January Clearance!

This is the best time of year for shopping!

Our family still needs more winter clothes. Outfitting a family of seven for the winter has not been a small task. Finally! There are some sale prices on warm clothes. I hate paying full price for anything.

There are also case-lot sales this time of year. This is a Utah thing. Twice a year, in January and August, the grocery stores have amazing prices on food, especially if you buy it by the case. Since there are lots of big Mormon families working on building their food storage, it works nicely. This is the first year we are here for the sales, and we actually have a fully shelved storage room to put it all in. I think we have gone a bit crazy so, if any of you have some great recipes for tuna fish, let me know. We have a case of it we have to eat.

I also have to mention the white sales. I went to a department store last week. They had almost everything on clearance 70-90% off. Being in a new home just makes if worse. I can think of 110 things that I "need". Well, no matter how great the price is, there is always that dreaded final total. It all adds up in surprisingly fast. The only thing worse than the final balance is explaining the shopping spree to Aaron. You see, it's all about presentation. I would pull something out of the bag and say," I bought this for _________ normally it is ______". Aaron fell for this at first, than after I've pulled out the twentieth thing he asked, "So, what's the bottom line." We then had a lengthy discussion on our finances. After some compromising, we decided I only needed to return three things. The next day, the customer service agent at the store asked me if there was anything wrong with the merchandise. I said, "No, we just had the 'just-because-it's-on-clearance-doesn't-mean-you-need-it' discussion." She replied, "Oh I get that all the time too. I also get the 'just-because-you-work-there-doesn't-mean-you-have-to-spend-your-paycheck-there' lecture."

I feel her pain.