Life Is Just So Daily

Friday, November 23, 2007

THE BEST DAY EVAH!

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Ahhhhh....sweet, sweet, sweet day of bargains & shopping.

Today, is the best day evah.
My alarm went off at 3:30 am.
I had just barely fallen asleep. I swear, it was sooooooo hard to sleep last night, because today was the day of my favorite sport: shopping.
It's like....opening day @ the ballpark.
It's like....the first day of hunting season.
It's the first day of my hunting season, that's for sure.

So, at 4am, I was at Kohl's. Found $30 worth of stuff that I wanted. However....I left empty handed. Why? Because at 4:20 when I was standing in line....I realized that I could not checkout & drive to Old Navy in time to be there for the 5am opening of the doors. Also, I was a bit pissed at Kohl's to begin with. Why? Well, the advertisement indicated that this toy & that toy would be 50% off. I was very excited about 50% off toys. So...I get there. Um----50% off Matchbox cars. SCORE! Or, so I thought. I'm sorry, but a REGULAR price of $5.99 for ONE Matchbox car is insane. For that price---that little booger better entertain my child, teach him the alphabet, and put itself in the car basket at the end of every day. Even at half off, I could not bring myself to pay $3 for a Matchbox car. So stupid. Overall, I was just not pleased with the toy prices. Period. So, walking away from my $30 selections was not that hard.

Head over to Old Navy. Starting at 5am, you get a free MP3 player with a $20 purchase. Cool, huh? Well....(1) the fine print reads "while supplies last". Um...let me tell you how long supplies lasted.... the first 20-25 people through the door got coupons to redeem at the checkout for the free MP3 player when they bought $20 worth of stuff. (2) I already have an MP3 player that I don't know how to use. don't know how to download music to it. and honestly---not too sure when in my day I actually would use it. Don't need it at work. Don't need it on my commute. Don't really need to wear it at home on my days off.... (3) Toys R Us had MP3 players for $9.99. They were regularly priced $29.99, so it's not like I missed out a big huuuuuge thing. I was very pleased with the prices at Old Navy. What drove me there in the first place: toddler fleece separates for $5.25 each. Now granted, Kohl's had them for $4 & something cents each...but the pants weren't as cute, and the 1.5 hour line was so not worth it. I was in line to get into Old Navy for about 15-20 minutes. I was in line to check out for about....30 minutes.

Next: TOYS-R-US. Love it. A few things I wanted were sold out, but, I was still able to get some grrrrrrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaat bargains. Wooden peg puzzles: $2.49 each. How awesome is that? I happened to buy the last 2 there. Got some other great gifts. I don't have a truck though, and the one thing that I really wanted, I was unable to get home. That didn't matter b/c my local store was sold out. Mom checked with the Toys R Us in Tyler...they too are sold out. It's a swing set for 1/2 off. That would have been Gage's big gift....but, alas, no luck. The price is good for today & tomorrow, and the Tyler store may get another shipment....so, we'll just have to see. Mom's husband has a truck, and they said that they would go get it for us if the store gets one, and then they'll drive it up to Dallas for us. How sweet is that? Anyway...we'll just have to wait & see if it works out. Didn't wait in line at all to get into Toys R Us b/c I got there after they opened....waited in line for about 2 hours to check out. AAANNDDD---after being in line for that long, you kind of talk w/ the others in line around you. In the 11th hour, when I was about 5 buggies away from the checkout---this group of women cut in front of the young mom in front of me. She was so quiet & shocked....and then there was me. I didn't wait in that flippin' line from dark-thirty til sun-up for those women to cut. So, I said some things. An associate was summoned over. The manager came over, and it started to get ugly. Basically one woman said that it was her word against mine, b/c I was the one being vocal in the group. The women around me then began to speak up & support my stance that these women cut in line. The manager was telling them that they would not be sent to the checkout & they were redirected to the end of the line. They started bitching & moaning & saying that it was discrimination & that they were being singled out because they were black. Well, then the lady not directly behind me, but 2 behind me---she got mad because she is also black & she started yelling at the line cutters because she was offended that not only did they disrespect her by cutting in line, but then they cried "discrimination" because they were caught doing something they weren't supposed to do. she was calling them "a disgrace to their race", and then the line cutters who were LOUD were thrown out of the store, security was called, etc. IT WAS EVENTFUL. But I tell you what: I was not about to get screwed by the likes of them. Is it so hard to wait in line like everybody else? No. Their time is no more valuable than mine, and I was pissed at their audacity.

Final stop: WALGREEN'S. Revlon nailpolish: $1.99 each. Other Revlon makeup: Buy One Get One Free. Lot's of stuff was B1G1Free. Extension cords (for all those Christmas lights!) B1G1Free. Disposable cameras: $3.99 (Limit 3). [you guys know that my digital camera is at the warranty/repair shop, and it is killing me. buying all of these disposables is crazy expensive, so I was happy to find a deal!]
...anyway. All kinds of random Walgreen's goodness on sale. It's not a super-crazy-everyone-rush-in Black Friday stop, but they do have good deals.
Oh----they had wrapping paper: Buy 1 @ $1.99, GET TWO ROLLS FREE! I've been forbidden to buy anymore holiday wrapping for the next few years (I have a knack for stocking up on the stuff....), so I didn't get any....but I encourage all of you to get out there & get some. 3 rolls for 2 bucks. You just can't beat that...

Anyway...I was home in the 9 o'clock hour. So, that's what? 5 hours of shopping? Or, probably 1.5 hours of shopping, and the rest of the time was spent in lines or going from this store to that store.

...and while standing in the line to get into Old Navy, a girl told me that the stores at the mall opened at 1 am, and they'd been shopping at the mall since 1 am. WTF? I didn't know that. I was sleeping at 1am when I COULD HAVE BEEN BARGAIN HUNTING.

Next year: I'm going to save up more money so that I'll have a bigger budget to work with (I say that every year, and then I'm not good at doing that, and I refuse to charge this stuff & pay the interest on it....), & next year, I'm staying up all night, & shopping all night! I better not have to flippin' work on Black Friday 2008. Even if I do...I'll still shop first. I've done that for the past year or two. I'll get up early, shop, & be at work by 8am. It makes for a long day, but oh well.

....I hope you guys are having a fun Black Friday too.
:)

17 Comments:

At 11:16 AM , Blogger Love said...

oh, you are funny! =) glad you had a good morning!

we've been relaxing, cleaning/re-organizing in preparation for cutting down our christmas tree & decorating tomorrow. i thought of the craziness in the stores & i just can't do it!

i'm glad that other lady spoke up about them claiming it was discrimination. that's sad.

 
At 12:11 PM , Blogger Em said...

This post is great, this morning i heard it on british news that it was black friday and that its was the day of all shopping.....and you have just confirmed it!

 
At 12:21 PM , Blogger Em said...

Think you might call porride oatmeal? Its oats boiled in milk.

I still do find it funny the word we use for stuff been so different!

 
At 1:53 PM , Blogger Lainey-Paney said...

oh, oatmeal.

 
At 5:17 PM , Blogger Judy said...

Girl, the only Black Friday shopping I did was for bread. And eggs. Oh, and some sliced cheese for turkey sandwiches.

I just can't do those lines, and there was NO ONE at the grocery store at 8 this morning! YAY!

More power to you!

 
At 6:19 PM , Blogger Pregnantly Plump said...

I'm very impressed with all of your deals! We started a little later, 7:30 or 8 ish, and went to Sam's first. Not because we wanted to buy anything, but they were giving out free breakfast, and my husband loves anything and everything that is free. We then hit Wal-Mart, but they were sold out of most of what we wanted. But we did get one super great deal, a huge box of diapers at Babies R Us for $10. I know we've had bad luck in the past with offbrands, but I'm hoping they will at least be useful during the day.

 
At 6:42 PM , Blogger Antropóloga said...

Wow, you are ambitious!

 
At 5:30 AM , Blogger Laura said...

WOW - what a shopping experieince. We do not have a Black Friday in Canada...but many years ago, when I was young, single and had lots of desposible income, I would visit NY on the American Thanksgiving to play in a rugby tourny and man did we shop!

Cheers!

 
At 7:21 AM , Blogger Beth said...

I admire your enthusiasm, determination and stamina.
I could not do that - ever.

 
At 7:38 AM , Blogger zirelda said...

OMG..... I went to the grocery store. LOL!

I stay home on Black Friday. Can't deal with the crowds.

 
At 8:15 AM , Blogger misguidedmommy said...

your nuts

 
At 9:46 AM , Blogger Elaine said...

Wow you are awesome! My husband was up early and went to Lowes and Harbor Freight Tools. He got some good deals on tools/tool benches I think. Not sure if he was just buying for himself or for others!

My sister, her boyfriend and I went to Kohls also, and I wasn't blown away by any of the deals. My sister got a Vera Wang robe for 30% off and I bought my mom a party platter for deviled eggs for 30% off. My sister also got some cheap place mats for a Christmas party she's hosting. The thing about Kohls is that their stuff is ALWAYS on sale and they are always having a "huge" sale pretty much every weekend. So I wasn't impressed.

Glad you had fun! And good for you for calling out the cutters!

 
At 7:32 PM , Blogger for a different kind of girl said...

I, too, admire your determination and your stance. Me? I'm so not a morning person. And I still have post traumatic stress shakes from a two hour check out line at Best Buy from two years ago, in which I had to entertain my then-baby and todder and pray no one had to use the bathroom!

God bless my husband, who rolled out of bed at 5:15 a.m., drove to Walmart, grabbed the last of a couple toys we wanted for the boys, and was home by 6 a.m. Me? I stayed in bed until after 9 a.m.

 
At 7:35 PM , Blogger Kate said...

Wow. I'm impressed. Crowds like that make me cower in fear and run home. I used to work retail and Black Friday was a nightmare of epic proportions. I hate crowds and you'd invariably have the one customer who was going to argue an additional discount off of something that was either already discounted or clearly wasn't and you wanted to stab them in the eyeball and yet not give it to them just b/c they were so annoying.

We actually went shopping this year, although we went late comparatively--7:30. We went to Sports Authority and bought some running tights and two off-season (for OK, but not for SE TX) singlets. Then, Academy, which was getting crowded and had a grand total of one pair of running gloves in the entire store (it was 27 degrees outside that day). Apparently they had lots of huntin' and fishin' gear being purchase and there was a woman going ballistic at the entrance about a sale being honored and all I could hear the employees saying was how it was only up until a certain time that morning. We left those folks to it. We hung around and got coffee and waited for an actual runner's store to open at 10 and found an adorable hat and gloves. Full price, but we weren't going to get home until after all the stores closed here.

And then this morning at 4:30 I got up to go running and just as we were leaving the house it started raining. I was so jazzed about my new duds that I didn't care that it was 45 degrees and raining and I was going to run 10 miles. I was actually bummed as we pulled into the park at 5 and lightning tore across the sky. They only cancel runs for lightning. How sick am I? I was sad about the run, but not sad about crawling back into my warm bed and listening to the rain.

So, random story, but my shopping didn't consist of any special bargains, since the shirts were on clearance already.

I am in AWE of you. And so much more so for buying it all with cash since bargains aren't so great when you have to pay interest on them. But they're still so tempting...

 
At 5:35 PM , Blogger Zephra said...

You needed to be at Town East Mall. Fox 4 was showing the mall at 1 am and it was so crowded. I got there at 1 pm and it was still wall to wall people.

 
At 5:36 PM , Blogger Pokey Puppy said...

Oh i LVOE black friday! i agree.. its the best day EVAH!!! however.. that is indeed the reason I signed up to work. I know i know.. breath Lainey breath... but you know.. it was a sure fire way to not spend the money i did not have, and get double time as a reward.. but I still mised it and cant WAIT for next year.. and I'm saving up for it so I dont have to sign up to work it again!

 
At 2:55 PM , Blogger mpotter said...

man. glad you enjoyed yourself.
i'll never brave the shopping day of black friday.

maybe you enjoyed the time alone, though. so added bonus.

glad you had a good morning.
you're very BRAVE.

 

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