Yesterday was a shopping day. I stopped at Walmart to pick up a few things, especially a pound of butter to put on my muffins in the morning.  I LOVE butter, but Hubby HATES butter. Just the smell is enough to make him vomit, and he has been known to scream and run from the house if he smells microwave butter popcorn. He generally does all of the grocery shopping, but refuses to purchase butter because even the sight of it causes PTSD.  So, I picked some up at while I was out.

I also went to Kohl’s to search for the perfect dress for an upcoming wedding of my nephew. I hadn’t been clothes shopping in ages, so I looked forward to browsing through the racks of dresses. Little to my surprise, there were four racks of clearance dresses, marked down 50%.  The sign on top indicated that one was to take off an additional 50% off all clearance items. Wow! There were many dresses marked down to $25, which meant the final cost would be $12.50, which made my heart skip. I could use a few new dresses for work, so I was in my glory picking out several to put in my shopping cart. I even found the perfect dress for the wedding in navy blue, the same color as Hubby’s suit.  I smiled as I pictured a photo of the two of us at the wedding in matching outfits, surely a “keeper” to put on this year’s Christmas cards.

Because of the deep discount on dresses, I steered my cart to other departments to check out the bargains. In the housewares department, a lovely ceramic green vase with an abundance of artificial daisies caught my eye. It would be perfect for my desk at work. It was marked down to $10, which meant the final cost would be only $5. What a bargain! A colorful comforter and matching sheets were only $12. An attractive frame to hold family pictures also went into the cart (although getting the actual family photos to put in the frame will be like pulling teeth from my children).

In the shoe section, a pair of navy blue dress shoes fit me perfectly, and a size 13 dress shoe and pair of slip in sneakers for Hubby precariously sat on top of the other items in the cart.

It dawned on me that there might be a similar sale in the toy section. Christmas shopping for my six grandchildren and 12 nieces and nephews was always an expensive challenge. However, because my cart was already full, l bravely steered it over to the service desk and asked them if I could leave it there while I filled another with more items.

The toy section was overflowing with bargains. An awesome light up bowling set was marked down to $17 ($8.50 being its final price), a giant lighted Four-in-a-row game and a zig zag ride on toy were also placed in the cart. A huge dollhouse with furniture and tiny family members for Steven’s 10-year-old daughter, a remote control space shuttle for Francis’ 10-year-old daughter who wants to be an astronaut, a musical light show microphone for my 4-year-old granddaughter who loves to sing, and a Hot Wheels Monster Truck Arena, a Nintendo Super Mario Deluxe Browser Play Set and a Marvel Spidey Stuffed character for my nephews would be the perfect presents. I had barely room for anything else, but would have been too embarrassed to bring a second cart to the service desk, so I resigned my self to buying only small things from that point on.

SMALL things…like jewelry! WHAT a sale they had on bracelets and earrings! They were small and would fit in my cart fine, and would be perfect for my daughters-in-law and many nieces. By the time I finished shopping, I had been in the store for three hours. 

I was thrilled to have finished my Christmas shopping for an initial tally of only $320. But, wait a minute, I also had a coupon for 40% off my purchases, bringing it down to $210, AND I got “Kohl’s Cash” in the amount of $100 to spend the following week! I was beside myself with joy and lugged all of the bags in the two carts to my car, which had been sitting in the parking lot in the 91-degree heat.  Even the fact that the butter I had purchased was now a melted blob of oil on the floor of my car couldn’t affect my mood. What a joyous Christmas I will have, and, for the first time, I won’t have to go into debt to purchase presents!