I started a Christmas Challenge recently to help us get a huge jump on Christmas shopping this year. Not only will we get our shopping done early, but our goal is to cut our Christmas shopping expenses drastically by shopping for sale or clearance items that we find each month.
My new personal goal with this challenge is 4 gifts per month for family and 4 gifts per month for donation. As we get closer to Christmas (let’s not rush that, please!) we can look for good organizations to donate our gifts to, for those of us who are also doing the donation part of the challenge. Even if we pick up just one dollar store gift per week, we will each have about 40 gifts to donate to kids in need when the challenge is over! And we won’t even notice the cost!
Many of you posted the Christmas treasures you already found, but those posts on facebook get lost and not everyone gets to know about the gifts you scored. So, what I’m going to do is have a Christmas Challenge Update every Sunday and you can leave a comment as to whether or not your were successful at finding any gifts the previous week!
If not for this challenge, I would not have any gifts purchased yet. But, seeing as how I started this, I really need to stick with the program, don’t you think? So, I just now ordered 2 things from Walmart.com. Crafts for Skylar!! One is a Christmas soap making kit on clearance for $3.00 and the other is a candle painting kit, also on clearance for $3.00! They will be delivered Site-to-Store, no shipping charges! I also have 2 dollar store stuffed animals for my donation box.
I hope to have Skylar in December again this year and we can do these crafts together. Then she’ll have gifts to give to mommy and daddy and her big brother when she goes back home! I’m not a fan of candles (they scare me) so I will cut the wicks and just let them be works of art 🙂
What did you pick up last week? Did you find any good places that we should shop? Leave a comment letting us know!
NEW GOAL: Let’s try to pick up one gift this week that is at least 50% off! We will report our finds next Sunday. Also pick up one donation gift if you are doing that part of the challenge.
You can join this Christmas Challenge at any time, so hop on board! Please leave a comment below letting us know if you are just joining as I am keeping track of how many we have in our happy little group. So far there are 33 of us 🙂
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Count me in!!
I have started collecting stocking stuffers, I used the carmex coupons to get me started. I also used some maybeline coupons with some Extra bucks at CVS.
I think I am also going to keep a running record of money spent and saved in the process. So once December comes I can see how much I have spent but more importantly how much I saved!
I love the idea of keeping track of money spent and saved! We all need to do that!
oh this sounds like fun count me in on both challenges.
this week i bought 5 pairs of shoes at foot lockers. normal price would have been $250. my price was $70, but i didnt pay that even, i used gift cards i earned. $ of the pairs are for my 4 teens and the others to donate
A baby’s first Christmas ornament for $2 from Hallmark on sale, 90% off. I will give this to my son and his wife for their baby’s first Christmas this year. Although it was on sale with last years ornaments, it came with a 2012 and a 2013 charm.
I have not found a lot so far, but am putting the money aside so if I find a lot at one time I can go for it. I am going to JC Penny this week and hoping to find good deals there. Love this idea, thank you Darlene.
I am also joining…hoping this will keep me motivated as the year goes on;) All I got this week was a few stocking stuffer items that I found at Shaw’s on 50-75% off clearance…Patriot’s water bottles and Axe deodorants for my tween boys. Thanks for this challenge!
I think that was an awesome way to start! 🙂
I love this idea. I recently started getting a few things I found on clearance. I try to find discount toys/kids items at Walgreens as my fillers and donate when the schools fill backpacks for kids in need and toys for tots at Christmas
Got another Fisher Price toy at Target.
I picked up four Disney Princess items at Walmart; I also bought $11 in Hot Wheels w/$2 coupon and $12 in Fisher Price w/$2 coupon
Shaw’s New England Patriots 75% off:
football, mug, pencils
I picked up 4 Barbies at Walgreens
I never got to wags last week and missed some deals I really wanted. Oh, well. I plan on hitting them on Tues to check out the toys. I hope!
I picked up 2 of the laugh & play dogs at target and 2 -5 pks of hot wheels cars. Total was $45 (and change) and I paid $24. I then went to Walmart and saw the same dogs for $39.98 EACH!!! I guess it depends on the stores sales right?!!! 🙂
Those dog toys are Target were such an awesome deal! Good for you that you got them! To think, some people will pay WAY more! Poor them 🙁
And yes I’m just joining
Goodie! 🙂
I am joining the christmas challenge & the donation challenge also.
Happy to have you with us! It’s like Christmas all year long! 🙂