It's official... Chris and I need to play the lottery more often.

Not only did we just totally SCORE on Craigslist two weeks ago with our new awesome couch AND randomly-timed matching chair, but apparently we are lucky on the retail side as well.

Let me explain...

Chris and I are "over researchers"... we will research something to death, weigh all the pros and cons, read every review, test, try-out, examine, then test again before we make a decision on something.   Does this make the whole process of having a kid and buying new baby stuff a little daunting? ummm, YES, but at the same time I love being informed and knowing that we are making the best choices for our little one and what works for our family.

That being said, it should come as no surprise that when it came down to strollers, Chris and I were a bit overwhelmed with options.  Do we want a matching travel system? Best safety rating?  Ease of collapsability (its a word)? A jogger? One that can expand with our family?  Not to mention that strollers range from $250 to upwards of $1,200!! (FOR A STROLLER!! A STROLLER, people!)

After playing with a lot of different models, brands, shapes, and sizes, Chris and I made the decision to go with the Baby Jogger City Select.

Yea, $500, I know...

 Chris and I really liked it mostly due to the fact that it has the option to grow into a double stroller down the line when we have more kids.  We kinda want them close together so this was a pretty big selling feature since it means we wouldnt have to buy one stroller, only to have to buy another (or a double) soon down the line.
Not to mention all the different ways you can arrange the seats to fit both a stroller seat AND a car seat. (To my knowledge, the City Select is the only one that does this)
Here's even a little video in case you are interested... it really sold us!!
 But as you saw in the screen shot from Buy Buy Baby they cost upwards of $500, not to mention all the extras for car seat adapters, buying an extra seat, etc. which is REALLY pricey for our blood (and the blood of most normal, sane Americans).

So I set off to where I always go to find my deal-ios, Craigslist.

Sadly, either this is the world's most popular stroller, or it has the resell value of a late 90's Honda.
 USED, they were running anywhere from $500-$750... again, USED (aka. spit up on, old wheels, possibly run over by some soccer mom's SUV, etc) which Chris and I can typically look past if we snag a good deal, but paying $600 for something already used seemed a BIT ridiculous for us. Even though a majority of the ones on Craigslist came with the extra seat, that wasnt a huge make-or-break for Chris and I since we are still a WHILE away from needing an extra seat (let's worry about getting little man #1 out in the world first before we think about poppin' out a whole basketball team).

We are still a ways away from my due date (8 weeks is a "ways", right?) but the pressure of everyone asking "Do you have everything all set and ready?" was really adding up since we really don't have a lot for our guy yet (... a crib? check.  Mattress? eh, not so much).  So tackling something as big-ticket as a stroller was really up there on our to-do list.

Enter Saturday when we stopped by Babies R Us.

It was Chris's dad's birthday and we wanted to run in real quick to get him a "Grandpa" t-shirt or something, only to discover that "mom", "dad", and "grandma" were much more dominating options.  Confused as what else to do, and overall frightened in general to be in Babies R Us, (really, there is just TOO much in that store... it makes me sweaty) we decided to walk around to maybe get some ideas.

Over by the stroller section, we saw our cute little Baby Jogger City Select out on the floor, but kinda in the middle of the isle with 3 other strollers.  Unable to resist temptation, Chris and I began playing with it again (folding, unfolding, switching seats, etc) and determined that we still love it.  It even happened to be in the color we liked ("Sand").

Chris makes strollering look GOOD

It was as I was testing the stroller's ability to cut corners (as any good mother would) that I noticed an orange tag on the other stroller to the left of ours... and on the other one to the right.  Freaking out a little bit that our dream stroller might be on sale, I asked Chris if he saw a orange tag on ours.

Yep.
 SAY WHA???!!!! Over 50% off?!

While Chris went into hunker-down protection/do-not-let-anyone-even-look-at-this-stroller mode, I ran off to find the nearest associate to ask WHY it was marked down so heavily (my guess was that it was a floor model that 10,000 people had beaten up over the months, or it was missing a part, or a tear or something).

Low and behold, the really nice Babies R Us guy said that it was actually brand new!  Someone had just returned it still new in the box earlier in the day but instead of reselling it in the box, they just decided to build it, put it on the floor, and mark it down.  The full warranty and everything still applied and it had only been out for an hour or two.


SOLD!! FREAKIN' SOLD!!

See how easy and lightweight it is for Chris to carry?  Ohhhh... ahhh.....

 Chris especially loved the part that is was already assembled (by stroller professions no less!).  I was still hyped up on the fact that we scored our dream stroller for cheaper than craigslist (there's a sentence I'd never thought I'd type... "dream stroller"... "cheaper than craigslist"... Im a weirdo)

The only other thing to do was take the obligatory "I'm-way-too-excited-about-a-stroller" picture.

I dont want to talk about what the Texas humidity does to my hair....

Seriously! What are the odds of that happening?
1.  For me NOT to be able to find something at a super bargain on Craigslist
2.  For us to even go in Babies R Us (like I said, large and too many options make me sweaty and nervous)
3. That we were there mere hours after our ultimate stroller had been placed on the floor.
4.  Even our favorite color (but in all honesty, for 50% off, our little boy could have gotten used to a very masculine pink for all I care)

Once again, the heavens have aligned for this poor little thrifty couple! And we are psyched!!!

Has anyone else out there ever had great luck at retail like this?  Normally I don't but I would love to hear from you guys!

-Samm