Image courtesy Charles Bertram: Herald Leader Staff Photographer

Or shall I say, “We waited, we froze and we emerged victorious!!!!!!!”

If you look VERY closely to the very FIRST people in line in the pic… that’s US!!!!!!!!!  All the way to the left you will see the security guy with an orange vest on and we are actually talking to him!

2009 will go down in the books at one of the greatest BF in history! Troy waited for 8 hours in the freezing cold outside the Target door.  I can’t say that it was horrible though… I spent the time in between dropping him off and meeting him to wait on Walmart price matching, getting gas, and dropping off hot drinks to the early crowd at Target.  We honestly had fun!  We met some hilarious people that we hope to see again next year.  Seems that this “waiting at the crack of dawn” is tradition for MANY people.  Troy and I were the 2nd people in line (respectively) and were the FIRST to get our hands on the 32 inch Westinghouse LCD!!!!!! The people in front of us were after the 40 inch.  I tried to convince Troy to get the 40 inch but we ultimately decided the smaller was better especially since it is more portable than our 42 inch.  Now we can take this one to weddings as a monitor.  Plus… the ENTIRE rest of our christmas shopping for the kids added up to less than the $200 difference!  We are very proud of ourselves for making some really GOOD financial decisions lately.  We have ourselves on a strict budget and have been VERY disciplined about saving money.  It really is a GOOD feeling.  I thought that when we went shopping on BF I would remember how much I missed shopping and actually I didn’t feel that way at all!  It almost hurt to spend the money we had worked so hard ot save!

See the NUMBER at the bottom?  Smell the sweet scent of victory!  #1 baby!!!!!!!!!!!

A little help from our new friends… notice the hunting glove on the right?  That was the father/son team who were 1st in line and got the #1 ticket for the 40 inch TV’s… they were a riot.  They said they would see us next year!  Its a date guys!  We’re bringing the grill next year!  LOL

A self portrait that went awry… and oh my lord… I look like I had just hit a bong!  I guess that is what happens … it was 4 am by this time and I had officially been awake for 24 hours straight!  I earned those cracked out eyes!

Now… that’s better… the 1st team in line took a quick pic for us!

To be truthful, the shopping began on Thursday bright and early when I picked up my mother at 4:30 am to head to Meijer (which was insanity btw…)  We were not there for big ticket items so it didn’t make much difference to us!  My mom picked up some $0.69 wrapping paper but I didn’t care for it so I will keep looking. We got SOCKS for the entire family (which we were direly in need of!) for $3.99 / bag a cute sweater for myself $14.99 and a few sets of Christmas lights for $1.99 each (which I later found at DG for $1…….grr…. return line here I come!)

Then we scooted on over to Walmart and price matched their 2 liter Cokes to DG for $0.75 each.  I also had $1/3 Coupons (from Speedway!).

Here are my total price breakdowns for the past two days:

Kmart

Magellan 1220 (regular $149.99) – $79.99 (actually got mine on monday for cheaper than BF) = TS = $70 (plus I am going to sell our old one for $25-40 on CL!!!)- we later figured out this was the 1210….sucks… so we reordered the right one for $80 and returned this one!  Man… I hate that!

Trio Building Block Set – for Ross- $24.99 – $10 coupon = $14.99

Spongbob Bed Tent – $12.99 (regularly $19.99)

Barbie for Kyleigh – $9.99 (matches the movie my mom bought for Christmas!!!)

Target

32 inch Westinghouse TV – $236 ($10 Gift card + sale) – regularly $499 (Ithink)

$3 Appliances

$24.99 Star Wars Clone Helmet (Owen was dying for this… ugh… I just think $40 for a freakin helmet is insane!) – Regular $39.99 – price cut $29.99 – $5 Star Wars Product

Walmart- a few DVD’s and Wii Games for $3-9 each

Tag Reader system (Owen’s big gift)- Price Matched to Kohls- $29.99 – $10 Tag Coupon (from website) = $19.99

Office Depot -

$84.99 Desk (regular $219.99) – on sale for $99 – $15/$75 coupon from mailer (and let me tell you what… this desk is AMAZING!!!  It is huge and heavy… definitely not what your $99 would NORMALLY buy you   I desperately needed this for my computer area in the kitchen since I do 99% of my work there!

Then on Saturday I woke up bright and early because Kyleigh ONE request for Christmas was a Princess Vanity.  They had one at Target for $49.99 but it had some kind of keyboard… she didn’t care about that… she wanted the one that had all the makeup etc.  So TRU had it for $24.49 at midnight and that was insanity.  They were all gone by the time I got in the door (the line was literally 1000 people deep!).   Big Lots had a similar one on Saturday only special for $25.  I arrive at Big Lots at 7:50 am… only 7 people in line!  SCORE… except for the fact that they did NOT get any in their shipment……………………………………………..ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!  Lucky enough for me… my mom and dad wanted to ENSURE that Kyleigh got what she wanted and were waiting at the OTHER Big Lots (2nd people in line!) and got one of only 8 (EIGHT!) that were sent to the entire city.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh………………………. Christmas shopping done.  Mostly… lol.  I even managed to make it to Hobby Lobby (be still my heart!) and pick up my containers etc for my baking …. it was a great weekend!  Already counting the day until Black Friday 2010!!!

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