Thanksgiving evening I sat down with the whopping stack of ads from the newspaper and began making the debate of whether or not I should take part in Black Friday. On one hand I loathe all of the Christmas advertising before Thanksgiving. And by going on Friday I would playing into exactly what all those big companies wanted to happen by starting Christmas in October. But on the other hand I cannot refuse a good sale or the chance to shop by myself. Many of the things we had talked about buying for the boys had these slashed doorbuster prices. So what did I do? I set my alarm for 4:15 AM and drove to Toys R US determined to be there before it opened . . . and guess what? I was, along with 300 other people who had the same crazy idea! So as I stood in line shivering on frost covered sidewalk I tried to imagine my mom doing the same thing when Cabbage Patches were the hot thing. Guess mom wasn't too good at throwing elbows because we got the homemade ones that year. Well when they opened the door it was crazy and luckily the majority was heading towards the Electronics Dept. and I went straight for the little boy’s aisle for Thomas the Train, Transformers and Legos. I was done in 45 minutes with everything checked off my list (and nothing extra). I even lucked out and used the register in Babies R US instead of the one that wrapped all the way around the inside of the store. That saved me at least another 45 minutes!

So will I do it again? Well it felt a little crazy getting up that early but I do like knowing that I'm done and can enjoy December. Plus and I saved a bunch of money.  I think it helps that we paid for it all with cash. We've been doing this "cash only" budget the last few months which has been very eye opening for me in the way I spend our money. We take out an allotted amount each week and pay for everything except bills with that cash. When it's gone it's gone and we don't spend until the next week. Any money we've had left over at the end of the week we've saved for Christmas. So it was easy not to overspend knowing I only had so much cash to pay for it. So talk to me next Thanksgiving and we'll see if I do it again. . .