fluffkin79

It can be done responsibly. I have gone out pregnant, and I have taken my kids out shopping with me on BF. The first time I shopped BF my oldest DD was 3 months old. The weather was relatively mild, we waited in the car until the store opened (about 10 min after I got there) and the line went in. There weren't any carts left for us, but I didn't need one because I was able to use the basket on her stroller. At 3 months, DD didn't really do much anyways so she didn't mind riding in the stoller. After I got my things and was waiting to check out I was able to take her out to hold and just inched the stroller along. We made it through 3 stores that day and she slept through half of it. Last year my nieces watched my 2 older ones, but they are still pretty young themselves and I didn't want to overwhelm them so I took my DS2 along. Yes, we woke him up early at 5am, but he usually wakes up at 6:00 and it really wasn't a big deal for him. He was dressed warmly (although he did still have his jammies on, but he wasn't the only one shopping in sweats!), happy in the cart, and I had snacks and drinks in the bag for him. He was in the seat of a cart the whole time we were in stores (except Walgreens, where he held my hand), and if I did leave the cart my mom stayed with him. He was a great shopping buddy and when he got tired of the crowds we went home. I do not shop BF because we otherwise wouldn't be able to afford Christmas, I do it because I find great deals and it is fun. If my kids were in upset or in danger I would not be having fun and would not be shopping. I live in less crowded city where people are pretty civil - no pushing or trampling. That said, I will not put myself or my kids in harms way for a deal. I have not camped out (with or without kids) or fought for 1 of 10 available hot items. I wait for the lines to clear out before even entering the store.

When I was young, Santa's gift always fit in the stockings. We opened our family gifts on Christmas Eve, but my mom forgot to buy batteries so were weren't able to play with anything that needed them. Santa seemed to know which batteries we needed, because he always gave us the ones we needed. He also gave candy, gloves, chapstick, jewlery, and other small things. He has a lot of kids to give to, so the bigger gifts always came from the family. Santa must have more help these days, because the gifts tend to overflow my kids stockings. Last year he took the stockings off the hangers, filled them, and put each on top of a pile of gifts for each kid. Nothing was wrapped, and most of it didn't have any packaging. Everything was assembled and ready to play with. He got each kid something they had asked for and several things that they didn't.

First of all, I don't even spend $200 each on my kids! They are too young and toys are too cheap to have to spend that much. I can see your sister's point of view. For 9 years she bought your kid fanstatically awesome gifts, and probably watched others do the same. Now that she has a family of her own your mom has told her that she will continue to lavish your 1 child with expensive gifts, but her children are not worth as much. Yikes! Not a good time to bring up that you want to spend less on her kids, too. IMHO, your mom's thinking is just wrong. I understand splitting the "grandkid gift budget" down the middle IF she is buying family gifts. However, if she is getting gifts for each individual child it seems like a better idea to decide how much she has to spend and spread it evenly among her (hopefully) evenly-loved grandkids. That said, sometimes prices don't even matter that much. Maybe your son wants an Ipod or pricey video game. Perhaps you have a niece that desperatly wants a $20 cupcake maker or a $9 zhu-zhu pet. As long as they get what is "big" to them, they won't be jealous of what the cousins got. Of course, there are limits. Even young kids can see the difference between the gaming console, games, and new TV that grandma got a cousin and the movie that grandma got them - even if they really wanted the movie! As for spending less on your sister's kids, you have to do what you have to do. Decide what your budget is and stick to it. Maybe there is a way around discussing it with her. If you find good enough deals, you might be able to stay within your budget and still look like you spent more. Otherwise you seem to be thinking about it the right way. Yes, you need to be spending less on her kids, but you are telling her to spend less on yours as well so that nobody feels like they are getting cheated on the big day.

This is a sore spot for me. I love the holidays, always have. But every year I am disapointed that there are no surprises for me. I make gift lists for the whole family (including DH's because he doesn't even know what he wants, let alone anyone else), do the shopping, decorate, wrap, coordinate family plans, make food, bake cookies, create and send out Christmas cards, and have started tradations so my kids (hopefully) have some great memories. Basically, I make Christmas in our house. As a reward, I would like a few surprises. Some small, thoughtful gift. It doesn't even have to be a thing. I would be thrilled to wake up Christmas morning to find DH had taken care of breakfast. Or had added something of his own to our holiday traditions. Alas, that is not meant to be. As much as I love the holidays, DH does not. Therefore he will not be getting excited about decorating a tree, baking, shopping or cleaning. He will avoid these things if at all possible. If I want a gift I will be shopping for it myself. Well, this year I plan to make the best of it. If I am not going to be surprised by something under the tree, then I will be getting something I really want. For a while I was considering a LCD TV and TV stand. Maybe even a wii. But at this point I am leaning toward a new bed frame. And I still plan to be surpised on Christmas. I plan on having DH take our kids out shopping for my gift. He may not have any ideas, but I'm sure our kids can come up with something that will surprise me!

Hmmm, this could vary wildly. I don't have a price limit, but I do have an overall holiday budget and am pretty good about keeping things reasonable. Some stockings might be $10, others could be $100. It all depends on the person's interest. DS3 might get a stocking full of cars and candy when DH gets some sort of electronics. Then again, maybe DH needs a new pair of gloves. Its always a surprise.

I understand where you are coming from. My DD6 is terrible about just letting things drop. Done with a toy? Leave it there. Done with dinner? Leave the table. Finished with a treat? Drop the wrapper on the floor. I am constantly reminding her to pick up after herself. We thought that we could encourage her to be more responsible with her things by putting abandoned toys on time-out in the garage. It didn't work. We have a garage full of toys and nothing has changed. Sure, she puts on a good show when something goes missing, but it really doesn't affect her much. She actually seems relieved when I clean out her room. It is so much easier for her to deal with when it is less crowded. My point is if your kids are like my DD, they won't miss the "missing" toys at Christmas. They probably don't want or need the extra responsibility. However, they will notice if their siblings get more and I agree with others that the holidays are not the best time to start the "if you had only..." conversation if you can avoid it. Maybe instead of things, you can give your kids an experience gift. Try a gift certificate (or homeade ticket, if no certificates are available) to a children's museum, aquarium, laser tag, amusement park, water park (many hotels have indoor waterparks), concert or show. Our local high school has cheap family swim passes that my kids would love to have. Or maybe they would like a GC for fast food, movie theaters, or music downloads. That way they are still getting something, but it can't be left on the floor.

Those all sound like good changes to me. Of course, I'm not the employee standing in front of the pallet handing stuff out. I wonder if they have to draw straws for that job? I have never seen a map at any of the Walmarts I have been to. It has been total chaos - trying to get through an insanely over-crowed store, walking in circles because they decided to put dolls next to the food and movies near the garden center. It's such a busy day, it would be nice if they were organized so customers could get what they came for (or find the empty pallet) and go on their way.

I had my fun at Walgreen's today. I got some Zantac, Theraflu, and Triaminic (threw in some Dentek and Halls, too) used coupons galore, paid change, and left with more RR than I went in with. There are a couple month-long RR deals you may be interested in, good though 10/31: Dentek Floss $2, get $2 RR Vaseline Sheer Infusion Lotion $6.99, get $7RR Use $1 insert q's from last week or $1.50 IPs, if you haven't already. Halls Refresh $1, get $1RR. There are q's out there for this, including a .50 tearpad at many Walgreen's stores. Trident $2/2 (at least that was the price this week), buy 2 get a $1RR. There are coupons for .75/1, $1/2 and BOGO. Happy Shopping!

I'm being greedy this year. I want either a bed frame or a LCD TV. I do all the shopping, so I'm thinking my chances are pretty good.

Santa has been bringing each of them a small Schleich animal or 2 each year. With 3 kids in the house we have a good start on collecting the whole zoo. I give the kids new PJs every Christmas Eve. Everyone gets socks and underwear on Christmas. We started collecting ornaments, one for each kid and one for the family, starting with a glass teddy bear the year we were expecting. Unfortunatly most of them have gotten broken. Now that my youngest is a bit older I am hoping to be able to keep them on the tree. I might have to start charm bracelets for my girls.

Awww, I heard a blurb on the news this morning. All I really caught was something about bananas and lean ground beef rolls for 1.25. I was hoping it was 80/20 beef (or better), 73% is not lean IMHO. Where are we going to be able to see what is rolled back each week?

Would this be an option for you? http://www.fisher-price.com/fp.aspx?st=7080&e=storeproduct&pid=47317 Spike is undeniably awesome, but we passed on him because I don't think the kids would get enough play out of him to justify the price. I am considering Spike Jr. this year. He is 17.89 at Fleet Farm, $21.99 on Amazon. Of course if you have your heart set on the big Spike there will probably be deals out there. Maybe you could get lucky on Ebay?

I vow to guiltlessly buy myself something nice this year. I deserve good things, too.

Wow, mine were $2 here. Pretty much the same thing, except we got coupons for milk or juice instead of fries. Strange. I'll have to look at another store when I go visit Mom's town. I thought I saw them for $1 there last year.

I usually wait until I am almost finished shopping. Then I pull everything out of its hiding spot and lay it all out. That way I can see if it all looks even. I like my kids to have the same number of gifts, so I can wrap smaller things together (or seperate them) so that everyone has the same number of packages to open. Sure you can make a list, but I am a visual person and like to see it all spread out. I am hoping to get things wrapped a few days before Christmas this year. I have been collecting toys from clearance sales throughout the year (Target and Kmart had some great toy deals), so I don't think I have to do any real shopping, at least for the kids. I was just collecting toys that I thought were cool, thinking that one of my kids will eventually like it. Otherwise, it will go into a birthday gift or donate pile. Now I need to decide what I am giving each kid and put them in a seperate place to wrap. It would be nice to go to bed at a descent hour on Christmas Eve.

Clue me in. What is the pricing stragtegy you speak of?

I went on Wednesday and saw some women's belts marked 30%. Does anyone know how long they have been marked downs, or when they might go down more? Are the marked down with women's or jewlery?

I went today and found some new markdowns in the girl's clothing section. I was able to get some tanks and cotten shorts for big girls .87 each. Jean shorts were 3.48. Instead of seperating the clothes by % off like they usually do they had them seperated by size so that one rack was all size large, but prices ranged from 30-75% off. Hopefully this means that the rest will be going down soon? I also found Hooked on Phonics workbooks marked down to 1.48(75%) in the regular book section.

Thanks. I just ordered next summer's clothes for my girls. 25% off code expired 8/1. FA79 is good for 15% off, though. $5 shipping per order.

They had finished marking down the toy dept when I got there at 9:00 this morning in Sheboygan (Kohler?) WI. Most toys were 75%, Legos were the exception. Of course all the Thomas sets were gone - they never last here. I got Cranium Cadoo, black box Adult version of Cranium, Shake 'n Go cars, and some mini kites. There were still some Leapsters left there, if anyone is interested. I also caught the markdown ladies at work in the shoe dept and (finally!) got those sparkly pink shoes DD wanted at 75%.

I thought the same thing, so I waited a while. When she didn't come back - around noon- I asked other toy dept workers if I could expect to see her again today. They seemed shocked that she was working toys at all today, they normally do toys on Thurs. They did get her on the walkie and asked what she was up to. She said that she was able to get a little ahead, but was done with toys for today. I was convinced. About clearance/coupon deals: there are at least 2 versions of Cranium being clearanced. Right now Target has a store coupon for $5 off Cranium making these very cheap. I don't think it is available on Target's website, it was an email. There are coupons on Leapfrog's website for Tag, Leapster 2, and Didj systems and games. There might be other deals, but the one I found was Didj games marked down to $7.48 - $5 coupon. Heres a link: http://www.leapfrog.com/en/landingpages/coupons_retailer.html

They started marking toys to 75% this morning! She didn't get too far, only a couple aisles. When I saw what she was up to I began filling my cart. I wondered around a bit to give her some time to finish, but when I came back to the toy dept she was gone. I did manage to score 4 Didj games for 7.49 each - $5Qs = 2.49 each! There were only 3 different ones there yesterday, but another appeared for me today. Titles were Nancy Drew, Spongebob, Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, and Super Chicks. I also found a pair of sparkly silver girls shoes for 3.74 (pink was still 50%) and Huggies Pull-Ups 54-68 count 16.08 (30%) - $2Q. Headed back tommorrow for more!

There were some toddler toys on clearance. I know that there were Parents and Circo brand toddler toys and there were other red stickers in the toddler toy aisle. I didn't look too closely because my kids are a bit beyond that stage, but I remember seeing a musical? flower pot and a toy camera with a mirror on the front. I am sure there is more.

Ohhh, can I start it? That's it! i'm not bothering to go out on BF this year! But only because I have found so many great deals throughout the year that there isn't really anything I need on BF. Of course, I said the same thing last year but ended up staying online all night ordering things and went out shopping anyways... Maybe Sears should just leave Christmas up all year long - save the hassle of taking it down at all?

I usually go with me, myself, and I. That and all my new friends that I meet in line. It would be nice going with someone else if they are like-minded about the deals. I have gone with my mom a couple times. It was nice to be able to spend the time with her. She is a browser, though - she doesn't do the run, grab, and get onto the next store thing. Fortunatly, most of my list has been little stuff - toys, DVDs, slippers, etc. If I miss them there will always be another chance with something similar. We did manage to get our 3 must-have items last year.