Anyway, Aaron and I left the house around 10pm on Thanksgiving Day. We went to Kmart first because they had an ugly Christmas sweater that I wanted to get for an Ugly Sweater party that we are invited to... (Kmart didn't intend it for an ugly sweater party but it certainly qualified!) We also found some awesome Christmas slippers for the party! After Kmart, we headed to a shopping complex that housed several stores including Target, Old Navy, and Kohl's.
When we got to the shopping center, we got in line at Kohl's. Aaron was cold and I wanted some Starbucks so he went into Target (which has a Starbucks inside) to get some drinks. It took him almost 45 minutes to get through the line - I was beginning to think that he wouldn't get back before the doors to Kohl's opened at midnight! Anyway, he made it back with a few minutes to spare and then I sent him back to hang out in Target since I was going to be looking at stuff for him in Kohl's.
The doors were finally opened and the line surged forward. I hurried through the store, grabbing my purchases! (Of course, I'm not going to mention anything I got Aaron since he will see that so you can use your imagination as to whether I got him anything in Kohl's and, if so, what it might be...) I found a ladybug hooded towel for my niece and checked for a Minnie toy (which they didn't have), slippers for me (well, for Aaron to give me for Christmas), and a chenille blanket for our house. (I got a green one because I thought it might match and they didn't have many but, after seeing it next to the couch, I've decided to go back and get the cream colored blanket.) Anyway, I was quick and darted in and out through the racks (the aisles get too clogged so you can move faster in the racks). I got up to the registers and there was not even a line yet! I checked out and was leaving while the end of the line was straggling in... Anyway, here are some are my deals:
Jumping Bean Lovebug Bath Wrap (link to Kohls.com page here): originally $29.99, I paid $7.99
SO Plush Clog Slippers in Green (link to Kohls.com page here): originally $24.00, I paid $6.99
SONOMA life + style Chenille Throw: originally $49.99, I paid $19.99
I would have left out this next part, but Aaron already saw an Old Navy bag in the truck, so I might as well mention this... Anyway, so after I left Kohl's, I realized that I had time to run into Old Navy! Keep in mind, I was fast at Kohl's so I got into Old Navy at about 12:10am - the line was already to the back of the store! The line weaved through the center aisle, in and out of the racks there, and made it really difficult to get into the "sections" where most of the clothes was... It was a royal mess, but I decided to grab a few things and hop in line. This time I waited about 45 minutes to check out... Just as I got out of there, I was headed to the car to drop off my bags when I saw Aaron walking toward me - he had come looking for me! Good timing! At that point, we headed to the car and went back to the house to go to bed for a few hours...
We set an alarm for 4am; I really didn't want to get up at that point, but I dragged myself out of bed and off we went. We stopped at Bon-Ton because they had a pair of boots for sale that I really wanted; we also had "$10 off a $10 purchase" coupons (two of them). I've had experience with these coupons before and know they are tough to use, but I was determined... You can't use the coupons on DoorBusters, "Special Offers", yellow dot clearance, or a variety of other things; the way they get you is to make darn near everything in the store fit one of those categories. However, I found some baby clothes for my niece that were on regular clearance (not yellow dot clearance) so we got her some really cute pink Osh-kosh overalls and a cute outfit (purple shirt with an elephant and matching pants) for about $8 (combined).
Next up was the real reason we got up: Lowe's! I'm sure I've mentioned that the washer and dryer that came with the house are pretty terrible (the washer is tiny - a sheet set fills it up - and the dryer takes forever for a load). I scoured the Black Friday ads to look for a good washer/dryer set. We found the winner at Lowe's - it was a Samsung front loading, high efficiency set that just happened to come in a blue color that looked like it would match the blue trim throughout the house. The set was on sale for $1198 (so $599 a piece) which was a savings of $600 (or $300 saved per piece). We also happened to have a 10% off everything coupon from Lowe's from our postal service change-of-address coupon packet! We made a giant list of everything we could think of to buy and set out to get a bunch of stuff so that we would really get a good value out of that 10% off coupon.
We got to Lowe's around 4:50am and it was scheduled to open at 5am. Once we got in the doors, I sent Aaron straight back to the appliances area while I got a cart (there was a jam-up in the carts area because it was cramped and you couldn't move, much less turn a cart the right way). The ad stated that there would be a minimum of 5 sets in store so we wanted to make sure we got one! Anyway, Aaron ended up being the second person assisted in the appliances department and we had secured our new washer/dryer set! At that point, we leisurely made our way around the store for the rest of our purchases which included a new ladder, blinds for the two bedrooms, a new toilet seat for the 1st floor bathroom, new hardware for the 2nd floor bathroom (towel ring, toilet paper holder, and robe hooks for our towels), paint for the trim in the bedrooms, new vent covers (ones that actually close so we can control air flow), and some other stuff. Our total ended up being just shy of $1,500 which is $300 less than we should have paid for the washer and dryer! Somewhat more impressively, we managed to get it all into Aaron's tiny car (Hyundai Accent) - including the ladder!
With our trip to Lowe's a giant success, we headed home and went back to bed for a bit... Lowe's was even delivering the washer and dryer for free and they came on Sunday morning to deliver and set them up. I was really impressed with the delivery service because they actually came on time (they came at 9:30am and they had given us the window of 9-11am), they tested the washer (made sure it didn't leak, wobble, or vibrate), and they showed us how to work everything. When all was said and done, I was pleased with our Black Friday purchases and had some fun to boot!
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