When the Home Depot was closing down to make way for a Walmart in King of Prussia, they started having sale to get rid of inventory. It started off with 10% to 30% off and 2 weeks later - it’s now 20 to 40% off.

During the first week of the sale. I would drive by and remind myself to do a list before I go in. My lists included a window screen, several light bulbs, mulch, air filters, carbon dioxide detectors, rugs, garden hose, flash lights & a toilet seat. (Yes, mine needed to be replaced !)

I persuaded my neighbor - who is a contractor to come along. He has the Chase Home Improvement Rewards^SM Card which he used for my purchases as he would earn 3 rewards for every dollar he spent at Home Improvement Stores. Needless to say, he also loaded up.

When we finally went last Friday, we saw so many guys with big trucks loading up their merchandise. Somehow I was getting excited and thought maybe I’ll get a good bargain for a grill. (Although it’s not on my list) It’s so hard to focus when you know everything is discounted. You want to buy almost everything because you tell yourself that you’ll need it someday. So, I walked around for 2 and a half hours and only succeeded in getting light bulbs, mulch, garden hose, a rug, 3 flash lights and yes, my beloved toilet seat. No, the grill is still out of reach - maybe it would be further reduced in another week of two. It’s such a big place and if you are not a frequent shopper in Home Depot, you spent half the time searching for the right ailse. Frankly, it’s not my favorite shopping destination.

As much as we made some savings with purchases that we eventually needed to make, going to close out sales can tempt you to buy more than you planned, and often on unnecessary stuff. If I had done it again, I would have wrote down a list of things I needed to buy rather than walk around for two hours looking at every discount!