Post-holiday sales are expensive!

Today has been a flurry of receipts!


At Hallmark, I spent $22 for two ornaments. When we left Seattle, we ditched a good number of my holiday stuff. So I thought we should each have an ornament from the first Christmas spent together in Arizona. I got Wolverine for Tim, and The Swedish Chef for myself. (Hallmark is savvy enough to know what a huge profit comes from catering to our generation's geeky side.) The store also had some okay prices for holiday cards, but nothing truly thrilling.


Michael's didn't have any great ornaments or any good deals on wrapping paper. But it had a lot of good ribbon deals. I got four 3-packs of ribbon for $1.20 each, plus a blue stocking for Tim for just over $1.


Then I had to rush over to Macy's before my coupon expired at 1 p.m. No good ornaments or presents for Tim's mom. But I did find two Ecko shirts with the Star Wars theme. (One was Vader ; the other was Boba Fett.) After the coupon, both shirts were $18.


Unfortunately, just as the marketing teams intended, I was sucked into the sales rack. I managed -- barely -- to pare it down to three items, but that still rung up at $60 after tax.


Later, Tim and I ended up in a Joann Fabrics and found a 7' tree for $24. Tim, who adores all things blue, found some spherical ornaments for next year. (Insert "blue balls" joke here; goodness knows, Tim did... and continues to.) The sleeve of 10 ornaments was discounted to $3, so we got two. Along with some 29-cent curling ribbon, plus the tree, the bill came to about $34.


In other words, I spent almost as much in one day as Tim spent on my presents. On severely discounted items. There's a peculiar logic to this situation, you have to admit.


I could rationalize it, I suppose. We're stocking back up on holiday items: a tree, new ornaments, gift-wrapping supplies. And it's been at least a year (probably almost two) since I bought clothes out of anything other than strict necessity.


Or I can point to the simple fact of savings. The tree retailed for $80; Tim's shirts were $58 originally. And the three I bought had a combined MSRP of $336.


But the fact is that I probably got a little carried away. I spent only $35 on items from Craiglist. The rest of Tim's presents were bought with rewards program points. So most of my last four months focused on finding ways not to spend on the holidays.


Meanwhile, the whole time, I looked forward to the post-Christmas sales to stock back up on ornaments and wrapping supplies. All that anticipation built up into an expectation of spending.


So, okay, I may have spent more than was strictly ideal. But Tim loves his Star Wars shirts, which will see years of use. And I now have three new shirts that are actually fashionable, rather than tops that I wear because they don't actively make me look fat. What's more, next year, we'll have a tree that we picked out together, with ornaments that suit Tim's tastes, as well as mine.


So I have to say: I don't regret it. In fact, the only thing that bothers me? I have yet to find any good deals on wrapping paper. Still, there's always tomorrow!



Did anyone else go on a bit of a post-holiday spree? Find any great deals? Already done next year's Christmas shopping?