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.
[...] didn’t think I’d be Black Friday shopping today, but it turns out I was wrong. This morning, Skip said he’d go with me if I wanted, [...]