Bopeep

I went ahead and ordered 2 more. 5 more to minimum goal.

Happy Birthday!

I might order a couple more just to help the cause . They would definitely get used, I'm just not sure I can/want to afford it.

I just want to say I'm sorry you and your children are having to go through that. I don't know what y'all "normally" do for Christmas, but I know you're going to get a lot of great ideas here. One thought is you could go look at lights Christmas Eve, then come home and do a family game night or something. Or maybe you could take turns reading parts of the Christmas story before bed. Good luck!

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/30/business/media/retailers-like-lowes-are-getting-a-jump-on-the-holidays.html?_r=3&emc=rss&partner=rss The home-improvement retailer Lowe’s, which has in recent years used social media platforms like Pinterest to advertise its coming Black Friday sales, plans to use Vine to tease shoppers about what is in store for Black Friday 2014. A dozen Black Friday Vines — scheduled to be released one a day, starting on Monday — will advertise deals on merchandise like DeWalt tools, Dyson vacuums, home safes and artificial Christmas trees. (Lowe’s plans to open its stores at 5 a.m. Black Friday, Nov. 28, and close them at regular times that evening.)

I might be in the market for a laptop this year. I'll have to check this out. Thanks!

I much prefer the old way of getting up in the wee hours of Friday morning to go shopping, but those days are gone for good. Thursday sale starts is our new reality and we will just have to make the most of it (whatever that means for each of us individually). If we all got to vote, though, I would definitely vote "against".

I have saved so much money over the last 10 years because of this site. I started tracking just how much I saved last year at Christmas, and the total was over $680.00! I am so thankful for Gottadeal, and all of the forum members. **I have already won a t-shirt, I just wanted to chime in on this.

If I had to guess, I'd say that's about a week early. I would think closer to the weekend of the 14th.

I've never had a real tree, so I wouldn't know how to take care of it, LOL. I use a pre-lit tree that's easy to put up. I love having the house decorated, but hate doing the decorating so the easier, the better.

The sad thing is, until the earlier start times I think my only BF pet peeve was stores not having enough of whatever hot ticket item, and that wasn't that big a deal since it was just part of it. Now I could go on and on. The worst for me though is the families that bring their small children. The kids are tired and cranky and way overstimulated, and the parents are getting on to them when they never should have been put in that situation in the first place.

I can't say I would NEVER pay full price. But I'm going to look high and low for a way to get it cheaper first.

The problem I've had with prepaid gift cards, and maybe you all can tell me what I've done wrong, is getting all of my money off of them. It seems once the balance gets under $10 or so, the card declines. I assume that's because the behind the scenes process automatically tries to get authorization for a higher amount. I have thrown cards away before because I couldn't use those last few dollars.

last year, there were 2 or 3 items on my list that I was sure I had missed out on. Found them in the return carts!

It was a 16, if I remember right.

Santa Claus and Popcorn

I hope it all went well last night. I didn't get home in time, so I missed it. I will definitely try to catch the next one though!

I have had some of the same thoughts. If someone doesn't want to shop on Thanksgiving because of their own family traditions, I understand. But when their reasoning is that the employees of those stores shouldn't have to work on Thanksgiving, then you have to consider radio personnel, TV personnel, all the people that work at the ball field if you're watching the game, etc. Unfortunately, some people have to work on Thanksgiving. Personally, I will shop some online Thursday, depending when some of the online sales start. I will just be doing it sitting in the room with my family . And when the Thursday evening sales start in the stores, depending on what's on our list, I'm sure we'll be there.

Do you know how many people ordered shirts last year? I won a t-shirt, but I sent my sister's size since I was ordering a hoodie. C'mon people, order up!

I'm too afraid of losing the cash to carry that much with me. I'll be using my debit card and praying for the best.

I do both. I love going out to the stores, but the more items I can cross off the list early the easier it is to get to the items in store.

I save all the .pdf ads from here to my tablet, then keep my lists in an excel sheet. I bought a new cross-body purse that the tablet will fit into, just for Black Friday shopping .

My cousin sent me a picture (screenshot) of supposedly "confirmed" hours for a few stores that she got from an app on her phone. It shows Best Buy opening at 6:00pm Thursday, Target @ 8:00pm Thursday, and Walmart @ 6:00pm Thursday. Of course, just because this app says these hours are confirmed doesn't mean they are. I guess we'll know when we know.

It's always me and my sister. A couple years ago, my daughter in law started going with us and I think that will continue. Both of my boys have gone once, and both of them said "never again!" LOL I think my niece (15) wants to go with us this year.

If I decorate outside, I'll probably do that the weekend before Thanksgiving, then the tree and everything inside will go up Thanksgiving weekend. Although, I just bought a new train to go around my tree, and I'm so excited that I may not even wait until Thanksgiving to put it all up!