Here’s a very unusual solution to saving money at Christmas.

Our family has decided to exchange gifts on New Year’s Day. This way… we can shop the stores that clearance their special Christmas items. Namely Target, my favorite store to shop after Christmas. Usually the day after Christmas everything is marked down to 50%. Then within a few days, it goes down to 75% and finally everything left goes down to 90% I never buy cards, wrapping paper, bows, decorations, anything – at retail price.

I visit this site and watch to see when Target will be going down to 90% off. Then I get there before the store opens at 8:00am. There are always other ladies in line waiting. We all race back to the Christmas section. I always have fun and even though the other ladies are strangers, we usually end up chatting and sharing with each other, “Oh, I found this, look, come here quick, I found more of those!”

I will sometimes visit the stores within a few miles of each other when they at 75% off, so I can decide whether that store has a lot of items left. If you know of a Target that has recently opened, plan to shop that one first, as they almost always (in my experience) overstock because this is their first year. Then they can better judge the next year and not buy too much. I am able to flex my time at work, and since I also shop for my boss and coworkers, I am always able to take the day off.

The company for which I work gives each client a Christmas card. Then several people at work also give personal cards to every client. Many of our clients are elderly and they are just tickled to get a dozen or more cards. Because I shop at Target, our clients get more cards than they would normally, since we can all afford to easily buy over 200 cards since they were marked down to 90%. No one ever buys wrapping paper at the normal price either. I try to find solid colored paper, like gold or greens or reds, so that it can be used throughout the rest of the year to wrap gifts. I have even wrapped presents with Christmas paper, but inside out, so the white shows and then placed lots of pretty bows.

The best buy on cards are the “40 Assorted Cards” which sell for $2.99, but of course once I get them marked down 90%, they are only $0.29. I’m also able to pick out the really pretty boxes of cards, and I can actually splurge and get the ones that are fancy with foil or decorated with glitter, 18 cards for a whopping $0.69 (regularly $6.99).

For me there is nothing quite like the thrill of getting two carts full of Christmas cards, bows, wrapping paper, candy, next year’s calendars and gift packs of various items and only paying $100 for everything, which retailed just a few days earlier for $1000.00!!

We also have a Christmas party for our clients each year and I buy anything I can that could be used as a little raffle prize.

Everyone wins!