outnumbered

I'm in...I'm in the middle of baking pies and I'm still compelled to check the gottadeal boards!

I was definitely growling at the computer, LOL..."What, it's still down? It said 'soon'--this isn't soon, this is taking forever!" I think the server issues should have waited till today...I have waaaay too much prep to do for Thanksgiving to sit here all day. Not sure why I'm so glued to this site. All the stores near me have been posted, and it's not like new items are going to magically be added to the scans, LOL!

LOL, I know, I've been sitting here refreshing all morning. No wonder the board got overloaded yesterday...hundreds of people all sitting here clicking "refresh" over and over, I bet! Open a new window. Then you can stay at the board, and while you wait for a page to load, you can search in the other window.

There are going to be a lot of bundles on BF...all depends on what you want it to come with. It sounds to me like the best deal is Walmart, since it comes with all the accessories, but type in "gameboy advance sp" in the "search sales" box and there's some different options...one with three games included.

Heh. You must say that a lot, then.

Kohls is having 50% off their toys. They have Fisher-Price toys (Little People, peek-a-blocks, etc) and you can get them online. $6.95 shipping for the first item, 1.50 each additional item, so if you have a Kohl's near you that's the way to go--not online. But they're already selling things at 40% off and I got the Kingdom Castle bundle for a good price already. :) Toys R Us is going to have the Little Tikes workhorse for $9.99...I can't think of everything. I think Kohl's is your best bet. KB and TRU have a few things but not nearly as much as I'd like.

Well, the toy deals don't...that is what I've concentrated on in previous years. Never had TRU require mailing something in, LOL. But this year I'm foregoing TRU, and getting gifts for adult family members...Sears will be a big place for me this year. No rebates there, that I've seen. I guess it's the electronics that have a lot of them? This is my first time investigating BF deals on those items. Well poo. I'll have to see how much shuffling I can do with our budget.

I just noticed that many of the great deals at Radio Shack are actually mail-in rebates...the store list here just lists the prices after rebate. For example--the $20 DVD player is actually $40 in store, you get a $20 mail-in rebate. The $129.99 portable DVD player is actually $70 more than that when you buy it. Looks like every last item I was remotely interested in is an "after rebate" item...we definitely won't get the portable dvd player and now I don't know if my sister will get an mp3 player from us either. Too bad. I hate the rebate offers...the actual sales (or instant rebates) are so much better.

Woohoo!!!!! But ack, that also means only 3 days till Thanksgiving itself. Which means 2 days to get the turkey thawed...and we don't have the turkey yet! Dh is getting one free from work--and he won't get it till tomorrow morning. That's what happens when you put soldiers in charge of distributing food that only their wives cook...sigh... But YAY for so little time till the good shopping starts!

Someone who works there and got the ad posted that it was the black and white one.

He's in 327, but when they deploy again it's going to be the whole base. It was last time; I don't see why on earth the whole division wouldn't go again when they go back. And he's going to join the Coast Guard when he gets out--so a big HA HA to the IRR people, LOL. We can still be military, we'll be back by the beach again, and he won't be gone for another year. Yay! Now all this just has to actually happen...LOL.

Well, hopefully. His ETS date is in Aug so he could start clearing in May, I guess, but who knows when they'll deploy. If he's started clearing first, he ought to be in good shape and go ahead and ETS. But if orders come down and he's not clearing, they could easily stop-loss him and so much for getting out this summer. So we're planning on going home in the summer, but don't know for sure if we'll really get to. And I'm sure I'll be saying UGH about our floors when it's time to go. This tile is just awful. It attracts dirt and then just won't get clean no matter what you do. Clearing is going to be NO fun.

You don't have to give money to give. And there's a big difference between *choosing* to donate, and being forced/guilted into donating or being made to feel like a bad person because you chose not to. I don't think that just because it's "the season of giving" that suddenly everyone in front of a store is suddenly entitled to my money. I should not feel obligated to take our grocery money and put it in a kettle. I can understand your point of view on the boycotting issue, but I don't think it's fair to say that because some of us are expressing annoyance at solicitors, we must not be acting in accordance with the spirit of the season. I really and truly can't afford these types of donations. We have three small children and earn under $25000/year. After groceries are bought and bills are paid, any spare money goes to clothes for the kids, gifts for family (we've been getting gifts a little at a time, as things go on sale, and most gifts will be purchased on Black Friday), and right now, car repairs are eating up money we don't have. We won't have enough money to make dh's truck driveable again till next paycheck. Still, we do what we can. We're having neighbors over for Thanksgiving, I babysit friends' and neighbors' kids for free when they have doctor appointments and the like, etc. I don't think that Christmas has to be about "giving" any more than it is about "getting"...I think what truly matters is togetherness, and enjoying/appreciating what you have in life--not just material things, but family, health, happiness, etc. I do what I can for people, but it usually doesn't involve money. I give of myself, my time...I donate the kids' outgrown clothes and toys...but I cannot give money to every charity who asks for it. And if Home Depot has the right to keep their ads a secret as long as they choose, because they are *their* ads, then doesn't Target have the right to keep solicitors off their property, because it is *theirs*? Not to say you don't make some valid points...but I'd hate for anyone to assume that everyone who doesn't like being pressured into donating money they don't have is simply being a grinch.

My paper will be waiting at my front door when I wake up. We only get Sunday papers delivered, but my newspaper delivers holiday papers too, included in the price of Sunday delivery. Makes it easy. And can I ask what is so difficult about price-matching? The rant against it was very interesting to read--I enjoyed getting a retail point of view--but I don't understand WHY you hate price matching. Is it time-consuming? Difficult to enter in your register somehow? Is it just the long lines? I don't understand. I've never price matched so I don't really know much about the process.

You were lucky! My baby was only 2 weeks old and I wasn't quite back to normal yet...and all family was 2000 miles away. I remember being all depressed about not getting to go hit the sales, LOL...sheesh, priorities...I did almost all my shopping online last year and still got good deals, but it just wasn't the same somehow. That carpet cleaner does sound nice. I won't let dh past the front door with his boots, with that awful mud that's all over out here! We only bought a small bit of carpet though and won't be taking it with us when we ETS so I can forego the carpet cleaner. Focusing on gifts to send home instead.

What I have heard about this is that in past years, Target has not allowed any solicitors, but has made exceptions for the Salvation Army...and this year they have simply decided to be "across the board" with their policy and not make exceptions. Honestly, I can't stand people hitting me up for money, regardless of what organization they're with. We are so broke to begin with...we seriously do not have any money to spare. Not even change. I hate feeling their eyes on me as I walk by giving nothing. So I'll be very happy not to run into the SA people. It gets depressing to be reminded of how little money we have, and I definitely don't like people thinking I'm being stingy when they don't know me or my financial situation.

Yes, you can play Advance games on the new DS.

Been here since March of 2002. Shoot, I'm not hitting the PX at all, I don't think. I saw the ad online and there's just nothing jumping out at me. Too bad...would've saved me a drive. Sears has almost everything I need this year so I'll have to get up early to get out there. Not sure how early people line up at the PX...year before last, I was at Kmart at 4 am, and then last year I'd just had a baby and dh was gone, so that was a bit impossible. Darn...would've been nice to have some company out in the cold!

Mara you're at Campbell? So am I!

I noticed that while gottadeal.com had to take down the scans posted here, there's a whole bunch of Sears scans posted at this site...and interestingly enough, they say "gottadeal.com" in the lower left corner. Not trying to refer other people away from this site by giving the link; just showing where OUR scans have wound up, in case Brad or Rossman want to send some evil emails. (Is there even anything you can do about this? And feel free to delete the link if I'm not allowed to post it...I don't know the protocol about that here.) I just don't see why we have to delete scans when they get to keep theirs--when they got them off this site to begin with. http://www.dealtaker.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=15209&hl=

Is the list available at the PX, or did you sneak a copy? I live practically across the street from our PX so I could easily get my own copy if it's there, but if it's not available yet and you have a "sneak peek" at it, I'd love to see it.

If you are trying to make a list of which items you want to buy, you can use the "My Shopping List" feature to check off which items you want from which stores, and then click "Display List" when you're done, and then print it; you'll get a text-only list, store by store, of what you checked off.

I have a Kodak Easyshare cx4300...not a top-of-the-line model but it works very well for my needs (emailing pics and quick printouts for the kids). It has been dropped on the floor (tile, not carpet) countless times, thanks to our 3 young children...and it still works fine, thank goodness! I certainly wouldn't recommend being careless with it, but it's held up well. This one has a lens cover that is outside--you put a little cap over it. And, someone posted only the Fuji has an all glass lens...that is not true. The Kodak says right on it, "Kodak Retinar All Glass Lens." I got this camera two years ago at Christmas, and it's been wonderful for our family. The only thing I wish it had was the ability to turn the flash off, but that hasn't posed a huge problem. It just makes taking a picture of a picture difficult (we don't have a scanner, so the only way to get printed pics online is to take a digital pic of them).

Hmm...I'll be out the door by 3:30 am, but I could always sign up for a call to wake up dh...maybe half an hour before the kids usually wake up? He'd be so upset...but it sure would be funny. I think he'd better be nice to me on Thanksgiving.

Speaking of Best Buy, does anyone know what the "before rebate" prices are on some of those sale items? I've seen a lot of "after rebate" prices but I'd like to know how much I'm expected to shell out up front for those things. Specifically, that $30 MP3 player...it's a better model than the $30 Radio Shack will have, but it's an "after rebate" price and I think it goes for about $100 normally. Does Best Buy tend to put their things on sale, then have additional rebate savings, or will they charge the full $100 for it and you have to wait a few months to get that $70 back?