One of the many things that my wife and I did this weekend was spend some time at the outlet shopping center about an hour away from home.  We generally make an afternoon of it and go twice per year.

This weekend proved to be particularly fruitful, probably because of it being a holiday (Labor Day) weekend.  The stores had lots of sales and we took advantage.

The important part was that we limited our purchases to things that we were planning on buying anyways. How many times have you heard someone say that they saved SO much money, but that they spent money they weren’t planning on spending in order to get the savings.  That’s not really the definition of saving in my eyes!

In our case, we bought things that we needed or were going to buy in the near future.  We got some incredible deals.  Here are a few examples:

• I have a collection of Christmas Villages that I enjoy.   There was a sale at the Lenox Outlet for 75% off retail price.  I bought a piece and my wife bought me a piece in advance of our first anniversary, which is in a week.   I usually get one piece per year, and since I didn’t get one last year (too busy), this was just perfect!
• We have a set of dishtowels and dishrags for our kitchen that we picked when we moved in (summer 2007).    Everything is holding up fine except the dishrags are starting to show the most wear. In other words, they smell!   We found replacements in a color that will be discontinued, and got them for $2 cheaper than at the non-outlet store.    This ensures that we’ll have at least two more years of use from the set of towels that we have.
• My wife got me started on what ended up being the deal of the day.  She found a very nice shirt for me on the 75% off rack at the Geoferry Beane outlet.   It was originally $40, so I got it for $10.  I generally get most of my shirts at the outlet center.   As a ‘holiday’ bonus they gave me three $5 coupons, one per ’sister store’.   These were Bass, Izod, and one other whose name escapes me.  They were even lined up in a row.  How convenient!  I just had to spend $5 at each store to get the $5 coupon.  In two of the stores, I bought socks, which I needed anyways.  Two pairs cost a grand total of $0.99.  In the third store, I bought a tie, which I also needed as several of mine are starting to show wear (yes, I still wear ties to work!).  The tie cost me $4.99 after the coupon.  So the net result was a shirt, a tie, and two pair of socks, for just around $16.  All things I was looking for anyways!

I love saving money!