Black Friday Deals

I was going to post about Thanksgiving this year but it ended up being pretty underwhelming. I look forward to spending time with family and cooking delicious food but this year's meal was just a little too drama filled for us to enjoy it. We enjoyed having my grandma here to visit and celebrate with, but I think this will be the last year that we attend someone else's Thanksgiving instead of hosting our own.  So, instead, we move right along to Black Friday.

This year, like the year before, E and I went Black Friday shopping. We didn't wait in line for hours or drive around to a million different stores, just headed to Target 20 minutes before it opened, waited in line, and went in. Amidst reports of people trampling each other, fighting and pepper spray, I found all of the Thanksgiving shoppers to be surprisingly pleasant and polite. A number of them had young children with them, babies in carriages or toddlers in tow, and everyone was patient, didn't push, and took turns. Aside from a little bit of excited speed walking when the doors first opened, I didn't see any of the nationally reported crazy shopping and had no regrets.

Best Buy TV Score

Coupled with some shopping on the actual Black Friday and following weekend, E and I finally scored the TV that we've been waiting to buy since last year. E is pretty much in love with it, and I'm glad we waited for it to come down in price. My family also got a beautiful new TV for the living room, we picked up a space for my sister L's new boyfriend J, and we all picked up some great blu rays, clothes and other holiday goodies. We're really happy with our holiday shopping this year, and pretty pleased with the Los Angeles Black Friday shoppers who were so courteous and considerate. 

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and got to enjoy some fun holiday shopping this Black Friday/Cyber Monday/Shopping Craziness!

Our new TV in our messy room

Black Friday Madness

(Source)

Unless you live under a rock, don't have the internet, don't have television, don't shop in stores and don't talk to people who do any of the previously mentioned things, you know that the day after Thanksgiving is known as Black Friday. Black friday is a genius marketing scheme cooked up to get people into stores while they're still high on turkey so they buy excessive amounts of crap they later give for Christmas. On this day, crazy people stay up all night in line outside stores so they can rush in at 3, 4 or 5 am and buy some magical doorbuster items that are priced radically below retail. Stores usually only have a limited quantity so you'd better be at the front of the line.

Traditionally, I'd go to bed thursday night full of turkey, potatoes and veggies snug in my bed and laughing inside at all the crazy people standing in line. At least, that was until last year when I became one of the crazy line waiting people who got up at 3:30am to stand in line at Target. My mom really, really wanted an HDTV for her bedroom and the damn things were still outside our budget. However, for one day, they fell into our budget and we had to take advantage of it. Now that the precedence has been set (we didn't die AND we came home with a TV) it's really really tempting to do it again.

(Source)

This year, the big doorbuster deals are super tempting but not reaaaally needed. We'd really like a new HDTV but ours still functions so we don't need one. And, we have much better ways to spend 300 dollars. Plus, with the advent of the "cyber monday" or "black friday week" deals, we don't even need to stand in line anymore unless we need the big stuff. There are some great blu-ray deals and small item sales online that I think we're gonna take advantage of this year. Hanukkah is freakishly early so it's our only real shopping option to finish the rest of our holiday shopping.

What about you? Anyone waking up freakishly early to stand in line? Anyone score awesome deals last year? Or have plans to get some this year?