No matter how prepared I feel for back-to-school, I always find myself needing to do some last minute shopping. I had realized that our 7.5 year old son pretty much outgrew all his khakis and cargo pants. I also wanted to find some thermal underwear for him to wear during his soccer practices and games this fall. Marshalls had sent me a gift card to shop at our local store to see what kind of bargains I could find, so off to Marshalls we went with the whole family.
One thing I've learned about shopping at an off-price retailer is that you never know what you'll find. Did I find boys cargo pants and thermal underwear . . . no, but look what we did find to my son's delight . . .
For about $56 we bought the following for my son:
- 3 pairs of Nike fleece sweatpants for $9.99 each (regularly $32 each)
- 1 Nike long-sleeved t-shirt for $9.99 (regularly $25)
- 1 Nike short-sleeved t-shirt for $7.99 (regularly $16)
- 1 Reebok Official Licensed short-sleeved New England Patriots t-shirt for $7.99 (regularly $20)
I was extremely happy to have found fleece sweatpants because all the ones I had purchased for my son last Spring shrank drastically in length even though they were washed in cold water. Hopefully we'll have better luck with these Nike sweatpants. Our son is a huge fan of the Nike brand, can you tell? I was also impressed with the large assortment of Patriots NFL t-shirts there were. Our son chose one that has a New England Patriots silly bandz-like design on the front. He is extremely excited about wearing it to school next week.
We didn't stop at the children's section though. My husband bought these two polo shirts for approximately $20 for both.
- Men's Arrow Polo Shirt for $14.99 (regularly $48)
- Men's Original Weatherproof Garment Co. Polo Shirt for $5.00 (regularly $30)
Our children can never go into Marshalls without raiding the toy section. I am always amazed at the prices of toys I've seen selling for a lot more at other retailers. They each picked out a little something, which my husband and I put away for rewards to use in the future.
Of course, I had to stop by the enormous Marshalls shoe department. It literally takes up about 25% of the floor. I really was not going to buy anything for myself, but I saw these berber-lined boots from G by Guess. The chains on them really set them apart from the millions of other pairs of furry boots out there and they make these boots a little edgy.
- G by Guess Horizan Boots for $24.99 (regularly $60)
I must say, even though I did not find what I went into Marshalls to buy originally that evening, every single member of our family left that store happy. I gave up buying things just because they are "great deals" a long time ago. All it got me was a pile of unused things cluttering up my home. We ended up spending far more than the value of our gift card because we just could not resist the great prices on things we actually loved and needed.
Thank you to Marshalls & T.J.Maxx for sending my family a gift card to shop and report our experience back to our readers.
