Toys, Toys, Toys, Toys

I am beyond blessed with generous friends and clients. As I mentioned in a previous post I have done charity work outs for the last three years. But my personal favorite work out charity is Toys 4 Tots because I take the money and buy the toys. This year I decided to have two work outs designated to T4Ts and I decided to make my financial goal $1,000. I could not imagine what buying $1,000 worth of toys would be like.

Well two work outs later, I raised $1,232. Simply amazing. I was used to buying $400-$500 worth of toys. This year was going to be different.

Back around Black Friday (another great shopping day - see previous post) I bought 3 groupons for Toys R Us. This meant I had $30 free for toys. I had also heard them say on the news that the cheapest day to buy toys was going to be December 11th. I just tucked that date into the back of my mind. 

So on December 11th, I set out to buy toys. At Toys R Us they had tons of buy one get one 50% off deals plus my groupons I made out with a huge cart of toys.


On to Target. I found a manager and told her that I would be buying $1,200 worth of toys and asked how I could make her job easier and where I could leave my carts of toys as I shopped. She thought I was kidding.......until I brought my first two carts up.

Buying $1,200 worth of toys was unreal. Toys were going in the cart, in the cart, in the cart, in the cart and I was only at $500...and more toys and more toys and more toys. 

 December 11th was the cheapest day to buy toys. Legos, Barbies, and tons more were buy one get one 50% off (until Dec 15th if you go shopping).

 4 carts at the register and a very nice lady named Allison helped us ring up and bag all the toys. 


So after two hours of shopping, writing every item down, two $5 coupons, tons of buy one get one sales, my Target card for 5% off I saved well over $100 and came in just under $1,200.

It took two car fulls to bring all the toys back to my house and then they will get loaded back up to go to the warehouse and then on to make lots of kids happy this year.

I can not say enough thank you's to all of you who donated your money. You have no idea how happy it makes me to be able to buy all these toys and know so many kids will have a happier holiday season this year. 

I hope you all take time this holiday season to find a way to give. My way was to host work outs and raise money. I will also be donating some time to different groups. 

My dad sent my family this article and then proposed we start a giving tradition. How cool! We are going to go shopping for coats, mittens, boots, etc for a school in my hometown with many homeless families. I am very excited to start this new tradition of giving with my family.

http://sojo.net/blogs/2012/11/29/starting-christmas-tithe

Happy Holidays everyone!! Enjoy every moment and make it special.

There will be a blog post about my Vegas experience....stay tuned :)