mgreen

I hadn't really noticed until this year. I swear, it was like we walked past a literal skunk more than once last night! I think as a common courtesy folks should bathe within at least a week of black Friday!

Did we post the 50 winners of the contest that ended on the 19th?

Shopping list: Walmart 2 Nabi kids tablets 198 Xbox One 499 Just Dance 2014 25 Patio Heater 88 HP2000 laptop 178 Flight blueray 6.96 Life of Pi DVD 4.96 Total 999.94

Shopping List: Walmart -

Where o where is Bath & Body Works? That and the repost of Home Depot.

Brad, didn't you have another contest for t-shirts where you were going to randomly pick winners from those that responded? I thought the ordering period was until the 10th and that contest was over before the ordering period was closed. I was waiting to see if I was randomly selected before I purchased a shirt. **I found it. It ends on the 19th. Oh well, I hope I win one. Thanks.

Back in the day, it was quite simple: We would review the ads on gottadeal.com days before, have our lists ready. Get a paper on Thanksgiving, mark our lists on the actual ads. Call my sis on the phone to hash out final strategy. We would get up at o'dark thirty and have breakfast at Denny's. Discuss items we are looking for, etc. Then we would get our hot chocolate to go and head out to wait in line for about 3-4 hours at Walmart. Freeze our butts off until opening time, which used to be about 5am. Most of our shopping was at Walmart. Then we would head out to the other stores on our list. Stop for lunch somewhere in between. We would be finished about 5 - 6pm. A mere 12 hours out shopping. Nowadays it is not so simple: We still review our ads on gottadeal.com days before, get a paper on Thanksgiving, mark our lists, etc. But now we have to leave the house early in the afternoon on Thursday. Still head to Walmart first. No line, no freezing our butts off, now we have a super Walmart. We have to walk around the store and find a good vantage point and make alliances with strangers to get the items we want. We wait for the sale "start". There is a 10 second spurt of madness, then it's pretty much over. The lines are ridiculous, so we walk around looking for hidden treasures (carts full of sale items that people couldn't afford, or didn't want to wait in line to pay for). We usually get everything we are looking for this way. By then the line has died down. We check out and do our price matching. Then off to a few more stores. We finally get breakfast about 3am, then continue shopping. Hit a few more stores and do lunch. Last year I didn't get home until about 6pm. A mere 24 hours or more out shopping! Boy, I miss the good old days!

I am hoping to find something I actually NEED this year!

Photo captions: #1 - Are these the ones in the ad? They were the last two over there. #2 - I'll teach you to cut in line #3 - It's Thanksgiving Day, wish I had some turkey But I'm camping away at Best Buy My toes are frozen, and I'm all alone It' s almost Black Friday that's why I need a laptop, some movies and other stuff too But I have to be first in line There's only so many to go around It's Black Friday do or die

So happy to start the countdown! Something to look forward to. My goal this year -- look for things we really need at really good prices. Hope the retailers have heard my plea.

How about for the back: Give it up! I've got 10 years under my belt!

Thanks for the CS tip. It worked for me. Got all of the items I wanted, unless they send me an email and cancel my order like Sears did last year. In California.

If I had $1,000 I would purchase the Lenovo twist laptop at Staples for $699.99, the hanging jewelry mirror at Kohls for $79.99, 5 pairs of Gloria Vanderbilt Amanda jeans at Kohl's for $84.95, the 5lb Hershey bar at Kmart for $19.99, the polaroid 8" tablet at Kohl's for $89.99 and the Zumba game for the Wii for $25 at Walmart.

I was out and about for 23 hours straight! My sister and I met at WM at about 8pm on Thanksgiving. After that we went to home depot, kohl's, best buy, kmart, staples, etc. (all in town). Had breakfast at Denny's at about 3:30am while shopping online. Then headed out of town to Sears, bath and bodyworks, target, the mall. Had lunch at Carl's jr. about 11:30am. Then went to Costco and further out of town to more costco's (looking for a particular item) and sears grand to pick up an online order. Left sears grand at 2pm towards home (drank a 5 hr energy drink at this point). Stopped at more stores on the way home. Made it home about 6-6:30pm, crashed at 7pm (exactly 5 hours). Slept well into the next day. Don't forget, I had also been up since at least 12 hours before we met to start shopping. It was fun, but very tiring. I am not sure if I like this better than starting early on Friday morning. And all the while I received comments everywhere I went on my gottadeal.com black friday t-shirt!

How do we order t-shirts or other items?

Here is my Haiku: No sleep turkey day 23+ hours straight shopping for great deals

My sister and I take all of the ads with us, especially for WM when we are price matching. They usually want to see the ads. We take them all in - just in case.

I think the mugs that look like starbucks cups and hold hot drinks would be good. What about a window sign for the car like the old baby on board signs, or a bumpersticker or license plate frame? I saw the previous posting for some sort of binder to keep our ads in, I think that is a good idea too.

I found the press release that says they will still match competitor's printed ads on black friday. So I guess it would only apply to purchases made on black friday. The price adjustment policy for items purchased prior to black friday would not be eligible for adjustment down to black friday deal prices. ??? Does that sound correct?

Didn't their newly released "christmas price guarantee" policy state that they would not be adjust prices for items on sale on Black Friday? Footnote #1 - *Offer excludes: Black Friday ads, expired ads, offers with Gift Cards, internet pricing, limited time or quantity offers (i.e. 6 hour sales), percentage off ads, bundles, trade-in offers, offers that require a purchase or gift provided with purchase, clearance or ads with typographical errors. Does this interfere with their regular price match policy?

I was thinking the same thing, but also thought just like many of you that the big guys aren't out there yet (Target, Best Buy, WM). I will reserve judgement until I see their ads. Although, I usually see "something" I want to pick up at Kohl's, Sears or JCP and this year I really see nothing. This year may be a whole different type of Black Friday experience, maybe I will have to hit up an outlet or something to get some excitement!

With my $500 shopping spree I would purchase: Sears jewelry armoir 79.99 JCP 1 pr women's boots 29.99 JCP 1 pr tights 5.99 BBW $40 purch (less $10 coupon) 30.00 BBW VIP bag 20.00 Hastings tablet 149.99 Hastings 3 n 1 entertainment ctr 79.99 Lowe's patio heater 99.00 Fred's Snuggie slippers 5.00 total 499.95

I wish our 24 hour walmart would do that. At 4 or 5 when they unwrap the pallets it is like a feeding frenzy. You see stuff flying up in the air, you hear yelling, etc. and the pallets are empty in 3 minutes. People standing right in front of the pallets can end up with nothing if they are not aggressive.

My favorite thing about Black Friday is the time spent with my sister, (while finding the best deals possible of course!)

For years it has been just my sister and I. On occassion we have attempted to bring others with us, they usually never come again. Last year my 20 year old son was with us. That actually worked out pretty good. He could go on scouting missions, or watch our place in line while we went on scouting missions. We did pretty good last year. This year he is 21, I don't know if I will be able to talk him into going with us again. It is nice to have an extra pair of hands available.