Princess7915

Hi all - I'll make this as brief as possible! DH has a sticky family situation at best. He has very little to do with his father (and his dad's girlfriend of about 10 years). However Dad and girlfriend have two kids - DH's two half sisters. The girls adore my DH and he loves them even though we don't see them very much b/c of relationship with Dad. Anyway,every year I try to send the girls ( 9 & 10 ) nice gifts from DH b/c I know they love him so much. It's hard b/c I have no idea what they have, or what they like. They have sent us lists before but it's crazy stuff - not useful. Cash is tricky b/c sometimes I'm not sure they actually get it or if the "mom" gets it. I don't want to be rude, so I'll just say DH's dad and family is very redneck backwoods and leave it at that. I need some help on ideas. The girls lose stuff all the time so anything with stuff to keep track of is out. I don't know what kind of game system they may have - and its just hard to ask. I hate this time of year for them.

Yes - that's the right picture - thanks for the help.

Sorry the pic didn't work - It won't let me copy from the site

Chesapeake, Va and Virginia Beach, VA

Just picked up a Star Wars Lego Set at www.target.com. They have a temporary pricecut on a few sets along with free shipping - made the sets cheaper than Amazon and MUCH cheaper than TRU :) There is a 10% code 4IKCC8AJ good until Nov 10 that makes the deal even nicer! I got a Jedi Fighter for $17 and change inc shipping and it's listed at TRU for $29:eyepoppin

guess I'll have to get the list together from everybody so I know what I'm looking for!

Sometimes you can get good deals using Discover Card cashback credit online at some places. I have also seen some cautions going around about buying GC in stores off of racks. People are stealing the numbers and waiting for someone to really buy them and load them with money. Then they can use them online and basically steal the GC you just bought. You safest to by cards that a cashier has to hand to you.

awesome! I love an amazon code! DH has one of these cards. I could have used this the other day, however the gift I bought was for him! LOL. I think my kitties are getting a new cat tree and any $ off of one of those is a big help.

BOO! Disappointed in the Kohl's add! Been starting out there several years but I will be somewhere else this year I'm sure of it. I do not do MIR for sales prices - (that's cheating!). I certainly hope this is not a sign of what is to come

If you have any stores in your area not in a mall they are likely to have the hot items much longer. We have a stand alone store that still had the lamb blankets that were on the really great sale last year a few days after our mall stores had sold out.

My Aunt's kids (I have none and they are really the only "kids" now in the family) are each allowed to ask Santa for like their top 5 things they want most. They may or may not get them but it limits the kids from making a huge list - it also helps my Aunt and Uncle figure out what the kids really want most out of the billions of things the "have to have". Then everything else gets filtered on to the general Wish List.

In my opinion I would not tell her in you discussion that you want to cut back your Christmas budget because she has three kids and you have one. It sounds like your punishing her for having more kids - and to someone who sounds fairly unreasonable anyway that's how it will come across. I do understand why people say "we should agree to spend $X on each other", but I feel it kind of defeats the spirit of gift giving at large. I would simply go to your sister and tell her that you will be scaling back your Christmas gift giving budgets - end of story. It's not her business what you do with your money or how much you spend! She should be appreciative and if she's not then obviously she's missing the entire point and I might make that clear to her if she gets ugly with you. You should not feel guilty about not spending enough money on your sister and her kids! That is insane! Set your personal budget and be done with it - good riddance to those ungrateful of your thoughtful gifts. On another note my DH and I are a "family" of two - no kiddos here. So we are commonly in the situation where we are two people buying for three or four. That's just the way it is. I'm aware of it and I don't "punish" those family members or set my budget according to that. I buy appropriately and that's that. I have a general idea of what my Aunt sets as a gift amount on my DH and I and I stay similar to that when I purchase for her and her DH and two kids so no one is uncomfortable. I think it's silly to feel like you must go toe-to-toe with some one on spending. As far as your sister I would certainly shop sales and go off of retail value for the items. (Then tell your sister to stick it where the sun don't shine :) )

Since I've started really thinking about it I usually "split the difference" between sale price and retail value to even it up if it's somebody that I'm worried about. Like for my DH or mom I don't care- the more I can get for my money the better! But for some like my aunt's kids I have a budget for and I try to make them even in "looks" So if for my $50 I can get the 15yo girl 6 things and the 9yo boy 2 things that's not really fair. However the 9yo boy wants video games and leggo sets and the 15yo girl wants Bath and Body shower gel, so we all know how that goes with shopping for deals! So I've gotten her some 10.50 retail shower gel for 4 on a deal, I may call it about 6 or 7 bucks to even it out. We also do a Dirty Santa game at a family members house with a $15 limit. I can do a lot with $15 sometimes that I know would look like I went way over my limit but it's not really fair to go completely true retail value on either. This year I shopped the Yankee summer sale -The retail of what I'm taking is about $40 but I paid $10, I'll call it a wash at my $15 limit and be done.

How about flavor stuff with peppermint? (Nothing too yucky) Like make rice krispy treats, or sugar cookies etc. You could tie jingle bells to things like door knobs or her shoe laces so things jingle all day. Fill the cereal box with mini wrapped candy canes so it pours out in her bowl.

My husband is a recent vegetarian and he likes the Vegetarian Times magazine too. Some recipes in there I like as well. Recently they had a pear salad with some sort of vinaigrette and nuts - looked yummy. My husband goes on the theory of not replacing food - he hates the fake burgers and fake chicken. He's all about finding new stuff. I'm sure being vegan is much more difficult as my husband still eats dairy products. He does lots of pasta and pizzas. Quinoa (sort of like rice) is also something he eats a lot of and I'm sure you could find a good recipe to do for the holidays - maybe a stuffed pepper? I find my DH making meals of side dishes too and I hate that. I feel like there should be a "main dish" for him too at meals. Black beans are a staple product in my house as well.

The calendar might be a good idea. I wish I had access to some more pictures of her and her dog! My aunt might be able to help me out with that. It's actually something she doesn't have! LOL. For any of you that have a Keurig - do you know if they have any good caffeine free teas? She uses her machine some but doesn't do caffeine and she likes tea, so maybe that's and idea with one of those carousels.

I really think it's up to the parents and you shouldn't judge. That being said - be good parents! Keep your kids safe, warm and happy. Those $4 P.J.'s are not worth your kid being hurt, getting sick or dragging your infant out of your house to stand in the cold for three hours! If I am not going to judge you for taking your kids out to the mall on one of the busiest days of the year, then I expect you to also be polite when I tell JR to go back to his mother when he is running around screaming and pulling stuff off the shelves due to lack of supervision (because you are shopping).

I've never done a midnight opening either! I'd like to but I think I'd do it alone LOL. The only thing around me (that I want to go to ) that does a midnight open is the Prime Outlets and they are a bit over an hour away. I can't shop and then be back in town for my "real" shopping by the time all the regular stores open. And truly shopping at the outlet malls is shopping for myself anyway. It's mostly clothing and I don't buy that for other people. Not that I have a thing against shopping for myself....

I think it's a great idea! I actually think that you should do two! I think that you should do a BF 101 live chat geared for BF newbies! It could serve as your test run for your main event as well for you to work your glitches out too. The live watchers could help you answer questions - you're the BF pro and the new people are always on the boards here looking for advice on How To Black Friday. As far as your "main event" I agree to the no Wednesday but I don't think you'd have as many people on if you did it Sat. or Sunday (we're busy shopping!) Contests are awesome too :)

..this is where is gets a bit tricky.. and I suppose I should have included it! She's diabetic so the goodies are out. I can go do some of the local shops and get sugar-free candy or chocolate but she usually chucks it because she doesn't eat it. She sneaks the good stuff! On occasion I get her "real" stuff from a bakery but I feel bad about doing it. She loves books and movies and owns a library's worth of them! (ever seen the hoarders show? LOL) so it's kind of the default gift to buy her a book or new movie on dvd. When I say my grandmom has everything I am NOT kidding :) But she's not a fancy person - she really wants nothing special. Two years ago she had a radio that broke. DH and I got her a new portable radio with a cd player and tape deck that was like $30 and she was more than thrilled. Please keep the ideas coming though...the inspiration is good :)

Every year my grandmother (on my mom's side) is really hard to buy for. She truly has everything! She lives in the area (as does my mom and my aunt) so we all see other often. You can't ask her what she wants because she always gives you that junk about "don't buy me anything". Sometimes someone comes up with something good to give her. However most years it's the slippers, p.j.'s or a book routine. She's in her late 70's and I would just like to get her something nice. Any ideas are greatly appreciated!

I did start off by using a free app called "Gift List" by Gennubi (the icon is a wrapped red box with gold bow) it was okay but it didn't let me delete an assigned gift that I added to a person so that App had to go. I need a list of ideas as much as a list of what was bought! So now I'm using a paid app (which I am all about free apps - I always try free first!) this one is called Better Christmas List (?) by Before Dawn and the icon looks like Santa's hands holding a yellow list. This one does lots of stuff. I've used it now for about a week and I really like it. It actually does way more than I will use. If you need to keep track of what you've wrapped and mailed it does that as well! You can take a photo of a gift idea in a store and attach it right to your list when someone you're shopping with says Hey I like that! And they you can go back and buy it later and know exactly what it was! Or As I like to do, snap a shot of the barcode then go look it up online for price :) The only thing that I don't like about the app so far (and it's minor) is that it organizes your people alphabetically within the group and not by your own priority. The app is on sale right now for anyone interested

I don't think anyone in my family (which is small) thinks that I'm nuts for going out on BF. Except for maybe my stepfather. But my mom, and my DH and my aunt all shop together - last year was also a break in year for my aunts 14yo daughter! She is undecided as to if she is shopping this year. However she did get introduced to what I call the "Golden Rule" of BF shopping: Thou shalt always shop for thyself too! She was thrilled! She found stuff she liked that she bought as well as she was there with three people that buy gifts for her so whenever she found something she wanted she just handed it so someone and said "will you give me this for Christmas?" We do that all the time! It's what's fun about shopping with family :) I do have friends that refuse to go out on BF - I don't think they think I'm crazy - but they usually give me that "better you than me" look when I talk about Black Friday shopping.

Well - I am not the hardcore organizer like some people on here. It's just not in my nature. I do try to be more organized on BF than usual because it does help you - if you forget something in a very crowded store you are not going to go back for it! And things are so crazy it's not likely you will just stumble upon the things you are hoping to find. About a month ago my DH bought me a new itouch! I haven't had one before and I do not have a fancy cell phone so I'm super excited about that thing! I got an app that lets me keep my Christmas Gift list with me on that tiny little device! I can store ideas, check them off as I've bought them and keep a record of my budget - way cool and super portable. A+ for my organization this year!

I looked at the prices - your kidding me if that's a "biggest video game event"! That's all regular prices! Come on Target!!