We love to shop on New Years Day; it’s become a tradition for us because there’s still lots of clearance sales going on but the stores are usually pretty deserted.
Our first stop Friday morning was Walmart to return a necklace Joe had gotten me for Christmas. I had seen it posted on Instagram and mentioned how much I liked it, but that was because it looked mostly silver in the photo that was posted when there were actually pieces in it which are gold which I hate. Joe even hesitated buying it at the time knowing I might not like it, but he got it anyway since he knew I could just return it. I’m glad we have the type of relationship where he’s not going to be hurt by me returning something I don’t like. It would be wasteful to keep something and pretend to like it just to spare his feelings.
We also returned my old car battery. Joe had bought a replacement a week or so ago when I noticed my car having difficulty starting. I didn’t want to end up with a dead battery like last year. I don’t believe I wrote about it, but my battery died at work and Joe had to come and jump my car so I could get home. Now my car starts right up with the new battery.
Walmart’s Christmas clearance section is more impressive than Target’s – we ended up buying six rolls of wrapping paper, a package of gift tags, and a box of Christmas cards for only $7. I really like the gift wrap – most of it is foil which looks really nice. I think Joe is going to use the silver and purple snowflake pattern to wrap my birthday gifts. If he does, I’ll post a picture.
Our next stop was Target to return an ELF eyeshadow kit Joe had gotten me. How ungrateful do I seem, right? In my defense, I didn’t see the point in keeping both kits he got me when a) I rarely wear eye shadow and b) most of the shadows in the kit I returned are glittery which don’t look good on me. I also returned some Rubbermaid food storage containers I had purchased with the intention of reorganizing my freezer. They were too big to fit (we have a side-by-side). We also wanted to exchange one of the Star Wars t-shirts I had gotten Joe for Christmas because there was a hole in it, but they haven’t restocked their shirts yet so we’ll hang onto it a little longer and try again later.
After doing some shopping at Target, where we got discounted candy in the Christmas section, and a Sharper Image charging station (pictured above) that was on clearance for $20, I was famished, so we headed to Red Robin so I could get my free birthday burger.
After lunch we grabbed some free pretzel bites from Auntie Anne’s (they put a coupon in the app for your birthday) and did some shopping at Kohl’s. I’ve been wanting a living locket necklace for awhile now, and had purchased the actual locket at Hobby Lobby a few months ago but was having trouble finding a chain to go with it. Kohl sells the lockets complete with charms and a chain for a $100 which is CRAZY expensive, but they also sell chains separately. The regular price of the chain is $25 which is still nuts if you ask me, but everything was 70% off so it came out to $7.50. I also got some necklace extenders for $7.50 (I had gotten one at Charming Charlie’s awhile back but it broke within a week so I returned it for a refund).
Earlier in the morning Kohls had sent me two $5 coupons that function the same as cash (one for my birthday, and one for the new year), so I used those and only paid $5 out of pocket for the two aforementioned items. Talk about a sweet score! Now I just need to find charms for my locket…
While we were out, ULTA sent me a birthday coupon for free mascara (no purchase necessary) so we stopped there to look around. I didn’t feel like buying anything, so I just went to the cashier to get my free item. She said they hadn’t come in yet, but asked if I’d be ok with last month’s birthday freebie which was a full size lip gloss worth $18. I said sure, and she gave it to me but purposely didn’t scan my coupon saying I could come back to get the free mascara in a few days. Then she wished me a happy birthday. How nice!