Saturday, November 10, 2012

After Halloween Target (and Michael's) Haul


It's that time of year again! Time to sweep in for the after Halloween deals like some kind of scavenger bargain shark! You might remember my previous after Halloween Target posts from 2011 and 2010. Looking back, I have to say those were some pretty great bargains. This year's shopping experience was no exception. Last time I was at Target, the Halloween stuff was marked down by 70% (not including candy) but it's probably marked down even more by now. The dollar section was 50% off.

Target had some really fun Halloween hand towels this year. I had been eyeing this Silver skull towel throughout October and planned to swoop in for it after Halloween. Nicely, there was just one left for me on a shelf between a lot of other things.

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There were a few heavy plastic bowls and dishes left. It's hard to see the scale here, but the bowls are about cereal bowl sized. The dishes are pretty small, probably five inches in diameter.

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There were a few Halloween craft items left. The "Beware" picks look like little pirate flags that should be good for sticking in cupcakes. I tried a little of the glitter and it's great. I'm not sure what project is in store for these metallic circles.

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There were a few led candles left in the $1.00/$2.50 section near the front of the store. I think these ended up being $1.25. I hope they glow as much as those Walmart ones we had for the party!

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Just some stripey witch socks...

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This frame was $1.50 as I recall. The little green gourd was 50 cents in that half price dollar section. That's looking good with some Thanksgiving decorations now.

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Here's a close up view of the frame, so you can see how sparkly it is. I'm not really sure why this was in with the Halloween stuff, but I think it will be a good fit for Christmas. It has that sparkly snow look to it.

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These Halloween themed napkins were part of the haul. I know they aren't the most exciting find, but I'm sharing them because I like the spider on the packaging.

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This coffin was probably the most exciting part of the haul, aside from the skull towel! It was labeled as a centerpiece, although I'm not sure how that would work. This is made of heavy cardboard and was $2.50.

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There's that little skull that was on the towel.

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Right now, I'm trying to decide which vampire should reside in it. There's Draculaura:

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... and the more standard Muppet-like vampire:

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I'm sure I'll have fun playing with that little coffin, no matter how it's used!

Michael's craft store had their Halloween merchandise marked down 80%! As you can see, there was an array of floral accessories and decorations left. It's hard not to just grab everything that's 80% off.

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This little silver pumpkin was 50 cents. It's now a part of the Thanksgiving decorations.

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These little black cats are part of floral picks, although I'm sure they'll be used for something else.

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Some purple pumpkin floral picks.

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Some curly picks:

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Those are just a few of my favorites, but there were lots to choose from. This is a medium sized pumpkin - it's maybe 7 to 10 inches wide. The color is sort of a greenish grey, which is not really my thing. It might need to get sprayed a new color. It was only $2.50 which is great for a good looking fake pumpkin.

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More floral picks that fit nicely with the Thanksgiving decor. You can see a few little foam skulls in the background.

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Here's a closer view of the skulls. I think the "natural" ones were only 20 or 30 cents and the glittery orange one was 50 cents.

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The orange skull has a glittery spider on its head and sits on a stick. I was planning to put the natural ones on sticks as sort of wands, but we'll see.

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After Halloween shopping is fun, because it takes a little of the sadness away from Halloween being over. You get to drag out the holiday excitement just a little bit longer. Did any of you find any great after Halloween bargains? Any tips on places I should check out for some deals?

21 comments:

  1. Wow, you got some excellent deals - especially that coffin centerpiece! I deliberately stayed away from the Hallowe'en sales, supposedly to save money, but then bought Hallowe'en fabric online instead. So yeah, might as well have gone to the sales ... :P

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  2. I didn't find much exciting. When I started hunting the first few stores had almost no Halloween stock left out and were in full-on Christmas mode.

    But a week later stuff started showing up. One of my targets had quite a few fake pumpkins, which made me think of you but I didn't get any.

    I snagged some treat bags which is when I usually get them for the following year. Got 2 packs of 15 for .20 each and some of the Halloween blackberry Kool-Aid which was down .70 from $1 for a pack of 5.

    Nothing too exciting =)

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  3. Insomniac's Attic ~ Hey, welcome to my blog. :) Yeah, that's the thing about having internet shopping available now. You can try to have some self control and stay away from the stores, but the computer is just sitting there luring you to shop on it. :) Where did you end up finding some Halloween fabric? There are so many fabric sites now!

    Dex ~ I know we had talked about Michael's and how there wasn't much there. Oddly, I'd been there before Halloween and wasn't too impressed. A few days ago I was there for a different purpose and happened to run into all this Halloween stuff! A lot of it was crammed into the end of an aisle by the floral items, so no one probably thought to look there.

    I think I know which fake pumpkins you saw at Target. I was really hoping to get one there this year. They had some huge jack-o-lanterns! They were $30, which I thought was a bit much. I guess some other shoppers didn't think so, because those were gone after Halloween. I was disappointed not to see those, so I jumped on that greenish one at Michael's!

    Sounds like you got a good deal on treat bags! Did you get those retro jack-o-lantern ones? I wasn't even aware that Target carried Halloween Kool-Aid, although I can't remember the last time I drank Kool-Aid...

    I'm sure all the stores are in full-on Christmas mode by now!

    P.S. ~ That 90% off at Jo-Ann's we talked about will probably not be happening this year. They were nearly wiped out of Halloween stuff a few days after October 31!

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  4. Wow lady you scored! I want those socks I'd wear them everyday!

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  5. Magikalseasons ~ Haha! Yeah, I did! :) Those socks are really nice and useable. They're knee socks so they probably would be good for winter too. I think they cost $1.50 tops, so you should go see if Target saved you some bargain socks!

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  6. Oh Justine, I am endlessly jealous of your after Hallowe'en sale hauls! You scored some really great stuff this year! I just adore the orange glittery skull with the spider on top - so sparkly, so pretty! Also the Hallowe'en picks are just too cute, I'd have to have them out in a spooky vase all year round! The coffin looks amazing - I would probably use it on my dressing table to store hair accessories!

    I remember I found some Hallowe'en hand towels in TK Maxx a few years ago and I've regretted not picking them up ever since! I really hope I come across some more at some point because every bathroom needs a little bit of Hallowe'en décor!

    I've not really seen any Hallowe'en sales over here, probably because there wasn't much in the way of good Hallowe'en décor this year in the first place, but I did pick up a lovely spider web lantern from John Lewis for £4 and a pretty purple and silver batty glass candle holder from TK Maxx for £2! I'm focusing more on Christmas décor at the moment because if there is one holiday that us Brits go in for it's Christmas! It's the one holiday a year when you can find really good décor over here so I like to make the most of it! I'm feeling so very festive already! :D ~♥~

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  7. Oh, by the way! I keep forgetting to mention it but I love your Smashing Pumpkins quote! It's so befitting of you and your blog! ~♥~

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  8. Bella Morte ~ Thanks! :) I was pretty happy with that orange skull too. It's a pretty good use of 50 cents. I'm still not sure what will happen with it. Maybe I'll stick it in a little black urn and decorate around it with some black twigs or flowers?

    Hey! Good idea for that little coffin. It is fairly long, so it would hold necklaces well. It's funny that you mention TK Maxx because I was just talking about our TK Maxx/TJ Maxx sister stores. Maybe TK Maxx has a web site where you could find those towels? Hmm... Maybe not. I just found the TJ Maxx site and you can only browse gift ideas there.

    I just had to look up John Lewis to see what kind of store it is. It looks like a nice department store?

    I believe that you have a lot of Christmas items to choose from! The stores are certainly prepared for Christmas around here too. There was sort of an overlap where the Christmas merchandise was out next to the Halloween merchandise. Now it feels like every store is in complete Christmas mode!

    Thanks! I'm glad you like that quote on here. I was always a Pumpkins fan. In fact, they were my first concert. I always have to sing that line when I hear 1979. :) The best part is it's true!

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  9. Those are the exact bags I picked out. Spooky!

    Last year I found the Kool-Aid at Stop & Shop but Target seemed to be the only place carrying it this year. Here's a pic: http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51dfhGYB7SL._SL500_AA300_.jpg

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  10. Dex ~ Well, those were the best ones being offered. :)

    Ah, "Ghoul-Aid" Nice font! I see the Kool-Aid man is dressed for the occasion in his vampire cape. Does that stuff taste good?

    I had to google Stop & Shop to see what it is. This is my night to learn about new stores!

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  11. Woah! Nice haul! The hand towels are soooooooooo cute! The bowls are adorable... you've got Halloweenie black and orange, plus a bit of 'Beetlejuice' as well! :)

    The napkins are great. That's something we'd never get here. I actually got sent some Halloween napkins, a few years back, from a friend in Canada. I've only used one or two because I don't want to use them all up. They have cute witch hats on them. I'll have to take a photo and send it to you.

    I'm seriously jealous of that coffin... and $2.50?!!!! That's amazing! I think Draculaura looks very at home in it.

    Those curly picks are gorgeous... everything is awesome! You've blown my mind with Halloweenie goodness! Haha.

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  12. Little Gothic Horrors ~ Thank you! One can never have too many Halloween towels... evidently. :) Yes! That one little plate does have a Beetlejuice thing going on!

    I would like to see a photo of those napkins. I don't always run into casual Halloween napkins like those. It's actually more likely for me to find the "fancier" bright colored ones. Every now and then you see these or some paper towels with a Halloween design.

    I was very thrilled with that coffin. I'm going to look for some coffin folding templates for you, because you can fold your own. I think Draculaura looks at home too! Those Monster High dolls have the cutest little hands, and hers looked fitting pushing that lid open.

    "You've blown my mind with Halloweenie goodness!" Well, that just makes my night. :)

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  13. I ended up getting 5 yards of fabric on eBay and then decided I didn't get enough and got an additional 6 yards on Etsy! Yikes!! But it's very pretty ... and you know you have to snap this stuff up before it's gone  ;o)

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  14. You've scored the best stuff Justine. What a shame I can't get anything remotely that nice here in England.

    Ali

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  15. Insomniac's Attic ~ True, you do have to jump on that after holiday stuff before someone else does! Or even the stuff being sold during a holiday. I've rarely seen the same Halloween merchandise two years in a row. So, what are you planning to sew with your new fabric?

    Ali ~ Thank you! Yeah, from what I've heard it's a lot of work to find any Halloween items for sale outside the U.S. At least there's internet shopping now! I know the shipping is not cheap, but at least there are some things available. You never know, England might jump on the Halloween bandwagon yet!

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  16. Sounds terribly boring, but new oven mitts and an apron to start ... LOL!

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  17. Insomniac's Attic ~ Haha! I was guessing a table runner for some reason. I don't think I've ever known of someone making their own oven mitts. I'm sure it will all look really cute and festive next Halloween!

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  18. You totally scored on some great items. I sadly missed out on the after Halloween sales.

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  19. Adsila ~ Yeah! I was really lucky this year. There weren't all that many places with Halloween stuff I liked this time. So I was glad to find as much as I did at these two stores! I know you were really busy with moving this year. There might still be something out there. I saw a few autumn items at a craft store today.

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  20. What month did you go shopping at Michael's for those deals?

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  21. Unknown ~ Looking back, it was probably early November. I tend to hit Target first, the day after Halloween. Then I make my way through Michael's, Walgreens, etc. through early November. Sounds like you're planning ahead for those after Halloween deals!

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