Happy Halloween!!! I hope everyone has a blast Trick-or-Treating tonight with your kiddos...mine can't WAIT to haunt our neighborhood as a little princess bride and skeleton (or maybe Darth Vader...he hasn't decided yet).
And as much fun as I'm going to have today, I personally can't WAIT for the post-Halloween sales this week! I know, you are probably thinking that I can't possibly be that excited to pick up MORE candy. You are right...I probably won't buy any candy at all...it's all of the other goodies that I have my eye on!
First, I'll let you know that most retailers will have all of their Halloween stuff marked down to 50% off starting tomorrow (Nov. 1st). And while each different store has their own schedule for further markdowns, Target will generally mark everything 75% off 3 days after that, then whatever is left will go to 90% off about a week after Halloween. CVS usually takes a little longer to mark it down.
Now, why am I so excited about Halloween clearance? Here are a few things that I look for each year. First, I check out the costumes. I love to get costumes for dirt cheap...last year I got my kids 6 different super hero/Star Wars/princess costumes all at 90% off...they were all in the range of $.99-$3.99. They have worn those costumes countless hours while playing dress-up this year. And they also are each wearing one of them for Halloween this year...it's nice to know that I paid less than $10 total for both!
Next I like to look for household items and food for cheap. At Target there are a whole host of products that are branded for Halloween that will be on clearance like paper towels and napkins, paper plates/cups, cake mixes, chips with halloween packaging, Oreos with orange filling, Halloween pretzels, and more. Even though there may be a bat on the package or the pretzels are shaped like pumpkins and bats, you can use those things all year and it's great to get them marked down 75% off or better! We happily used Halloween napkins in our house for the entire year and only recently ran out (yes...I totally scored on Halloween napkins last year). Check in the regular aisles for these deals in addition to in the Halloween clearance section.
Last I like to look at the Halloween toys and trinkets. They have Hot Wheels cars, Barbies, videos, and a whole host of other fun things in the Halloween section at Target. These things make for great stocking stuffers come Christmas time. So what if the Hot Wheels have a spider web or the Barbie is dressed for Halloween? Kids still love them any time of year! My favorite thing to pick up are the big bags of small playdoh tubs that they make for handing out to trick-or-treaters. We got a few of those bags last year and loved having fresh playdoh whenever we got out the playdoh set.
And of course, there is the candy. I don't generally buy much clearanced candy because we will be on candy overload like most everyone after tonight. But when I can find them marked down to 50% or more I will usually pick up some M&Ms to use in cookies or trail mix since it doesn't really matter if your M&Ms are orange and black...they melt in your mouth no matter what color they are!
So have a blast tonight trick-or-treating and gorging yourselves on candy, then enjoy the post-holiday sales this coming week!! Post a comment if you find something fabulous on clearance...I love hearing about people's shopping scores!