This morning we headed off to the zoo. It was a big day for the zoo since so many families had an extra day to spend together. There were long lines to get in, and just as you stepped inside, employees were taking your picture (in the hopes that you would buy it). All of the food stands were open and the amusement park rides inside were ready to go for anyone who bought tickets to ride on them (at our zoo, these things only happen on peak days).

The zoo is a really fun place to visit, and it is also a place where it can be very easy to spend A LOT of money. So imagine my surprise when the main zoo gift shop was having a huge sidewalk sale! Many of the items were only marked down 25%, which is not enough to tempt a thrifty gal like me. But then I saw them….piles of cute stuffed animals marked down to $2.99! SCORE! I had already mentioned to Tim that I wanted to maybe get Darah a toy from the zoo today, and I was mentally prepared to fork over $10.00. So $2.99 was the deal of the century…or at least the deal of the day, I suppose.

Darah got to choose between a stuffed llama and a lemur, and she happily chose the llama. She had a grip on that thing for the rest of the morning…precious! I was definitely not expecting to snag a stuffed animal at 70% off at the zoo gift shop, and it really felt good to find a deal in an unexpected place.

Have you recently found a good deal at an unexpected place? I’d love to hear about it!

(pictures not my own, but from the world wide web!)