My Take on Black Friday

I have never, NEVER, gone Black Friday shopping - unless it was accidentally, before I realized that there was such a thing as Black Friday.  Sure, there are great sales, but I know what all the stores know - and that is that they are still making big bucks off of their "sales".  Because you'll probably end up buying something that's NOT on sale and spending lots of money in the store anyway!  So I CERTAINLY wasn't planning to go shopping today, especially since my unemployed newly-wed budget isn't too spending friendly these days.

But as I was trying to think of something fun to do with my friend Elissa, who is down here for the holiday, I thought of an idea.  I certainly didn't want to go normal shopping.  I don't like to do that very often even when I DO have money!  But what about going to a thrift store?  Not only do they have great prices already, but maybe, just maybe, they would have some type of a Black Friday sale going on and we'd get a double mark down!

 So we went.  Even Elissa, who doesn't like shopping that much and was still feeling weak from being sick.  And sure enough: we arrived to see a big "50% off everything" sign at the front. We loaded our shopping cart with probably over 50 items to try on.  Then we conveniently didn't notice the "3 item limit" sign in the only changing room (I promise, we really didn't notice!  At least not until we were at least 3/4ths of the way through!)  We both walked out with 4 or 5 items that cost under $10 for each of us.

So, in mentally calculating my savings, I estimated the following about my purchase (which consisted of a really nice pair of jeans, 2 pair of brand name, almost new PJ pants, and a dressy top):

• Total Original Price if bought new: >$110.00
• Total Thrift Store price if no sale: $16.00
• Actual Total Price @ 50% off: $8.00

Plus, there were no crazy lines, pushing, shoving, or mobs - thrift store goers are much more polite than that!

Conclusion: I'm still not a Black Friday shopper.  But Thrift Stores are definitely the way to go if you do decide to put down your hard-earned $$ on the day-after-Thanksgiving!