I am a sucker for a good clearance sale!

While I love Christmas, I REALLY love after Christmas sales. One of the best places I've found to score stuff after Christmas is Target. The day after Christmas, all of Target's holiday stuff goes on 50% off clearance (food goods goes to 30% off). A week after Christmas, it goes down to 90% off. Yes, you read that right - 90% off. Food only goes down to 70%, but hey - that's not bad either.

(picture from TotallyTarget.com)

Looks like a hot mess, right? It is. This is not a sale you bring your kids to. That being said, Charlie joined me for an afternoon of Target-ing. 

There is always a bunch of obvious stuff on clearance; ornaments, wrapping paper, trees, stockings. They get picked over really quickly. Except the Justin Bieber wrapping paper. There's ALWAYS plenty of that.

What about "stocking stuffers" though? Or dish soap with snowflakes on the bottle? Or holiday print Ziploc containers? ALL considered holiday stuff! Some Target stores do a good job of gathering up everything and putting it in one section. Most, however, do not. This makes for awesome hidden treasures all over your store. 

This is my haul from two Targets this afternoon. Ta da!! All of this cost me under $20. Seriously.

Of all of this, the Santa hats, ornament hooks, stickers, green cup, ribbon, and M&Ms were actually in the clearly marked clearance section. The hair brush ($.50), Burts Bees ($.29), and eos ($.29) were all in the health and beauty section for the purpose of stocking stuffers. Yes, they're 90% off because the package has a snowflake on it. The kid dining sets ($.89) and baking pans ($.99) were in the kitchen section. The kid dining sets have absolutely nothing to do with Christmas and the baking sets have red/green labels. That's it. The pajamas ($.79) and the slippers ($.79) were in the kid section. All of this was completely not marked as on sale. 

This load of stuff was from a second trip. More pajamas ($.89) and slippers ($.79), a Steelers Minnie Mouse set ($1.99), Christmas pjs ($.89), Kid Made Modern drawing kits ($1.49), Lego luggage tags ($.29), e.l.f. make up sets ($.49), and Christmas boxer briefs ($.49). Our Targets still haven't marked down the Method soaps and detergents, but will this week from $3.49 to $.34 each.

Also, I'm not a hoarder - most of this stuff is for friend's who couldn't get to Target or their Target sucked. Thank goodness for regional flat rate boxes!

How did I know it was on sale then? Two wonderful websites called All Things Target and Totally Target. People scour the store looking for sales, how to stack coupons, and generally how to get the most bang for your buck and compile it on these two sites. It was like a scavenger hunt!

You can follow their blogs or check them out on Facebook.

There are similar, but smaller sales after all major holidays and big season changes (like when the citronella candles are swapped for ice melt and shovels). Keep an eye out and you too can get crazy Target deals!