Done, Done and DONE!

I did it! First time ever but I went shopping on Black Friday!

No, I didn't get up and go stand (or sit or sleep) in line in the wee hours of the morning although I could have done that as I was still awake when the Black Friday sales were just beginning. Nope. I waited till about 6:30 p.m. Friday night and hit the road to Clearfield. Over there, I shopped at J.C. Penney's, Ollie's and good old Walmart.

I got some pretty decent deals too although there's a few things I'm gonna have to correct from my shopping Friday evening.

First off, there's the little matter about a sweater I bought for Mandy and a tee shirt I got for Kurtis. Seems I must really love those two particular items as Mandy pointed out to me that I had already bought a sweater like the one I picked out tonight for Mandy -a month or two back -and I had also bought the same tee shirt for Kurtis that I bought tonight as well! Talk about being forgetful, huh? Don't think I've ever done that before. have you?

So today now, Mandy and I are going to have to make a return trip to Clearfield -to J.C. Penney's - so I can return those two shirts as well as the two sets of training pants I got for Kurtis but Mandy wants me to take them back and get a credit for them as she felt they weren't that great a price and she can get them for much less elsewhere. That doesn't surprise me though. Not just that Penney's prices are more than a lot of place but also, Mandy it doesn't surprise me in the least that Mandy would know what places carry the same quality and for a lot less money.

When we do go to Penney's, I'm also going to have the sales clerk explain my receipt to me.

When I shop, I tend to try to keep a running tally in my head of how much money is involved in what I like, what I decide ultimately that I am going to buy. Know what I mean?

Well, tonight when I got to the checkout, the clerk suggested that I let her ring up my sales as two separate purchases because if she did it that way, she could actually apply two separate discounts then to my purchases.

So I figured okay, sounds like a good plan to me. Except when I got home and was looking at my receipt for my purchases (on my card, of course) something didn't sit quite right.

So, I sat down and wrote up everything I had purchased and entered the price each item was on sale for and then tallied it all up. Seems that my purchases came about 60 cents less than what I was billed! And that was without applying the two discounts to my purchases too. How could that be?

Near as I could tell -if I had the sales figures correct (and I'm pretty darned sure I did because that is one thing I look at -the sale price -before I touch the item, think about the purchase and then, make a decision. According to the total I got, I should have been billed either $196.05 -total -or maybe $198.05 -there is also some question in my mind about two items I purchased that were on sale -I thought for $11.99 but may have been $12.99 each but on my bill/receipt, it says I was charged $14.38 each for those items. Hmmm. Something doesn't seem right in that but that's only $2.00 total so, if they are wrong or I am, I'm not going to argue that point.

However, the clerk had rung up two slips -with the first one coming to just over $125 in purchases and the second then was just over $75 for the rest of the stuff. By doing it that way, she then gave me a 25 percent discount on the first slip and a 15 percent discount on the second -or so she said. Well, the way I figure it -if I am correct and understanding all this "high finance" there, then my first slip should have been for around $94 bucks and the second, should have been for about $62 -for a grand total then being billed to my card of about $156 instead of the $198 I was billed. Sound right to you?

Well at any rate, I will find out later today if I am right or not and if so, it will be nice to have a credit of over $40 -or at least $40, if the discount was $25 and $15 rather than the percentage -taken off my bill! If I am right, it is definitely worth my quibbling with them about it too.

Agreed?

But anyway, with what things I have purchased previously with the intent of this or that being a gift for this kid, this grandchild, etc., and what I purchased tonight, I got gifts for 13 people For about $300 total! And that isn't just one gift per person either but several things for each of the grandkids as well as my children, the son-in-law, older daughter's fiance and my son's girlfriend and her daughter too! Sure, I could have gotten by with getting one present per individual and only spent maybe between $130 and $180 -at $10-15 per person, but that always makes it look a bit too bare to me.

I won't say what I got everyone but some of the gifts I'm hoping everyone has a good sense of humor come time to open presents! All are useful items -except two toys I purchased. One each for Maya and Kurtis and by doing that, I broke my own cardinal rule that I won't buy toys for the grandkids for Christmas mainly because they all have way more of those than they need already and I'm already tired from picking those up after Maya and Kurt!

Mandy beats my shopping hands down though -for the little ones -because she does a lot of her Christmas shopping for them year-round (well I do that too) but she also shops at Goodwill, yard sales and also, a very nice children's consignment shop over in State College. Her theory there is as long as the clothes look like new, Maya nor Kurt will ever know the difference that they were actually "gently used" and not brand-spanking new items.

Right? Well, I agree with her theory there, that's for sure!

So now, I have all the items packed up in boxes and safely hidden away till it is time to do the wrapping of them. (Oh and before I forget, I also purchased two gifts -one from me, one from Mandy -to take to the pot lucky Christmas meeting and dinner of our Women's Group at church and these are to be given to needy children in the area! We are supposed to bring either clothing or toys, unwrapped, and not spend more than $10 for the gift. So, what I did there was select tee shirts for little boys -regularly priced at $0.99 each but on sale for $2.99 each todayand I got three shirts from me; 3 from Mandy -for around $9 or so. The organization that distributes the gifts can then, if they wish, take 1 shirt and combine it maybe with a pair of pants or even a toy, someone else may have donated to make for a nice gift for a little boy that way! Or they can just package it up as three shirts for one child. Whatever!

When I got home and was gathering up the other stuff I had purchased and had stashed away, I couldn't find one of the gifts I had for my older daughter so I then had to go on a search and destroy mission here to find that present and put it with the box intended to be wrapped for her, her fiance and my oldest grandson.

Boy, sometimes this forgetfulness really can be a royal pain in the old dupa ya know!

Anyway -I'm happy that I have all my shopping done and that I finally experienced Black Friday shopping as well!

I have to say that the three stores I was in -none of them were jammed with shoppers or anything like that and I had no problems finding a parking space at any of those stores either.

And, I sure as Hell didn't have to stand outside in the cold for a long,long time, waiting to be let inside to go shopping either!

And now, if I want to get up in the morning in time to be able to go back there with Mandy to make the couple of exchanges I need to make and get my bill explained fully to me, I better stop writing now while I'm ahead.

Right?

Yeah, you know I'm right, don't 'cha?

Happy shopping to everyone and to all a good night!