Black Friday (the day after Thanksgiving) was a blast at our house! Bob and I wanted to "sleep in" until 4:15 AM but Bethany and Jonathan didn't want to wait that late, so they were in the Wal-mart line at 3:45 AM and we joined them at 4:30. Did you know that Wal-mart will match any store's sale ad--even on Black Friday?
Everyone had their assignment and had different items to snag when the doors opened. I had all the other stores' loss leaders ads with me and only had to go to ONE STORE to get all of our area bargains. For example, I got a 30GB Zune MP3 player that was on sale at Toys R Us for only $79 and I got it at Wal-mart by showing my Toys R Us ad. One friend, who went to Toys R Us that morning said they ran out before she could get one! I also showed ads to save $300 on a Garmin navigational system (Staples) and seasons of our fave television series, "Monk" for only $12.99 (Circuit City). Of course we took advantage of Walmart's loss leaders, too, such as an $89 Sony digital camera that is normally $250. Bob bagged a Chicken Dance Elmo (yes, it's Elmo in a chicken suit) that dances and sings and he saved $20 in the process. Bob had a diabolical gleam in his eye as he thought of our son-in-law having to put up with his sweet little boy pushing that chicken dance button over and over and over again! As Bob says, "Payback is a bummer!"
We were in the store by 5:00 AM and completely done with the bulk of the season's shopping by 7:00 AM. We spent a total of $350 and saved a total of $750 off of retail! That's saving twice as much as we spent in keeping with my Half Price Holidays theme!
Remember to de-stress this holiday by making a budget, sticking to it, and scheduling time for the things that matter most (like our annual chocolate house creation at the Kay home).
Happy Savings!
Ellie Kay
"America's Family Financial Expert"
