ajburlingame

Books. The kind that have cardboard pages not paper ones, with only a picture and a few words per page. These were great for my daughter. At first she wasn't interested but then she began to love them. She is 15 months old now and still goes and gets those first few books that I used to read to her and wants me to read them all of the time. They are a great investment.

I thought the ad was disappointing.

No, but I always watch the news while I am waiting on my sister to pick me up (she is usually 5-10 minutes late) and I get a total hoot out of the shoppers and it makes me go crazy wanting to get there. The wait is so hard. Most years I end up standing at the end of the driveway waiting for her to pick me up because I am so antsy that I can't wait inside. Honestly, I hope I am not ever interviewed, I get so excited on BF that I would probably just say something stupid.

Some people just aren't thrifty. Alot of the time, they are the ones who need to be thrifty the most. We have been through some hard times and even though things are a little better now, I do not forget what it was like then and try to spend our money as wisely as possible. (both on BF and any other day of the year)

If I could get the motel room free....maybe. Otherwise, I definately would prefer to save the money so that I would have that much more on BF!

10+ - I'm a veteran. Can't imagine missing BF. I had a new job that I started last year at the end of August and I thought that I was going to have to work on BF but lucked out and got off of work. Now I am transferred into a new dept and we are not open on BF. I would be so disappointed if I had to miss out on BF.

For years I have worn Jeans, tennis shoes a white t-shirt with an adorable christmas sweatshirt over it with christmas earrings and my bell necklace. I am a very huge pregnant woman right now so I will probably stick with my most comfortable pants that are black, tennis shoes (even if they do look dorky with the black pants, it is all about comfort) and a red t-shirt with a christmas pin on it and a big over sized grey sweatshirt over it. The selection of maternity clothes that I have that are festive are minimal and I love to be festive on BF.

I'd say 50-75% of my shopping is done on BF. Unfortunately only about 5% is done before BF and the remaining is done between BF and the weekend before Christmas. I usually run out of money on BF and have to budget the rest on the gifts in within the next few weeks after.

I will be 7 months pregnant. Past the pucking but I still have to pee all of the time. My new thing is everytime I go shopping or I am around very many people I have terrible hot flashs. I get hot really easy. I am go to definately wear a very cool shirt so that I do not pass out in some of the lines where people are all packed together. All this and I still would not miss shopping on BF.

How about a front row parking spot at anywhere you go to shop. That would be nice!!

.....fighting crowds and waiting in long lines to save money, shopping with my sister and eatting lunch at The Olive Garden.

Less....we have a 15 month old daughter and I am having another baby in Feb. 2006 so we have decided to cut way back this year. We have talked with some friends and agreed not to buy for each other this year and we are cutting back on buying for the family. I am very excited about shopping on BF and hope to make my Holiday purchases for as little money as possible while having lots of fun!!

This may surprise everyone but our Wal-Mart has been very organized the last few years. I have been pretty happy with our experiences there other than the crowds were terrible.

I love gift cards. Usually the ones I get are for stores that I specifically stated that I would like a gift card to. I only give gift cards to someone when I can't think of something for them and am sure that they shop often at that particular store. It is always nice to give a gift card if you know that someone has a particular item that they are wanting that is expensive and several people give them cards to purchase the item that they want. We did that with my Grandpa one year. Several grandkids, kids, etc. all gave him gift cards to Sears so that he could get a particular table saw that he was wanting (we didn't know which one) Also, when I had my babyshower I got several gift certificates to Wal-Mart and a gift certificate to Babies R Us. They were life-savers. After I got home and figured out what I had received and what I didn't, I was able to go purchase and remaining items that I still needed. Since then, I often give gift cards for baby gifts. I never realized how helpful they could be.

BARGAINS!!!

My sister and I leave at around 5:00a.m. In the last 10 years, the earliest that we have ever been home was around 4p.m. The latest was midnight. Typically it is between 8-9p.m. I will be 7 months pregnant this year so I doubt that I will be able to make it as long this year. With both always try to get either all of our shopping done or at least the biggest part of it. Usually we take snacks along and only eat 1 meal. It is a tradition to go to the Olive Garden and eat around 3p.m. They are usually dead at that time and we are starved and eat way to much. We re-group, go through our ads and decide where else we need to go and what is still on our lists to buy. Our feet are usually killing us by this time.

I will be 7 months pregnant on BF and will definately be going shopping. I definately would not go alone though. I will be going with my sister, it is a tradition. I am sure that I will get tired easier, but I will take breaks as needed. In the past 10 years, we typically leave at 5:00a.m. and get home between 10:00p.m. and midnight. I am sure that I won't make it that long this year. Have lots of fun and be careful.