the best mom

Feeling a bit stymied as to how to get ready for all the Black Friday sales, considering that so many stores have already started their BF sales earlier than ever, and and then they kind of trickle some new BF items out weekly. I can't keep up. Whew! I'm exhausted!

Anyone know if there's a likelihood that the Bose QC 45 will be discounted for Black Friday? I can't remember if it was discounted for BF in previous years...? Thanks! Looking at Best Buy and Bose...

Would love to play with the kiddos on a new PlayStation 5. A perfect gift, and sooooo much fun for the family! "It's the most wonderful time of the year..."

Woo-Hoo! Got everything w/25% off! Easy peasy. Off to bed now!

And it begins... So excited to have just begun my holiday shopping! I purchased Cuddle Duds throw pillows, slipper socks, soft slippers and jammies for the family. And earned $45.00 Kohls cash too! Very happy! Heading to bed and will check out more goodies after school tomorrow. Happy Holiday shopping!

Wheee!!!! All done with online shopping! Easy Peasy for sure! Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Best Buy Doorbusters are live!

Even better!

All Door busters are available to Macy's Platinum members now!!! ​Cashmere- Ladies sweaters begin @ $39.99, Men's cashmere begins @ $49.99 Beauty stocking stuffer MAC, Bare Minerals start @ $10.00 Instant Pot $69.99 Braun Men's grooming kit $50.00, Designer handbags, Fine jewelry... It's all there, so no need to que up tonight for this sale. FYI: Cashmere is selling out very quickly...

Yahoo!! Got everything in my cart, NOVFAMILY (20% off), NOVHOME10, used Kohl's cash and now I'm off to bed. Whew! Just have to wait for InstantPot Doorbuster on Thursday, and then I think I'm really finished with Kohl's. Hope everyone has gotten everything on their list. Good night!

So happy! Pretty sure I got almost everything the family asked for from BB. Just going to go back and make sure I got everything from my saved list too! Some of the deals: Samsung UBDM 9500 Streaming 4K 4K/UHD titanium dvd player- $199.99 Rocketfish 4 4K/UHD HDMI cable- $9.99 Deadpool 2 4K/UHD dvd- $14.99 Coco 4K/UHD dvd- $14.99 Jumanji Welcome to the Jungle 4K/UHD dvd- $9.99 Ready Player One Blu-ray- $5.99 Tag Blu-ray- $5.99 Jack Frost Blu-ray- $4.99 Jingle All the Way Blu-ray- $5.99 Home Alone Blu-ray 2 movie collection- $14.99 Also purchased: Bose SoundSport Free wireless headphones- $169.99 (no deal...yet, but #1 son just lost his!) Bose SoundSport wireless headphones- $149.99 (no deal...yet, but #2 son just lost his!) Apple Air pods- $159.99 (no deal...yet. Hubby will be so surprised!) Catalyst Case for Apple AirPods- $19.99 (so hubby won't lose his AAP) "It's the most wonderful time of the year..."

So happy! Pretty sure I got almost everything the family asked for from BB. Just going to go back and make sure I got everything from my saved list too! Some of the deals: Samsung UBDM 9500 Streaming 4K 4K/UHD titanium dvd player- $199.99 Rocketfish 4 4K/UHD HDMI cable- $9.99 Deadpool 2 4K 4K/UHD dvd- $14.99 Coco 4K/UHD dvd- $14.99 Jumanji Welcome to the Jungle 4K/UHD dvd- $9.99 Ready Player One Blu-ray- $5.99 Tag Blu-ray- $5.99 Jack Frost Blu-ray- $4.99 Jingle All the Way Blu-ray- $5.99 Home Alone Blu-ray 2 movie collection- $14.99 Also purchased: Bose SoundSport Free wireless headphones- $169.99 (no deal...yet, but #1 son just lost his!) Bose SoundSport wireless headphones- $149.99 (no deal...yet, but #2 son just lost his!) Apple Air pods- $159.99 (no deal...yet. Hubby will be so surprised!) Catalyst Case for Apple AirPods- $19.99 (so hubby won't lose his AAP) "It's the most wonderful time of the year..."

I've looked everywhere and can't find either gift card offers with purchase (Target used to offer it on new products) or, even a discounted price. Crazy!

Wow! Thank you so much! This is so helpful!

Anyone know what time the Elite and Elite Plus go on sale Sunday, 11/18? I haven't received an email from BB yet...?

Woo-Hoo! We did it! We can check 1 thing off our holiday tradition timeline! My sweet husband and I (on my crutches and knee-walker) put up almost all outside decorations- white lights, wreaths & lit garland on Veterans Day weekend. Just have to put up the 2 huge (60 plus") wreaths w/ white lights on garage barn door and front of our 3 floor home. Indoor decorations and tree will be brought into our home this weekend. FYI- It snowed here last night! We have 2''of snow on the ground. As much as I love snow, I'm hoping the rain will take most it away for just a few more weeks- so I can continue to maneuver fairly easily with my crutches and knee walker.

Yay! BF store specific/items lists are done, with everyone accounted for, I think...I hope... BTW, all of my BF/ CM shopping is done online. I started the season by purchasing movies and video games from Target during their "buy 2 get 1 free" at the end of Oct. Yesterday I purchased a few pre-BF Kohl's items, thanks to their Vet's Day sale ( Love ya, Dad!): $10.00 off + 30% off + Home goods $10.00 off + free shipping combo. All the shopping tips were/are very helpful! It was so worth it to make sure I had the items I wanted: Sonicare Diamond Clean Smart (rebate) and Sonicare FlexCare Classic (rebate), 3 mens sweaters, 2 Cuddle Duds Sherpa throws and the difference between buying now vs. BF is just a few dollars, if that. I still have many more items to purchase at Kohl's on BF... Now I'm trying to get final "wish lists" or, any lists from the kids. This year it's like herding kittens! Once I get their lists, I can re-visit my lists and see if there's more (shocking!) to add to my carts/saved lists. The countdown begins...

Is there a version of this listing for BF online shoppers with times/time zones (Central, Pacific, Eastern) the sales go live? Maybe I missed it somewhere? Many thanks!

This is amazing! Thank you sooooo much for the charts!

I'm so excited! Less than 1 week to go before we begin to bring down all holiday decorations. We'll start (and finish) all outside decorations on Sat. Nov. 10th. Good news...No snow in the forecast for Nov. 10th.... so far! Then my husband and I will organize inside decorations so, that we're all ready to begin the process on Sat. Nov. 16th. Of course, we'll save the best for last... our 10ft. tree , which should be up Sat. late afternoon/early evening. Everyone will open their 1st gift- a new decoration- and the youngest (not with us this year, heading to Tenn. from Boston to be with his girlfriends family) traditionally hangs the first decoration on the tree. I think we'll start this year with the eldest going first. Here's to you my sweet husband! Finally, before we leave for Thanksgiving with family in NYC, we'll set out our Menorah and dreidels Our traditions: Outside= Wreaths and garland with white lights on both decks, wreaths (white lights/battery) on all doors, house and garage, candle (battery) in the storage garage window under 1 deck, old fashioned snow shoes (wood!) on the walls of our 3/4 enclosed side entries. Inside= 1st up: Wreaths and garland (hearth, windows, banisters,) with white lights, candles (battery) for all windows, hearth stockings, and more. Last up: #1 tree (10ft.) with multicolored lights. I'm so excited! And, so is my husband, perhaps with a little less enthusiasm than myself! NOTE- I've been a member since 2006, and this year is my 1st year/time ever posting on any Forum. Over the years all comments and threads relevant to me have been so helpful, and I always look forward to BF time every year. This is the best place to look for any/all holiday help information. I'm able to be active this year due to taking time off from teaching (3 weeks to be exact) to recover from foot surgery. I haven't been able to walk or really do much of anything other than heal- still an ongoing process- and will return to school this week- Yay! I don't know how active I'll be able to be once I'm back in school, but, know this, I always find time to get on the site and read your helpful tips, and commentary! Thank-you to all on the Gotta Deal Forum! You're the best!

What is the "Saran Wrap Ball"?

Long ago, when I was in grad school, I waitressed and, worked in retail to help pay for my schooling, apartment and any/everything else that I could stretch those funds to cover. Working in retail means that when the holiday season hits, you're always working- no time off. And, almost all retail stores have all their decorations up on Nov. 1st. So I took my cue from Filenes "Display Design Team"- thanks Mary!- and started my own decorating on Veterans Day weekend, so that I would be finished before Thanksgiving. Then, all I had to do was enjoy the lights and decorations when I was home from school/work. After I was married, no longer working in retail ( I'm a teacher), and had our baby, we continued that tradition. It has made the holidays so much more enjoyable. It's such a short season, and we want to enjoy every minute of it. Our family's "Traditional Christmas decorating expectations" : 1. On Veterans Day Weekend, all tubs of indoor Christmas decorations- lit garland for staircases and mantle, un-lit garland for the windows, indoor wreaths, candles for the windows, kids artwork ( they still love to see their holiday school projects year after year), tree decorations, and our menorah (we're a multi-faith family) are brought in from the garage loft and into the utility area of the basement. 2. All outside decorations- white lights, wreaths & garland- go up on Veterans Day Weekend. They're checked to make sure everything is in working order and ready to go. We live in New England, and it gets cold...Brrr... Plus, we like to do the outside before there's snow on the ground. 3. We've been fortunate to have our kids return home from college for Thanksgiving break on the Friday before Thanksgiving. So we start decorating inside our home the Saturday before Thanksgiving. Christmas music playlists start playing, the tree goes up after everything else is up. Every year before we start decorating the tree, my husband and kids are each given their first gift of the season- a new ornament that has a meaning and sentiment specific to each, and we add them to our tree. That tradition began with our first born son. We thought it would be great for the kids to have their own ornaments to take with them when they were grown, living on their own, and starting their new lives and traditions. This year, we're losing our baby to his girlfriends family home in Tennessee for Thanksgiving break. It's all good. He'll receive his new ornament for the tree when they come home to spend Christmas with us. Yay! 4. We take family pictures for our Christmas card on Thanksgiving weekend -both in NYC with family- and, again when we return home Sat. night before everyone heads back to college and/or new home/ career on Sunday afternoon. We'll have to figure out something new for this years card! 5. No lights-outside or inside- are turned on until Thanksgiving night. Thank goodness for timers. We love when we return home from NYC, pull into the driveway and see everything decorated and lit up. It's so beautiful! 6. Once we're all in and relatively unpacked, we get jammies on and head into the family room to watch "Elf" with hot cocoa, and popcorn. Tradition! We take everything down and pack it away on or before Dec. 28th. So much fun when we do this with all the kids. An impending snowstorm or ice storm is the guide for taking down the outside decorations. While we love the season, we also like to have the house back to normal and enjoy the rest of winter break entertaining, skiing, hanging, playing games or, just plain chilling out and getting ready to celebrate New Year's Eve with family and friends. It's getting close to Veterans Day... Can't wait!

I agree... Home Depot is the best! We bought our 1st artificial tree in 2013 from Home Depot BF online. 7'5" ft. Martha Stewart $79.00 with a $10.00 off coupon, bringing it to $69.00. We've always been a "live tree" family and knew the kids were not going to take this very well. We also knew that when they went off to college, it would be difficult to do the "live tree" thing without them being home to help. We decided to go artificial, but put it up the year when our baby went to college. We put it up- in 2015. It had white or multicolor lights, and you couldn't beat the price. When the kids came home for their end of semester break, the tree was up. They smelled the tree (thanks to the pine scented hanging sticks) and thought it looked gorgeous. It took them 24 hours to discover it wasn't real, only because they noticed the trunk wasn't thick enough when they were chilling on the sofa in the family room- and- it was the shortest tree we've ever had -we have 18' ceiling. We donated that tree to our baby's fraternity, and purchased 2 more artificial trees from Home Depot. FYI- Dec. 26th is the best time to purchase, as all trees are a minimum of 1/2 off. 2nd tree is a 9' Martha Stewart- White lights, gorgeous. Purchased in 2015 for $99.99 3rd tree is 10' National Tree- Multi color lights, full and so realistic. Purchased in 2015 for $179.00 I think we have enough trees. And even though the kids swear that they'll never have an artificial tree when they move out and have their own home and family (my husband and I said the same thing when we were their age), they actually think the trees look-and smell- great!

I love shopping online for BF. We're always celebrating with family in NYC, so I have all Kohl's shopping done before we leave for the holiday. All other holiday shopping is done on BF as soon as store sites go live. The only store we venture into on BF is American Eagle in Times Square, because that's our family tradition. 1. Kohl's for the week of Thanksgiving. Love getting the kids -college and/or post college- necessities like socks/hosiery, towels, bedding, pillows, sonic toothbrushes, throws and small appliances. 2. Best Buy/ online before BF/ Elite Plus member. 4K Blu-ray dvds, special tech gifts. 3. Macy's/ BF online/ Cashmere, coats, mens suits, pillows, duvets, handbags, Clinique special buys and Pure Mineral stocking stuffers, and occasionally fine jewelry. 4. Amazon- so many great books and deals throughout the holiday shopping season. 5. Target/ BF online for video games, and occasionally an Apple product- only if the promo includes a Target gift card. 6. Sierra Trading Post/ BF online/ Socks-never enough Smart Wool or Thorlo socks, ski jackets, and ski pants-we are a skiing family. 7. Home Depot/ BF online/ Only if there's something we need. Seems to be an e/o year purchase. 8. American Eagle/ in store BF/ College kids (and dad) always need/ want something from AE. 9. Apple store always has something someone wants.

I got mine (for my husband) online BF thru Macy's in 2016. Pretty sure it was $50.00 off regular price. No gift cards with purchase, but, easy to get- they weren't sold out or backordered. I love Macy's! BTW- our son and I have Apple watches, but my husband has no interest in the Apple watch-even though we're an "Apple" family. He loves his Fitbit.