STATUS UPDATE

I have heard from 2 friends that have been out shopping. One found boy pants at GAP KIDS for under $8! And another found a leather jacket at Ann Taylor that had an original price of $200 and was marked down to $5! And then it was 25% off on top of that! WAY TO GO you guys!!! I love hearing about your super finds!

I hit the mall today and spent about 3 hrs perusing several stores. In my opinion, prices still aren't low enough yet. But I was able to find some things here and there, so let me try and give you some specifics on what I saw.

Old Navy: They did a 50% off red tag clearance items from Friday to Monday. I was out of town and missed it. In the several years that I've been shopping a year ahead for my kids I've NEVER seen them use this strategy. Once the 50% off clearance hits the store, it remains until the items are gone. I'm bummed they've changed their process. I went last week on Tuesday and today the prices are the same as before because I missed the weekend sale. The sales associate said that they will be doing 30% off clearance this weekend, but she didn't know if that would stay or be the same as last weekend. Without the extra discount I wouldn't buy much of what they have. Nothing in the toddler section was cheap enough for me (boy or girl). In the big boy section, there were some random dress shirts and random pajama pants that I approved of. In the big girl section there was more than in the other 3 sections put together. This is odd, because it seems every season it's the big girl items that I'm always short on. But they have zip up hoodies and fleece tops for a good price. I found some long sleeve tees for $4.99. I think I found a sweater I was willing to pay $10 for. I didn't scour through the adult items this time.

GAP: The mall I went to didn't have a GAP KIDS. I walked all through the store for adult clothes and found just a handful of pants that were on sale and a couple pairs of shoes and slippers. Nothing was cheap enough for me to take to the register.

H&M: (They don't have these everywhere. Check their website to see if there is one near you) Right now they're doing a 'Buy 1 Get 1 FREE' on all their clearance items, which they call 'Final Markdown'. Last year and the year before it was 50% off red tag items, just like Old Navy. They also started a lot sooner this year than they did last year. When I went today, there is not much left. They've also redesigned the store where I went today and there are a LOT less children's items than they used to have. I'm very disappointed. I asked the sales associate when the sale started and she said at least 2 weeks ago! WOW! I'm so bummed! But she said it's the 3rd or 4th time they've ran that sale since she started working there in August. So that's good news. That means that they now run this type of sale more than twice a year, so be on the lookout! I did manage to find some good deals. A couple pairs of pants in big girl size that were marked $10 red tag, so that means $5 each with the 'buy 1 get 1' deal. A couple dresses for toddler girl that were $15, so $7.50 each in the end. And I was able to find a couple tops for me for $10, so $5 each with the clearance deal. H&M always has a variety of sizes also. I saw things that ranged from size 0 up to size 14.

Children's Place: Right now there are only a couple things worth buying here. One is the toddler girl long sleeve tees. They are $4.99 and 30% off of that. $3.50 is a good price for a tee. There are a lot of colors to choose from. I also found fleece footed pajamas for babies and toddlers (boy and girl) for 50% off the clearance price, which was marked at $7.99, so only $3.99 in the end! Excellent price! I pay about $8 for these. Usually you don't see them much cheaper than this. I was VERY tempted to buy some and eBay them because you can't even find them on eBay for that cheap. I will be checking recent eBay ended listings to see if that's feasible. Everything else I was isn't cheap enough for me yet.

Ann Taylor & Loft: Ann Taylor has some great markdowns. I didn't buy anything but I went in to get a feel of what they had. They had some great suit pieces marked way down, and some other things that I felt were priced very well. The Loft had better prices in my opinion. But I think they always do. Their clothing is less than regular Ann Taylor to being with, so their sales are lower too. Plus they have an additional 25% off clearance items which the regular Ann Taylor did not have. Both stores have petite sizes which I love. I saw a super cute formal black skirt for only $20 in Ann Taylor. Perfect for a company party or holiday wear. I picked up a cute top at The Loft for only $7. They had a wide range of sizes.

Banana Republic: They had some things on sale, but nothing I was jumping up and down for. The prices were not as low as I've seen in the past, and the items weren't all that great.

Aldo: Aldo shoes has some great dress shoes for $60 and under. The full price is usually $80 and up. All their boots are marked down and then $20 additional off the sale price. I wasn't that impressed. The marked down price was about $20 less than the original, so that didn't seem like a great deal to me.

Borders: There was a Borders Express in the mall I was at today. They had some great deals on classics. They had a cart full of paperback unabridged classics for 75% off. I bought 3 books for just over $6. They had young adult books at 'buy 2 get 1 FREE', along with other deals like this.

Express: I didn't go into Express. It's not really my style. But I did notice that they have 40% off clearance items right now.

**Don't feel confined to the store that is closest to you. It isn't always the one that has the best selection. The inventory is completely dictated by the market that the store caters to. I often will shop 3 or 4 different locations to find what I need. The location in the smaller town sometimes has a better inventory. Nothing is guaranteed, but this has been my experience. A store that gets less traffic, will have a better selection of clearance items.