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mara williams
on May 21 2013 - 06:00 AM
Summer break has this mom on a house upkeep war path.
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Lindsay Metcalf
on May 21 2013 - 06:00 AM
When that tornado siren sounds, I'm in the basement
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It's that time of year again. You know what I mean. It's time for fresh number two pencils and packs of wide-ruled notebook paper. I admit, I love the smell of brand new back packs. Love it! It's also time for new school clothes, which is something we intended to buy this weekend specifically because it was tax-free in Missouri.
I love when things are free!
Now, I'm not shy about our tight budget. We're not proud. We're not fancy. We don't have a lot of money and that's how it is. Tax free weekend is a dream come true for us, especially since my poor Marc had no pants left! Any that he owned were either too small or had a huge hole the knee. The boy needed something to wear.
Thanks to the tip-off from a helpful Mom2Mom member (thank you, MaggieS!) I was able to print off coupons to Old Navy in addition to the tax money I was going to save. $10 off of any purchase $50 or more. Of course, I printed two of these. I was banking on being able to ring up two transactions.
Okay, so I had my tax-free holiday, I had my coupons, and I went online to find the nearest Old Navy when I learned something even more amazing: $10 jeans!
Oh, happy day!
I budgeted for $200, but I have been off work for an entire month without pay. I really wanted to keep it less than that. I added it up in my head, I decided this was going to work in our favor. We chose to go the Old Navy at the Legends because if we couldn't get everything at Old Navy there were outlet stores there we could find deals at.
Marc was a trooper. In the past, clothes shopping had been excrutiating for him and I both. He would whine, cry, whine some more, and argue until I wanted to pull my hair out. This time was different. He tried on clothes, modeled them for me, picked out his own things based on his own preferences, and even got excited about a shirt he wanted. It was out of our price range, but I've never known him to like clothes before, so we got it.
At the register, I showed the cashier my two coupons. I was a little nervous at first, feeling like I was double-dipping in the coupon bowl, but he rang up two transactions for me so I could use them both. I watched the numbers add up slowly. The first transaction, after coupon, came to about $46. I swiped my card and he handed me my reciept, then rang up the next transaction.
While he was ringing it up, I looked down at my reciept. I wanted to know exactly how much I saved on the tax-free holiday, but something was wrong. He forgot to take the tax off!
"Um," I said somewhat sheepishly. "Isn't this tax-free day?"
"That's only in Missouri," he said. I stood confused, looking at the reciept. Of course it was only Missouri, I thought.
Wait, where am I?
"OH!" I exclaimed. "This is Kansas!"
I wonder what my face must have looked like. The cashier laughed, and the customers in line behind me laughed. Yes. Hilarious. I was in Kansas on Missouri's tax-free weekend. Very funny.
What's funnier is that we did the same thing last year when we went shopping at the Mission Target. Go ahead. Laugh. I'll give you a minute to get it out of your system.
Done? Good.
I figured we would have saved about $10 total on the tax, if we were in the right state of course. This would have made it impossible for me to use my coupons without buying more stuff, so I think it worked out.
Marc got three pairs of good pants, two pairs of house pants, three tee shirts, and two dressier shirts, all for under $100. That's half of our budget! Not too bad.
Did you find any good deals this school season? Did you get as confused about geography as I did? I really feel like we made out like bandits this time around. Maybe next year I'll get my act together and remember which side of State Line I'm on and do even better!
I was excited to get a new pair of name brand cross-trainer shoes for $9.45 at Kohls. I had already gotten them shoes and I needed them badly! I was sad they only had one pair in my size, because I would have stocked up. I bought the boys pants at Target, nine pairs for around $80. I was super happy with that deal. A backpack at Macy's, originally $40, for $18. I am glad you were able to stay within your budget. It is hard, for sure.I'm glad it turned out well for you, Val. And I would have done the same thing with the location. :-)I've had a good back to school season too. Same outlet mall. Just across the way VFW, for my men's size 12 boy, gym shorts & 2 red t shirts $10, 2 pairs jeans $24, dress shorts & denim shorts $15, so grand total w/ tax under $60. We're both quite relieved. Didn't do quite so well with the girls...I was in Branson and did a tiny bit of BTS shopping on Sunday. I bought my son a long-sleeved T-shirt at the Gap. I really don't do a lot of BTS clothes shopping until we need the seasonal things. Plus, my son has had some kind of growth spurt, so I don't want to buy pants until absolutely necessary!SAVERS!!! Once I discovered Savers, I haven't bought the kids anything new again. $2 jeans are awesome!We bought school supplies and shoes for the entire family. Can't beat spiral notebooks @ 10/$1.50 - my kids seem to eat them. Ad for shoes, we purchased 7 pairs of shoes @ DSW for about $180 (all adult sizes).Using coupons and reward certificates, I save at Penneys. My feet like easy Spirit shoes--got them on sale with two coupons for $40-usually $70. We found twin XL sheets on clearance for $3.97 there as well.I haven't shopped for school clothes yet. I will wait for jeans when the weather is cooler. I like to get Dale's Levi'a at Penny's when they are on sale and I have a coupon or two. And the cashier's will work with you on with coupons are the better deal or ring two transaction. What are school pants. I have fought Dale for several years and tried to get him to understand that athletic pants shouldn't be worn to school all the time and he has nice shorts for school. Last year at Blue Valley North West when I brought this up his answer was "mom with 1700 students no body cares". I gave up. He will were nice shorts when he chooses.
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