Why shop clearance?

If you could by something for 1/4 of the price would you? 

As the holiday season approaches us, there will be many opportunities to find items on clearance. 

Clearance items are not just decorations, it can be food, party supplies, or neutral items you can use all year!

Here are some things to look for according to seasons.

Halloween - right after Halloween, stores tend to put items 70%-80% off. If you have small kids you can buy their costume for next year, if they are older you can buy face makeup, wigs, props for dress up because you never know when your child will have crazy hair day or need to paint their face for a sporting event. There is also a lot of fall decorations on sale, especially at Michaels! I like to buy a lot of fall items so I can use the same decoration for Halloween and Thanksgiving!
Party items like table cloths, colored tape, napkins, silverware may be black or orange, but I am not picky on colors:)
This year I bought ghost marshmallows, pumpkin cheese puffs, and chocolate gold fish 50% off. It made great snacks for my boys! And I have also been buying some candy and saving it for Christmas, if you are not picky on wrappers, a normal Twix wrapper verses a red and green Twix wrapper is just as good to eat!
There seems to be a lot of kids Halloween clothing left, and when it is 70%off and you can guess their size for next year, go ahead! You can also buy clearance "My first Halloween" baby items and save it for a baby shower!

Thanksgiving - after thanksgiving of course there are black Friday deals. But you can also find a lot of baking items on sale that the store stocked up on. Such as canned pumpkins, cranberries, pie crusts. The shelf life for this sometimes is over a year! You can use it for next year or use it for baking all year long! You can also find cookware on sale like turkey roasters, turkey pans, turkey basters, etc. And if you have a big freezer, and a big family, when there are opportunities to get a cheap turkey, buy it and freeze it! Can use it for Easter, or just a Sunday meal!

Christmas - after Christmas sales are my favorite! There are so many opportunities! There are packaged items with a Christmas logo on it that will be on clearance, such as headphones, toys, perfumes, clothes, etc! Also, red, green, and blue seem to be the biggest color, and you can find many napkins, boxes, paper bags, bows, tissue paper and etc. that you can use all year! There is also a lot of food, cookie mixes, snacks, desserts...all with holiday logos but taste just as good all year long! I have a son who's birthday is in January. All of his items come from Christmas clearance at 90% off! Last year he had a train birthday party and I found lots of boxes that I made into a  train sweet station and used clearance cake pop kits, ribbon for the give away bags, and Oreos,  cake mix and sprinkles for the train cake, I also bought many bags of red and green chocolate chips and sorted them and saved the red for Valentines day, and the green for Saint Patricks day! The best part is buying gifts for the next year!
In January look for winter items to go on sale, especially boots, snow gear, and winter jackets. These items can be expensive and can be sooooo cheap on clearance. I found a $240 jacked for $20 at Kohl's last year! Also you can buy the next size for your kids! Also Target has their  70% toy clearance  sale a few weeks into January (here is what my sister got last year).

Valentines day - I actually did my whole bathroom in hearts and red and pink for $20 with 90% clearance. I bought hanging wall items, standing fake roses, shower curtain, candles, etc. You could do a girls room, decorate for a party or put items around your house. The good thing is hearts and roses can be used all year:) I made a heart wreath out of tissue paper for $0.30.

Easter - you can find many spring items on sale. If you look for flowers you can decorate for the spring and summer! Again you can find lots of candy. This year I bought a bunch of chocolate bunnies and froze them, then used them to make smores this summer! (My haul last year)