Princess7915

I LOVE the idea of handing out candy canes to trick or treaters!

I used to put my stuff up the weekend after Thanksgiving. It was kind of a tradition DH and I started to go tree shopping that next weekend. Now stuff doesn't go up till way after. Anyone who recognizes me knows why by now! :) My kitties! God love em' but they are hell around the holidays. Any kind of decorations just don't stand a chance. Last year was their first tree and they were better than I though they would be. By that I mean the tree remained standing the whole time. LOL. Grace, my oldest at 3 (and my avitar) is fine - a lovely little rescue girl who just wants to sit under the warm lights. The other two, Lexie and Simon are Tonkinese. So if you know anything about that breed you know these are cats on speed! LOL Now my decorations are only up for about 2-3 weeks. It's all we can handle. The tree is decorated in stages as I have to "sneak" the new stuff on. It doesn't work. New doodlebobbers are spotted immediately and investigated thoroughly. My tree in the mornings looks like it has been ravaged as things are hanging off and strewn about the floor! My tree gets a lot of love :)

1) After watching You Tube videos of Black Fridays Past, the carts realized their impending fate and surrendered 2)Don't worry! That dude said he'd hold our spot for us. 3)Attention Please! The correct line to the store opening is on the other side of the building. You have to be in the OTHER line to get your free gift card for the first 50 people.

Kohls has some good deals. What model are you looking for? I got mine about 6mo ago and I just got the small basic unit. It was on sale with a bb&b 20% and it was like 60$. But I am not a huge coffee drinker and DH is not at all so the small unit was all I need.

I think I'm going to love the cash thing too this year. First year we have set aside $ every month for a gift fund. It has really taken the pressure off! Finding 50 each paycheck is soo much better than 1000 at holiday time.

Two years ago I bought a friend of mine the Criminal Minds season 1 on DVD for Christmas. I found it really cheap online (like $15) She never watched the show but had seen a few episodes with me while staying at my house and was interested so I thought it would be a good gift- and she loved it and now is a follower of the show. Anyway - I thought I would get her season 2 this year and everywhere I look it's like $25+ I already have something for her and we just don't spend that much on each other for Christmas (she's really hard up for cash usually). Anybody know where I might start looking for it on sale closer to the holidays?? I was also thinking of getting Grey's Anatomy for myself if I could get a good price :)

I tend to agree with the traditionalist shoppers. I love getting the deals on BF - but those seem underwhelming the past few years. I am spoiled by the great deals that I find all year long on gottadeal.com!! I snatch up what I can and what I need on BF but for the most part I'm on the hunt shopping for the holidays a bit before BF and several weeks after. BF really kicks off the shopping season for me and says "Welcome Christmas". I love the family traditions that we have picked up along the way and it really feels like the actual shopping that was once the goal has become almost secondary. I love the day out with my family, my DH takes the day off, and it's become a holiday in it's own rite.

My DH always looks forward to getting my Pj's for Christmas! This year he has already asked for new undies!!! I'll be looking for those on sale :) It can be expensive

I don't really wrap that early because most of my gifts don't stay at my house anymore! I have young cats LOL. My mom and I have "wrapping central" at her house as we love to wrap pretty packages with elaborate bows with ornaments and stuff. I leave my moms gift at her house, take my aunts family's gifts to that house etc. My own gifts that belong at my house are relegated to a closet until Christmas morning! It's very sad to see my bare tree! I love a tree piled with gifts however, I would kill my little kitty children for ripping into my beautiful packages :) Maybe in another year or so when they get older.

I buy for about 18. I guess I'm pretty lucky - depending on how you look at it. We have a small family and some family that we are just not in contact with so that shrinks up the list. I don't know what I'd do if I had double that amount to shop for! But I suppose if you've always had to shop for a lot then you don't know any different and it's not a big deal.

I know - sticking to a budget is hard. Sometimes I've been wrapping gifts and have them sorted into piles and I'm just like "OMG this is where $1000 went!" And sometimes I look and what I bought someone and I just think it doesn't look like much and I'm tempted to get something else. I also have family member guilt when you exchange presents! My mom is the worst! I'm her only kid -even though I'm a grown adult! And she always goes way overboard. DH and I go over to her house Christmas night and there are just piles of gifts and I have like 4 things for her - I HATE that so much! not that she cares - she loves to spoil us, ( I don't have any kids) but I just feel bad. She loves buying stuff for my hubby. He had a really crappy childhood and Christmas was pretty much non-existent. So my mom loves to buy for him and make a big deal - she's so sweet. Last year I think he had more gifts to open than I did at my own mom's house LOL.

Well personally I wouldn't take any small kids with me if I had them. HOWEVER! I think that everybody needs to stop acting like BF should put a ban on mom's with kids! I mean Good Lord people! Mom's have to shop too! If you think about it do you HONESTLY think that anybody would want to have a 7yr a toddler and be pregnant (for example) and out in that madness! Probably not! Those women probably especially need a great deal on some little kids clothing and toys. So lighten up a bit. And IMO - be nice to these people when you see them on on BF don't just roll your eyes and complain about how some crazy woman brought her kids out on BF. She probably didn't have the option of leaving her toddler snoozing the way you did.

I think it really depends on what you are in the market for. I have never been looking to by a t.v. or a laptop on BF. I'm not a camper and can't imagine I ever will be! I also don't have any small kids so I'm not in the market for all the "fab. toy deals" you hear people talk about. Four years ago I would come home from BF shopping completely loaded down with stuff I had bought that day and a good 80% of my shopping done in that one day (plus goodies for me). In the past two years that's all changed IMO. I don't think the deals are as good on BF but I think a lot of that is because pricing is fairly decent around the whole shopping season and stores can't cut prices so drastically for BF. I think I go out now in hopes of making a decent dent in my list and for the tradition of spending the day with my shopping buddies. It really marks the start of the holiday season for all of us. Even though I "officially" started Christmas shopping in June I think that if you love to BF shop then you should! I may choose not to tote around the little ones if at all possible but you should make the experience fun and about whatever BF shopping is for you.

A few years ago DH and I were in the market for a new t.v. I knew that I was NOT going to stand in line for two days to save $100 on one for BF but I still wanted to get a good deal on one. Our Amex card was running some sort of special or another for cash back plus they doubled the manufacturers warranty - which saved us from buying an extended warranty from the store. I had access to the BF ads early thanks to GottaDeal and found a great deal from Circuit City that was even better than what they were going to be on sale for on BF with my CC deal! We used the card to buy it then turned around and paid it right off! I would start watching deals as they come out in early October. I know people that do shop in December and find really good sales on stuff. I don't like to leave the bulk of my shopping til that late in the season because I find that selection can be low. If you're not a picky shopper then you may find this is a good time for you - but I usually have a list of specific items that I want for people and tend not to be a window shopper.

I never used to carry my purse with me but this year I'm afraid I may have to. Though I am not going to carry my usual M.Kors purse which is a little big and heavy - I'll have to find something smaller for just the basics! This year I'll be shopping with the cash DH and I have managed to save up (YEAH!) and that requires a wallet. Other than that the usual is a cell phone, store ads (left in the car) bottled water and snacks (in a cooler in the car). That's about it. My group are all light travelers! We are lucky enough to live in an area where it's usually not too cold yet by BF. Except for the waiting in line for the first store to open we don't really need a jacket -which is really nice.

My aunt always has great ideas for this kind of stuff. She has lots of people to buy for that require these kind of gift ideas - teachers, bus drivers, etc. The past few years she has been shopping after x-mas sales for the next year and done really well. That doesn't help you now I know - but a heads up for next year! She usually does some sort of themed basket build around a "real gift". Last year she got those BBW polar bear soap dispensers for next to nothing at the end of the year and she'll do something with them this year. Another year she got the BBW anti bac soap in "kitcheny" scents on a huge sale paid for with gift cards on a discount through her discover card points program and extra $10 off $30. They went in a basket with some kitchen hand towels she found really cute, an oven mitt and a few other cute items along with a some cookie recipes or other stuff in a dollar store basket. She has also done some clearance Yankee Candle votive holders from their big sale with candles in a gift basket but I don't remember what was in that.

Our BF always changes. We are pretty low key by comparison to some others! On Thursday dinner is at my moms house. I have never been out shopping on Thanksgiving for deals. Partly because there has never really been anything that I needed and partly because my husband does not support making people work on Thanksgiving. After dinner and "company" goes home and all is cleaned up my mom and I drag out and ads and the final list making begins and "the plan" is formed. We always get excited because we have seen the ads online but we usually wait until after dinner to dig through the real ones as tradition! After we make our shopping lists and plot which stores we want to go to we call my aunt and leave her a message of when and where to meet us. She is our shopping buddy but leaves the planning to us! On Black Friday our store order always changes depending on who has good ads. Many years we begin at Kohls and sometimes Penny's. We pack leftover turkey roll sandwiches in a cooler for snacking on the go! Breakfast at Chick-fil-A. Afternoon lunch of leftovers is at my mom's house and it's usually time to unload the car, then its back to shopping round 2 :)

I started shopping over the summer at the BBW sale and Yankee Candle sale. Picked up a few good things to put aside - some for specific people some for filler gifts. I usually try to wait for major shopping to start for BF but the past two years I have been really disappointed in what I've been able to pick up on BF and I still had lots of shopping to do. So I'm thinking I may try to start shopping a little earlier when I can find good sales that I don't think I'll beat. My problem is that when I ask people for Christmas ideas in August they think I'm nuts and are not helpful. They usually supply me with Christmas lists in November (too late!)

2004 was my first year so this will make my 7th Black Friday. They go by fast. They all seem to be a little different and each year I think we have a different plan. Hoping this year will be great! I have been trying to get my good friend to come down (she lives about 2 hrs away) and go shopping! Her birthday is the 23rd -sometimes it's TG Day or even BF so it's hard for her to justify going out of town to shop with a friend. She's never really Black Friday shopped and I think she would love it.

I would make them sign up for a Gotta Deal account! Then maybe they will see it's kind of a big thing that people plan for forever! And I'd (nicely :) ) tell them that slow people get lost and left behind and left to all the crazy people they read about on Gotta Deal!!

You can do some movie theater passes. You can get some VIP style tickets that are good for new movies that have just opened though they are a bit more that the regular priced passes. For $25 a person that should be about 4 per person depending on where you live.

I know that setting a Holiday Budget is a very personal thing. I was wondering, for those who wanted to share, how you decide on - and stick to your budgets! What do you all think of as fair and reasonable dollar amounts for kids (not your own) uncles, friends etc. For me, I usually try to set an overall Shopping Budget and then I assign each person a dollar amount. Sometimes I find this really tricky depending on the person - it's really hard to put a dollar amount down by someone's name, especially compared to other friends an family. Here is another question about budgeting. If you find a nice $25 gift for $10 after sales and deals which dollar amount counts toward the budget - the 25 or the 10? If you find a lot of stuff on sale for one person in a family but not others you can look like you spent a lot more on some people than others how do you make it look fair? This is why holiday shopping can make you nuts :)

Putting the gift cards away is a good idea! Keeping cash is hard -it's too easy to take a little here or there when you're too lazy to go by the bank

Nothing really that is "Black Friday" but we did start a Christmas Fund this year! DH and I have thought about it for a year or two now and never really managed to put the money aside. This year starting in January DH was so great. He came in after a pay day with $100 and said "here -start a Christmas Fund." I was sooo excited! So now there is more than $800 burning a hole and I can't wait to start holiday shopping BIG TIME :) Actually it's been great because I had money for the BBW and Yankee annual sale to put gifts aside and I never do that - so technically I started shopping in June. It should really take the financial pressure off the holiday shopping season this year.

Nothing that I'm buying. Disappointing - hope the "real BF" is better LOL.