The Clearance Aisle/shopping in a foreign language

I think this is one of my weaknesses when it comes to acquiring things, but has been a huge money saver for us over the years.  At the grocery store, you can save a dollar or more on something because the paperboard box is slightly foxed or dented in one corner.  I bought these gallon jugs of cranberry juice for $1.40 because the plastic had been squished in near the cap.  No one in my house is going to notice or even care [I have dropped my share of bottles and created identical creases].  Sometimes when a product changes its packaging all the "old" ones in the previous package get marked down.  They are still good, but a fraction of the regular price.  I often buy orange juice a few days before it's "Best By" date, when it's marked down and save a lot of money.  With three kids, it's not going to last until that date anyhow.  I wish I was stateside and could tell you which stores do this there, but when a conscientious shopper takes note she gets a good idea of these things.  For us it's funny because I also have to think about my tiny kitchen -I can't buy all the whatevers because they won't fit in my cabinets, I can only take one, which keeps me from being greedy.  But, when they put gift boxes of smoked salmon price cut because they don't carry that size most of the year, only at gift holidays- I was kicking myself for only buying one box a day later when I noted the regular price of the much smaller package was more than the markdown price I'd gotten earlier.

Ok, not the healthiest of choices, but I was using the wrappers for a project and I love this cheese dip.

When I shop in a store regularly -or even for the first time- I like to know where the clearance section is.  Sometimes large stores have a clearance section in every department, or they have a particular signage to mark price cuts.  At the BX it's a red price label.  I scan for those.  I just bought some nice King sized pillowcases that had been marked down several times.  I know they are "last season" but my pillows will not notice.  Because they were marked down lower than the price of the cheapest "generic" brand, I went ahead and bought them in two colors [blue and green, our faves], so I can change them out when I wash all the bedding.  I rarely purchase bedding.  It's one of those things I prefer to buy new, and I am particular about what I want.  In fact, pretty soon I need to buy king sized sheets -the last time I bought sheets for our bed it was at Target on sale [-I waited a week for the sale even though our bed was brand new and we were using a cheap sheet that didn't quite fit because the sale was something like half off regular price of the good bedding], so it was at least three years ago.  I figure, I sleep in my bed every night, I deserve cozy sheets that I truly like.  Combine that with my cheapness and I end up doing some hunting.

Speaking of hunting, I posted on looking everywhere for a specific type of glass pitcher in a passive hunt, but recently I went on a serious active hunt for floral tape.  I won't go too into  how frustrating it was, how much driving I did, and how many places were out of stock, but when I found it, oh, the satisfaction!  I was worried the staff at the hardware place I went to wouldn't understand me [I had never shopped there before], since I have no idea how to say "floral tape" in Japanese, but "Floral tape wa arimasuka" did the trick.  The employee nodded, and gestured for me to follow him, "Floral Tape. Hai." He walked me right up to it, in a place I never would have found it without him pointing it out, tucked into a such a small space it was stacked on it's side.  Segoi!  yay!  It was 399¥.  I have no idea if that is expensive or not, since, as I mentioned before, I don't really know a current price range for floral tape, but I NEEDED it, and I had no idea it wouldn't be simple to find.

I often find life reminding me that convenience is expensive for a reason, that advice from the right person is priceless, and that if you look and look, you might find exactly what you were looking for, which might hold enough satisfaction to be worth the trouble.  Now, if any one needs floral tape, or 34 ounce glass pitchers, or King sized bedding at a reduced price in the central Okinawa area, you can ask me where to find it.  I'm your gal.  [But you can drive, I need driving rest.]