This year I was excited for Black Friday weeks ahead, but after I did my stint at the Sam’sClub Holiday Celebration event, I was losing my enthusiasm for Black Friday. It wasn’t until Wednesday evening, discussing with DH, that I decided I would venture out.
I’m learning from my mistakes last year, and realized that in order to ensure I got the top toys on my kids wish list’s I would need to grab those deals as soon as I saw them. I had already had a few items be a lower price and I’m afraid I won’t see that again before Christmas. So this past week I’ve ordered and picked up quite a few top toys for great deals at Target and Walmart. I am absolutely in love with the Target Cartwheel app!! Also, thanks to Shopkick I used $25 to help bring the cost down on top gifts and getting gift cards in return!
I shopped online at Belk.com for Black Friday to get the $19.99 boots. I got a pair for me and I got a London Fog coat for buddy boy for only $25. I tried to get boots for my daughter but they were out of her size, and I always like to buy up a size or a half a size and it wasn’t working in my favor. I knew I would get her boots sometime this weekend so I didn’t stress it.
I was feeling bad throughout the week about cutting Thanksgiving short with my family in order to shop. The way it goes is we have Thanksgiving dinner as lunch at 1pm with his family and then we would have it as dinner with my family a couple of towns over for dinner around 5. With Black Friday start times getting earlier and earlier, I asked my Mom to up her meal time. Last year we ate at 4 and that gave me enough time to get back to Greenville and back out in time for the 8pm event 2 at Walmart. This year I was eyeing items in the 6pm event 1 time and we were planning to eat around 4:30 with my Mom. Wednesday night I discussed it with DH about getting the ipad mini as a family gift that way both kids and us can use it. He thought it was a good idea and a good deal. The only dilemma was, how was I going to make it work out?
At dinner at my Mom’s I was able to get DH to agree to take me to Walmart {not go with me, but take me} and the kids would stay at my Mom’s until we got back. I would much preferred going to the Walmart local to me, because my city has two and I’m familiar with the layout. Although I used to work at this Walmart in my hometown as a teenager, that was, gasp, way over a decade ago, and it was very much foreign to me. Thankfully, I have the Walmart app and the store map was very helpful. What wasn’t helpful was all of the slow people in the store, but I found my line for the ipad mini and prepared to wait.
What I didn’t prepare for was how long it was going to take. It was well over 45 minutes of waiting and that’s after 6pm when it began. The line was in the outdoor section for camping and stuff and there was only one cashier. That was very smart. I have a feeling it wouldn’t have been so bad at my local Walmart, but hey, I got my family something I know we’ll love and enjoy and for a great deal. $199 with $30 gift card.
Random Tidbits: I wonder what’s worse? Standing outside in the cold in line for Black Friday? Or standing inside in a warm store with funky smelling people around you in a Black Friday line? I’m leaning towards the latter people, I tell you. I’m so glad I’m not pregnant because I would have hurled and it would have been even worse.
A lady in line ahead of me was knitting and her man was holding the yarn. I tried to take a pic but honestly my thumb was so sore, apparently I’ve been overusing it on my new iphone 6 that I’m totally in love with : ) lol I thought it was cute though.
I had to pay for other items separately. That really sucked because I didn’t have a cart, and I was dragging a large box with one hand and my other arm was full of stuff. I’ll be honest here… I cut in line. I saw that long ass line and was like there’s no way. Not with DH sitting outside in the car probably getting more and more impatient. So I heard the lady say that lines 1-8 were open with few people in it and I joined a group of people heading that way. Line 8 was actually pretty short because it was in the back. I love it when people don’t realize that you can go to the back cashiers, because I can squeeze right in, especially without a cart!
I was very chatty tonight, I guess I’m breaking out of my shell, and as I was talking with the girl in front of me at the cash register, the lady behind me had spotted a handful of DVDs that someone had stashed where the gum is, and as she picked up the top several, on the bottom was Maleficent!!! It was there just for me!!! I even said to her “omg is this for real? Omg thank you so much! You did that just for me! I’m so grateful for you!!!” Yeah I’m sure she thought I was a nut job but I didn’t care!!! I scored Maleficent for $7.96!!! Woohoo!!! I was so overjoyed at how that worked out for me!!! I was glad I didn’t have a cart, even though my hand wasn’t, because I was able to zoom past many others and get my receipt checked at the door and had DH giving me curbside service and we were off to get the kiddos and head back home!
I knew that when I got home I was not going to venture back out. But I had decided that for the real Black Friday I would make Old Navy my first and main stop. They were open from 4pm on Thursday and open all night long. I had planned to get up at 5 something and go. I overslept and left around 7. Lol I was surprised at the overall selection being pretty good. I figured it would be mostly picked over. Everything was 50% off. I got several outfits for the kids, a few turtlenecks {my heart’s desire} for me and I found some adorbs wedge boots for Brianna and they were a size up just like I was looking for!!! Score!!!
After Old Navy and a much lighter wallet, I was feeling that I didn’t want to go to any department stores. I decided to go to Walmart to use my gift card and look over any of the good deals that may still be in the bins. I grabbed pajamas for my son and nephew and grabbed a few of the good deal on the Dork Diaries books for my daughter. I couldn’t remember what ones she already had, so I grabbed three that I thought I hadn’t seen before. When I got home, I realized I was almost right, only one was a duplicate and I’ll be taking that back. I also found two other DVDs on the list also for $7.96 each. I was happy for that because when on sale DVDs are around $14.99 for new releases and average $19.99 and up, to get them for under $10 is a great deal!
I did great this Black Friday and I’m overall done. I have more things to get to complete my total lists, but it feels really good to be a month away from Christmas and have a lot of it done. I will probably venture back out tomorrow and then be sure to avoid spending money for a lil bit. I don’t anticipate doing much for Cyber Monday, but I can’t rule it out. I do like to participate in Small Business Saturday and will probably get some ECU gear for the family from the local shops. I haven’t been back outside since I came back home this morning at around 9, so I guess I can stand to leave the house tomorrow : )
How was your Black Friday this year?
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