Another long weekend for yours truly and I’m totally not complaining! This time I get five days off (and Joe gets four).
Thursday we celebrated Thanksgiving at my parents’ house with my brothers. I made the mistake of trying to get in on an online Black Friday deal at Dell.com and was rewarded with absolutely nothing for my effort. I understand the “doorbusters” are going to be limited quantity, but I was on the site 10 minutes ahead of time and clicked “Add to cart” immediately when the deal went live and all I got was error after error even when alternating between two items I would have been happy to snag. After fifteen minutes of this nonsense it all disappeared due to being sold out. I don’t know who actually got the opportunity to buy something because I sure didn’t, and now I am questioning whether I want to do business with Dell in the future. I always buy computers from them but that experience really irked me. It’s just one of the many reasons I don’t do Black Friday, but I thought online I’d be safe from such frustration. Silly me.
On the actual Black Friday we did not venture out of the house, nor did we end up buying anything online other than some coffee for Joe’s parents. I did keep an eye on the deals throughout the day, but nothing really caught my eye. I guess that’s a good thing, though, right?
Saturday Joe ordered himself a copy of Battlefield 4 for the PS3 since Gamestop was selling it only for only $25 which is half the retail price. We also made an early morning trip to Walmart to return a few items and then to Target to grab a few necessities, including bacon. The day before we were watching a bacon-themed food show and I got an idea to make homemade breakfast skillets. So far the only thing I’ve been using my new food processor for is to make homemade hash browns, and the skillet with hash browns, eggs, cheese and bacon came out delicious! It was better than most skillets I’ve had in restaurants, and cheaper too.
This morning we decided to head over to Starbucks to camp out for a bit since they sent a 50% off coupon and we were feeling a bit of cabin fever. We spent about an hour and a half surfing on our iPads while sipping a not-so-great vanilla latte. I even asked them to add another shot of the vanilla syrup since I wasn’t even tasting it but it still sucked. I don’t know what it is about that particular location, but I am never happy with the quality of drinks from there. I just tend to forget because I rarely drink Starbucks, and when I do I usually get it at the one in my local Target. Unfortunately they don’t accept the coupons there. My clothes now smell like burnt coffee too. WTF?
After Starbucks we went to Aldi to pick up a take-and-bake pizza for lunch during the Bears game which I just finished eating. We got the pepperoni which was ok for the price ($5.99). I’ve yet to find a frozen or take-and-bake pizza that really knocks my socks off. The closest I’ve found was DiGiorno’s thin crust four cheese pizza which is pretty food.
I have to admit, all the recent Black Friday (and upcoming) Cyber Monday madness is making me feel like I want to buy stuff. And I know that’s exactly what the retailers want. It takes a lot to break me down, but I’m starting to feel left out for not spending hundreds of dollars during the holidays like so many people. I know it’s not healthy, or financially responsible to do that, and I won’t do it, but I can feel the temptation. I think it’s especially strong this year because while we’ve always been frugal and whatnot, we really cut back on our discretionary spending due to my employment situation. For the most part I am totally fine with that, because I feel like we have so much as it is, but sometimes I miss the days where we could spend freely without too much thought. As it is, we agreed to spend between $50-$100 on one another so we lose nothing out of pocket as Joe’s parents gives us each $100 every year. And truth be told, I’d be hard-pressed to find much to ask Santa for anyway. Maybe some new nail polish and a camera lens, but that’s really it. Sure, there’s a lot of stuff I wouldn’t mind having, but none of it is necessary. I guess I just miss that Christmas thrill from when I was a kid. How does one get that feeling back without it being about spending money on gifts?
