Princess7915

Beware of delayed delivery with Target right now. I ordered something Nov. 7 and it has been pushed back several times - now to Dec 14!! Just a word of caution

Not bad - especially since you can split these up for different gifts. Most of the other good deals have been for larger cards to be used for one person.

OMG a few weeks ago my DH cc was used online and guess what was purchased? A laptop from Apple! Guess they have some security issues to fix over there. I'm sure DH did not purchase from overstock though.

For anyone interested I just ordered a family figure set for my car back in September from a company and I loved them when they came in. www.letterrip.net. They were reasonably priced and shipped pretty fast. They had lots of choices for people and pets too which I loved :) As far as gift ideas go: I think the digital frame for your bosses office is nice - Costco has a good deal on a PanDigital for $39 right now. Consumer reports gave it a good review and I ordered it for a gift.

My stuff gets taken down pretty quick. It really doesn't mean anything to me after Christmas - I just want all the mess clean up and my house back to normal. It's all usually well been gone by New Year's Eve. I do also decorate with snowmen along with Christmas and the snowmen stay until sometime mid to late February.

When DH and I were younger we were going through a really tough time. Not married yet and just started living on our own. We were literally buying gas on credit b/c we had no money - grocery shopping with a calculator kind of days. We didn't put up a single decoration that year for the holidays because we didn't have any - certainly no money for a tree. Even though we were not at home for Christmas day (we drove down and spent it with my mom) I still remember it being one of the most depressing holidays that I can remember. Seeing all the decorations everywhere and coming home to our void of holiday house just made me so sad. It just kept reminding me how broke we were. We didn't exchange a single gift, it was all we could do to buy a few small things for family and not max out our credit. Now I look back on that Christmas when I'm going crazy shopping and I truly appreciate that fact that I am able to buy gifts for those I love. Even if you can only get a small tabletop tree I think you should. :)

I looked at the thermal shirts too but didn't order one b/c of the shipping.

Here is the latest edition of Jill's Steals and Deals. Hope you have better luck ordering these than the last time! http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/40421556/ns/today-holiday_guide/

I just picked up the Tom Tom XL 340 TM from Amazon for 99 with livetime traffic and maps. I'm hoping that one is good. I don't know much about these, so we'll see - DH can send it back if he doesn't like it I suppose. I kind of decided on a GPS as a whim anyway. Here's hoping :) But it makes me done with him for Christmas shopping :)

I read somewhere that Amazon's increased participation in BF this year and the matching in the door buster deals is partially to increase it's sales potential this year. The UK doesn't have any sort of Black Friday, because there is no Thanksgiving holiday. I wonder how many people in Europe will take advantage of the major U.S. sales going on online for their holiday shopping.

Well if Amazon is going to PM all the big door-buster deals I wonder if they will be selling a $99 Nook? LOL

I guess it's like everything else - it's just been so commercialized that it's unrecognizable anymore. We go from July 4 to Halloween To Christmas - what's that? The stores are so focused on pushing Christmas down your throat to boost sales we'll start seeing trees along with the back to school stuff pretty soon. And it's not because the are promoting the holiday cheer, they are trying to rip every last dollar from your wallet. It's really sad. I used to love being out in the decorated malls however now it's just dodging all the sales people it's just no fun. I agree - Bring back real holiday shopping! We want our Black Friday back!!

I happened to be in Walmart yesterday and 27 Dresses was in the $5 bin....

I love how they are "saving spots"! Since when is that allowed?

I did the cat litter last year - and I've already started this year as this is not a BF deal only this year (though it's $1 cheaper on BF). I bought about 6 mo worth of cat litter on BF last year and was thrilled! I'm so glad this deal is back! To avoid the crowed I hit my store the other day for two trips. For anyone who doesn't know how the cat litter deal works: There is a $5 coupon on the top inside the bucket. I go inside and buy like 3 tubs at the sale price (which is reg. Walmart price) then go out to my car and open the containers for the coupons. Then I go back inside and get as many more as I have coupons for - and they are $5 cheaper (what a deal!) - then back to the car to get the coupons and back inside for another purchase. I get as many as my car will hold! Then I'll hit another store on another trip out and end up with a ton of litter stored in my garage at a bit more than half what I would normally spend for my supply! I love it because litter is expensive and I go through a lot. It can be a lot of money up front - but well worth in my opinion :)

Sometimes you can find newer movies on good sales around BF so I would look. My grandmother - late 70's loves Julie and Julia. She also liked Nights in Rodanthe (all those Nicholas Sparks movies are good choices) Message in a Bottle was another one and it came out several years ago. Maid in Manhattan was cute as well as The Wedding Planner - both Jennifer Lopez movies so they are more current as well but you should find them fairly inexpensively. They are just cute movies - and Grandma friendly :)

Just a thought from someone who is always GETTING kitchen gadgets from my grandmother. Unless she really will use them a lot - that triple thing looks like it may be very difficult to store. I would think about her kitchen storage space. Just playing devils advocate a bit because I have gotten a many specialty kitchen items and my first though was "Oh Neat!" and my second was "now what am I going to do with it?"

OMG we have the sausage cream cheese dip too and we eat WAY WAY more of it than what should be considered healthy! It is sooo fab and so easy too. We like it with those Tostitos scoops chips.

No Best Buy or Wally World for me. Though I have to say that's not a BF thing as you don't usually find me near those stores anyway.

About 20ish depends from year to year whom I'm feeling the holiday spirit towards LOL

So what's your view on a gift budget for a person on your shopping list? Do you try to get the most for the dollar amount set for that individual and use every dollar. Is it okay to even go over by a few dollars if you have to? Do you try to come in under your set dollar amount if you feel like you've gotten nice things and save the extra cash?

I think the gloves scarf hat (depending on your climate) is a good idea. I would stay away from anything that will require her to put any money into later- like crafts etc. A GC for a casual restaurant would probably be a big deal and appreciated family time out. Maybe tickets to a movie theater? I second the lotions etc. And some fuzzy socks-who doesn't love those! Maybe a robe instead of PJ's so you don't have to worry about size.

Not bad ideas guys. Thanks for the help.

No, when I say their lists are not useful I really mean it I wish they were. I've asked the girls to make me lists and email them to me. The parents don't have the girls make lists - and they go shopping separately (gifts from dad and gifts from mom). The lists consist of $200 + items and things that I would never buy them such as new bikes and scooters. I would like to get them some games b/c they are so close in age but they lose everything! DH says the pieces will just get lost and he doesn't want to go the game route. They are not girly girls - very much tom-boy girls or I'd be all over the lip smackers and purses. I thought of the Pictureka game that's on sale (DH said no) but does anyone know how many "small" pieces it has?? I got Bratz dolls one year - never heard how they went over. I got Hello Kitty shirts last year, I don't think they ever wore them. PJ's are generally safe. However I think "mom" doesn't dress them in the "tainted" clothes from us. (AGGH!) This is just it - we never get thank you's so we don't know if the girls liked what we sent!! It's VERY frustrating - but I do it for DH - certainly not for me. I know the girls light up when a huge box of gifts arrives from him.

We always had Christmas Eve dinner with our close family friends and did our gift exchange with them that night. Every year we had chili for dinner. I always looked forward to that every year - no so much the chili when I was young :) but having Christmas Eve with our family friends. I really missed that the first year or so when I was an adult and we didn't have that anymore. Now I always decorate the tree to the same c.d. music - it just makes it feel Christmas -y to me :) something small and silly but it's a simple tradition. My dad and I always watched a few of the same cartoon Christmas specials when they came on. We, too, drove around the big neighborhoods that decorated when I was a kid. But we now live in an area that does special lights for the city and DH and I go see those most years. A special shopping trip to buy gifts for certain people would be a fun tradition to start. A small kid always feels good about presenting someone with a gift they "bought" themselves.