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No crowds for me, because I shopped for everything from my living room! And got everything I wanted. Viva la internet!

You're right! I see them now. You might have just made a dishonest woman out of me!

No Charter Club cashmere sweaters this year. I bought one every Black Friday for years. Funny, this year I was going to skip it since I bought a sweater while visiting Scotland, and I justified it by saying I won't buy my usual cashmere sweater from Macy's this year. Of course, the first thing I did was check the ad for the sweaters. I guess Macy's is keeping me honest.

Absolutely against it. Thanksgiving is the ONE holiday in our country that is non-sectarian, focused entirely on being grateful for what you have. It is, to me, the purest holiday... Christmas without the greed. However, American enterprise has managed to find a way to inject the greed into this one day of the year designed for appreciating what one already has, by forcing us to go out to get MORE. I vote with my wallet and stay home. And, I sympathize with both the store employees who have no choice, and the shoppers with budgets so tight they cannot afford to take this stand.

What a nice way to play Santa Claus. Not BF, but I often get free tickets from my place of employment for local events. Occasionally I get more than I need, and like to hand them out to strangers at the door. Nothing makes my day like making someone else's day.

There are lots of small specialty stores that offer unusual or custom items not always available at the big box store. While I might not necessarily shop at them on that paticular Saturday, I do like to look for some of my gifts there.

Four snuggli type quilts (well, really more of quilts with snaps that you can wear but still move in). They were originally marked at $60 but, between a clearance sale and a price-marking snafu that the store honored, I got them for $2.97 each. But, that wasn't the real bargain. Because everyone in the family had one, we wore them all winter in the house, allowing us to turn the heat down by a few more degrees than normal. In the end, we saved hundreds in heating costs.

Have you thought of asking her if she would mind watching your kids for you while you shopped? Maybe she'll let them sleep over at her house. You can get your shopping done and put away while the little one's snooze comfortably.

OK, so let's say I'm number 300 in the line (about right, I think). So after each 30th person in line, they hold the phone for 20 seconds. That means they will stop the line 10 times for 20 seconds before they get to me... 10 x 20 = 200 seconds, or about 3 and a half minutes. I'm really not going to complain about waiting an extra 3 and a half minutes... and I live where it's darned cold! ETA: All it will really do is minimize the bottleneck at the door where everyone is grabbing carts and figuring out which way to go.

Thank you, ObiRich, you said it better than I would have. I actually thought MORE people would burn me for heresy than actually did. I've worked my share of holidays, too (airline). I was willing to give up my Thanksgiving so a family could get to Grandma's in time to take the turkey out of the oven, but wouldn't be so thrilled to give up a family holiday w/ my kids just so Mrs. Walton could rake in a few spare million bucks.

I don't like it simply because it is unfair to the workers, who either have to skip or cut short their Thanksgiving, or go without sleep the night before their biggest day of the year. That has to be torture for them. When KMart introduced their sales on Thanksgiving Day, I decided then that, as much as I love my bargains, no deal is worth my making someone else give up their Thanksgiving with their family.

The necklace isn't worth $250. I'm a beader, and I can buy a strand of that kind of amethysts at any reasonable bead store for less than $20. I'm not saying that $25 including shipping isn't a nice price for the necklace... I would easily pay that to not have to fuss with making it myself. But just don't believe that you are wearing (or giving) a two hundred and fifty dollar necklace. One of my biggest pet peeves is a ridiculously inflated "regular" price, just to call a realistc price a "sale".

If the sale is "secret", how do we find out about it? Do you have to be on their email list?

I'm glad to hear that. No bargain is worth the risk of taking small children to something like that.

Those big bags blue from IKEA are great to carry larger items before checking out, w/o having to use a cart. They are great for moving about the store quickly and are unlikely to draw the evil eye from security, since they are so obvious. I've been using the same IKEA bag in Target for several years now.

Not one website in particular. We just follow whatever that particular year's passion was. We got into making soap one year, so that became guide for that year. We found a bunch of elderberry bushes one year, and decided to try making wine, and made enough make a bottle for each family. Mixed with some thrift-store, hand painted wine glasses and we had a very nice basket for practically nothing. Seldom do our gift baskets cost more than $10 each, and often dip down to $5. One doesn't necessarily have to come up with something unusual each year, either. I'm just a dilitante. Some people have a hobby that they do well, like woodworking, and can create something new every year in the same medium. Other people love to cook, or can special treats from their summer garden or orchard (like home made jellies). Some people can be counted on for the same special treat every year, and their recipients know to look forward to it. You are only as limited as your imagination. :)

Yes, the economy has forced my family to cut back, and I don't think its a bad thing... cutting back, I mean. The economy just sucks. :) We always limited it to one big gift, several smaller gifts and a "family gift" such as a new VCR, Wii, etc. I usually shopped throughout the year for the smaller gifts, buying things on sale and clearance that I thought the kids would like. Then waiting until closer to Christmas for their bigger gifts (as their wants and desires changed so fast around this time of the year). Now that my kids are college age, they no longer expect Christmas gifts to fulfill all of their wildest dreams, but I still stick with one big and a few good sale items. We did change how we give gifts to our extended family, though. We backed out of the extended family gift circus and started making gift baskets for every family, instead. Each year the basket contains items that we made ourselves (a "spa" basket w/ home made soaps one year, home made vanilla extract and biscotti another, elderberry wine the next). Other family members began to follow and now our extended family gift giving is just a riot of home-made, inexpensive and more personal gifts. Far more fun, at far fewer dollars.

My sister used to put her tree on the inside of a baby's play pen. Good only for the smallest of kittens, however. :)

I'm expecting the big sellers this year to be e-readers, LCD TVs (now that every living/family room has one, time to populate the rest of the house), and internet-ready Blu-ray players.

Anybody know if the discounts applied to the clearance/refurbished items last year?

Another "atta boy". You helped me to find my daughter's gift... right in my own back yard. WTG!

Likely spending most of my time in Greenfield, WI, where the Best Buy and Circuit City are. However, if Target has a good deal (and they often do!), I'll probably stick close to Oak Creek, WI.

Personally, I just hate it when there is nothing I want, need or will buy in the ads on Black Friday. I LOVE BF, and am disappointed that I can't find anything to get excited about.

You can sign up for their online flyers, too. I get my 40% coupon every week that way, since I live out of their advertising demographic.

Target has my vote for this year. Waited about a hour in line... they opened both doors simultaneously (two lines). No coffee or brownies, but the manager did come out and announce where in the store the special deal items were placed (not all were in the department they usually are). We were able to get all three of the items we wanted... and there were even a few of those items left when we checked out (which was also quick and orderly). Kohls was out of what I wanted, but the check-out seemed fast and orderly when I was there as well. Best observation? A Best Buy employee, with two TVs on a hand cart, following a customer across a busy 6 lane street to the Circuit City parking lot to load up his car. I certainly hope he got a good tip!