How to stretch your Money at Michael's Craft Store (And Others like Jo-Ann and Hobby Lobby)

Use these tips and tricks to get more bang for your buck...or should I say crafts for your cash!

Never buy something that isn't at least 40% off!

     If it's not on sale, find a coupon! Micheal's typically has a 40% or 50% one regular priced item that you can either print from their website, or pull up on their mobile app. They also accept competitors coupons like the percentage off one regular priced item from Jo-Ann or Hobby Lobby. 

     If it's not on sale this week (and you don't have to have it right away) it probably will be on sale sometime during the next week or two. Craft stores Like Micheal's and JoAnn have very high retail prices so that can have all these great "sales"...they aren't foolin' me!

     Always try to buy when the item is 50% off or more. When you have a coupon that you can stack on top of the sale, for 15% or 20% off your entire purchase or a dollar amount like $5 off $25 (which equals 20% off) that makes your deal even sweeter.

     The clearance- most of the time really isn't clearance. You might have fun looking through that messy disorderly aisle, but if the item isn't marked down 50% or less, it really isn't a good find. More than likely, if you look for a similar item that isn't in clearance section, you'll be able to find it 40% to 60% off (or if not that week...probably the next week or so it will be on sale!)

     Ask about additional discounts that may apply. Certain stores do give discounts on specific days. Military, senior, and teacher discounts are some examples.

Here is an example of some great discounts I got today!

   Today I REALLY lucked out. I've been watching these rolling 10 drawer storage carts on Ebay for about a month hoping to score a great price on one someday. (I need one for my coupon sorting/filing, but that will be a post for another day) Well...they just so happened to be marked down to $40 from $80. I had a 20% off my entire purchase (including sale items) coupon which made it only $32! (Now doing a little more research when I go home, I found you can get the colored ones for $30 from Walmart -->here is the link! But the clear or smoke colored ones you cannot find for less then $50 from anywhere! If you need a colorful one I'd suggest buying from that link with free store pick-up because that is a GREAT price!)

    Then, as I was waiting in line to check out, this cute little art table and stool caught my eye because my daughter was being fussy and that was the perfect place to have her sit and patiently wait with me. To my surprise they were originally $130 marked down to $25!! Now of course I had to pull out my handy phone and make sure this was a good deal, because it seemed too good to be true. I found some sets very similar ranging in prices from $90 to $150. Considering I had another coupon for $5 off a $25 purchase, I just couldn't pass up this awesome little table for my daughter. I ended up saving, between the markdowns and coupons, a total of $158 almost 75%!

  Here she is coloring on it. It didn't come with the paper roll so I need to get some, but I foresee a lot of messes and crafting going on in this little table's future!