Black Friday

The big kids and I decided we would venture out for Black Friday again this year. Mario wasn't too happy when he found out stores were opening even earlier this year and now encroaching on Thanksgiving. So he thought we should boycott Toys R Us, Walmart, and Old Navy for opening on Thanksgiving. But the kids and I were too excited to wait until Friday, so we left the house around 7:30 Thursday night. We should have listened to Mario because when we pulled up to Toys R Us an hour early, the line was already really long. It took an hour and a half of standing in rain to get into the store (we had to continue waiting outside an extra half hour after it opened because of the fire codes.) When we finally got in, we decided there wasn't anything there that was worth standing in line. So we left to make it to Walmart for their 10 pm opening. There was a line to turn into Walmart a mile away. We cut in line near the entrance, but there was no where to park within a few blocks unless we wanted to park at Lowe's across the very busy intersection. I figured I would never get the Mother of the Year award if I made my two kids cross that intersection in the rain, in the dark. We decided to go to McDonalds for a snack and then try Walmart after some parking opened up again. We went back a half hour later and barely squeezed into a parallel parking spot on the street. When we got in there, I asked Eric to stand in line while Erin and I looked around. We could hardly walk. It was one huge traffic jam. After a half hour of hardly getting anywhere, we went to find Eric so Erin could purchase one $2.00 movie. Eric must have only moved 15-20 feet in that half hour. Again, not worth the line. So after 4.5 hours, we returned home with nothing. We should have listened to Mario and not gone out.

The twins had heard so much talk about Black Friday that they wanted to go out this year. So about 7:30 in the morning the whole family went back out to the stores. I begged Mario to join us because it is really hard to Christmas shop with all your kids with you. We spent the next 4.5 hours shopping and we got 80% of our shopping done. I can give a percentage because I have been putting cash in an envelope (thanks Dave Ramsey) every month since January. So when the cash runs out, the Christmas shopping is complete. Mario teases me and says I always find more money and buy more gifts. But I am going to try really hard to not go over my budget this year, unless it is to buy clothes for the kids. I take that out of my clothing budget and wrap the clothes so the kids have more to open Christmas morning. So I don't think that really counts. I would start buying the kids clothes for Omaha but the way they are growing, nothing will fit by next winter. So that will have to wait.

Never again will I ever attempt to go to stores when they first open. It was a nightmare. I got everything I wanted either online or on Friday morning anyway. Nothing (not even a 42 inch tv for $200) is worth those lines!