Black Friday Shopping

Free!

I started out the day thinking that I was going to skip the shopping. Someone had stolen my newspaper on Thursday (if indeed I got one since I only subscribe to the Sunday paper, but usually they give you a Thanksgiving paper anyway because of all the ads.) I didn't know what was on sale, and I really couldn't think of any big thing I wanted that would be worth getting up early for if I could find a good price for it.

So I stayed up late on Thanksgiving, and was about to get ready for bed when my daughter said she wanted to go shopping for clothes.  We weren't about to wake up at stupid hours of the morning to get clothes, but she did want to go reasonably early.  We bought the things she wanted, and I bought some of the holiday gifts on my list. I have most of my holiday shopping done, and have a good idea of what to get the rest.  We did pretty good.  She had planned on going to another store, but she decided she had found what she needed, and was satisfied.

Then I found out that the drug stores had their free sales.  Both Walgreens and CVS had things you could buy, and they would give you a coupon for the price of the item that you could use for anything in the store.  They both had a nice selection of different things.  So I went, and got some.  I was choosy and only got the things I knew we could use.  Sometimes I get things for other people, but I didn't do that this year.   My daughter chose half of those as her own.  I went home and ordered a free 8 x 10 that was also available at Walgreens.

On Saturday, I remembered that I had forgotten to get headphones at CVS. This is something we need.  So I went back to the store.  It was a bonus, because I could use the six coupons I received on Friday for the items.   On Friday, I had gotten one of each of the things I wanted, but when I looked at the ad again, some of the things had a limit of 2 or 5.  So I bought more of the things I knew we could use more of, like chocolate! I bought a lot more of the "free" stuff than I had the day before.  If I had known I was going to do this, I would have balanced out my purchases better and bought more on Friday.

The important thing is to use these coupons before they expire, preferably on things that are on sale.  Using the coupons is pretty easy, since CVS sells quilt magazines!

There weren't any big crowds or big lines anywhere I went, so the shopping was quick and easy.  There were no big purchases this year, but I got lots of regular daily stuff at good prices.