Okay so before I start this, lets get a couple of things out of the way...
Yes, I am a bargain shopping fiend and I start planning my Black Friday shopping on the Monday of that week (that's when the Walmart sales ad comes out)
Yes, I am the crazy lady who is at Walmart at 430am stocking my cart before the sale technically starts.
Yes, I am a type A personality and I made an extensive excel spreadsheet with stores, prices, who it's from and who the presents are for. See my example below. Yes, I am THAT crazy.
Yes, I am the person who stands in the long line outside of Target waiting for them to open.
Yep, that's me. Okay I feel so much better now that I got that off my chest. Now, I can truly start reflecting on my shopping frenzy today.
I love Black Friday. Black Friday is not a day for browsing and people in the stores that are browsing during the sales just get on my nerves. But that's me. Black Friday shopping is truly a sport and not to be undertaken if you aren't serious about finding the bargains and ready to stand in long lines. I stood in line for an hour and a half today at Toys R Us. Crazy? Yep. But it's Black Friday and I was prepared to stand in line.
But, today was the craziest Black Friday I have ever seen. Walmart this morning was true insanity. I have never seen that many people there that early. I usually get there at 430 in the morning. Yep, the only day of the year that I can get up that early. The last 5 Black Fridays, when I got there at 430 in the morning there really weren't too many people there. I can usually park fairly close to the door. Today, the parking lot was packed! I had to park pretty far away from the door. It was insane. As I drove to Walmart, there were just a few cars on the road. Typical for early morning. There weren't too many lights on other than street lights but when I pulled into the parking lot at Walmart, it was aglow with headlights. When I walked into the store, there were already people in line waiting to check out. I was in total shock.
One lady I spoke with attributed the mass of people to more people living in the Fountain area. To be honest, there aren't that many more people living in Fountain this year than there were last year. But, I think that its a testament to the hard hit economy. People who wouldn't normally dream of being out that early on Black Friday packed the stores. I can't tell you how many times I heard people say today that this was their first Black Friday experience and they couldn't believe how crowded it was. There were displays in Walmart that were totally decimated because of the throngs of people who descended upon them. The $4.00 PJ section was completely torn apart.
To be honest, the sales weren't that different than what they offered last year. But yet people were there in droves this morning. Before the sun was up, some folks (like myself) had already been shopping for hours. People are trying to make their dollar stretch much further this year. Websites about budget minded shopping and dinners, money saving tips, etc are extremely popular this year as people try to weather this financial storm. Most are trying to change their mindsets about spending and become more budget conscious. But this is the time of year when credit card balances start to rise.
As, I had a lot of time to think today while I stood in line for one and half hours at Toys R Us. My mind drifted a lot (because I hadn't had my coffee yet) about how people were paying for all their bargain treasures. People who were buying 3 HDTVs, 4 Digital photo frames and 5 iPods were definitely not paying cash for their items. But were they charging up their credit cards to pay for all the luxuries? I didn't see anyone pay for their items today with cash. Not that there weren't those that did (I did! I did!) but I didn't see any. In Toys R Us, I saw a lot of people that kept adding to their shopping carts as the line for the registers snaked through the store. Were people really just spending without care today? I don't know. Just cause I'm anal retentive about my shopping list doesn't mean everyone else is. What I do know is that I came in well under my budget for Christmas presents and I got a lot of stuff.
I save all year long so that I have money to spend for Christmas. Something I started doing when Kylie was a baby. Her birthday is December 11th and it's hard to get doubly hit at the end of the year. So I save. Cash allows me to have a limited budget. If I felt free to just spend and spend on a credit card, my house would be more overrun with stuff than it is right now. On top of the money I saved. My Dad and Gramma also sent money for the girls. So I divided everything equally between everyone and I am happy to say that both Kylie and Kaitlynn will have some really nice things to open on Christmas morning. Today I probably spent a total of $400. That is presents for Kylie's birthday and Christmas presents for Kylie, Kaitlynn and Jeff and stocking stuffers for those 3 as well. So not too shabby I think. I even wrapped Jeff's presents already. I had to. He will try to find them if I didn't. I figured the best way to keep them a surprise until Christmas was to wrap them.
Normally, I will spend everything I have saved for the holidays but this year I was savvy and really controlled myself. I had to remind myself that my kids don't need every new thing. I tried to stick to things that I know they will love and play with. Last year I just got them things to get them things. So they would have something to open. I didn't want to do that this year. I know that they will be happy with everything I got them and I'm not just wondering if they will like it or not.
I think that in a way, the financial crunch is a good thing. Yes, it sucks to have to scale back a lot but in a way, I think our culture was too "me minded". We were too stuck into thinking that we need the latest coolest thing. We don't. I think the economic upheaval is helping people to realize that they need to think about what they truly need and not just what they want. But, I also think that no matter what, Christmas for some will always be a spending spree no matter what the economy looks like.
Okay so please forgive me if I rambled. I know that I did. I'm tired. I have been up since 4 after all and I was up practically all night. Kaitlynn had a rough night last night. Shes a kid, it happens. But why it had to happen on Black Friday? I'll never know I'm sure. Crazy lady is going to bed now. ;)
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