Apres Moi Le Deluge

The Christmas spending is officially begun. I haven't bought any big gifts yet; just craft supplies. I found a bulk supplier for the cloves (the difference between $4/oz. and $1/oz. is a big one), but am still trying to find acceptable prices on a couple of other items. That said, I bought:

10 oranges: $3.99
20 oz. cloves: $19.98
3 yards satin ribbon: $5.97
3/4" hole punch: $8.99
Total: $38.93

Still to come: flat marbles, magnets, silicon glue. I tried a craft store and a hardware store for the magnets; no luck getting them for under $2.50 per package of 8 (clearly an unacceptable price). I'll either find them in bulk on the internet or I'll return the hole punch and do a baking project instead. Because while I'm basically coming in at budget on the clove oranges, the magnets are turning out to be far more expensive than I'd envisioned. If the magnet project isn't coming in under $40, I'm scrapping it (I only cut it that much slack because I'm getting about 10 gifts out of it with the probability of leftover supplies). That means I can't pay two shipping charges--I can either buy the marbles online, or the magnets, but not both from two separate sites. New York has a strange and notable absence of craft stores, but I'll head down to Canal Street this afternoon after work to see if I can find supplies at reasonable prices without shipping charges.