Thursday, November 7, 2019

The After Halloween Haul ~ 2019

Time for the After Halloween Haul! Did you guys have a difficult time finding Halloween stuff after the holiday this year? I guess there was something about it appearing in August and being discounted right away that really got people buying. Anyway, I'm happy with what I got!


Starting with Michaels, I had some really good timing with that store. I went a couple days after Halloween and they'd just marked everything down 80%. And what was lucky for me was that they didn't have the 80% off signs up! So people may not have known how big the discount was yet. An employee came over to tell me Halloween was 80% off and that she didn't know where her sign was.

So, one of the first things I grabbed was an item that I'd had my eye on before Halloween. You might remember this dapper skeleton pick from my Michaels blog post before Halloween. He cost $1.20.


I immediately put him in a floral arrangement when I got home.


These pumpkins would go nicely with him. They had these picks in orange and black too, but I really liked the black and white. I thought they had a sort of harlequin look. I must not have been alone in liking these best, because there was only this one pick left. There were a bunch of the orange and black ones on the shelf still.

Only 80¢ 

Check out these pretty realistic candy corn scatters! I'm not one to eat candy corn, but I like the look of it.


These are covered in a sugary looking glitter. I picked up two containers of them. They were only $1.20 per container. I have already had a blast scattering them around other decorations.


I was excited to find these incredibly tiny pumpkins. The largest of them is about an inch wide. I'd actually been looking for super tiny pumpkins all season, without luck. You'll see why I was looking for them in an upcoming blog post.

I think these were a good deal at $1.60. Miniatures can get expensive!

At first I only saw one of these skeleton arms and I quickly snatched it up. I noticed it had a hinged wrist, so the hand moves up and down. I just fell in love with it immediately, probably because it reminds me of something from Pirates of the Caribbean.


After wandering around the store about three times, a second arm emerged! Someone must have changed their mind on it or maybe an employee found another one. It was like that throughout my trip to the store; I'd change my mind and put stuff back, other people would do the same. The Halloween shelves kept changing.

Only $1.20 for each of these life-size arms!

I've had a lot of fun playing with these arms. I like how they look reaching in through a door, especially at night:


I found this pick for my mom, because I remembered she liked it. I was happy to find the last one of these just stuffed in a box in the corner of the store, with Christmas stuff.


Speaking of Christmas stuff, I had to suffer through many Michael Bublé Christmas songs while shopping. I must have been pretty determined to find Halloween stuff. ;) Nothing against Michael Bublé, it's just that his music is pretty hardcore emotional Christmas stuff, and I was not at all ready for that on November 2.

I got two sticker books, which were 30¢ a book.


I might use this one year-round, because there are some goofy everyday things going on. Like that pineapple. I'm not sure why that's there. Is there a "Halloween Pineapple" I don't know about?


Now, here is one of those items you realize looks even better at home than it did in the store. This little cat sign is probably 5-6" tall and it could also be kind of a shallow box if you flip it over. For some reason, I can imagine this being much larger and part of some old advertisement. I can picture it painted on a wall or an entire wood pallet, some time between the 1920s and 1950s.

This was the priciest item at $2.00

Speaking of vintage cats, it's hard to know if this should go in the After Halloween Haul, because it was purchased a day or two before Halloween. But it was 50% off already. Either way, it's too cool not to share.


As you can see, this is a countdown sign. These are a familiar sight for Christmas, but this was the first year I'd seen them sold for Halloween.


You move two parts on the sides to get the numbers to move.


It's always fun to look over my Michaels receipt after an After Halloween Haul! We can't factor the cat calendar into this since that was bought before Halloween. But combining every other Michaels purchase above, I saved $45.99!


Now, onto the few after Halloween purchases from Target. You might recognize these two ladies from my last blog post, because they were sitting behind my mini Ofrenda.


Aren't they cute? You can remove the images from these frames, although I like the skeleton ladies in there. We'll see...

I love this little guy! And this photo - it looks like he's saying "Ta-Da!" or reaching out for a hug. I think he is just adorable. You've probably seen some real pumpkins with those arm and leg attachments they sell now.


With his big brother:


There were a few tiny details to be had at JoAnns for 70% off. One was this adorable velvet pumpkin, which came as a pick. I would guess it is about 3".


And these miniature foam pumpkins were all once white. Six of them came wired on a card. So now they're just tiny pumpkins in the back of my tiny truck, with a miniature gnome. :)


Pick 'n Save had some lights left for $1.50, which I think is pretty good for 70 lights. I thought they might look kind of candy corn colored when lit.


Oooooh, look how bright! I actually prefer how these look lit up to how I thought they'd look.


And lastly, Dollar Tree had three of these pumpkins for $1.00. Yeah, this was after Halloween but they were still $1.00. They're cool if you can find them. Maybe you still can, since they could be viewed as "harvest". Each pumpkin has a clip on the back.


So, there ya go! It was a pretty good year for a haul, especially given how things have been flying off the shelves this year. I'll be interested to hear how you guys did with the After Halloween sales!

4 comments:

  1. Good haul. The trend the last 2-3 years is mark it all down long before Halloween to get the Christmas moved in. Lowe's was 75% the week before Halloween. There was nothing left. I missed a lot of good things waiting until the week of Halloween. Scored 5 for the price of 1 garlands at Michaels!

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    1. Old Fashion Halloween ~ Thanks! The haul felt like an accomplishment because of all the reasons you just mentioned. I don't like time moving so fast, or feeling like it's being forced to move fast in the stores. I guess Halloween deals are good at any time, but I've enjoyed looking for them after Halloween in the past. Now, it's pretty rush-rush. At least you scored that deal on garlands! I'd be curious to know which garlands you bought, because I saw some good ones there.

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    2. Yes, discounts any time are good and Michael's had 50% off the Halloween lines the first week they were out. I was amazed you found so many pieces after Halloween. Ordered a couple from the web site that sold out here in week 2!
      I'll try to get a pic of the eyeball garland. I plan to crust it up a bit and make it less shiny. :o ) Always forget to click the notify me button and then don't get back to responses!

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    3. 50% off during the first week! See, then it's like how much do these sales actually mean? Come to think of it, I can't remember the last time I was in JoAnn's or Michaels and saw holiday stuff that wasn't marked down somewhat. So they must just mark it down straight out of the gate now.

      Oh yeah, I really hit the stores right this year! There was more than what I showed here at Michaels, but I put some stuff back thinking "OK, this is cute and a good deal but I can't think where to put it" or "Where could I store this?" because after enough years, the stuff adds up.

      An eyeball garland! That I did not see. Sounds cool! I like decorating with eyeballs, usually inside fake flowers. I remember seeing a garland with Venus Flytraps on it a year or two ago at Michaels, and that was very cool.

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