Yes, you heard me (or, um, read me) right! I don’t do “Black Friday”.
Why not?
#1-Hubs is always out hunting, and I’m not about to drag the kiddos out at ridiculously early hours and then try to keep control of them in mob packed stores.
#2-I’ve always gotten most of my shopping done prior to the 28th-and usually the things I still need are not of a high enough dollar value savings to make it worth my while to fight the crowds.
#3-I’m afraid I’ll overshop. Honestly. I really do have a tendency to go crazy when in shopping mode, which is why I try very hard to avoid situations where I am put into a “shopping frenzy”. I avoid the Mall etc, and I avoid these “Huge Sales” unless I have a very specific need.
#4-I really didn’t need any of the big ticket items. Yes, if I were in the market for some expensive electronics this Christmas, then it might have been worthwhile for me to hire a babysitter, get up at an awful hour, pep myself up on caffine, get into a freezing cold car and drive over half an hour to the stores in order to fight a cranky mob of folks. . . . Yeah-I might have considered it if I was going to save $100s of dollars. But I’m not in the market for anything like that. .
So what about all of you? Have you already been out and done some fantastic bargain shopping, or like me have you avoided it? Is anyone gearing up for Cyber Monday?
Photo by Teejayhanton seriously, click through to read the description of the line!
{ 19 comments… read them below or add one }
I am happily planted on my couch, coffee in hand. I hate crowds and I also have young kids. It would be an exercise in misery and not worth any savings.
Like you, I’m staying in. I’m already done shopping and nothing on sale today is worth the is worth the hassle.
I posted about this today, too. We saw people camped out in front of Best Buy at 7:30 last night! You’d think it was the only sale day all year.
I did brave the crowds this morning, I had a specific plan in hand, along with a specific amount of money. Walmart was a zoo but I did get everything I needed. Patience was required. I went on to three other stores, got each item I was searching for ( all low ticket items, no electronics) and I am now home. It was fun not to spend a ton of money but I did have a lot of savings in what I did purchase and now my shopping is complete for Christmas.
Jenn, I gave up on Black Friday several years ago. LOL. There are so many deals online – I don’t see a need to get up at the crack of dawn anymore.
Yup. I’ve NEVER done Black Friday. I don’t even like to shop on slow days. Guess I didn’t get the shopping gene.
I never do black friday. I don’t have the patience and the crowds would give me a panic attack.
Definitely skipping Black Friday here; also planning more of a “spend as little as possible” Christmas at this point. Will shop local, used, homemade, etc.
I only went to Radio Shack, it is around the corner from my house. I did do Black Friday a few years ago when I needed certain things like a new TV and some kids electronics. Now I give it a pass. Radio Shack does always have great deals, so I did visit, but it was after 9am and there was no one in the store. Black Friday was a wash according to my friends who did go at 3am, they said no place was crowded in our area.
I avoid Black Friday as well, it never leads to anything but a migraine for me. I prefer to shop all year and have some insurance that I can enjoy the holidays in other ways… like with a cup of cocoa, snowmen, carols, and the like.
Jerry
http://www.leads4insurance.com
Yep ~ I was out w/ other half-sane people … only a couple of things really caught my attention and I stuck to my list!!
Please tell us more about Cyber Monday…
I don’t do it. Over in Oki the only place we’d really be able to do it would be the BX/PX and I don’t even set foot there on regular weekends any more, so my husband didn’t bother. LOL I’m here in the States with my folks this time around and didn’t bother either.
We did most of our shopping at the 100 Yen stores and such before I left. There are a few more things I’ll pick up on the 11th so I can ship that day, otherwise, we’re done-ola.
We have done black Friday shopping in the past at the unGodly hours, but not this year. We did go out in the early afternoon for some fresh air and wandering… took advantage of a vitamin sale at the drug store, of all things, which wasn’t crowded by that time.
When we do go, it’s usually more for the fun of it. We’re not the kind of people that get into a shopping frenzy, so it’s no danger.
Hubby did lose a lot of weight recently and we took advantage of some clothing sales for him. That’s about it for us yesterday!
I don’t “do” sales…I’d rather go without than push and shove for something!!!
Jenn- I work retail and had to work in the electronics/toy dept for my store. This was a first for me since my job is about new products and presentation so I have always been overnight and I generally don’t deal with the public at large:) You should see the rush, I was cursed at, feet ran over, flashed by an older man, yelled at , the list can go on and on. I think we can do better as a society. Anyways I did some of my shopping on saturday. There is less people,and at my store it is a two day sale which I got a new camera for $70.00 off the regular price. I had planned to make that purchase for a long time. If you need electronics or want an appliance it would be a good weekend to buy. Be prepared as previously stated to wait and be patient and quantities are usely limited so get there early.Enjoy the holidays!!!
I did my major plastic-crap shopping on Amazon a few weeks ago, when they were having deals, for my nieces and nephew. I’m planning to either make the rest of my gifts or buy them on Etsy!
That said, I did go to the mall on Friday afternoon… I think we missed the morning crush or something because it wasn’t that crowded! I didn’t buy anything but I watched my sister dive into Junior clothing store madness.
no black friday madness here! We were out of town and didn’t bother with that. I actually went out with DH’s aunt and my MIL to an apple farm and we racked up 60 dollars worth of crap there lol. It was great to not have to get up and go grab up useless things.
Hubby and I did get up early on T-day to shop the sales at CVS though. I just couldn’t pass up the free stuff!
I am a little concerned about cyber monday. That’s when we get our last minute items, but it looked like all of the online stores were offering their deals on black Friday this year instead of cyber monday. I guess we’ll just have to see tomorrow…
It’s great to see so many different perspectives on the issue. Personally I was very happy to miss out!
It’s interesting to hear what everyone else thinks of the day. I chose not to partake this year to save money. There are going to be deals all month long so no need to rush anyways.
Craig
http://www.budgetpulse.com