Zannee’s Blog at BargainsLA.com

We have American Girl stuff coming out of our arses!

Santa in all his wisdom along with good friends and relatives all bought my little darling more American Girl stuff for Christmas forcing us to re-think, re-organize and re-do storage.

With limited space and nowhere to expand, I knew closet storage was the best bet and started cruising around websites for ideas for organization that was versatile and could be implemented in steps.

Settling on Sterilite storage drawers (29 qt or 42 qt). I found a set of 5 online at Target for $54.99. But even with coupons, the shipping brought the cost up to $75. No… I don’t think so. Plus I don’t really need 5 immediately and would like to be able to expand the set by ones and twos for versatility. Wheeled sets came in for less but they don’t give us as much versatility as we need.

I decided to try an old favorite… Big Lots. Honestly if you don’t cruise this store once in a while, you’re gonna miss out on some really great deals. They had a ton of storage containers, drawers, and organizer options by Sterilite including the 42 qt. drawers @ $10.99 and 29 qt. drawers @ $7.99…Less than anyone else including Target.

These are regularly carried items at Big Lots and after seeing them in person, I decided to get 2- 29 qt. to start. These are perfect for dumb stuff like doll clothes and miscellaneous stuff your kids may collect and refuse to part with.

As my daughters closet organizing continues, we are working on editing down the vast amount of stuff my daughter has collected in past few years. My daughter thinks I have turned into the devil incarnate asking her to donate some of her hundreds of stuffed animals to charity. Of course she has given them all names and even married a few off to each other. So far we have donated 12… but I am working on at least twenty disappearing. Evil mommy is at it again.

After much nudging from everyone I am finally blogging. Yes I have succumbed to those who know more than I. Don’t ya hate that?.

I am told I should have a point of view comment on the world at large and other BS. You don’t really care what I think about the world at large or my politically point of view… do you? Good, I thought not.

So I’ll use this blog to do the one thing I won’t do on the site…. Share some of my good and bad shopping trips and other escapades, inside shopping info and how I really get it. I also dish on a few retailers, PR chicks and ego centric individuals who really tick me off.

That’s about all I can come up for now with except you’ll probably hear about my family. I’ll let this “Blog” thing evolve… as long as it remains interesting and serves some sort of purpose.

For the Record…. I sometimes pay retail

I took my daughter to The American Girl Place at the Grove for her birthday last week.

Even though the grandparents, Santa (yep we know who that is) and my daughter have paid for all the purchases at American Girl, I had always felt that the pricing is over the top.

However, now I get it. They make it such a pleasant experience that you want to pay them. They sweat out every detail of every doll, the story line, design, presentation and back up the product.

Case in point….My daughter’s 8-year old Bitty Baby doll’s body tore right before our birthday visit to American Girl Place.

Oh, the tears… oh, the hysterics!

Like any well-trained parent I took her and my daughter into the “Doll Hospital” at the American Girl Place. The women dressed in a doctors coat was very sympathetic to my daughters distraught feelings and calmly explained how they would replace her torn body, clean her up like new, give her a new hospital gown and a wellness certificate. She (Bitty Baby) would keep her original head so that she would retain all the memories of the fun she had had with my daughter.

All this attention and care would run me $19 plus shipping… about $26 total. Did I mention this doll is 8 years old? I can’t imagine returning a toy after so much usage to any other manufacturer 8 years later and get it replaced for half the original cost.

Okay so now you know I pay retail for some things.

Along with additional purchases of dresses and outfits we had pictures taken at the photo are and had a huge, amazingly delicious lunch at the café for $20 each. It was better than many Westside eateries. They even have high chairs for the dolls to sit at the table. Perfect!

I did however buy my darling daughter a pair of 14 kt gold earrings at Shane’s jewelry for $60. Anywhere else these little gems would have run me near $100. I drove 20 miles to save $40. So add 10 bucks to the costs and I still came out ahead. I knew I would get quality and wouldn’t get steered to something I didn’t need. They are the nicest people to shop from!

Shane’s Jewelry, 1065 Broxton Ave., Westwood 310.208.8404