Clearance Madness!

Today, I'm thankful for clearance!! 

I have always been a frugal shopper. I have to really love something in order to buy it if it's not on sale or I don't have a coupon. About a month ago I heard that the Joann Fabrics store in our area was going out of business. I made a mental note to check it out. A couple weeks ago my husband and I went in and about half the store was gone but the sale prices still could be better. It turned out they were actually just moving in to the local mall but they were trying to sell all of their stock so they wouldn't have to bring it over to the new store. Most everything was 25-40% off. Which, ok, is nice. But, I knew it would get better. Patterns were selling at $2 a piece (regularly $10-$17 each) and so my husband wanted to get some medieval costume patterns but I told him we should wait because they would probably get cheaper. I asked a sales associate when the last day was and again, made a mental note. 

So today was the last day of the old store. I went in between the times I was scheduled to work today and saw 90% signs as well as patterns 5 for $1! Now those are deals! I spent about an hour and a half (I know, crazy, right?) looking for cool costume patterns for their movies as well as some pretty dress patterns. I also found ones to make scrubs (scrubs are so expensive! I'd love to learn to make mine from now on!), dog sweaters, and purses. I figured, hey, at a price like that, I will learn to be an expert sewer! 

Later on my husband and I went back and found a few more things. I got fabric scraps, fabric bolts, ribbon, embroidery floss (about 30 of them for $6!!), and pins (for pinning broaches and such). Check out all this stuff! Wanna know how much we paid, total? $47!!! The receipts are quite jumbled so it'd take forever to give you an accurate number, but I estimate the original price of all this stuff at $500+! We bought about 57 patterns for less than $12. Each pattern's original cost is anywhere from $10-$17! Let's just assume an average price of $12 per pattern, multiplied by 57 patterns...that comes to $684!!! Just for the patterns! Not to mention that's a low average!

Here are my lovely spoils. I am thrilled with all the stuff we scored for so cheap! Those three bolts of fabric are each at least 7 yards, I believe one of them is 10 yards. Each was at about $5-$10 a yard originally!

Patterns of all kinds! Scrubs, cute dresses, colonial costumes, Elizabethan costumes and much more! 

And I had to get a colorful picture of my embroidery floss! Going to be getting back into cross stitching I hope! I also use this type of thread for making earrings. I was tempted to get more but I stopped myself!

Definitely a successful trip! It was an opportunity I couldn't pass up...not when I see that 90% off sticker!

What's your best clearance shopping haul? Do you like to raid stores that are closing/moving? 

Till next time,

Catherine