hope1976

I saved right around $400, but that's with the computers at Walmart. Still not too bad, though I don't know how much the Little Peoples sets (got 2), Cabbage Patch Newborns (got 1), Care Bears (got 1), Game Combo (got 1) would have been regularly so it could be more. My Walmart STILL has Care Bears left as of last night. Unreal.

Oh My, do I feel old now LOL I was only 6 or 7 when there was the insanity over Cabbage Patch Kids the first time, so it's not too bad

Care Bears and Cabbage Patch have also made a comeback

All depends on what's for sale again, but I'm assuming I'll go around the same time as our walmart is a small one - they will be in a supercenter (it's almost done), but it's still a small supercenter at any rate. And the towns are very small - no large cities less than an hour away

No I didn't - but that is AWESOME!!!! I don't need anything that they would have though Yet anyway lol - still have some men to buy for Thanks for the tip!

I always make a ham and slice it up - keep it in the warmer. We have ham and ham sandwiches, cheese tray, veggie tray, cookies, candies...not sure what else this year or if we'll have a sit down meal. We have a small home and with Christmas and new toys, etc, it's so hard to keep the kids happy for that long

Ok, so I'm looking through my K-mart ad and I'm not sure if it was a misprint or not, but Rock n Roar Dinosaur (normally 33.97) at Walmart, but K-Mart had it in their ad for their 2 day sale with a picture of it and it said "Sale $5.99" next to it. SO....we went there last night to find out if they would price match it. The ASSISTANT MANAGER was back at layaway and when I went up to ask her, she said "Um, we don't price match" I said, "Well when I was here on Friday, they price matched a few different things for me" and she said, "Well, yeah, but that was Friday and this is Saturday." She was really rude. She told me to go up to the front and her girl up there would call K-Mart and find out if it was a misprint (if it was they wouldn't honor it or something). Then behind me was another woman and the asst. manager said to her, "mam, I'm leaving, so if you need something, you'll have to go up front" I was like, "WHAT????" So when we went up front, we were standing there and the asst manager called the CM up there and said, "There's some people trying to get a price match, but do NOT do it because that's too much of a price drop." So the woman didn't do it (not her fault though as she was just doing what she was told). SO...today we called the store manager :) Told him the whole story and he wasn't surprised because it wasn't the first issue they've had with that asst. manager this weekend!!! She's new. So, the guy said, "Yes, it may be a misprint, but if you have the ad, we WILL price match, so bring it and come back to layaway to have me called back there to do the override." We went there and had no issues with it The manager is a great guy (we've always had good things to say about him) and we walked out with a $35.00 toy for $6.00. So, if someone high up tells you no, go to the manager or call corporate if you honestly think you are in the right. It makes a difference - after all, Walmart's motto is "Satisfaction Guaranteed", right? We normally don't complain about things like that, but the woman was just rude which is what pushed us to call the manager.

We actually just went to shop for decorations on a tight budget as well today I used to have a very full huge 7 1/2 foot tree that was very wide. With the new baby and all the baby items (walker, bouncy seat, etc) around, we didn't have the room this year for it SO...we had gotten a rebate for $40 from menards this summer and I forgot about it until it was time for a tree - got that for 49.99 and we lost all our ornaments due to cats last year (all glass ornaments which they liked to bat at). As far as cash we paid out to get all our tree items was only $30.00. Anyway...I put the tree up and realized that it's not as overpowering as my big tree, so it doesn't stand out as much (we got a 7 1/2 foot slim tree this year). So I told hubby that we need more decor, but didn't want to take up floor space as the baby is crawling around Being new to this forum, I hope I can post a link here for 101 Decorating Ideas - great ones in there! I am definitely doing some paper snowflakes like I did as a child and hanging them from the beams in our living room - I love that idea :) I would check out Dollar Tree if you have one as you can get a lot for a little bit of nothing. We just spent about $25.00 today and got 3 large bags of decorations for inside between Walmart and Dollar General (not as cheap as the Dollar Store, but we don't have one). Some items we bought: WALMART Cheap wreath - 1.97Package of red velvet bows with tiny bells - .972 Gold medium size bows - .67 eachSmall wall hangings (snowman & santa) - wooden/mache - .97 eachDOLLAR GENERAL Wooden wreath with snowman & Let It Snow wooden thing on top - 3.50Christmas Floral Garland (White & Red Poinsettas) - 1.00 eachGold wire angel with glitter (you can hang it or just put it on something) - 1.00Mini trees with red berries - 1.00 eachSnowman pillar candle holder (i'm addicted to snowmen LOL) - 3.00 (ceramic)Pillar Candle (Christmas scented) - 2.00

Well, I don't know how people WOULDN'T be offended?!?! We aren't exactly rolling in the dough, but we survive. Our kids don't get things all year except their birthday and Christmas. Now, we don't go all out as this year with 3 kids now, we are spending about $75 on each child. We always use layaway on Black Friday as it's hard to get a babysitter for our children, so being as it was that early and they would be sleeping when we went and just waking up when we get home my MIL stayed over night. Now, we don't have a lot of storage in our house, so we have no where to hide their gifts, so Layaway is also great for that. I admit that we don't have the money right now to take it out. We personally put 1100 on layaway with 2 computers which are needed and a digital camera, but we only got one of each item. We have no plans of returning items at all...in fact, if we can't afford the computers when it's time to take them off layaway, we have people who are interested in them, and they WERE at BF with us, but just didn't get them. If you've ever been on a forum before, you had to have known this was going to start a flaming war - issues like this always do. As far as being economically challenged...I am and ya know what...I'm proud of it We don't take things for granted and ya know what else - we went there specifically looking for certain things because our kids want them, not just because. Judging people usually doesn't get you anywhere in life but a lot of enemies. I agree when people say that you have NO clue what people were doing with these items. Now, on that note, my hubby is not a member of these boards, but wanted me to pass along a message ..... "Assumption is the mother of all F-ups. Do not assume that someone is from the south side of the tracks when they can assume the same thing about you. I assume that you were just upset because of the long lines in the layaway because you were made that you didn't have the $10 to put the Dora TV/DVD set to put them on layaway. That's just what I'm ASSUMING. Don't say stuff about *economically challenged* people when you are one of them too.

I was worried about staying warm and about this 13 year old kid who was pushing his way up in front of me (I was the first in line, while he was at least 10 back). We found out that there were only 10 laptops and everyone wanted to know if everyone else was there for them. I just kept my mouth shut and listened This way, they didn't think I was a threat

I usually wrap them all at once Christmas Eve or a few days before (when I'm completely done). If I do it as I get them, I forget what's in each one

I will every year It's an addiction LOL With 3 kids, there is always going to be something that will be a doorbuster

Well I love to use the computer now, however it's on layaway We are both so impatient that the items for ourselves will most likely not be wrapped up

Our walmart is not a supercenter, and it's fairly small, so there weren't as many people there (of course, not as many items either LOL). I had to go back at about 8:30pm lastnight to get some things for the tree that we lost and they still had some care bears, cabbage patch newborns, little people sets, etc. The only thing they didn't have is a lot of the electronics.

Not quite done - we have the kids done, just have parents and grandparents to buy for yet I know what we're getting them, just haven't done it yet. I'm tempted to get their gifts at walmart too and put them on layaway so that way I HAVE to have them done by December 15th

That is very awesome, but I know for sure we'd have problems with some of our neighbors if we did that LOL

We planned on spending around $250 (well, $25 for putting items on layaway anyway), but we ended up spending $1100!!! We weren't planning the laptop, desktop, or camera, but got all 3 of them at Walmart So in electronics alone, we spent $900 - so minus those, we didn't do too bad

For the boys (7 & 4) we get a lot of Hot Wheels and put them in there, but that's because we could never figure anything out. This thread is going to help Santa put different things in there this year! I have no clue what we're going to do for our 10 month old since this is her first Christmas...she'll be exactly 11 months old as she was born on January 25th

For some reason I can't stand the flashing lights inside....outside, however, I think it's very cool! Another compromise is to put a tree inside and out and then you both get your way if one wants flashing and the other doesn't LOL I get a headache with the flashing though

Nothing goes out until after the kids are asleep on Christmas Eve. Simply because we have a very nosy 7 year old, curious 4 year old and now a 10 month old who just wants into everything LOL....also, with 3 cats that love to chew on boxes and rip paper apart, I learned my lesson the first year we had the cats. I woke up one morning (thankfully BEFORE the kids) and had to rewrap EVERYTHING under the tree

Left home at 2:30am and got home at 7:15am :)

Anamosa, IA (not a supercenter) had 10 of them. One of the employees husbands was in line and warned everyone, so it made it worse LOL

The only store I went to was Walmart and it wasn't a supercenter (reading other posts, I'm glad LOL) Here's my list: Care Bear plush w/DVD - $5.00Cabbage Patch Newborn - $10.00Coffeemaker (12 cup) - $3.98Little People Zoo Playset - $10.00Little People Noah's Ark Playset - $10.00Sorry / Candyland Game combo - $10.00LeapPad Plus Writing - $25.004 LeapPad books - $6.88 each for a total of 27.52LeapFrog Leapster Learning Table-Price Matched Toys R Us - $19.99Puppy Chair / Sleeping bag set - $18.00Robots DVD - $8.00Pleasantville DVD - $3.44Longest Yard DVD - $8.00Mushroom Chairs (for the boys) - $10 each for a total of $20.00HP Notebook computer - $378.00HP 5 MP Digital Camera - $88.00Atari Flashback Game Console (no sale here) - $29.7210 Hot Wheels Cars (no sale here) - .75 each for a total of $7.50HP Desktop Computer (Price Match another SuperWalmart) - $398.00Story behind the computers....I was first in line at one door and hubby was 2nd in line at the other, so we were HOPING we'd get a laptop. There were only 10 at the store in total. 5am the doors opened and I got shoved back by a 13 year old boy who's mother worked there - he was in the back of the line and came running up saying he was cold and he didn't care cuz he wanted the laptop. Not happy . So anyway, I rushed to get my laptop ticket (they were handing out tickets) and headed to the desktops. Met up with hubby and we put the desktop in the cart. At the same time we held up notebook tickets LOL Now, we only needed one anyway, so we gave the other ticket to a woman we overheard practically in tears that was there right behind us. She wanted to get her daughter one for xmas since her daughter is in college first year. Felt kind of good to do that So the desktops were in the ad at $488 each, but I brought another walmart ad along and had no issues Price Matching that to $398 We did good!!! Now we just have to pay for it all to get it off layaway