amyers12345

Did we not get Target last year?

Take him with you... as long as he likes to shop and isn't whiny. Mine's 6'4, 155 lbs... he can worm his way into anything and reach things no one else can! It makes for good bonding time when you're in line waiting for hours..

It's part of our BF ritual to come home and wrap gifts. We have to rush before we have to pick the kids up from my parent's, so I get the paper on them, and then spend another night the next week putting on bows and ribbons... ('m fanatical). Then I wrap the rest of the gifts as I get them... This year I bought a ton of stuff early at Amazon's 70% toy sale, so I'll get it done as soon as they arrive!

I can't buy mine on clearance, because I never know what theme to use and they never have enough on sale!! Each package has to match, etc. This year I'm trying to break the obsession.. my husband says it's not christmas unless there's bright colored character paper on the kid's gifts. It usually takes me hours to wrap gifts. My favorite place to buy it is the Dollar Tree... the paper is thin enough it folds easily, and they have so many gorgeous styles... you have to buy it in September though... if not, I love Target paper!! Last year was red & green metallic year before: brown paper... several different styles with gold patterns also: blue/silver and my all time favorite PINK!!

same here, and i'm getting impatient!! I really don't know what I'm looking for, but I'll know when I see it, and I'm not seeing it!

in the one I usually go to, toys are in toys, appliances are in housewares, clothing are in typical depts. That's what I'm worried about! Everything is so easy there! I guess we'll see.... If worse comes to worse, there's a little one horse town about 25 miles away with a regular wal-mart. I got TMX Elmo's there 5 days after they had sold out everywhere else!

At our walmart, you have to wait in a line for a ticket. You just carry the ticket around until you're done shopping, pay for it, and go around to the lawn and garden or the grocery doors, show them your receipt, and they get it for you. Much easier, because once you have a ticket, you're guaranteed the item, and you don't have to worry about it get stolen!

We got 14 inches here one year.... It started later in the morning, though... Good thing we had thousands of dollars of weight in the back of the truck!!

I am having the same thoughts... here we are in a panic, looking for those great deals so we can give our children everything they ever wanted, only for them to break or forget about it by New Year's... BUT... thanks for all the posts, you don't know how much it means to me to know that I'm not the only BF psychopath out here!! (j/k.. bf is an acquired skill, not a mental condition)

Yeah, it is... but it's also 12 months of wait over in a couple of hours with a huge chunk out of the checking account. I get so excited at the end of September, but there's always that sense of let down when the ads appear... no more looking forward to it!

What would you give to see the Wal-Mart ad right now? I'm afraid that once it is posted, i won't know what to do. I spend so many hours each day on here waiting, I may be bored out of my mind!!

Okay, here's my dilemna... the wal-mart i always go to is in a town of about 15,000. This is 15 miles east of me. Familiar territory. (no other stores but walgreens within 40 miles) There is a new one in a town of 4,000 14 miles west of me. The new one is harder to find things in, and is very dimly lit, giving everyone a headache. I think things might be easier to get at the new one, and a larger city is about 15 more miles west of there, so I could go on to BB, Target, Bass Pro, Sams, Joanns, Old Navy, etc. I just don't know if I wan't to break the traditions, where I know the rules of BF, to go somewhere that may be better, may be worse. HELP!!!

Alicia here. This is my 3rd year with gottadeal! I have a son,7, and a daughter, 2. and a husband that moans and groans every BF afternoon because he went with me, but he begs to go back every year! I'm from SWMO... halfway between Bentonville WM, and St. James (the largest distribution center) My insider quit this year though, sorry!!!!!!!!! This is my 6th or 7th BF, and I think i've got it mastered.

How much time are you guys spending on here? Or how often do you get on to check? I am spending a few too many hours each day! (excuse: we have very slow dial-up)

In our small town, we get to see a lot of people that we only see once a year. We brief each other on what we need, and then meet up in the grocery section to divy up our goods. We have a supercenter, but on the pallets, they actually have a label that tells you what's under the black shrinkwrap, so you can find everything at about 2am, and make a strategy from there. I always park my husband in the most wanted, first to go line, have a friend hold my place, and then go scope out the lines for other items to see if we need to adjust our plans.

I know everyone has their own methods and secrets of BF shopping. What are some of your best tips to make your shopping the most effective?

As a teenager, it was dangerous to stay out a little late, drink a couple of beers. As a college student, well.. self explanatory. As a parent, we conquer the most dangerous of all... topping childbirth and child rearing.. we go suicidal and venture out on BF! Probably the only dangerous thing we do all year, and look at all of us already on here.. WE LIVE FOR THIS!

Hee Hee.. I force mine to go too! She HATES shopping, and every year she asks to go. The good thing is that she usually buys breakfast. I just have to lecture her all day thanksgiving.. (no bitching, keep shoving, don't stop, and be at the meeting place) I always brief her on what we're looking for, and she's getting pretty good at getting what we want. I think she's starting to like it!

I've never heard of chocolate gravy!! We have a huge shrimp feed at my aunt's for chrismas eve (complete with presents). Then we stay up and eat all the leftovers while we put together Santa presents. Then we get up and unwrap here... no food, just coffee. Then we rush to my mom's before my little sister has a heart attack waiting (mom won't let her open until we get there) After presents there, we have a huge fancy breakfast. Then we pack up, come home, unload, and head to a couple more lunches, and a few dinners. The only place we go that doesn't open presents 1st is my grandmother's. She makes us all eat every last bite, then we have to open presents one at a time from youngest to oldest. After you open each one, you have to pose for a picture. There used to be 12 of us, now there's 25.. it's absolute MISERY for the little ones. It takes about 2 1/2 hours to open 4 presents each.

I think they were quite a bit more than that. We bought ours 2 years ago.. the regular GBA for $36.

Our walmart gives our vouchers for alrge items and electronics. They are set up at a table, and you wait in line and get a bar-code. You can pay for it at the register and pick it up somewhere less crowded. TV's and stuff are in lawn and garden (they load it for you and everything), and they keep gameboys and things like that in the employees only grocery side. Everyone waits in line and then most decide they don't want, or can't afford it, and there are tickets just laying around everywhere... we've NEVER had a problem getting big-ticket items.

Don't say that, I'll have an anxiety attack!!!

Our mall location closed last year and I miss their clearance. I went once on BF and you couldn't move. They handed you a trash bag at the door to drag your stuff around in, but you couldn't even squeeze through the aisles to find anything. Luckily, the line snaked through the whole store, so you could grab what you wanted whenever you and your trash bag reached it.

we live 20 minutes from the main bass pro store. And let me tell you, it's so busy there that you'd think it was BF every day! We usually head the other direction, but make it back that way. They ALWAYS have Red-Head canvas coats (like Carhartt) for $24.99 (usually $70 each in there), and turkey fryers for $29.99.

Do you have a yankee's minor league team around there? Those games are just as fun as the major league games. We have a AA Cardinals team here.. (also called Cardinals) and we get great seats for $7 a ticket, and it is so much more fan involved. My 7 year old son's baseball team takes the field every year to play with the real players, the mascot comes to see everyone, the players all stay late to sign autographs, they do contests every inning, and you have a good chance of getting put on the jumbo-tron, AND we caught 3 foul balls in one night. They also have great giveaways to every fan each night, and a huge fireworks show every friday. On sundays, all kids get to run the bases and get free ice cream. PLUS, you get to see several players before they make it big, and you get to see a few of the big leaguers come down to recover from illness or injury. Keep in mind, though, that this is a fairly new team, and has one of the highest attendance records in Minor League Baseball. Just an idea... my son LOVES it!!!