Operation Christmas Child - Ready to Shop

My girls and I shop year round for our Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes.  We are blessed to do our own boxes as well as help in the planning for our church wide packing parties.  There are numerous ideas on pinterest, blogs and facebook pages that are dedicated to finding deals for your shoeboxes.

For our own shoeboxes, we put aside funds for our shopping, then we aim to buy things as great prices to let our money go further.  Follow our facebook page: www.facebook.com/SistersShoeboxes

As you begin to raise money, you can begin to shop.  Pray over your planning and ask the Lord to lead you to amazing deals.  Set your box number goal and make a list of how many of each item you will need.  Keep the list and your shopping money on you for when you run into bargains.  Find a place in your house that you can storeall of your OCC supplies.

Best Price items year round:   Dollar Tree: soap, toothbrushes, combs. sewing kits, toys, ball pumps, tools, drawstring backpacks and lots more.  Walmart: washclothes, playdoh

Watch for clearance:

-Stuffed animals & packs pencils after Valentine's Day & Easter on clearance at Walmart.

-flip flops on clearance at Walmart in late August or late in the winter

-children's socks & underwear on clearance at Walmart regularly 

(girls more often than boys)

-Dollar General has seasonal clearance sales and will reduce many items to under $1 each

 (coloring books, clothing, toys and much more)

-Hobby Lobby & Mardel clearance after each holiday, often toys can be found after Valentine's Day & Easter

-Walmart will regularly clearance children's clothing (t-shirts, hats, mittens, etc) for $1 or less

-Scan end caps, tables and clearance areas for deals at every store, hidden treasure are all over

Sales:

-Walmart back-to-school prices are amazing on so many items, especially crayons.

-Toys-R-Us often does buy 2 get 1 free on their $1-$3 section

-Michael's regularly has 20% entire purchase coupons