Hoarding

As my status update stated earlier today: My name is Betty and I am a baby toy hoarder.  No joke.  I cruise all sorts of sights looking for deals on more toys for Elly.  When I get her something new, I get excited as if it's for me! 

For her at this age, I don't mind buying lots of her toys second hand.  Since babies don't have too much of a tendency to destroy their own toys, they're all in good shape and just need new batteries.  So for the best deals, I cruise a ton of different sales pages. 

The best are the military base sales pages.  There are a TON of moms on these pages and they all have kids.  Tons of women with tons of kids = TONS OF TOYS! 

I get so excited when I see new toys posted on these pages.  But it's one of the fastest moving pages I've ever seen.  If you want something, you'd better hurry up and call dibs as fast as you can, or you will be left in the dust by someone else.

It's like the ultimate instant rush when you're the first person to claim an item because you've beat out 500+ other women.  And it feels like half of them are all out vying for the same things you are. 

It's the virtual equivalent to black Friday shopping for the one 'it' toy of the season.  You scout out all the locations, check all the ads, and plan your attack.  You get in line hours before everything opens and end up running as fast as you can through the aisles to get to the toy section because if you don’t get little Elly that activity table you’ve been wanting to get her, your world might come to an end.  So you end up elbowing the other women at the shelves until you rip someone's hair out as you grab the toy out of their hands and run to the register to check out as fast as you can. 

Yup, this sales page is kind of like that.  But it’s all online, so it’s not as dangerous. There’s no actual elbowing (but there is name calling… it’s usually only heard by my computer screen.)  No one's hair is within my grasp. (Probably best since I tend to get overly excited when I want something.  Funny how my daughter does the same thing now.)

But now is the BEST time to start cruising the page for toys.  Because all these women are cleaning out their kids' toy boxes and making room (and extra cash) for the upcoming Christmas toy season. 

It's like hitting the toy box motherload!  And what's better is I don't feel terribly guilty for buying so many things.  Because like I said, they're used, but in great shape.

Like today for example... I scored an activity table for Elly.  Usually those things run around $35+ brand new.  I got mine for $8.  All I had to do was dust it off with a few clorox wipes.  And badabing badaboom, we’ve got ourselves 30 minutes of colors/alphabet fun time!

Tomorrow I'm picking up a basket full of toys that if they were brand new (all Leap Frog stuff) would cost somewhere near $200.  I'll be buying them for $20.  And since I buy batteries and clorox wipes in bulk, they'll be practically brand new in no time. 

So why shouldn't I hoard?  What's the point of stopping when I can make room for them all (albeit in random locations and my socks are slowly losing ground in the closet) and they're dirt cheap?  Why shouldn't I give my kid everything, but at a fraction of the cost? 

Probably because I'm supposed to be shopping for business clothes for me instead.  I need to learn to be a clothing hoarder for myself again and probably stop buying stuff for her soon.... but then what kind of mother would I be?