Black Friday Is Coming! (Oh, And Thanksgving Too)

Tweet I wrote about Black Friday last year at  Things I Can't Say. I gotta say, the response was less than stellar. Everyone thought I was crazy for going out to battle the crowds at 3 in the morning! (I do not battle the crowds, by the way, and I'd never trample someone for a $10 DVD.) While I am reasonably certain that I am not completely crazy, I understand that some people aren't as desperate for a good deal frugal as I am.  So, this year I am back with my tips for Black Friday On-line shopping. Here we go!

Many stores now have a lot of their items available on-line. Now, if Wal-Mart is selling 15 laptops at $198 each, NO- those won't be on-line. But lots of the toys, clothing and housewares are available on-line. Get your mouse ready and plop your butt on the couch with your laptop- the sales go on-line at different times, but it's a safe bet to start checking for the Eastern time zone. And then it's refresh, refresh, refresh.

But don't just think you can leisurely browse and get what you want. You need a game plan. Start studying the ads now (they're just starting to come out). Decide what items are most important to you- generally I look for at least a 50% off savings. You'll want to add these first, and check out fast. Items sell out in no time (and trust me, it's really maddening when items in your cart are no longer available). Make sure that you have an account registered and your payment info stored for a speedy check out.

One last thing to consider (are you still there? Almost done!) are those pesky shipping charges. Scoring all those good deals won't be worth it when you see a $70 shipping charge (true story, TOYS R US). Wal-Mart has some great shipping deals. 2 years ago I bought a GPS there which shipped for 98 cents. Toys R Us, like I said, has some of the most ridiculous shipping fees (and it is the worst store to go to on Black Friday! Do not attempt!). Fortunately, they have a service called ShopRunner (this is not an affiliate link). It's a shipping service similar to Amazon Prime. For $79 a year, you get free 2-day shipping to TRU and a few other random stores. But $79 is a lot of money just for free shipping on most TRU items- therefore, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND YOU CANCEL YOUR FREE TRIAL MEMBERSHIP BEFORE THE 30 DAYS ARE UP. It's what I did last year, and it worked perfectly. I was even able to make multiple orders as different items became available, and my items came super fast!

WHEW, that was a lot of info for one post. I hope I haven't scared you off Black Friday shopping even more then you already may have been. I'm not sure if I'll be heading out to the stores this year or not. It may be my year to shop from my comfy couch.

Have any good Black Friday stories to share?

My (Weird) Baby

Tweet This is my baby. (My four-and-a-half year old baby.)

He's a mama's boy. He puts his little arms around my neck and hugs me and whispers, "I'll never let you go mom." Whenever he visits Grandma, he comes home and tells me how much he missed me. He wanted to marry me, until I had the nerve to tell him that boys couldn't marry their mamas. Boy was he pissed.

As much as I love this little guy- and my love stretches to the moon and back- this kid is WEIRD. He has a flair for the dramatic. He's always dressing up in assorted odd costumes. His latest accessory- well, I just have to show you. You'll be so jealous.

Why YES, that is a plastic Winco shopping bag. You see, Spawn#3 likes to tote his various treasures around, and he likes to do it in the most white trash way possible. And his collections..... they're interesting. (Although this one is missing the nails- I insisted on taking them away when we went to the park.)

 There are some normal kid things in there. Dollars, coins, markers. Sunglasses, candy.

And then you get to the weird stuff- Anbesol, a packet of Equal, a small cleaning brush, grape Laffy Taffy chapstick, Mucinex, a tablet of applications for the Home Depot Garden Club, a used Subway card.

And like I said, I took away the nails. He's also had vitamins, a single sock, sparklers (these seemed to alarm some of the people at a playdate, for some reason), and a million other things I can't remember. All lugged around in a flimsy plastic bag until it falls apart.

I tell you, I love that weird kid. He takes after his mother. 

{this moment}

Tweet Inspired by Soule Mama, a moment you want to remember and savor and use to embarrass your kids when they're older. Or something like that. 

Brainstorming for Halloween.