OCC DEALS: Old Navy and Michael's

Hello Packers!

     So, for all of you who don't know yet, Old Navy has this great machine inside the store that cranks out bouncy balls for only 25 cents! Now, I haven't gone to Old Navy in about three years because I like to get my clothing elsewhere but I went in today and was amazed that the store had changed so much in the last few years. Anywho, I went to the store today as I got a reminder from a Facebook page that Old Navy has these awesome bouncy balls that are almost the size of a baseball for only 25 cents. I decided that I should check it out for myself before making any conclusions and the bouncy balls are amazing! (I know, I'm getting a bit too excited over bouncy balls but can you blame me?)
     The bouncy balls that I got, I brought in $10 in quarters and bought 40 bouncy balls, are all just perfectly sized and fit perfectly in the palm of my hand.

     The bouncy ball weighs about the same as the balls that you can get  in a pack of three at the dollar tree but when I can get four for a dollar instead, I figured this is a better deal. The bouncy balls are all in different colors and are manufactured in China (it is printed along the line there). The can bounce about 10 or so feet in the air by the test of my brother. They are also the perfect size to play catch with and to be used for multiple sporting activities that they may want to do.

     I got relatively lucky in the assortment that I received from the machine. These are also all perfectly fine gender neutral colors except for the pink one but that is fine with me. I will warn you all that the machine that you get the balls from is very loud and you can hear it throughout the store. If you don't want to use the machine for so long (It took me about three minutes), you can ask for the store manager and see if they would be willing to sell you a bag of forty balls. Make sure to bring in a few dollar bills instead of all the quarters if that is your plan. 

     Right next to my Old Navy is a Michael's Crafting store and as you've noticed from my other posts, I am a huge fan of Michael's...especially after the holidays. But something I love on a daily basis is their Clearance rack filled with once $1.50 items that are now selling at $0.50 each. Sometimes I get really lucky and everything is on sale for $0.30 but alas, this was not one of those days. But as I have been trying to limit the amount of strict gender items and obtain more gender neutral items, I was blessed to see that the "Mustache Party" materials had all been put in the clearance section and ka-ching ka-ching, my wallet was empty.

     I love that they are all gender neutral colors and have gender neutral icons on them. I will say that the black with polka-dots looks a bit too girly for the boys' boxes so I'm going to keep those for the girls along with the "Hey, gorgeous!" notepad on the left but these are all perfect examples of gender neutral items and each of them were only fifty cents! I also like that each notepad has 100 pages and they are made of a sturdy material that won't be ripped apart during their travels to the children. 

     I also had one of those moments when something just tells you to buy something but in reality you don't think that you should include it in a box today. The sticky note set on the left side was that item. I don't really think that sticky notes are that cool let alone very valuable to a child but something inside told me to buy that set of sticky notes. Who knows what the child might need them for but perhaps they love sticky notes or don't have dividers for their school supplies. Whatever the reason, they will be in my stockpile and ready for whichever box needs it.

     Finally, I know I have been promoting gender neutrality for the last few posts but I unfortunately just couldn't ignore my guilty pleasure of vintage floral journals for the girls. I know, I shouldn't have but I did. I like to include journals as there are girls all over that want to write to someone when they don't have anyone to turn to or they just want to document what is going on. Whatever the reason, I love the inclusion of a journal. All of these journals were $0.50 each and I like the ones on the left side as they ARE gender neutral. The colors are gender neutral and the writing "Take it or write it" are perfectly fine for either gender. I also like the idea of including journals for boys as well, mainly because there are boys out there that like to write in their journals or "diaries" to help take the stress away from their circumstances. 

Well, that's all for today's OCC deal finds. Hope you all are finding great deals along the way!

Happy Packing!