Black Friday Survival Guide

Anyone who knows me knows that I will be sleeping in on Black Friday (well--for me, "sleeping in" means anything past 6:00 am...).  But if you are planning on getting some shopping done on Black Friday, here are some tips:

1.  Plan a budget and stick to it.  I give myself no more than $5 "wiggle room" per person on my list.  Sure, my sister would love that $100 stick blender, but if I have only budgeted $50 for her gift, then she is just going to have to use a wire wisk!

2.  Don't "wing it":  walking in to the mall or the stores to browse is a really bad idea on Black Friday.  The days of leisurely weekend shopping are over until 2010.  Check out the ads in the Thanksgiving Day newspaper and at online sites such as SlickDeals and BlackFriday.net.  Create a list of "must visit" stores and a schedule for when their best sales are taking place.

3.  Check online to see if you can skip a trip to the store:  Is Coldwater Creek having 50% off all sweaters on Black Friday?  More and more stores are starting their sales on their websites before you even sit down to dinner on Thanksgiving.  Check to see if what you want at the store is available for the same price online.  You may have to pay a few dollars shipping (unless you can find a code for free shipping at sites like Savings.com), but consider the cost of your time. If it costs you $6 in shipping charges to spend four minutes getting exactly what you want and in the size you want at the price you want, that might be better than searching the store for 20 minutes for the size you want, then waiting another 20 minutes in line to pay!

4.  Decide which gifts are most important to get first.  If you need to send a gift to your Aunt Pearl in Guam, you need to get that present out of the way before you start worrying about the gift for your cousin that you are not seeing until December 28th.  Shop for Aunt Pearl and get to the post office and get it out of the way!

5. If at all possible, leave the children at home: the only child that wants to wake up at 3:00am is the one who is most certainly not thinking about 50% off sweaters at Coldwater Creek. Without the children, you can get more done without having to worry about losing a child or (even worse) listening to constant cries of hunger and boredom!

6. Dress for the occasion: Black Friday shopping is an endurance race and you need to dress for function, not fashion. Wear layers and comfortable shoes. (Note: but please--for the love of all that is good and holy--leave the PJ pants at home!)

7.  Pack snacks and drinks.  Mall food is notoriously bad for you and the lines will be long.  Pack a few pieces of fruit, 100-calorie packs of almonds or other healthy proteins and some bottled water.  You just ate seven pounds of food in 20 minutes the day before.  Do you really need that double burger and fries?

8.  Smile:  Remember all those black and white Christmas movies that we watched when we were children with all those people happily picking out gifts for their loved ones?  Try to be that person.  I know it's hard when you were just elbowed in the neck by a crazed lady looking for the last Zhu Zhu Pet, but try to remember what Christmas is all about (or at least, what it should be about). Christmas should be a season of giving...not just because we are obligated to do so, but because we want to put a smile on the faces of others.

And if all else fails?  Just slip on your fuzzy Hello Kitty slippers, grab a cup of coffee, your laptop and your credit card and shop from home.  That's what I'll be doing!