I've been in a rut lately. Last Tuesday, I went north to a smaller Walmart and our sad mall.
I mainly went to the Walmart to see if they had anything different than the super Walmart. They are actually building a super Walmart up there as well, the grocery store next door went out of business. Man, that place is big, it's like there's a huge wall. I don't go up there very much, like I said the mall is sad, and I just don't have any interest in the other stores up there, especially since my favorite pizza buffet place up there went out of business.
Anywho, I visited the clearance and Halloween sections. There was a lot of clearance.
 duct tape, pen pouch, deodorant, candy, erasers, glue sticks, Halloween pieces, glitter tape.
I actually needed some deodorant. The duct tape was a seventy-five cents and since I use up my duct tape so fast mailing packages, plus I get a bit more than rolls I get from the Dollar Tree. This monster pencil pouch was $1, and I have been wanting one for awhile, but I wasn't going to spend $6 for it. The glue sticks were $1.50, and since I'm always running out of glue as well. The Ghostbusters erasers were $1.50, and I love erasers, plus Ghostbusters. The Halloween pieces, which I know you can't see the others, but there are glittered bats, spiders and the skulls were ninety-seven cents. I bought them for the skull to put on a flipbook, but it didn't look right. The glitter tape is a vine, I'm not sure how I feel about that, I used part of it for a flipbook and it ripped very easily.
The thing I've learned every time I go shopping, you should always watch the display when the checker is ringing you out. I feel most of the time, something rings up as a wrong price, and if you're not paying attention, you'd pay more than you wanted. The monster pencil pouch actually rang up as the original $6, and another set of pens I picked up was actually $3 something, not the $1 something I thought.
Next up, I wandered through JC Penney and saw the new Sephora thing in it, that was ugly. My mall is sad, it has JC Penney, Younkers, Claire's, Jimmy John's, TJ Maxx and Kohl's as the big things in it. I don't go there much, I don't really find anything to buy up there.
I also wandered through the Hallmark store and loved this little display of Rainbow Brite dolls they had:
 I really wanted to buy one, but not for $6.
I also visited the Claire's because I see cool things on people's hauls from there. They were having a buy 3 get 2 free special, but I couldn't find 3 things I really wanted to buy for full price.
I also went to get some tape from TJ Maxx, last time I was there I had found a set of 4 tape rolls for $5, so I was hoping they'd have them again. Of course not, I did find these leaves for $2, though.
 I find it funny when I'm watching people's haul videos they always say the exact price, so these were actually $1.99, but adding that extra penny on there makes it more true to price, especially with tax. I generally round up when I'm figuring out what I spent anyway.
Last was Kohl's. For my birthday, my mom bought me a set of Twin sheets from them, cause I was gonna downsize to a twin bed. But, when we went bed shopping my parents talked me into a full, and I had sheets to take back.
I got store credit and was going to buy a blind bag from Finding Dory, but I found something else way better:
 The owl was about $8, originally like $25, I don't know why it was marked down but I loved it. I'm not using it as a soap dispenser, once I find a white pop cap, I'm gonna put it on there. I love it. The other thing is an acrylic puffer fish Christmas ornament. I wanted to spend money on Christmas ornaments, but thankfully, they're not really out. I really love this puffer fish though. And then I got about $2 back, cause it was too small for a gift card.
I had told myself I could have Jimmy John's for lunch if I went to the mall. Unfortunately I got done just about in time to catch the bus back home and I have been craving Jimmy John's ever since.
This past weekend the library was having a craft/quilting book sale in our used book store. I purposely waited until Sunday to go because they were going to be half price, plus I figured it'd be pretty picked over and I wouldn't be too tempted.
 I did pick up a regularly priced book on the history of diseases for $5, two Somerset Studio magazines for fifty cents each and a Secrets of the Da Vinci Code magazine for free.
Today, I went to Target, Dollar Tree and Hobby Lobby. I'm in a few swaps that I wanted to get some stuff for. I was looking for fall stuff, a black inkpad and more tape. My first stop was Target.
 If these were tights, I would have bought them. I'd love to have this design in tights. I did pick up a pair of fleece-lined tights which was one reason I went to Target. It's cold in my apartment, and I was hoping they'd keep me warmer, plus I had a save 5% through my Cartwheel for them.
tights, placemat, tape, art, cards, felt jack-o-lanterns, clothespins and markers.
 I have to say, Cartwheel doesn't really help me save much at Target. I only use it on things I'm thinking of trying. I don't buy groceries at Target because it's just too far away from home and my grocery store is cheaper. I don't buy clothes at Target, mostly cause I can get some really nice stuff at Goodwill. I did have a thing for women's jeans, which I do need, but I didn't feel like trying them on.
I also went to get some thin black Sharpie markers, I found mine the other day and of course it was dry.
As you can see, most of my stuff is from the Dollar Spot or clearance. The placemat is to go on my desk to protect it, it was on clearance for fifty-eight cents, originally $1.99. I found some cool pink marble tape in the dollar spot, I hadn't seen that in other people's hauls, so I picked up two. I also got the foil spiderweb and the black jewel tape. I've gotten myself so into Halloween this year, that I feel the need to make another Halloween flip book, which is the whole reason I bought the felt pumpkins, and the black tape. There was a section in the clearance which had a whole bunch of these frame fillers. I thought they'd be great for swaps. The feathers were $1.48, the bird $1.18 and the fox $.88, I got two of him. I've been seeing these tag cards in people's hauls and when I found them, I grabbed two. The clothespins are for one of my swaps.
And once again, you have to watch the cashier, I have to always ask them to make sure they give me the five cent coupon for bringing my own bag. I had one cashier tell me it was only the Target red bag that I could use for that, not true. I know it's only five cents, but still.
Next up was Dollar Tree, I actually found some stuff I haven't seen in other people's hauls. That does not happen very often.
 magnet, Christmas cards, stickers, glass, owl ornament, ribbon, binder clips, gummies, pen, mugs, garland, stamp pad.
I've seen this magnet in the shape of a mixer, this one is a mason jar and it has conversions on it. I seem to run into recipes that like to give measurements in ounces. I don't have a scale, so knowing the cup equivalent is really helpful. I love that they have Christmas cards out, I like to buy cards and just make some for some very select people in my life. The sticker section was pretty picked over like always, but I did find this minion sticker book, and these pop up stickers. I hadn't seen these stickers in anyone else's hauls. They had bugs and all kinds of other animals. I only picked up the pets because there's a guinea pig and the birthday ones because if I ever get around to making birthday cards again, they'd be great to use. I saw someone else get one of these glasses and I really liked it, not that I need more glasses. Last time I went to the Dollar Tree (which was mostly for boring stuff, so I don't even have a picture of what I bought), I picked up one of these owls, but I took so much time making sure his hat was glued on and that stuffing wasn't coming out that I didn't notice one of his wings did not have the extra pattern on top, so I got a new one. I picked up the pumpkin ribbon for a swap. I picked up the binder clips because I've seen people altering them, and I wanted to try it out. I'm not explaining gummies, I really shouldn't walk down the sticker or the food aisles. I'm collecting pens with balls on them for my cup at work, this was a cute addition. For one of my swaps, I have to mail a mug, I picked up the nerds rule one for me (or a friend), I don't really use mugs, but I loved the sentiment, I picked up the other one for a swap. I thought this garland was cute and since I know I'll be participating in at least one Christmas swap, I thought I'd pick it up. Like I said, I need a new black ink pad. I have a stampin' up one that was stamping kinda purple the other day. Ink pads are expensive, so I thought I'd try this one out.
Last up was Hobby Lobby. I went there to find something fall-ish for my swap and ended up with stickers, and other things I don't need. I noticed the stamps were 40% off, but as I was going through them, I ran into a lot like this:
 They looked like someone had used them and didn't clean them off. I'm pretty sure my Hobby Lobby doesn't do classes, but I'm not sure. It really looked like they were using them in classes and then putting them back on the shelf. I have seen used ones in the clearance section before.
stickers, bag, project life cards, tape, leaves, stamp, stickers, duct tape, tassels, felt stickers, paper, stickers. And just because apparently one of all my pictures has to be blurry, it's this one.
Like I said I ended up with quite a few stickers. The paper studio stickers were 50% off. A couple were just ones I wanted. Some I picked up because I thought I could just put them on a background and I had an instant card. The bag is actually a furry blue monster. I love it, it was $4.79, when I got home, I found out why it was on clearance, one of the straps came unsewed, but I think that will be an easy fix, I actually want to find a different strap because it's a bit short, of course it is for a kid. I found me some replacement tape, I used my 40% coupon for that (actually remembered to use one this time). These project life cards are actually the photo realistic ones and I have been eyeing them each time I go, they were in the clearance, and like some of the stickers, I thought they'd make instant cards. Like I said above, I'll be doing another Halloween flip book, so I picked up the stickers, felt stickers and paper for that. I was looking at the paper and there are only 6 designs that have to be for Halloween, which is the main reason I picked this one over the other one.  I did pick up some leaf embellishments, I'm not sure if I'll use them in something or just send them in a swap. I loved this girl with her cupcake stamp, that was a bit of a splurge, since she was originally $8.99. The duct tape looks like patterned burlap and was in the clearance section, I picked up a roll for me and a roll for a swap. The tassels were only seventy two cents, I just had a hard time passing them by. Funny thing, these blue ones were seventy-two cents, but the pink ones were over a dollar.
And once again, watch the cashier. When I go to Hobby Lobby I try not to buy anything full price, cause then I can say if it was full-price I would have spent so much more and I'm saving so much money (when the truth is, if it was full-price, I probably would have never bought it). I have a tendency to go out in the entryway, sit down on one of the benches and match my items to the receipt. Since they have to enter all the discounts by hand, I'm surprised more isn't missed. My stamp was rung up full price, so I went in and pointed this out to the cashier, to which she said, they were on sale last week. I told her about the signs and she looked at her cheat sheet and they still were. There is no way I would have bought it for $9. I don't need more stamps, I don't use most of the ones I have. I used to have a lot of stamps because I started out in rubber stamping and my mom and I were part of a Stampin up group. I have scaled way down since I don't use them, but I still find myself picking them up every once in awhile.

After getting home, I once again told myself I wasn't allowed to go shopping. If I didn't go to the stores, I wouldn't spend so much money. I don't really like shopping online, so I don't have that problem, and I was doing so good about not going to Hobby Lobby, but I needed tape.
Tomorrow, I have to mail a few things. I was going to do it today at the start of my shopping trip, but I didn't realize it was Columbus Day, maybe that was why I spent so much, cause I knew I wasn't getting anything exciting in the mail. Or maybe it was because someone in one of my Facebook groups posted they got to go shopping for our swap. Or who knows what.

No comments: