20+ Bargain Shopping Tips on a Budget


after christmas clearance items at a discount

Getting the Best Deals Bargain Shopping

Bargain shopping is one thing I started doing since having kids.  Kids are expensive.  If you want to stretch your money, you have to find deals.  We’ve got several tips on how you can get great deals on gifts and items for your family. We also have suggestions on how to think ahead to repurpose items, you may buy off season.

How to Save Money Buying After Christmas Clearance

We revisited/revised our post on saving money. After Christmas, I get really excited to go shopping.  After Christmas clearance shopping is the best time for me to buy so many things we use throughout the year, at a deep discount. I am able to shop for a huge variety of items and save a lot of money.  I want you to do this too, so I’m sharing my tips for shopping on a budget.

It’s important to save money when you can.  You can apply these budget shopping tips throughout the year on any holiday.  It’s a mindset on how you can take an item and use it another time in the year.

You can also find small items for stocking stuffers, graduates or party favors.

Questions to Think About when Bargain Shopping:

  • Can I use at the upcoming holidays?
  • Can I repurpose for another party?
  • Is there an upcoming baby shower?
  • What birthday parties do I need to decorate for?
  • Can these items be donated to a charity?
  • Can I use this as a gift for next year or someone?

Some ways we shopped on a budget:

  1. We buy Halloween costumes at 75% for next year (lets hope the kids will still want to be what they bought!)
  2. Candies removed from the holiday bag can be great for other holidays.  This year, I opted to buy pumpkin shaped candies for my family.  They will taste the same and I’m sure they won’t mind.  If they do, well no candy for them!
  3. Kisses are great at Christmas to use the silver for New Years, the red for Valentines and the green for St. Patrick’s Day.
  4. Black Friday deals, we buy items for up coming birthdays (and birthday count down box).

What to Buy Different Times of the Year and Reuse

  • New Year’s – black items, gold and silver –  Find hats, blow horns and noise makers. You can reuse the 20XX items for open house graduation parties, so get those glasses, plates, napkins etc on cheap.  Perfect for a photo booth for graduations.
  • Valentine’s Day – items that are red, pink and white. Find hearts, gift bags and candy. Use them for Mother’s day, Weddings (all things lovey dovey times), Mother’s Day or Father’s Day candy. Buy Valentine cards after Valentines for .37 for next year for your kids to hand out. Cookie sprinkles! More Valentine’s ideas.
  • St. Patrick’s Day – green items.  Find horse shoes, clovers, gold coins, all things Irish!  The coin candy would be great for Christmas, wedding favors.  Horse Shoes could be given for wedding favors.
  • Easter – pastel colors.  Find ribbons, baskets, eggs for favors and ribbons. A lot of pastel things can be repurposed for baby showers and decorations.
  • Mother’s Day – floral items.  Lots of great gift items then for mom’s you could use for Christmas, bridesmaids gifts, gifts for your BFF (but wait for them to go on clearance!) Save some of these gifts for Valentines Day!
  • Father’s Day – Lots of ideas for Christmas. You could use them for Valentines Day too and birthdays. If you find gift items like mugs, grilling items, use them for Christmas.

Other Times to Shop Clearance

  • Fourth of July – All things red, white & blue.  Find flags, baskets, If you have any candy left from Christmas that is red, you could use it now.  Buy red, white and blue and you can use candy for Halloween, Christmas and Valentines. Beautiful colors for a patriot wedding, welcome home for veterans.
  • Halloween – black and orange items.  These can be used for next Halloween, New Years, graduation/open houses, over the hill birthday parties  And the candy can be used for Christmas (remember to not let them have it if they complain about pumpkins!)
  • Thanksgiving – brown, orange, green.  Find baskets and decorations can be reused for weddings, Valentines, Easter.  Cups, plates, napkins can be used for graduations, birthday parties.
  • Christmas – red, green, white, gold and silver.  Find ribbon colors that you might use for cards and gifts, candy can be re-purposed for New Years, Valentines, St. Patrick’s Day (when sorted).  Those gift baskets they put together will go 50%+ off after Christmas.  Buy enough for next years Christmas gifts for teachers.  Gift ideas are found during Christmas, that can be used year round.  Lots of items tend to go on clearance at Christmas for year-end, including Toys (donate to Toys for Tots). Think of weddings, graduations and what you will need to decorate for your upcoming events. Neutral wrapping paper that can be used year round. Non-holiday looking bags. Discount blankets. Cookie sprinkles!

We don’t just keep saving for gifts and holidays, we also have budget friendly bargains savings tips and ways to good used items too.

Need tips to how to save money on a budget? We have tips on how to buy after the holidays and save year round with our budget friendly tips.

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39 Comments

  1. Thank you for all these great ideas! With today’s economy the way it is, I believe it’s important to save money in any way possible!

    1. I would agree Anita. It’s important to find ways to get the most out of your stuff. I’m sure this is just a glimpse of how people lived during the great depression.

  2. Thanks for the ideas, the shopping after the Holidays for the sales is a must in my house but like the reusing some of the decorations and whatnot is something I have yet to do, but think this year I will – Thanks

  3. Buying post season is a terrific idea, I try to keep the holidays in seperate containers & include an invetory of whats in it.

    1. You are ahead of the game. I definitely need to get containers to sort all of this out better.

  4. What awesome ideas! I’m going to have to remember these! I usually always try to buy decorations for holidays after the holiday. I can usually get some really awesome deals!!!

    1. Yes it is. And going to stores people wouldn’t think to go to for holiday items is a good idea too. Like Lowes, Menards, Home Depot, and the drug stores! Happy Savings!

  5. I always shop Cost Plus World Market after the holidays. They have really interesting holiday food that ends up selling for up to 75% off. Even better, they have a reward program that gives you a $10 coupon to use on anything when you’ve spent $100 on food. I can get REALLY good deals if I just put that $10 towards more holiday clearance food!

  6. I am pretty good about saving red items/candies from Christmas for Valentine’s day and green items/candies for St. Patrick’s day. I like your ideas for other holidays too! Plus patriotic things can be used not only for 4th of July but for election days (like today!), Labor Day and Memorial Day.
    shar(dot)donoho(at)comcast(dot)net

  7. I was laughing when I read this as I thought I was the only one who did this! My kids are older and don’t really care if the get seasonal candy as long as they get candy. I buy after halloween and give it to them for Xmas and the don’t care. It’s actually become a joke now.

  8. I love all these ideas. I’m always looking for money saving shopping tips.
    Thank You!!!

    1. You are very welcome Stephanie! You will have to tell me what savings you were able to find!

    1. Thank you Theresa. I wanted to share my thoughts on what to do, to help others save money as well and stretch that dollar further.

  9. Great ideas! Thank you for sharing. I love saving $ and try to avoid paying full price as much as possible!

  10. I love reading about people like me! I tend to do without and wait for it until the post holiday sale and then use it the following year. I love shopping these post holiday sales. I can justify all the cute stuff at a very reduced price!

    1. I’m glad we are like minded!
      I got some cupcake mix for .65 a box (75% off!)

      I got make up paint for Halloween 75% off too, not sure what the kids want to be for Halloween, so preparing.

      Now to find it all next year and not be a hoarder!

  11. Ha, ha. I purchase ALL of my christmas decorations after Christmas. It is the only way to do it!

  12. I love all these ideas! I have to say I am not such a good shopper of sales but I am learning from all of you!

  13. Great ideas, Regina! Don’t you just love candies, esp. hard candies? They have such a looooong shelf life and can definitely be still used by next year! What I also discovered last Halloween is that the cakes sold at the grocery store are priced low because it’s the day of! It just so happened that I was hosting a Halloween gathering at my house this year and was at the grocery and I found the Halloween cakes (nicely decorated too!) were 50% off. What’s great is that they normally come with plastic cake decors / toppers that could easily be recycled/ reused as decors for next year :-)) Thanks again for the ideas! (visiting from voiceboks)

  14. Love the idea of reusing my 2013 New Year’s decor for my son’s graduation…clever, clever!

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