berry1014

We are doing cash this year. I have had my credit replaced once already this year and my debit card was just replaced last month. The only time I will use the credit card is if I need to order online but I am hoping to be able to get everything in the stores.

Depends .. Sometime I start off alone, other times I start with extented family family but always finish shopping with DH.

I got my husband a set for his xbox a couple years ago and got them for around $50 on BF at BestBuy. I was able to order them on line too.

We spread the christmas magic all through the month. Certain days are spent baking and decorating cookies. We pick a night and make a ginger bread house together, another night will be a PJ night (finger foods like chicken nuggets, pigs in a blanket, cheese and crackers, pepperoni bread, etc) we all grab our pillows a throw blanket and settle down in the living room in our PJs and just watch different Christmas shows/movies. This year the kids said they want to go Christmas Caroling so that may be a possibility. A couple evenings/afternoons will be spent making christmas crafts used to decorate the house and/or gifts for extended family memebers. One of my kids is in the school choir so we go to the school's christmas concert. Thanksgiving weekend will set up small christmas trees in their bedroom and decorate it with fun little ornaments. We also string christmas lights around the inside of their bedroom windows and change out their bed comforters for Christmas quilts. Its make their bedrooms feel festive and they really enjoy it. Dec 1 we have 2 magical elves that come for a visit and stay until the night of Dec 23rd when they return to the north pole. Ours are not the Elf on the shelf type but actual plush elves, a boy and a girl. Some mornings the kids will have to hunt for them and other mornings they kids will wake up to the elves in their beds. (our oldest knows the truth but still goes along with everything since our yougest still believes) Like others we alos go for ride to look at Christmas lights and will check the local paper to see if there are any Christmas related events happening on the area that are free or inexpensive.

He can buy a large flash drive and plug that into his xbox for addition storage if he is running out of space on his hdd. Flash drives are a lot cheaper then a new hdd. Thats what we did. Works just fine.

No and NO. The most I ever waited in line was 2 hours. I love getting great deals but love spending time with my family even more.

Walmart, Toys R us, Kmart and Game Stop

I shop for Ornaments and Christmas books at Hallmark in Jan/Feb when they have been marked down 50 to 75% off. My mom and kids are into crafts so I am always looking for crafty stuff for them. Slipper socks, slippers, hats, gloves, winter PJs are all things they can use and you can find great marked down prices on them at the end of Winter.

I shop year round too. I would say this year we are about 40% done so far. On an average we do anywhere from 25 to 50% of our Christmas Shopping on BF. Depends on what the kids want, sales I find during the year and what the BF deals are. Our goal is to be done with the exception of gift cards by Dec 1st.

Harbor Freight 10/16

If that is the case then I may be doing more online ordering this year. We host Thanksgiving dinner and I refuse to give that up ..if this keeps up I may end up fore going BF all together ... I really miss the the 4/5 am openings.

I will most likely do both. I will order the MUST haves on line and will go to the stores for the door busters.

Not sure how much of a success it was in our area. We host Thanksgiving dinner and eat around 4 so we did not head out shopping until well after the stores opened and was still able to get all the deals including door busters that I was after. Noticed that the stores were not as pact as I have seen them in the past when the stores opened at 4/5am. I am hoping they do not push the hours further into Thanksgiving ...

Tucking away even more money this wekend for Christmas shopping. Kids are getting older so their gifts are getting more expensive.

We went to our local Walmart around 8:30 and I was shocked at the amount of parking spots left and once we got into the store I was stunned how empty it looked to compared to past BFs. Afterwards we went to Kmart and Toys r us. Again pretty empty as we got in, got most of what we were looking for and checked out with no wait.

No ... its not the same any more and not nearly as much fun as it used to be. We will head out sometime late Thanksgiving night/Friday morning to do some shopping but since these earlier times started our shopping on BF has decreased more and more each year. We host Thanksgiving dinner and I refuse to rush or change our dinner plans because of a sale. If I missed out on some door buster sales oh well.

Not seeing much that my kids want. A couple legos sets and maybe a board game or 2 but thats about it. I wont get there until way later then 5 so I am not sure of this will be worth the stop.

I know I wont be there at 5 pm either, we will still be eating dinner then. I dont plan on leaving my house until ater 10 pm so if I do stop at Toys r us it wont be until after midnight.

They are a little late this year with this.

Oh I am so disappointed in this years book.

I hate it too. I will not get in line prior to the 8 pm opening times. We host dinner and do not eat until 4-5 so once dinner/dessert is done, the guests have either left or have settled in for the night, everything is cleaned up from dinner and my kids are sound a sleep only then will I head out. Last year I didn't leave my house until after 10 pm we only went to a few stores. I was home by 1 am and didn't spend anywheres close to what I used to spend when the sales started at 5 am. I am assuming the same will be true for this year. Not heading out until after 10 pm, only going to a few store stores and not spending a lot. I already have several gifts bought and plan on buying several more prior to BF. Up until 3 - 4 years ago we used to head out at 4 am and not get home until 3 - 5 pm that afternoon. I miss those BFs.

inline with the nail polish how about the nail decals and the nail polish pens to decorate her own nails and maybe a case to store all her nail polish. What about a bean bag chair for her room. They come in the round bags but also come in a chair shape too. New earbuds or headphones

Last year we went to walmart around 11 pm got most of what we were looking for and then back back around 6 am the next morning ... it was like a ghost town. Hardly any shoppers and a ton of employees just standing around. They said it had died off around 2 am and after that there would be small spurts of shoppers.

Our kids always get new toothbrushes, scented shower gel, slipper socks, new ornament. DD (12) also gets gum, chapstick, nail polish, lip gloss, hair bands/clips DS (7) also gets small toys, puzzle DH gets gum, snacks, cologne, ornament, cross word puzzle book,

I have been shopping black Friday for the past 10 years now.