There is something extra gratifying about sewing for an awaited baby. The anticipation, the connection you feel with the child knowing how much it will touch their skin, and how the item will become part of your memory of their “little” days.  I could not resist sewing for this baby.  My skills are lacking, but the desire to have some hand made yumminess for this baby kept me inspired.  My favorite fabric designer Anna Maria Horner happened to come out with some flannels at just the right time for me to make some things for baby.  Greenbaums here in Salem also happened to carry them (after saying they likely would not).  I stumbled upon them in the store one day and it was like a moment out of the movie Serendipity.  Snow flaky music, the other matching glove, the name in the front of the book…etc.  The culmination of my nesting desires in one store with no need to pay for shipping.

Today is my due date.  Projects finished and laundered “just” in time.  I have felt pretty good about this pregnancy and have really tried to appreciate every moment.  At my appointment today the wind was knocked out of my sails a bit.  I am struggling to know if it is okay to be bummed, or if I am supposed to soldier on with full confidence.  I may post more tomorrow in pregnancy updated posts, but for tonight I just wanted to share something happy and not tarnish this very important milestone.

Here are some pictures of most of my recent projects.  Items include burp rags, a swaddling blanket for baby, a double sided “summer baby” blanket (light weight but yummy and soft), and a “big brother/big sister” blanket for my first borns.  They still use blankets all the time and very much enjoy soft things.  With all of the new cozy things around here being for the baby, I wanted them to have something “mama made” for themselves.  I also included a picture of two of the hats I made for the baby (picture does not translate very well).   These actually gave me the most trouble.  Who would have guessed?  The color of our (likely) take home outfit is a bit unique.  I wanted a hat that would not clash, so I decided to just make one.  I wanted it to be embellished and special and originally thought I would attach a flower, but never found a flower that would work.  I happened upon the buttons and decided they would do.

Nothing better than sewing for baby.

Last night I did a big coupon trip to Target.  I don’t do these often and it had been awhile.  I have been pretty much fallen off the coupon wagon lately and needed to get back at it.  We had just been doing our big Trader Joe’s trips and more frequent small trips to the grocery store for things like lunch meat, buns, milk etc (these small trips are dangerous though and we want to be better at avoiding them).  We get organic beef locally, eggs from a friend, and some produce at the Saturday Market and Costco.   But, our stockpiles were diminishing and I wanted to make sure I used my good coupons before the baby came and they expired.

At the same time I was “Targeting,” hubby ran (literally) to Walgreens with the twins in the BOB to get some other coupon items…..I just think he is amazing!  What is better than a husband who watches the kids, runs with them, uses coupons correctly, and loads it all back up to run home?  I am still trying to picture the whole thing.  Somehow he fit a pack of diapers, 2 things of toothpaste, 2 cans of oatmeal, 3 rolls of tin foil, and a rain cover in case the weather turned.

Here is what I got:

(Sorry for the iPhone pic)

Pack of Huggies diapers-$4.50

Big bag of Huggies wipes-$3.50

Shout-42 cents

Butterfinger candy bar-free

Ritz Crackerfulls-free

Kraft mac-free

Olive Oil mayo-free

Welche’s White Grape-$1.64 (kids don’t really drink much juice so I might make popsicles with it)

Deli meat-free

2 Activia yogurts-66 cents each

3 boxes of Fiber One cereal-about 75 cents each

2 Boxes of Fiber One bars- about a dollar each

4 pack of lightbulbs-50 cents

Wet Ones-$1.50

Strawberry Shortcake bandages- 87 cents

Armor All tire cleaner- 29 cents (reg $3.29)

Armor All leather cleaner-$1.80 (reg $5.29)

2 Toy Story Playtex sippies-$5.74

Total before coupons-$77.73

Total after coupons-$30.37

Minus $5 gift card from Fiber one deal-$25.37

Pretty sweet since the regular price of the diapers, wipes, and sippies alone is $23.47

Everything went smoothly on this trip.  Cashier did great.  Only one coupon beeped and she pushed it right through since it was a valid use.  I usually ask if they want the coupons with the items, or all at the end…she said at the end was good except the ones for free products. So I put all my items up first with their corresponding “freebie” coupon and it worked great.  That way she was not searching for the price of the item at the end when she needed to fill out the value. As always, I warned the lady behind me that I had a lot of coupons in case she wanted to change lanes.  She was not overly friendly with me until she got curious how I was getting the deals.  Only one hitch of the trip… as I was trying to watch my coupons go through, and give her a 20 second coupon run-down, her little son lifted up my shirt to see what in the world was under there (I am about 12 days from due date).  Must look pretty pregnant of small children are curious what is under my shirt.

Did you score any great deals this week?

This pregnancy has definitely moved along much faster than when I was prego with the twinners.  I am 37 weeks and it is definitely time for an update. I am mainly doing these updates for myself because if it does not get blogged, my brain is likely to forget it forever!

Latest stats

37 weeks and 2 days pregnant

Countdown ticker says 20 days till due date.

BP consistently about 100-110/60-64 (Except yesterday when it was up a bit after listening to Hubby make 7 business calls on the way to Portland for our appt.  Apparently his job would stress me out.)

Up 22 pounds

Baby measuring just a bit ahead. Dr. said this is likely because I am short and baby sticks out pretty good instead of hiding inside.

Dilation-Nothing too notable to mention. I will spare you the details.

Baby head down and fairly low but not “dropped.”

Babies heart rate- 150 “on the nose”

Backup C-section scheduled for 12 past due date in Salem.

-Enjoying spending lots of time snuggling the kiddos. They seem need extra cuddle time and so do I. They ask me to come and get in my “cozy spot Mama” and they arrange my pillows so proudly. I lay down and they cuddle in and each try for the good spot next to me.  The other one has to lay on my side on top of me.  It is a very special time.  Even though there is constant blanket wrestling and climbing over me, I enjoy it.

-Still working on lots of projects to get the house and basics ready for baby girl when we have time. This looks very different than our prep before the twinners.  Before it was all about them and having everything just right, this time it is mainly about having the house in a decent place.

-Starting to get more tired than I have been the last few months.

-Going to try and start walking more to make sure my body knows I mean business. Not sure how this is going to work out with the “more tired” part.

-One of the sales women at the Gymboree Outlet that I know (she used to work in Salem and transferred over there) happens to go to the same OB in Portland and said she loves him. She also said that he was “from the old school,” which may be why I may not be getting the VBAC friendly vibes from him.

-The leader of the Portland VBAC support group emailed me back and told me that I was at pretty much the worst Dr. in regards to being supportive of VBAC’s. She highly recommended that I switch.  Bummer.  At this stage in the game I do not have the desire or energy to switch Dr’s (if it was even possible).  I am trusting God that it will all work out in his plan and am not going to make any changes.  Who knows who will even be on call when I deliver.

-Little man can’t wait to take the new baby to the Saturday Market and Little Lady is excited for her to “sit cozy” with us (snuggle on the couch).  So fun when I get glimpses into their minds.

-We have made a few name suggestions to them to see what they think.  They have both been very sure of the name from the time we started talking about it with them.  Not sure we could change our minds if we wanted to.  We love it though.  Still working on a finalizing middle name. Names are a BIG deal.  I keep having this feeling that if I had days to spend researching I could come up with the most perfect name.  Hard to feel like you are even scratching the surface of your options.

-I don’t mind wearing maternity clothes, but I am done with jeans that don’t stay where they belong.

-Enjoying the final days of pregnancy, not knowing if this will be our last baby.

-Slightly sentimental about going from our little family of 4 to 5.  We have a pretty cool thing going and I know a lot will change for my “babies”.

-Who will she look like? What will her personality be like? Can’t wait to see this baby’s sweet face!  She will be a blessing!

Now that the duo are two I am seeing some changes around here.  Because of their increasing vocab the “requests” are becoming more frequent.  This makes for more whining, crying, and asking for the various things they can think of.  Play time was becoming rougher and rougher as they went from entertaining themselves for little pockets of time, to heading in the direction of becoming quite demanding.  While I realize that this is quite “appropriate” for their age, I needed to find ways to channel their energy and ideas into something more productive.  If I did not try we would be eating very specific types of crackers 27 times a day, using our binkies constantly, having only grapes and cheese to eat, playing with mommies i phone, watching Charlie and Lola, and climbing on bar stools ALL DAY LONG. This is a recipe to make a mom crazy.  I don’t want my kids to be ultra demanding, nor do I want them to be crying all day long either when I deny their requests.

Enter-More purposeful play and structure

In my silly head I think of this as “homeschooling”. That’s a joke because the kids are a young two and time time we spend on these things could hardly be labeled as “school.”  This new time of chaos has left me searching for new options to occupy my kids time and our brains.  They are quite capable of learning simple things and I don’t want to waste our time just trying to get through every day.

Here are some of the things we are doing at 2 years 3mo:

-Sometimes staying in our chairs after breakfast to work on something rather than going straight to free play.

-Getting ideas off a really cool blog called Tot School. (Likely more on this later)

-Doing flash cards. Some people don’t like flashcards, but my kids seem to love them and we stop when they get bored. It is very interesting to see what types they are interested in. Little Lady loves the clothes and accessory types (jeans, hat, belt, watch) and Little Man loves the animals and vehicles best. Go figure.

-Working on colors. We frequently ask them what color something is, look at color flashcards sometimes, help them associate colors with objects they recognize (“It is green like Rex.”), ask for things by name and color (“Can you bring me the pink bowl?). Colors seem to be one of the tougher things for toddlers to learn. This is why we have focused on them a little more than other concepts or objects. It is interesting that the colors they are having the easiest time with are the colors that have less shade variation like white, brown, black, red, etc. Green, blue and other colors like them seem to be harder.

-Talking about the days of the week and what we commonly do on those days.

-Coloring

-Playing with Play-Dough

-Folding paper to look like things like butterflies etc.

-Working on having fun with music and learning about different types of instruments. Doing puzzles. Looking at different pictures of instruments and doing the motions that you would do when playing that instrument. Talking about the different sounds and trying to identify what they are. Listing to the Jazz station on our “Music on Demand” channel and naming the instruments they show pictures of during the music.

-Talking about the sizes of things and using words like “tiny, small, medium, big, large” etc.

-Talking about some basic shapes. We are working on these slowly and using the same sorts of techniques as we use with colors.  We name things like crackers by their shape (circle crackers-whole grain Trader Joe’s crackers and square crackers-Wheat Thins) etc.

-Reading Bible stories together before bed and letting them repeat the words they are interested in and point things out in pictures.

-Looking out the windows and naming objects, animals, and colors we see.

-Put up a book rack at their level to encourage them to read their books and organize them on their own.

In case you are interested these are the flashcards we are using. Links are embedded in the images.

The first set we got was the Baby Einstein Numbers and Shapes Discovery Cards. I got them at Tj Maxx for a great price, but I have to say they are just okay.

The second set we got was Trend Enterpirse’s “Picture Words”. I chose these because they covered a variety of topics in one pack. Topics include; animals, clothing, transportation, common objects, shapes, safety signs, and colors. I figured this would be a better value than purchasing a bunch of separate sets. I got mine at Learning Palace. I signed up for their email list and they sent me a coupon (I think it was 20% off one item?). Worth a shot if you are needing something there.

What are your kids enjoying lately? Do you have any suggestions for fun ways to learn, play, and add structure to the day?

Tomorrow I will be 32 weeks prego. That means approximately 8 weeks till baby! Here is an updated to do list with a couple new things, lines through the completed items, and notes added to some of others that are in progress. Right now we are getting over sickness and most of these things are the least of my worries. Still nice to see that in the midst of what often feels like chaos, things are slowly getting done.

To do:

1) Organize master bedroom-move chairs, dust in places I can’t reach, change bedding to my favorites, go through drawers again and make each of them work for me, get the totes to the garage when full of outgrown kid clothes…

2) Organize master bath-do a deep clean of tile and bath, organize stuff on counters, in drawers and cupboards and get rid of anything we don’t need.

3) Organize small bedroom and large closet- get all scrapbooking and office stuff into the closet, organize the entire closet and get rid of stuff we don’t need, organize all non-Christmas holiday stuff, and make the room look how I want it to (mostly done) !

4) Go through upstairs hallway closet- purge, organize and maximize the space.

5) Make laundry room cuter and clean the floors

6) Organize kids bathroom-take out anything that does not belong, decide what to store in the cupboards, and deep cleaning (since our kids aren’t potty trained we don’t use this bathroom often at this point).

7) Finish my crafting space and make the large storage/inspiration board

8 ) Finish organizing toys (Pretty much done, just a few more finishing touches)

9) Organize the garage (partially done)

10) Finish putting stuff on Craigslist (did some, need to do more)

11) Donate to UGM

12) Take things to consignment store-multiple trips involved (I think they only look at a few things at a time)…we have been putting this off for too long. Use credit to buy clothes in next size up for kids and things for baby.

13) Print pictures and put them in frames

14) Set up an art station for the kids

15) Start and finish the twins baby books….HA, Just kidding!!!!

16) Create a working paper organization system for for the misc. things that stack up (partially done)

17) Get car maintainence done

18) Go through book shelf

19) Potty train kids (little man is doing pretty well all on his own initiative)

20) Take a family vacation (Went to Disneyland)

21)  Decide what to do about room arrangements and who will share when the baby moves out of our room and prepare accordingly (sort of dreading putting my “separate sleepers” in a room together).

22) Take family pictures

Baby related tasks

1) Go through baby clothes-organize, wash, make a list of any little things we need (this baby will be born in June and my twins were early Feb babies).

2) Put gear back together

3) Figure how in the world to configure the car seats in the van and get them all checked by the tech.

4) Put little baby stuff into the diaper bag

5) Purchase-Small cloth diapers, used glider, used papasan swing, My Breast Friend nursing pillow,

6) Make- Burp rags and baby hats out of re-purposed clothes,

7) Read a couple books Read 8 so far

8 ) Decide between a repeat c-section or to try for a vbac VBAC it is! (at Providence St. Vincent in Portland)

9) Go on a couple “dates” with the kids individually

10) Stock up on a couple baby related products (use coupons and watch sales)- wipes, booty cream, wash, and little diapers (we might largely use disposable for the newborn size so I don’t have to buy tiny cloth that will be grown out of quickly)

11) Sew baby girls blanket and swaddling blanket with Anna Maria Horner fabric.

12) Pick out a name! Update-Getting closer.

13) Write out our “Birth Plan” (Never thought I would be one of “those” people, but I feel that it is especially important in our situation to have a plan and be brave enough to communicate it clearly (and not worry what others think).

14) Find a “take home outfit.”  Why is this so hard?

Other things we have done lately

Moved the kids out of high chairs and cleaned them up

Got the kids a little kids table on Craigslist

Got them a cute storage rack for their books

Got twin beds, frames, and bedding for both kids and got them set up in their room. We will wait to transition them till they seem more ready.

Stats:

3o weeks and 5 days pregnant

About 66 days till due date

Up 13.5 pounds

Baby girl’s heartbeat has usually been in the mid 140′s

Belly measuring on track

-Love the double take strangers do to see if you are in fact pregnant.

-Smiling right back at the strangers who smile when looking at the kiddos and my belly.

-Still have not settled in on a name for baby girl.

-Decided to try for VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarean). Met with a Dr. in Portland who delivers at St. Vincents where they are “allowed” to do VBAC’s.  But, the hospital has a very high rate of cesareans (which he says is due to their high level NICU).  Striving for a “natural” child birth and hoping I am supported in that. It might be an uphill battle. I would love to give birth at a birth center, but still appreciate being at a hospital because of the (low) risk of rupture that comes with a VBAC.

-Found out at my first appointment with the OB in Portland that my stomach muscles are in fact separated from my pregnancy with the twinners. Wonder why my Dr. here in Salem never mentioned that before.

-Do not have gestational diabetes. Always nice to know.

-Baby girl is quite active. Especially after a good dessert and always at bedtime.

-Pretty sure she has assumed a position that is now sending me to the bathroom every 22 minutes.

-Little man recommended “Louie” as a good baby name. I think we will keep looking.

-Planning to register with no intentions of actually using it except for the 10% off coupon you get after the baby is born.

-Slowly getting things checked off my “Big To Do List”

-Wondering if my “decaf” coffee was really decaf. Sorry baby. Blame Starbucks.

P.S. If you take a Carmel Macchiato and add more ice and a little chocolate ice cream in the blender it tastes really good.

-Read almost all of 6 “natural” childbirth etc. books in one week by carrying them around the house. Kiddos call them my “baby books”.

- Trying to do some of the “Bradley” and yoga exercises from my books.

-Had to keep from chuckling when the intake nurse asked if I was exercising. Wondered if going up the stairs 87 times a day, doing 122 baby gate hurdles, and 200 toddler lifts counted as my main form.

-Baby found my ribs. Pretty sure the twins did not even manage that.

-Tons of baby hiccups.

-She is quite particular about her space. Does not like counters, tight fitting pants, bowls of cereal, resting arms, toddler elbows, or anything else that encroaches upon her space. Will kick back at anything that offends her.

-Need to take more belly pictures. Must be in sweats and pj’s too much lately.

-Laughing every time I find one of the littles walking around with a very rounded back trying to stick their belly out.  Pretty sure they are making fun of me. Caught little man doing it with focus again before bed last night while watching his shadow. Also found little lady happily going about her business with a wadded up item of clothing shoved under her shirt for quite some time.

-Trying to teach the kids that babies only have milk (to prevent them from sharing food). Little man says “just milk” and little lady told me “Not dinner!” Ok, I promise.

Diapers.com offers deals pretty frequently. Most have not peaked my interest enough to make a purchase. They often involve rebates and I prefer deals that have a little more instant gratification.  This deal was good enough for me to take advantage of.

Here is how it breaks down:

You can get 40% off clothes and shoes using code SPRING40 (through 4/11) when you make a disposable diaper purchase (even one Luvs jumbo pack counts). This is good on regular AND sale prices.

You can also get $10 off your purchase or $49 or more with your first Diapers.com purchase with code KGXR1966

You also get free shipping with an order of $49 or more

The great part is that the $49 dollar deals seem to be before discounts. My total was $36.88 and it worked perfect.

I took advantage of this deal because 40% off of good shoe brands is great!  Often when there are great markdowns on shoes like See Kai Run they only have the tiny sizes left.  They also have brands like Stride Rite, Crocs, Robeez, etc.

Check out the sites “ecoupons” for diaper coupons that you only have to click on to have them applied.

Use the codes in this order:

KGXR1966, then SPRING40

So, for $36.99 I got

One pair of girls See Kai Run shoes that were $40.00

One pair of boys See Kai Run shoes that were on clearance for $24.00

One pack of 50 ct. Pampers Baby Dry newborn diapers reg $9.99 and used a “ecoupon” for $1.50 off. (Not an incredible price for diapers, but totally worth it for the 40% off it scored me!)

Almost every pregnant person I know makes all sorts of lists.  One of the most important is the list that contains all of the things that need to be done before baby (or babies) arrive.  Some of the things on my list are the fun preparing for baby things, but most are home related.  My goal is to have our entire house organized by the time baby comes.  This will be no easy task. We have been chipping away at this for awhile and are seeing a great improvement, but still have a ways to go.

I am currently 18 weeks pregnant and likely have 21 or 22 weeks to accomplish these tasks.

To do:

1) Organize master bedroom-move chairs, dust in places I can’t reach, change bedding to my favorites, go through drawers again and make each of them work for me, get the totes to the garage when full of outgrown kid clothes…

2) Organize master bath-do a deep clean of tile and bath, organize stuff on counters, in drawers and cupboards and get rid of anything we don’t need.

3) Organize small bedroom and large closet- get all scrapbooking and office stuff into the closet, organize the entire closet and get rid of stuff we don’t need, organize all non-Christmas holiday stuff, and make the room look how I want it to!

4) Go through upstairs hallway closet- purge, organize and maximize the space.

5) Make laundry room cuter and clean the floors

6) Organize kids bathroom-take out anything that does not belong, decide what to store in the cupboards, and deep cleaning (since our kids aren’t potty trained we don’t use this bathroom often at this point).

7) Finish my crafting space and make the large storage/inspiration board

8 ) Finish organizing toys

9) Organize the garage

10) Finish putting stuff on Craigslist

11) Donate to UGM

12) Take things to consignment store-multiple trips involved (I think they only look at a few things at a time)…we have been putting this off for too long. Use credit to buy clothes in next size up for kids and things for baby.

13) Print pictures and put them in frames

14) Set up an art station for the kids

15) Start and finish the twins baby books….HA, Just kidding!!!!

16) Create a working paper organization system for for the misc. things that stack up

17) Get car maintainence done

18) Go through book shelf

19) Potty train kids

20) Take a family vacation

21)  Decide what to do about room arrangements and who will share when the baby moves out of our room and prepare accordingly (sort of dreading putting my “separate sleepers” in a room together).

Baby related tasks

1) Go through baby clothes-organize, wash, make a list of any little things we need (this baby will be born in June and my twins were early Feb babies).

2) Put gear back together

3) Figure how in the world to configure the car seats in the van and get them all checked by the tech.

4) Put little baby stuff into the diaper bag

5) Purchase-Small cloth diapers, used glider, used papasan swing, My Breast Friend nursing pillow,

6) Make- Burp rags and baby hats out of re-purposed clothes,

7) Read a couple books

8 ) Decide between a repeat c-section or to try for a vbac

9) Go on a couple “dates” with the kids individually

10) Stock up on a couple baby related products (use coupons and watch sales)- wipes, booty cream, wash, and little diapers (we might largely use disposable for the newborn size so I don’t have to buy tiny cloth that will be grown out of quickly)

11) Pick out a name!

There should be plenty of time to finish all of these things, but I reserve the right to “alter” the list at any point. I will post updates as things progress to keep myself accountable

As I was taking a survey today for another mama blogger I commented that I liked to read about the little things in her day and life. I like the connection that comes from reading more personal posts rather than just “articles”. Then I realized I am an idiot. I hardly share anything personal on here. Maybe I don’t because I believe that sharing personal information is such a balancing act, possibly because I am lazy, could be because I think these sorts of posts are more suited for our family blog (since we hardly write on that it is a lame excuse)…who knows.

So here begins my attempt to intermix personal thoughts with the other stuff. Don’t get too excited. It’s really nothing juicy or earth shattering.

I will start with my thoughts on my 17th week of pregnancy. Wait a second, you didn’t know I was pregnant? My mistake. That might be my fault since I have not included anything of the personal nature (except the last time my mailbox freebies picture included a Kotex sample).
So YES, I am pregnant and most definitely thrilled.

The stats:
17 weeks pregnant
Due June 17th(ish)
“Only” one baby this time. We checked.

Back to the thoughts…

1) I first worried when I was not gaining weight. Then I gained weight. Then I was frustrated that I gained weight. Then I had a small bowl of cereal for lunch. Then I got a headache. Bad idea.

When I was pregnant with the twins I was fairly happy with every pound because they were practically eating me alive. I worked hard to find things to eat (I mean my husband), made smoothies to get enough of the good stuff in, drank Boosts for extra protein and calories and only gained about 25 pounds during my time incubating the babies until they were born 11 days before my due date. This time I don’t think I will be needing the Boosts, my nausea has largely passed, and I am now taking my cell phone out of my pocket for weigh-ins at the doctor.

2) I am missing some of the “perks” of my twin pregnancy and not overly thrilled about being “co-managed” with a nurse practitioner. Apparently this means I only get to see my doctor every other visit for most of my pregnancy. Unless they call you to notify you that your doctor won’t be in the office for your January appointment and that you are being rescheduled to see some other doctor. I am not a pushy person, but c’mon. Four months between seeing my doctor? That is nuts. So I rescheduled to see her a week later (at 5 weeks). The lady at the desk told me this was “not medically advisable,” but I figured it was not medically advisable to not see my doctor in four months and made my own executive decision (after calling my husband to confirm my thoughts and get up the nerve to call back…and praying that I got a different lady on the phone).

3) A little annoyed that my Old Navy maternity clothes from my last pregnancy looked so worn out when I took them out of the tote.

4) I am wondering why I decided to get the test that will change nothing except worry me if it comes back abnormal.

5) Making a mental note to never go to the lab at 10:50 ever again. 30 people in front of me and 2 behind me. For some reason I would feel better if a whole bunch of people kept coming in after me. Also thinking the male Phlebotomist named Shannon did not use the little alcohol wipe on my arm before drawing my blood. Hope there was not any scary germs in that tiny area of my arm.

6) Loving that the little flutters are turning into more noticeable kicks. My hubby might have even felt one of them last night.

7) Can’t believe how many CRAZY dreams and nightmares I have been having.

8)  Counting down the days till we find out what our baby is next week (also a tiny nervous to get such a clear peek at our little one…praying everything looks good).

9) Most grateful for a new baby to welcome into our crazy house, happy to be pregnant again, thankful it did not take years to get pregnant, thinking of others who have lost or are still waiting, trying to embrace the whole process and happy to be a mom.

Most everyone I know loves shopping at Target. The merchandise is appealing, the clothes are things you might actually want to wear, and the hunt for a good markdown is fun.  After shopping there for a bit I have learned a few tricks that help me make the most of my money.

-Target stores often do markdowns on Thursdays.  They manually scan and then tag the items with red stickers and either leave the item where it is, or often move it to an end cap.

-Common clearance markdowns include 15%, 30&, 40%, 50%, 75%, and 90% (occasionally other markdowns can be seen).  Consumable household items (zip lock bags, toothpaste etc.) often start off at 15%, while goods like clothes often start at 30%.

-Don’t just look for the red clearance sticker! Be sure to check the upper right hand corner of the red sticker for a number that will tell you what percentage off the item is.  15% off is not that impressive and a regular sale price is often times lower than that.

-Toy clearances happen twice a year. Once in August to make way for new toys for the Christmas season, and then again after Christmas.  I usually wait for them to hit 50%-75% off and then stock up.

-TARGET NOW PRICE MATCHES! Take the full add from the other store to the customer service desk and they will match for the exact same item. This even works on things like food items.  If you have a manufacturer coupon, a target coupon, and price match if it is cheaper somewhere else you can get a great deal! Price matching is a great way to prevent driving all over town to get the best deal.

-Target has coupons. There have been some changes recently and I believe that some of the coupons on their site are now manufacturer coupons for Target and some are still store coupons. Since you can only use one of each type on an item the Target coupons are more exciting because you can still pair them with a manufacturer coupon from your Sunday fliers or coupons.com coupons etc.

Valuable Target links:

Target coupons!!!

Target’s coupon policy

Target’s price matching policy

If you are a big couponer you might want to print those policies out.  Keep them with your coupons in case you need to refer to them in the store or politely show your cashier.

Hope this helps! Let me know if you have any questions or tips!

What is your favorite Target product, line, or snack?