Clearance brag!

I have a lot of nice things in my house. This is for several reasons, none of which include me or the hubs spending a lot of money.

Several of our nice things have been gifted to us. Several things have been thrift store finds. Several have been handmade (my grandfather-in-law has made no fewer than seven major pieces of furniture in our home and my mother helps all my fabric dreams come true). And several of our nice things are clearance buys that you just can't pass up.

Like this candle. Did I need a new candle? Kinda, not really. But as I was in Target this weekend, I of course browsed all the clearance items on the end rows and found this "warm amber and cranberry" scent for $5.21. BUT when I noticed that one row down included its full-sized brothers and sisters for $14.99, it looked even more appealing. Obviously, someone had broken the Christmas tree top, and the lovely employees at Target just slapped on a new sticker. Other than being free, this is best-case scenario!

Now my mantle has this beautiful brushed silver candle adorning it, and my house smells like a million bucks. Seriously, it even smelled up my car while I was driving home.

Other favorite clearance purchases include a black lace dress from Banana Republic for $7, buying 95 percent of my Christmas decorations after the holiday, oh, and a heavy-duty snow shovel for less than $1 from Kroger last year. It never snowed after I bought it, but hey, I've got a snow shovel if we need one! What are some of your best clearance buys?