Five tips for shopping Christmas in July, Target-style.

This is my third time going to the Target Christmas in July toy sale. I skipped it last year because we still had so much stuff. With two kids in preschool now the number of birthday parties I need to buy toys for has doubled so I decided to stock up again this year. I have tried having 'please no gift' parties in the past but sadly it is a trend that does not seem to be catching on.

I've been going to Target a few times a week waiting for the clearance to start. I've also gotten in the habit of checking the #targetclearance hashtag on Instagram. I found some great baby deals that way. I got an adjustment for some shoes I bought Nandini that way as well. 

I finally heard last night from my friend Kayla Aimee that the markdowns were rumored for today. We didn't get to target until about ten (and swim lessons started at 10:20, oy.  We were only fifteen minutes late.  Oops). 

We got a ton of stuff. There were a lot of cute baby toys. I bought a few kinexts building sets for Avi and birthday gifts. I also got Nandini a new dolly. In the car the whole way to Target she kept asking, "I get that black dolly at Target". When we got there she found it in the end cap herself. It was marked down to $6.88 from 23 so I let her put it in the cart.

Here is a picture of my awesome haul.  I counted at least 15 things and I paid less than $90 for all of it.  That works out to about $6 per item.  These are mostly bigger items too as I don't like tiny knickknacks that just clutter up our house.  They are kind of like gremlins and seem to multiply on their own anyway.

I'm still waiting for the patio and garden stuff to go in sale. The furniture was on sale a few weeks ago but I really want to get some of the solar powered patio lights. The outlets are no where near our pergola where I want to strong the lights and I love that they don't add up our electricity bill. (NB. If anyone sees these on clearance please let me know!).

You can see my tips for using the Shopkick app to get free target gift cards here.

A few of my Target sale shopping tips:

1. Keep an eye on social media.  This is how I discovered this sale in the first place.  It also helped me see things that were on sale but maybe hadn't been marked yet in my local Target.
2. Don't stress about not getting their early.  They were still putting on the markdown stickers when I got there at ten.
3. Check the end caps first then swing through the aisles.  Most of the 70% off toys were not in a special section so we went through each row.
4. Don't be afraid to return stuff! Yes you got it on clearance, but if you don't need it or have space for it just take it back. With the red card you can return stuff for upto 90 days. Or better yet, find someplace awesome to donate your extra stuff. We are big fans of goodwill. 
5. Shop with your kids!  It may seem crazy, but it was fun shopping for toys with them.  They helped me look for red stickers and we talked about how most of the toys are for giving away.  The 'specialness' of today helped to reinforce that they don't get toys every time we visit Target and that not all toys we buy are for them.