ARGH!

See the toy picture I added? They are called Littlest Pet Shops and they are the crave sweeping the nation! My daughter is on a personal hunt to own every stinking one!

Her Christmas list to Santa is filled with LPS wants. She has over 100 of the colorful little guys already. Its hard to keep track of what she does have and what she doesn't. I do have a small list of ones we haven't acquired yet. Rare or Hot ones like the one in the picture that sell out as soon as they go in stock. It is so frustrating to not be able to find the one thing(s) my kid wants for the holidays.

Tonight, I thought all that changed! I got an email from a friend stating that she found most of the rare LPS sets and sent me a link. I was so excited, I couldn't contain myself or wait til after dinner, which I usually do, to get online. I immediately brought my laptop in my room and sat down to order up a boatload of these things for my girl and my niece.

I click on the link and sure enough, there they all are. But at 6x the price! These little pets go for roughly $4.44 at local stores and on this website, they were up to $26.99 a piece! A mum of four, on a budget, can't afford that!

I think it is unfair that companies can do this. These toys aren't retired, they are still producing them. It is just their way of making more money off us consumers!

Well, it was on sale!

Thats what my husband says to me everytime I come home with something from the store that wasn't on the list. That comment use to instantly get my back up but lately I think, so what? Isn't that what I am suppose to be doing? Getting things on sale? Having a large family means cutting corners, clipping coupons, and saving the pennies, wherever you can!

I like to think ahead. Check out the sales flyers, buy in bulk when it is worth it and use coupons to save extra moolah when I can. Poor hubby doesn't think that far ahead I guess. He doesn't understand why I would waste money this week to buy 2 containers of laundry detergent, so I can get 1 free, when I will only use 1/3 of it all this week. I try to tell him that detergent is one of those things in our house that we will always use and it is worth it to spend a little more money this week, to get the free jug.

What does this all lead into you may ask? Black Friday!
M(hubby) has no idea why I would get up super early in the morning, stand in the cold, and wait in lines, hours long, all in the name of shopping. He has no idea how much money I save every year doing our holiday shopping by partaking in this little tradition. Maybe I should get a sitter and drag his butt out with me this year?
Tell me I am not the only one labeled crazy enough to partake in some Black Friday fun?

Super Wal-mart makes me super mad!

What was I thinking? That I would be able to do most, if not all of my holiday shopping early and online and that would be that?! I was so giddy that I would not have to fight all the crowds for the seasons must have toy or electronic. I could sit in the privacy of my home and mull over everything there was to buy and do it on my schedule, no long lines, no running from store to store in the cold. Easy, right?
Wal-mart didn't want me to have it so easy. Not only have they took my 1 order, that I had shipped to the store so to save me some money, and shipped almost every piece seperate so I am having to run to the store nightly to pick up items that have come in, but noone is ever there to assist me and I spend a good half hour waiting for an associate to come help me.

Tonight, I go over, with my 7 year old. Find a note in the site-to-store area telling me to to go crafts for assistance, which I go to, only to find a note saying to go to electronics for assistance. I head there, the electronics worker pages someone to crafts, which is what the note said to do. My boy and me head to crafts to wait for someone, 10 minutes later, noone is there so we head over to the site to store section, hoping someone is there.
There is another customer there, waiting with her kids. She gets her item pulled from out back but noone back there is able to check her out so you guessed it, they page someone. Fast forward 20 more minutes. Finally, it is my turn! Yay!
I am picking up 4 items, I thought. One big box, my sons carseat, and one little box which I assume has 3 items in it. The lady opens it up and tells me there are only 2 items in the box, not a big deal, I guess only 2 were in. I wait for them to finish up and I leave. Get home and the slip says that I picked up 4 items, not 3. Clearly, I only picked up 3 items, the fourth, a movie, was not in the box. So I am peeved. I call Wal-mart and of course noone knows what to do about it and the last thing I want is to go over there tomorrow and have to sit around with the baby for an hour while they figure it out so I am thinking if I call and alert them, than I can just run in tomorrow and pick up the missing item, the movie, or they can tack it on to the rest of my order when it comes in.
After 3 transfers on the phone, and one hang-up, numerous minutes, they know nothing. They are suppose to be calling me back soon or tomorrow. Great. Why can't anything be easy?

Shopping trip

Went to our big local mall today to bring my oldest daughter and a gaggle of her friends out for shopping.
Overall, it went well. Went to all the big stores that teenage girls like, like, Aero, A&F, Hot Topic, American Eagle, PacSun.
Stopped at a few of the booths in the middle of the stores and checked out the hair extensions and this new $200 dollar ceramic straightener. We got a demo on it and it was fabulous! If I had the money, I would have sprung for one.