Oh no, I missed Black Friday!
Thanksgiving has always been a holiday that my husband and I have spent with his family in Philadelphia. This year we had no intentions on changing that tradition. About two weeks ago we started having problems with the plumbing in our house and found out some terrible news. We needed to replace our sewage system… a week before Thanksgiving! Not only was this bad/expensive news, but it was also just terrible timing! We feared that this urgent and necessary home project was going to end up changing our holiday plans. We didn’t have much choice but to relinquish control of the situation to a professional plumber. All we could do was think positive thoughts and hope for the best that we would still make it to Philly in time for Thanksgiving!
Well I guess we shouldn’t have been too surprised that the sewage repair on our old house (built in 1900) was not as straight forward as we had originally expected. My husband and I absolutely adore our home which was recently “flipped” and therefore has both the feel of a brand new house and the character of a 114 year old house. One down side to the age of our house is that pretty much every single day of this repair project has involved at least one surprise. The hot mess of an “antique” sewage system that our plumber was able to excavate under the house was a pretty clear reminder of just how far we have come as a society over the past hundred years, but I digress…
Despite our high hopes, our house project was not completed before Thanksgiving (they are actually still working in the basement as I write this). But we will count ourselves lucky that they were at least able to reach a point on Wednesday afternoon that the project could be paused. Maybe we would make it out of town for Thanksgiving after all!
And then came the next obstacle!
We could have hit the road on Wednesday evening and driven mostly in the dark for our 5 hour trip to Philly, but there was a snow and ice storm expected to hit our exact travel route. You know that feeling when you just can’t catch a break and you start to wonder if someone out there is trying to tell you something?
Well I guess we just can’t take a hint, because bright and early (actually before the sun came up) on Thanksgiving morning we began our journey and made it to Philly just in time to see the whole family for a wonderfully delicious Thanksgiving dinner.
Why am I telling you this?
Well now that you’ve gotten a glimpse into my week before Thanksgiving I think you’ll probably be able to understand that waking up early and fighting Black Friday shopping crowds was just about the last thing on my mind. Instead we chose to sleep in and enjoy the day with family on our already abbreviated visit. After all, despite what all the big retailers want us to believe, family is what Thanksgiving should really be about, isn’t it?
We certainly made the right choice in relaxing and enjoying family for the rest of our trip. But now that we are back home and in our normal routine I can’t pretend that I’m not stressed about all of my Christmas shopping.
Is it seriously December already?
Fortunately, I was able to get a start on my shopping yesterday on Cyber Monday but I still have quite a bit left. I’ve been learning a lot over this past year about deal hunting as I’ve prepared to launch DealTrunk. This year I’ve found that many retailers are still offering fantastic pricing even after Black Friday and Cyber Monday are over! Many are even calling this “Cyber Week” to show their dedication to keeping prices low all week long. Maybe missing out on Black Friday shopping won’t be such a disaster after all!
If you find yourself in a similar situation then check out these “Cyber Week” promotions.
Retailers participating in Cyber Week:
• Target has a ton of Cyber Week promotions. Some are only available for one day, but a lot of the deals are available through 12/6. Most items have free shipping with free returns in store.
• Ebay is also offering a full “Cyber Monday Deals Week” this week. New deals pop up throughout the day. You’ll never know what you’ll find so check back often.
• Walmart is promoting a “Cyber Week” so that you can shop specials “while supplies last” but is also adding new deals daily so that all those great deals won’t be gone by the end of the week.
• Best Buy is offering Cyber Savings all week along with free shipping (an online shopper’s best friend!) on orders over $35!
• Home Depot has huge savings off of a lot of great appliances this week. Additionally, they have Cyber Week Savings for One-Day-Only items every day through 12/7.
• Amazon is offering a Cyber Monday Deals Week for thousands of deals throughout the week. Amazon deals are limited in supply but new deals will be added as often as every 10 minutes throughout the week!
So don’t get too worried if you still have a lot of shopping left to do! There are still plenty of great deals out there! Make sure to install our DealTrunk extension so that you’ll know as soon as great deals become available!
Were you able to have much success shopping this Black Friday? Or were your plans abruptly changed like mine were? Tell us in the comment section below!