Black Friday

I don't do much for Black Friday. You would think because I am so cheap frugal that I would buy tons of stuff during Black Friday to save all kinds of money. But I really find that people go to insane lengths to save money on things they really don't need. I don't buy Christmas presents for anyone except my kids, for one thing, which really saves a lot of money. And at this point, my kids' Christmas presents have been bought for months.

Last year I went to Black Friday for the first time. I was still nursing Hunter so I was up anyway, around 4:30 or so, so he and I just hit the road to Walmart and I got a steam mop and a vacuum that we needed. I was in and out in about 30 minutes and we still use both of those products weekly.

Today I went to a lot more places but still with the same concept in mind.

• Big Lots - 2 packs of batteries free after rebate
• Food Lion - just a run for $0.19 Marcal paper towels
• Walgreens - spent $36, got $45 back, all stuff to sell on ebay
• Best Buy - got one video game for Stephen that was 50% off
• Burke's Outlet - looking for winter clothes for me but didn't find anything
• Claire's - hair products for me and Bri for just over $5
• Belk - a shirt on sale for $10 that my mother-in-law bought for me

All of this was spread over the entire day, none of it took long at all, and it was all worth it. In fact, most places like Best Buy and Food Lion I was able to leave the car running with the kids and Leila in it and just run through the line quickly at the store, taking less than five minutes.

Lunch was at Mellow Mushroom - finally we got to try our new one. The pizza was delicious of course!

I made barbecue for dinner, got a yummy caramel brulee latte from Starbucks this evening, spent some quality time with my sister-in-law Jennifer at the Plaza in Southern Pines, got to see my nephew Kaleb tonight, saw several friends while we were out and about town this afternoon, and topped the evening off by watching Brianna have a very interesting, inventive, creative conversation with Leila before bedtime. As "Miss Blank" (that is her preschool teacher) she instructed Leila as to what items were being put in her pocketbook (she would put one item at a time into her pocketbook only to realize she had put her toy car keys in the VERY BOTTOM, so she'd have to dump the whole thing out only to start again!), she explained that they could have snack but they could not play outside because, "You can't play outside when it's dark outside", and even read two books and a Bible story to Leila to finish up. I love her imagination and there aren't many hours in the day I get to just sit and watch her anymore.

So I'd have to say today was a very good day. More about Thanksgiving later!