Black Friday Shopping: Frugal And Charitable

Posted on November 26, 2007 by Him and tagged charity, spending

blackfriday07.jpg
photo: LarimdaME

Yes, this past Black Friday we added to the masses of people who got up before the sun and trekked to our neighborhood department store for consumer goods. We weren't as hardcore as Boston Gal, but we didn't go for any of the super-duper sale items like she did.

What did we get up at 4:30AM to buy?

For starters, we went to Kohl's to pick up a Foodsaver. Since Her is so good with using coupons to find deals, we thought that a Foodsaver would complement our food storage situation nicely, and by using some of Lazy Man's tips, ultimately end up saving us quite a bit of money in the long run. We ended up saving approximately 20% off the unit. Fortunately for us, there was no mad dash for Foodsavers, and most of the models were still there, which made comparison shopping quite easy.

Across the way from Kohl's was a Best Buy. I did scan the circular for deals and saw that they had some RAM for a good price. We walked over to Best Buy and first saw the absolute mess that the people in line left outside the front door. Then we did a lap around the store; the lines were pretty ridiculous and they were out of stock of all of the good stuff. When we left, I was really glad that I didn't want any electronics this year.

We then made our way over to Babies R Us for a gift for my brother's soon-to-arrive new baby, and something for Toys for Tots. To no surprise, Babies R Us did not have a frenzied mob of people rushing into the doors to score deals. Shopping there was actually quite pleasant, as at that early in the morning my mental function was pretty much the equivalent of a newborn. We bought some stuff for my brother's baby off of the baby registry, of which some of it was discounted. We also got a good deal on a baby walker we ended up purchasing for Toys for Tots.

For us, Black Friday wasn't about just buying stuff for the sake of buying stuff at super crowded department stores. It made the whole experience almost enjoyable.

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Lazy Man | Nov 26, 2007

We are still in love with our FoodSaver. I have lettuce in the fridge that is still good 3 three weeks after we opened it. This makes salad a possibility at home against since we don't have to eat it or throw it out in three days.

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Jerry | Nov 30, 2007

I have sworn off of Black Friday, at least from a shopping standpoint. It's too frenetic and stressed, and inevitably leads to headaches for me! However, I still have some insurance that I will score great holiday deals by: 1) shopping all year long, whenever I see good bargains, and 2) researching and buying things online! It works like a champ for me...
Jerry

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MVP | Dec 4, 2007

I've never been one to get excited about waking at the crack of dawn to spend loads of money, fight traffic and wait in massive lines. But last year, after looking at the paper's circulars, we formed a plan and got almost all our Christmas shopping done on Black Friday. It felt so good to actually enjoy the holiday season without worrying what I was going to buy people and how I was going to find the money (we have an Xmas savings account we save in all year). And we actually saved money too.

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