I'm participating.Friday, I won't buy anything- except maybe a fast-food breakfast with my dad, as we prepare to re-paint my old apartment white in preparation for turning it over at the end of the month. Mad excitement, I know.
I've participated in the Black Friday thing in the past- I've scoured the ads and seen the sales on everything from home theater lighting to towel warmers to cameras to motor oil. I've braved the crowds, gotten up at a ridiculously early hour, and chased after the deals with shopping-list in hand.
Not this year.
Anyone want to join my little painting party?
4 comments:
I've never gone to the Day After Thanksgiving sales, and plan to avoid it for the rest of my life. The idea of all that clamoring over other people to get stuff you were doing fine without just... yecchh.
I can see how it's a good way to save money on Christmas gifts for other people, if the purchases really are things you were intending to buy someone for Christmas anyway. But I honestly can't remember the last time someone told me about getting up early to get stuff they already identified as a justifiable purchase. It is almost always something that they didn't really need or even consider worth saving money for... but at this price, they had to have it!
Maybe the proximity to Christmas makes it even worse. Not only have we just robbed friends and family of the chance to give us something we're genuinely excited about, but we've also removed some of the capacity of being grateful for any gift at all by gratifying ourselves with our own spending.
The whole thing makes my skin crawl.
I have friends and family that go shopping the day after Thanksgiving every year. It's a family thing for them. A relationship and character building activity, I guess. They go out, have breakfast, get most of their Christmas shopping done, have lunch, and then tell good stories about all the other crazy shoppers.
It doesn't really appeal to me. I'll look at the newspaper ads on Thanksgiving and it there's something that a) I've been looking for, b) is close by, and c) is easy to get to, I'll check it out. That really limits me to the local hardware stores. Realistically, there won't be any sales big enough to make it worth the time and effort. I'd rather relax and enjoy my time with my family.
Then again, maybe the interior house paint we need will be on sale.
I don't have plans to go shopping this Friday. I may if something I was already going to buy is on super-duper sale, but I have nothing in mind already so I may as well just skip this year. I definitely wouldn't want to be part of the mobs that rush the store right as the doors open.
I've been shopping the Friday after Thanksgiving before - lazily wandering around the mall in the afternoon. THAT was nice. We didn't buy much; only things I was going to anyways. I enjoyed the family time. Now, our tradition has been to spend that Friday getting our Christmas tree and getting decorations up!
By the way, what time is a "ridiculously early hour" for you? Cuz for me, it would be like 7 am. I'm wondering if for you it would be my bedtime. ;-)
Well...I will be up and out of the house probably around 3am, give or take. I will be gone until about midnight, or until my feet are exhausted. My husband will never get it, but it is truly a day of bonding for my mother and I. No one to take care of, no one to cook meals for, just us together visiting and having fun. We've done it for over a decade and it is a day I look forward. Oh, and yes, finding those deals gives me a rush, but I also enjoy getting the majority of my Christmas shopping done in one day.
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