Last year I was terribly disappointed with Target's 90% off after Christmas sale. Kudos to Target, though!  For once, they got their ordering right and had hardly anything left, but that meant that there was hardly anything to pick from which made it not very fun for me.  I don't know if the pickings were slim throughout the season or what, but I went to about six stores and it was not worth the effort at all.

I usually don't bother with the 75% off sales, because I'd rather get a ten dollar item for one dollar, instead of $2.50.  But I feel like I learned a lesson last year, especially with regards to the card purchases.   I buy Christmas cards for my employer, as well as a few others at my job.  This way all of our clients (mostly elderly) are guaranteed four or five Christmas cards each. They are so happy with them and it really helps us out if we can buy the cards discounted. I usually buy around 1000 cards. Last year Target had no cards to speak of, so everyone had to go out this year and buy at regular price.

Also I usually buy Mr. A's holiday cards for his customers at the end of the year.  Sure he can afford to spend $40 on cards, but why when we can spend only $10. Right?

I just happened to go to Walmart on the day they dropped their Christmas and holiday items to 75% clearance.  I had to go into town on Friday to do last day of the year banking for Mr. A, and take an owner's draw, and I also needed to return a flat curling iron I'd purchased which had a terrible design flaw. Basically the buttons to raise and lower the temperature were right where you hold onto it and every time I rotated my wrist to turn my hair under for my new A-line bob haircut the buttons would either get pushed to make the iron hotter, or cooler! Terrible design!

I walk into Walmart and I have to admit it's nice that they have all their Christmas items right by the entrance, at least in the one I shopped. Target makes you walk all the way to the farthest corner of the store. Walmart had quite a bit of items left and I started looking to see what I could find.

The least expensive cards that they had were an 18 pack regularly $5.00, marked down to $1.25. I ended up buying 62 boxes of cards which came to $77.50 (before tax).  That's 1,116 cards to be divided amongst five people.   When I called my boss to ask her about buying the cards, she said she bought 30 cards for $2.99 earlier this year.  So she paid $0.0996666666666667 for each card.  My cost, whew, was somewhat less at $0.0694444444444444 each.   So roughly ten cents a card vs. seven cents a card. I figure we saved about $33.73. That's not a huge savings but what I wonder is where did my boss find those cards?  I should have gone there because the cost would have been significantly less if I could have found 30 cards for $2.99 at 75% clearance.  That would have made the cards two and a half cents each. Hmmm… then I wonder, did she REALLY pay that little for that many cards?  I know it's possible as last year they were selling 40 cards for $2.99 at Walmart.

Well, sorry about that, I hope your eyes haven't glazed over and thanks for hanging with me through that bit of mathematics.

Aside from the card shopping, I also to my horror managed to spend another $65 on Christmas clearance items.  Who's up to hear what all I bought?  Did I hear a few yes's? All right, I'll share.

• A McGraw Cologne/After Shave set for AJ $3.50
• Four cologne “samples” for AJ $3.00
• Cards for personal use next year $12.50
• Hannah Montana set for a coworker's little girl $2.50
• Activity Bath Mat for a coworker's little boy $2.50
• Bath pillow neck massager for myself that's going back to the store $3.50
• Turquoise and blue colored gift ribbon $0.62 (great for wrapping presents throughout the year!)
• 2 bags of blue bows 45 count $1.25 each (great for wrapping presents throughout the year!)
• bag of Christmas colored bows 45 count $1.25
• 2 strings LED snowflake lights $2.99 each
• Cookie Mix $1.50
• 2 makeup kits $3.75 each
• Christmas Mailbox cover for my boss for next year $1.25
• Bath set for my friend who loves bathing $3.75
• Holiday Sweater for myself for next year $4.00
• Holiday Sweater for my coworker for next year $4.50 (kind of a holiday tradition for several years now)
• Holiday Vest for my coworker for next year $4.50 (same as above)
• Christmas socks for myself, 2 pair $0.75
• Christmas stickers $0.25

I was astonished at how quickly it all added up.

Do you do any after holiday shopping?  Did you get anything good?