Shoppin' Walkin'

As I mentioned before Daniel and I go "shoppin' walkin' so I thought I would elaborate on this. Almost every night we hit up a Ross, TJ Maxx, Marshall's, or Home Goods, sometimes two or three sometimes just one. It has turned into a habit of anytime we see one of these stores we pull over and take a gander. I know you are thinking they are newly weds and therefore have no money what are they doing shopping every day? Well to that I reply we are buying our wedding presents at a more affordable price for us, this way we can make our dollar go a little further. We are very grateful for all the gifts we have received and for the money we received, it gives us the opportunity to sometimes get three different things for the same price of one thing at the places we registered like BB&B and something to do after work since we both are off around 3. I am always amazed that we find such good deals on things we want. I admit it is hit and miss and involves commitment and if you are the type to want to walk into a store and find exactly what you wanted this would not be the kind of shopping for you. I like these stores over the department stores. I know I am getting them at a great deal and I don't have to pay the extra money for the cranky associates at department stores.
Today we went into Macy's to use our gift card and because we had a coupon that was going to expire tomorrow. Of course the coupon had it's restrictions so we could only buy limited things in housewares and clearance( I never understand why they have a coupon for clearance things, if they want to make it less expensive just mark it down). So we went up to housewares looking for anything to buy for $50. This is a hard thing at Macy's. While they do have some good things at $40 they do not have anything for $10 or $50. We picked out a square flat frying pan that is part of the set we are buying but that will not come with it. This does not have a price on it. We pick up a muffin pan that we want, this does not have a price listed either. We then had to go up to the register to ask the price, we weren't put out by even though it was an inconvenience to have to ask the cashier how much every product was, but SHE was put out that she had to scan these two items to tell us the price. Knowing we could get the muffin pan for less than $25 we then tried to find something for $10. We tried to find a kitchen towel, hot pads or something. We try to stay with Calphalon since we like the brand and prefer to have everything the same. The ONLY kitchen textiles they sell are Martha Stewart. We checked through the clearance and decided there was nothing we wanted/that was $10. We decided to go over into Bath and Bedding to look for clearance over there. We found something and settled on it and decided we wouldn't mind having it free. There was one other lady in front of us at the register( we opted for another register besides the one in Home who was annoyed to be working, this turned out to be the worse choice.) she was trying to buy anything off a registry. Everything she picked the cashier said "We don't have that here" the lady was beginning to get aggravated and said "Well is there ANYTHING on this registry that you do have? What is the point of the registry? I just want to ship them something." The cashier said she could try a bigger store but she was not being very helpful. I am pretty sure that she could have ordered anything without it being in that particular store. So she asks her to look up another item for her at a different store and again she says they don't have it. She walks looking very irritated. This confrontation should have been our first clue to go to another register. We get up there hand her our two items, which took forever to find, and then our coupon. She rung them up and then tried to apply the coupon before adding the tax so we were two cents short and unable to use our coupon. She asks if we want to buy a candy bar to bring it up past $50. We declined. So after spending all that time looking for an item so we could use our coupon she made no effort to help us with the $.02 we decided to just buy the pan. While she was ringing it up she was like don't be so bitter, life is too short. I hope you have a great day on this fabulous day. I don't understand why she wouldn't help us if she knew we were upset that we couldn't use this coupon. But we have sworn to never go to Macy's again.
But back to the discount stores.Daniel and I always head straight for the Home section. We have a few things in mind when we go there, but mostly we know not to expect to find something. We look for crystal and Calphalon. We like to look at the home decor for ideas of what we might or might not want to put on our walls when we have our own place. We also were looking for a alternative down comforter at these stores but have since given up. (We found one for $30 on O.co which is overstock.com but by using the short code you get free shipping.) On every receipt there is a survey and it enters you into a drawing for a $500 gift card, they give away two every month. I kind of find a secret pleasure in this, it helps me to really think about my shopping experience and really appreciate that store and know the places I am successful and unsuccessful.
Here are our finds:

This is Coventry Fine China. We had picked a similar pattern on our registry at Dillard's and BB&B, but we were thrilled to find this. We bought two sets of 16 pieces, so we have a service for 8. This is sold for $70 and we picked it up for $26 a piece!

We thought it was cool that it has a glass bottom & it was only $7

This is a mixture of all three stores but most were found at Marshall's(Home Goods). We have 2 9"x13" cake pans, one is covered one is not, a loaf pan, two cookie sheets, a jelly roll pan, and a 12"x17" roasting pan. Each was half off of the price from BB&B or Target. 

This is our bathroom stuff everything besides the shower hooks are Croscill, which is a brand carried at Dillard's. The trash can, toothbrush holder and soap dispenser are from Burlington Coat Factory. The shower curtain and towels are from Dillard's(we used our 20% from our registry) and the shower curtain hooks were from Stienmart only 10 bucks.

These are all from a mix of stores. The set of 4 nylon utensils(used a $5 coupon),potato masher and wooden spoons 3 set(got 20% off thanks for registering) are from BB&B. The rest is a ice cream scoop, spatulas and a can opener all from Ross bought for half off.

All bought from BB&B using our Thank you for registering 20% off. We have 2 pot holders, 2 cast iron pot rests, kitchen towel and oven mitt.

These were an incredible find. They are Onieda 45 piece set with the serving set included. Normally you cannot find any of the sets that come with host utensils they usually come separate. We bought 2 and found these at 2 different Burlington Coat Factory stores for $35 a piece instead of $78. The napkins were bought from BB&B 20% off.

None of these were great deals except the zester which was the BB&B run. The pan and slicer accessory were both bought at full price but were purchased at Macy's and Khol's because we had gift cards there.

This is our only piece of wall decor. I love it. I like that we are able to add pictures to make the tree as big as we want and aren't limited to either side of the family or even just us. It looks very big and I am excited to have a place to put it up at.

These cutting boards are new to the cooking scene. They are made from recycled material, but does not absorb any of the juices from veggies, fruits, meat or poultry. Very cool. This particular board is $25 on Amazon, we got it for $10. We are planning on buying a slate one from the same company and have our eyes peeled for it on our shopping trips, so far no one has any size or brand of slate cutting boards. They are $30 on Amazon.

This has been one of the gifts we were most excited for( okay Daniel is very excited for his Calphalon Katana Knives and for our pot and pans) This is our duvet cover and bed skirt. We waited until the last possible moment to get these hoping there would be a sale. We used our 20% off.

I don't think we have anymore things we need to buy to get started. We have ordered our knives and our pots and pans will soon follow. Thank you again to everyone for their support and love.