I love visiting the Halloween aisles before the holiday, but I'm almost completely a clearance shopper. I've missed out on pieces I really wanted by waiting, but almost always more than compensated by finding something even more thrilling for a fraction of the price down the road. I do almost all my realspace shopping at thrift stores to begin with, and since I generally know my theme a year in advance, I can often find everyday items to use for pennies on the dollar compared to buying the equivalent in the party aisle at a retail store. I don't let my theme hem me in so that I pass on a terrific item, especially if it's a staple like animals or capes just because I don't know how I'm going to use it, but it's immensely helpful in looking for looking at everyday objects that I'll use in a new way. I'm also blessed by having a very active local Craigslist community for the odd pieces that are no longer made or impossible to find. Sometimes I've had to hunt online venues for months to find exactly what I'm looking for, but that's a major part of the fun.
I, too, love the thrill of unpacking great items bought throughout the year as if they were new. This year I bought so much that way I'd lost track of a lot, and an almost complete lack of organization in the packing process meant things that really should have gone out, didn't. Holding off on packing this year so that almost everything I bought on retail clearance could be incorporated with the existing items will probably take care of a lot of that problem. Probably. So much comes from finding this or that at a secondhand shop that maybe it won't. We'll see.
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......oh I enjoy it.....call me cheap.
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