Last week I wrote about my first—and last—Black Friday experience. Little did I know…how much I love my wife. We’ve spent a LOT of time together in the past week since we left on our rockin’ road trip to Utah, and it’s been absolutely amazing to spend that time with her. With her being in her first year as a Family and Consumer Sciences teacher (that’s Home Economics for all you old farts) and me putting a lot of energy into this baby and other writing gigs in my non-working time, we don’t get to spend much time together.
Today we got to attend two Thanksgiving dinners, which I will try very hard never to do again. The food was just too irresistible (and my sinus infection went away so I could taste it all!), so I just felt like crap most of the day. After the second dinner she told me that Walmart was opening at 6:00 p.m. and there were a bunch of DVDs for $1.96, and she wanted to go. My mom and my sisters hadn’t finished their battle plans so she looked to me and I just couldn’t say no. She was just too excited and I didn’t want to ruin any of the good vibes we’ve got going 🙂
So we headed over to the nearest Walmart and got there right at 6:00 p.m. and, to my surprise, there was no line outside! The odds are in our favor, I thought. Once we got in, we headed straight for the Electronics section, only to find that there were no DVD deals. I asked an associate and was told that all the DVDs were in the produce section. Duh! Isn’t it obvious? I was starting to feel the years of bottled up anti-Black Friday rage well up a little. We had to traverse the maze they had set up for the miles-long cashier lines that were already starting to build, and I was starting to get a little anxious. But we finally made it over there and I was amazed at how many were still available. We ended up buying (don’t judge me) 18 DVDs at an average of $3.70 per DVD.
How can I justify that after all the Black Friday discount haranguing last week? I knew you were going to ask! Really, it boils down to two things:
1. I love my wife mucho grande. She loves movies and is always wanting to buy new DVDs, but when we talk about it (because we always talk about any purchases outside the budget we set together at the beginning of the month), I’m usually a Scrooge about it. She’s getting a pretty sizable bonus next month and what we spent was only a small percentage of it.
2. We are spending some of the money we’ve saved from our trip. My father-in-law graciously offered to use some of his hotel points to book our hotel on the way back to Arkansas this weekend, saving us about $70. When it comes to ending up under budget for some reason or another, I usually defer to saving that money, but I made an executive decision to make an exception to that last night. For me, as long as that’s a “few and far between” exception rather than the rule, there isn’t anything to worry about.
We also scored some new Rubbermaid food containers for about a fourth of what they usually go for. As frugal as I like to think I am, I just can’t help but feel trashy using leftover Cool Whip and sour cream containers. No offense to you who do it. That’s just not my preference. And since we’re actually going to use these every day, basically I’m a champion. And you want to know the best part of it all? We ended up getting in and out in just under an hour. You better believe I felt like a double champion when I walked out of that store. None of this waiting in line for hours garbage like the midnight crowd. It was beautiful.
Will I ever do it again? Maybe. I actually kind of liked the 6:00 p.m. start, and I honestly don’t blame the retailers for doing it, even if it is annoying. But I’m definitely not going to turn it into a tradition.
Did any of you do the Black Friday stuff last night? What was your experience?
Yes, I shopped last night, and at Walmart. It was nice not to have to wait in line. The only problem I encountered was that every single shopping cart was taken, not to mention every parking spot except for a handful of which I was lucky enough to get one. I was glad to have my teenager to help carry everything to the register. I like to shop the Black Friday sales because you really can get a bargain especially the movies and video games. We set a budget and stuck to it. It's definitely worth my time to shop on this day. But I have been doing it for the last 15 years or so, so I've learned a few things to do and not to do on Black Friday. Oh, Ben, you know those containers you were talking about? I bought 3 boxes of them last year. They are perfect for leftovers and taking lunches to work!
Sounds like you have it down to a science! I made my wife ditch the shopping cart so we could maneuver better 🙂 Although my arms were pretty tired carrying everything by the end. Yeah I'm definitely excited for the containers 🙂
I went to my friend's family's house for thanksgiving and her, her mom, and her boyfriend's sister all went out shopping at 10pm at night. I went to bed. lol! It's probably good because even if I tagged along and had no intention to buy, walking into stores like Target and Kohl's are spending triggers for me and I know I'd walk out of there with stuff I don't need. But glad you found some deals!
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That's good! You definitely don't want to put yourself in that situation. My wife is similar with Target and Kohl's and she did end up getting some extra stuff that we didn't plan.
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I ended up Black Friday shopping online. But I wish I had gone to the store because the version of what I did buy was sold out online within an hour!
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Darn! I'm always afraid to take the time to search for stuff online because of that.
My recent post I’m a Black Friday Hypocrite
Just as one eyebrow was going up in curiosity over Family and Consumer Sciences, my eyes darted towards "that's Home Economics for all you old farts". You should have heard how hard I laughed. Jeez! How young is everyone else??? 😀 Anyway, glad to hear about your Black Friday bargain.
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Haha if it makes you feel better, it was Home Economics when I was in high school 10 years ago. I think they just changed it a few years ago 🙂
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LOL, funny story, Ben. 🙂 No black Friday or Thanksgiving shopping for us, but those great deals you got has me re-thinking this strategy. 🙂
Yeah it’s definitely frustrating to think about all the deals you’re missing out on. But sometimes it takes too long to find them.
I actually went into a Best Buy on Thanksgiving night.
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I saw they had a bunch of sick deals. Hope you got to take advantage of some!
I didn't come close to a store and didn't shop all weekend. I still haven't shopped today either.
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Not a bad thing 🙂
First of all, I totally had two Thanksgiving dinners, too! One at my house with my fam and the other at the BF's fam's house.
Second of all, I think Black Friday wasn't sooo bad this year since stores opened on Thursday. Gave the crowd some time to come whenever they really wanted, which made it not so crowded
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Yeah, that may have been it. I didn't even want to see what it was like at midnight, though, so who knows how that ended up. And I hope you gorged yourself as much as I did! 🙂