Buying in bulk

I wrapped the gifts for Joey's and Andy's educational teams. We had seventeen to wrap for Joey, and four for Andy. How do we do it?

We buy in bulk. When we see a good deal on something, we buy them. Lots of them. I had gotten used to the concept when I was young, and Perrygo Christmas drew near. My dad has a sister and two brothers, and each have multiple children. To get through, we hit all sorts of sales and outlets to get the best deal for our dollars. My mom is a pro at seeking the best deals.

This year's deals were through Williamsburg. We got real Lenox dishes to fit our budget. We ordered 25 of them. I think the folks at the shop were a little freaked out. We also stocked up on some other items on sale for future presents- after all, the boys are going to be in school for a while. The storage problem is solved by keeping everything at my mom's office. I thought about keeping a blog of where the deals are, but then you'd all buy everything out and I'd not get these awesome gifts for my people. ;)

A few years back, Ross Simons was the most awesome site to get gifts in bulk. When Overstock first opened, it was also uber-awesome. Both of these sites are now too big for their britches, kind of like "outlet malls" which are now just retail strip malls, not "outlets." When I was very little, we would drive to Reading , Pennsylvania to go to the real factory outlets, like Carter's- but I wonder if they are still there, or have the factories all gone to China?

One of the tricks is to find websites of companies you like, and look for the online outlet. Decide how much to spend per person. Then stick to that. If they don't have stuff in budget, look for another good site. Most catalogue companies have websites now. Saves you gas an frustration of shopping, too.

Now I need to turn my attention to wrapping for the family. Woo-hoo!