The Target Store Trap: Crazy Clearance!

Target is a trap. The lure of the big red % off signs that demarcate clearance makes me lose my sense of direction. Regardless of what I'm in Target looking for, I always end up searching through the shelves with the big red clearance signs. It's truly a trap; a way for you to spend your budget on junk that more often than not you don't really need but can't pass up simply because it's a great deal.

I mentioned on CMM's facebook page that I found some great 70% off clearance on summery Pillsbury products, especially their pink lemonade flavored items. I got a few cartons of their pink lemonade frosting for $.51 each and some cake mixes for $.37 each. I thought I got a heck of a deal.

Then I made a play date with my sister, Pooh*, to search high and low for our brother's 18th birthday gift. Of course, as my husband predicted, we ended up at Target, but in a different town than the one I had previously visited.

We happened across an end cap with lots of Pillsbury products, mostly their cake mixes which were "on sale" for $1.25/box (that is downright highway robbery if you ask me). Above the cake mixes were the pink lemonade products I had seen at the other store, so I figured I'd scan 'em since the advertising signs made it appear they were also part of the $1.25 "sale." The frostings rang up at $.17.... after lifting my jaw off the floor, my sister scanned the frosting again just to make sure we weren't reading it wrong. No, they really were $.17 each. So then we saw the Fourth Of July themed frostings... which really were vanilla frosting with red, white and blue sprinkles in an attached container. In other words, toss the sprinkles if need be and use the frosting like you'd normally. These scanned at $.15 each! Holy toledo!

So we bought a lot. A lot a lot. We plan on passing it out amongst family members so they don't have to pay full price either. Whatever we won't use, we'll donate. We also found pink lemonade cookies for $.17/ea and 1 box of funfetti Fourth of July for $.14 (I think, I can't recall).

For all the Pillsbury stuff you see above, we spend $4.78. And we didn't use a single coupon!

But man, Target is SUCH A TRAP! We weren't planning on buying anything except gifts for our brother... But I guess now we can bake him some very inexpensive cake!
*My sister's name isn't really Pooh, it's actually Nicole. But my mom nicknamed her Pooh Bear when she was a baby.... I tend to call her Pooh more than Nicole, especially when I want to embarass her in public :-)

Happy Couponing!
-Coupon Mama Massachusetts