Toy Shopping Strategies

When my children were small with this tribe of mine I had to get the most for every dollar and toy treasure shopping for the holidays was a must. It became a challenge to stretch my Christmas fund as far as possible.

Anny's hints for frugal toy shopping and so my 11 children were not scrooged over the years.

• Buy at the end of the season or when they are on clearance and put the toy safely stored in a Rubbermaid bin at my friends house and do the same for her. That way when a nosy child peeks they don't find their own presents.
• Price Match
• Layaway (this also keeps sneaky children out of the toys, but also hide the layaway receipts).
• Watch the ads and be there early when the ad begins, or they may be sold out.
• When a toy is sold out, get a raincheck.
• Take advantage of Black Friday and use the price match strategy to save on time. I find Black Friday Ads early and the deals, then I check out Walmart, and now Target to see if they have most the items on my toy list and the ones they don't, place some older family member at that store with cash to score it.
  
• Most of all, print the toy coupons and use them with a sale for even more savings.
• Watch a full cup, my favorite blogs for toy deals and plan ahead.
• Sign up for on line savings newsletters for kids toy stores and take advantage of their clearance deals and shop from home year round.
  
• Hide your receipts (my children would check out my receipts as I save them for accounting my savings.

Most important, while our children are given gifts, establish a more important tradition of caring for others and have them buy a gift for a child who may have an empty stocking at Christmas without our help. My children remember others generosity in our early Christmas years with Becca and they volunteer and pay it forward today.