To Black Friday or Not to Black Friday

Happy Thanksgiving!  We had a great dinner tonight, cooking by my wonderful husband — turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, gravy, candied sweet potatoes, some carrot something-or-other (not a fan), sparkling grape juice and home made apple pie.  Delicious!!  We all gave our thanks and had a great meal.  Nater Nater Garbarator thoroughly enjoyed his meal and I believe Thanksgiving is his very most favorite day of the year.  The boy likes to eat!

Now that the meal is over and the kitchen (and bathrooms — I was motivated!) are clean, it’s time to decide…  to Black Friday, or not to Black Friday?

I have never gone shopping on Black Friday.  The closest I have ever come was last year when I got an awesome deal on the boys’ double stroller.  That was online, however (and it was a great deal, I got over 50% off!) and not “true” Black Friday shopping.  I decided that this year, I was going.

The first problem is I have no one to go with me.  Skip gladly would, but we’d need a sitter for the kids and the two we usually use are both out of the state at the moment.  Fine, I would go it alone.

The second problem is I have no idea what I am doing.  If the store opens at 5 am, what time do you arrive?  I saw that Best Buy was starting to hand out their doorbuster tickets at 3 am.  Two hours of waiting outside the store?  If that’s how it works, I figured I’d best have a game plan.

I spent hours on the Black Friday websites, such as bfads.com, blackfriday.info and the like.  I’d get all excited about things I saw at a store, but then as I went through the list a second and third time and weeded out that things that weren’t REALLY good deals or that I didn’t REALLY want/need, I’d end up with one or two things.  Take Circut City, for example.  When I weeded out what I didn’t want, didn’t need, and could get online, all that was left was a three-pack of Mini DVs for $4.99.  As great a deal as that is, it’s hardly worth getting up at 3 am for!

Another deal I was excited about was Home Depot — they have some 7.5′ pre-lit Christmas trees for $49!  They are normally $199 and we don’t have a tree right now (see Getting Into the Spirit to find out why).  I was even more excited to see that they are offering the trees online.  Too bad they are sold out.

That means I would have to get up at 3 am or so to drag myself to Home Depot for a great deal on a fake tree.  It’s 10:15 pm right now and I am really tired.  Add to that the fact that yesterday I started Baby Boot Camp — my quest to get the boys sleeping through the night — and I will likely be up most of the night.  Is it really worth the $150 I will save?  Methinks not.

Sorry, Black Friday…  maybe next year.