Shopping Excursion

We have started our Christmas/Birthday shopping for Austin, and it is already getting a little overwhelming! I have been keeping a spreadsheet over the last two or three months, just putting down ideas when I came across them. Eventually, the spreadsheet was filling up and I even priced every single item from Amazon, Toys R Us, Walmart and Target. I was updating the spreadsheet every week with new prices, sales, ideas, etc.

Well, we took our first stab at it on Saturday, with a plan to get ALL of our Toys R Us items in one trip. Right. That didn’t quite work out. Just call us “holiday Toys R Us virgins”, since last year with Austin being so young, we got all of our toys at Walmart, with the exception of a few items we got from TRU. I thought, hey it’s before Thanksgiving, there aren’t any major sales going on this weekend, it will be the perfect time. Apparently, there is no perfect time to visit TRU during the weekends if it’s anywhere near the vicinity of Christmas.

After about 20 minutes in the store, roaming aimlessly because we had no clue how the new store here is set up, I was ready to give up. The aisles were packed, kids were running around, babies were screaming…not the ideal place for someone who has bad anxiety, especially in crowds. We ended up only getting the items that I had seen in the store a few weeks ago so I knew exactly where they were (lots of Elmo and Mickey!). Once we got those, we hightailed it out of there as quickly as we could!

I’m trying to work up the courage to go back because there are some items we need that are only available there, and I’m trying to avoid ordering them online because I really want to take advantage of my coupon that I can’t use online! Silly I know, but any little bit helps around the holidays! I also decided that I will get as many items from Amazon, Target and Walmart as I can, regardless of the price difference (unless it’s pretty substantial).

My friend, Marsha, has been shopping for months, getting things here and there. With Christmas and Austin’s birthday being just nine days apart, I think that will be my best option, otherwise I’ll end up dropping a LOT of money at one time! Lesson learned for next year!