40 replies to this topic

[ms_mckenna]

What do you do every year to get ready for BF the 24 hours before it begins? Ours starts on Thanksgiving day. DH goes and gets a hard copy of the ads. The kids sit at the table and make out thier definate wish lists for Santa after dinner. Later in the night I make sure I do not need to change anything in my game plan. I usually stay up because I am to excited to sleep. About 2:30 I wake up DD and we both get dressed for our day and go over our game plan and the BF rules lol. We head to Longview or Tyler (both are 30 minutes away from us), and stop on the way and get Vanilla cappuchino's.

[lilac100]

Well I pretty much do the same thing. Go through the actual ads and make sure I don't need to add anything. Get up at 2:30 pick up my sister get a little breakfast and head to the first store on our list.

[EmConMom]

Thanksgiving AM I go get a paper to get all the ads. I glance through them b/c I already know what's there (thanks GottaDeal.com). We head to the ILs for Thanksgiving dinner. After dinner, we exchange names between the kids in the family, then we all sit around and look through the ads, making note of which kids are looking at what. I come home, make out my master list. Who I need to buy for, what I plan on getting them, where it is. Then I make an individual list for Walmart, Target and then the rest are all together. On walmarts list, I list what I am buying, if I need to price match and if so which page of that ad it is on, so I can just whip out my ads and show the PM to the cashier. Then my best friend and I sit up all night, looking at the ads, laughing, making plans, drift off in time to get 2 hours of sleep and then get up at 3am, stop at dunkin donuts get coffee and then head to walmart to wait. Usually in line by the blitz items by 330am

[Rebirth]

I'd QB Spy and someone will Blitz for me.

[misshayley]

On Thanksgiving we buy the paper (if it doesn't get delivered to our house, or if we are missing ads that we plan on PMing) then we go to DH's families and I go through the ads and staple them together and mark with marker/highlighter and post-its what I want to PM and I finalize my list (which I start as soon as I see the leaked ads.) Then we go to my family's for dinner and talk about the ads and decide who from my family and wants to join us on our shopping trip. Then we go home and get ready for bed (I usually have a hard time falling asleep.) Then we get up around 3:30am to get to WM around 4:00am.

[LPaigeE]

I sleep in and skip the whole thing. I think that I am the only one in the world who will pass up the deals (for once) in order to avoid the CHAOS that is BF in Northern VA.

[hockeyfanamo]

My husband and I usually pick two stores for BF. We don't camp out we just hope for the best. After our two stores we head for breakfast. Usually we don't have a "gotta have it" item so we play it by ear. It's our main dvd and cd buying day of the year )

[shopping mom]

Thanksgiving Day I get two papers so I have two sets of ads, one for me and one for the kids. While dinner is cooking I look through them and make sure the kids are looking too. When dinner is over and everyone has finished looking I make my final list my master list has each store I want to go to the time they open, the items to price match etc. I amke sure my debit card, cash, keys etc are ready. I also lay my clothes out so I don't wake DH. If I need DD or someone to go to another store for me I have extra list for them. I do try to get four hours sleep but that doesnt always work. Last year I was in line about 3AM. Oh I always make a thermos of coffee and some ham rolls for later in the morning. The I go and have fun. I love the deals and I don't mind standing in line talking to those around me. I take everything to my moms house and we make sure everything is fairly even and to just enjoy seeing it and knowing how happy the kids will be. Lastly I head home to eat leftovers and get some sleep.

[kc4braves]

Lots of people skip BF. I know you couldn't tell it from the lines, but none of my family fight the crowds. I think I only have 1 friend who heads out that day...but she has 6 kids so really needs the deals. We haven't been hardcore BF shoppers but are getting into it more now that the kids are getting older. This year tehy can stay by tehmselves for a few hours and hubby is supposed to be off. So we will try to be organized and get alot done that morning. Last year he worked on base and I dropped the kids off half asleep to shop the BX BF deals and Target nearby, but they had to go everywhere else so hard to buy for them. They are getting older and wanting more expensive things and we are a one income family so this year the BF sales are important. I hope to get some good ideas from those of you who do this every year. We won't be camping overnight anywhere, though.

[cherry33778]

Thanksgiving morning I get up and do my Kmart sale shopping, then I go and get a paper and go home to make my list. Then I take the turkey out of the oven and start to prepare the dinner.

[ravi7791]

On Thanksgiving day, my family and I go down to New Jersey to my relatives home. We all head out on friday. Usually my mom, aunt, and cousin go to clothing stores (e.g. macy's) while my other cousin and I hit up electronics. Then on Friday night, we drive back home and we go to the mall again on saturday morning at around 8. There's very few people so all the deals are still there. This is when I pick up whatever was left over from Friday.

[nedsw33]

Well our usual routine has changed since we moved down to Texas (from Michigan) about a year ago. Now, meaning last year and this, my brother and his girlfriend fly down from MI and the four of us have Tgiving dinner together. This year, we're going to head out to wait in line for store #1 shortly after dinner. Can't wait!

[DramaQueenLucy]

We get up on Thanksgiving morning I fill a thermos with tea...kids eat breakfast. We pack snacks, drinks, tent, games, ect. Then off to Best Buy we get there between 6:00am-8:00am every year. We wait and wait and sleep and eat and wait some more. Now the day before T-Day I am at BB checking things out...lol

[lovebears65]

Day before Thankgiving we decide if its worth going to kmart or not if it is we go to kmart and while in line we look at the paper for the next day. If there is nothing at kmart we get the paper and look through the ads. If there is something we really want like last year we go as early as possible. Last year we were at best buy at 3pm on Thankgiving day. The year before we didnt get there till 2am so it all depends on the ads:tongue1:

[TENIA66]

KMart 7am Thanksgiving, make final decisions for sales on Thanksgiving afternoon, making calls to all the shopping buds to determine who will be where..........Then between midnight and 2 am me and dd head to walmart, gather all of our price match items, find where our door buster number 1 and number 2 items are, get there to wait. Then out of walmart by 6:20 am and line up at Target. DD gets cart and waits by register, I scatter thru store, grabbing stuff to throw in cart. Then she lines up as I am grabbing the last few things and were out before 8.

[Kaarak]

Print out my final lists from here, pick up the paper on my way to Kmart in the morning. I go to Kmart even if there isn't anything good so I can at least be out and getting into the spirit of things! Go to the fam's have dinner, play games etc. Go home make final lists, and then head out depending on what I need to be in line for. We shop most of the day and then have dinner out and crash.

[jarerice]

I start planning early. Then when the papers come out. I put them all in a binder. I bring the binder with me to every store to price match if i can. I had so many compliments on the binder last year. It was funny. We get to Walmart early and fill up. Then get what we want when BF begins. We hit Sears, Target and who knows where else. I have to remember to take pics this year. I think I may need to work that afternoon as well, but thats okay, I will be all finished by 11:00 anyway.

[jellybean051901]

Make final plans after thanksgiving dinner. Then we combine all of our lists and split them up by department so when WM opens we each go in a different direction. Last year our WM handed out maps which made it really easy

[AndreaInNC]

I usually start out Thanksgiving day at KMart to pick up pillows - lol. Then I get the hardcopy ads for PMing and planning. I'll do some online shopping T'giving day. After dinner, I'll head to our outlet mall which open at midnight. I'll spend a few hours shopping then I'll head to the 24 hour Walmart for the rest of my stuff. Then to Best Buy and maybe Target. Depends on the time. Usually home by 11am.

[Yakyma]

I usually know what I am heading after long before Thanksgiving Day, all because of the sneak ads I print out here...lol But after all the dishes and Thanksgiving leftovers are put away, my daughters, and a few friends will gather around the table for late night desserts and we begin listing everything we want and who has the most at one place if there is a toss up we will split up and assign who will pick up what items and what time and where we will meet up. I never go to bed, usually head on over to Wal-Mart about 11:30-midnight and start scouting things out and buy items that are in the regular ad, not blitz items, take them to the car, lock them up and wait for the others to arrive...we drive thru McDonalds or Burger King about 7:00a.m. and head for the mall....cell phones must be fully charged...lol

[Mommy Nikki]

Same thing...sit w/my family on Thursday and go through the hard ads. We normally end up w/3 sets of newspapers. Everyone makes a plan of where they're going and what they're grabbing for others. So instead of everyone going to the same place, we'll grab things for others. But one of my fav parts, cheesy, I know. I go out w/my long time best friend (25 yrs). We've been doing this for the past few years. And it's a highlight b/c it's a fun girls' day out. Afterwards we go to lunch and then she's off to work.

[bigjimslade]

For me I am doing recon and intel on this site and sometime on Wednesday night I am in front of BB with my tent camping out.

[JazzMama]

I usually scan the hard ads after Thanksgiving lunch at my Grandma's house with my mom, sister-in-law, aunt, and cousins. When I get home, I make any tweaks to my list on GD and then print it out and put it in my wristlet (otherwise, I'll never remember to do this on Fri morning!). If I follow the same gameplan as last year, I'll bring DD to my MIL's house that night and then spend the night with my mom since dad and DH will be hunting anyway. We usually watch chick flicks til about 11 then turn in. I wake up at 3, make some coffee, drink 1 cup and pour another into my thermal mug. Dressed and out the door by 3:30-4 on our way to Wal-Mart.

[lucyismycat]

I usually get up early on Tday and head to Meijers to 1. get a paper and 2. pick up whatever was in their Thursday leaked ad. Last year I had given heads up to several coworkers about the iPod they had, so I hung out in line with them for awhile. Then we head to the in-laws for lunch. I spend the afternoon rummaging through the ads (and the binder is a GREAT idea! I'm doing that this year!), and making my final plan. I lay out my clothes, make sure pda and cellphone are charged, try to get to bed early, but can never get to sleep. Friday morning I'm up by 2 or 3, depending on where I'm going, and the last thing I do as I'm leaving is turn on the outside Christmas lights. It's the first time they come on, other than testing, and I feel like it's my little "welcome to Christmas" to the rest of the crazies who are up like me.

[dbdball]

Every year there is a big group of us that get together for BF. Actually it has become a "Family Tradition". The group that hits the streets early in the AM on BF consists of my sister(s), my neices, neices-in-laws, future daughter in-laws, mothers and grandmothers. We all meet in one location (parking lot), with our coffee, and get our game plan. It is really funny, we break-up into groups - all heading off to different locations - with cell phones charged in hand to catch the deals of the day!! We take a break in the morning after some shopping for breakfast, shop some more - break for lunch, shop even more and have dinner. We even end our day by going home with live christmas trees we have bought that day. It's one day of the year that I really look forward to having a good "girls" day out........

[rldelo]

My BF morning ritual: Hope to be in the store area by 5:30am Argue about doughnuts.....me: "we don't have TIME to stop for doughnuts." Stop for doughnuts. Grumble that we won't make it in time because we just had to stop for aforementioned hot, fresh doughnuts. Open car door and cold air knocks the grumbling right out of me. Start the madness.

[pelles20]

Last year my sister and I started a new tradition. On Thanksgiving after mapping out everywhere we needed to go and for what, we left Thanksgiving night at midnight and went to Meier because they are open 24-7. They were getting their sale items out at midnight but you could not purchase them until 5am when they officially opened. So, at midnight we stopped at a gas station and got coffee and took a couple of NO DOSE and headed to Meier. We loaded our carts at midnight and checked out at 5am. We shopped from Thursday night at midnight until black friday at ten oclock that night!!! It was amazing and I am sure that we will do it again!!

[sneakers1234]

Wow!!! I usually work on BF- & truly there just isn't anything I need so badly to go through all that. You guys are good.

[e-stella]

I get a group of crazy people like myself and organize teams consisting of 3-4 people. We have a quarterback, runningbacks, and a linebacker... ok, the linebacker only waits in line and isn't like the actual football term, but it's a fun word... moving on... The quarterback acts as captain, the runningbacks are the crazies going all over the store that has been scoped out a week before to find out where the certain items will be. The linebacker is usually an older/frail or moody person who doesn't want to participate, but wants the bf deals (in our teams, you have to participate in order to reap the benefits of BF). We're all pretty much set on a plan of attack a week before Thanksgiving, every team has a notebook with pictures/printouts of items, each team is sent off to a different store to buy what the other teams want and vice versa. The seasoned members will go to rough places like wal-mart or best buy, while the polite ones hit up toys-r-us and targets. Thanksgiving is usually over by 8pm... All the husbands/boyfriends/grinches stick around the house where Thanksgiving dinner was held and watch all the children. The BF teams stay at the nearest location to the store they've been assigned... a couple hours of rest, and BAM, it's go time. I'm usually in line at wal-mart by 3:30 am, which I'm finding to be too late to get a good deal, by that time I'm a good 150 people out. It's a 24/7 wal-mart, but they close their doors at midnight until 5am on BF. Which is sooooo not fair. This year I'm tempted to assign a team to do internet shopping, does it really start at 1AM Eastern?

[djinniman]

For me and my wife, the traditions are what we look forward to more than the deals. We always spend Thanksgiving Day at my parents' house. After dinner, in the early evening, we usually make the final plans for where to go, after coordinating with some friends we always go out on BF with. We buy stuff on behalf of my parents and my inlaws, so there are usually many places to go. We spend the night watching a holiday movie of some sort, and then we go to bed, all of us staying overnight at my folks' place. (They live in a much larger town with far more stores.) We wake up around 3 AM, clean up, then meet our friends at a convenience store, where the wife gets coffee and I get a sandwich. We head out, usually to Walmart, since you can wait indoors, and scope it all out. After we leave Walmart, we usually hit Toys R Us, Kmart, Target, etc. At about 9, we meet some other friends at IHOP for breakfast, and go back out again to finish up. We usually go home at 12:00 and collapse. It's all great fun!