blocking black friday

Have you ever read the book The Five Love Languages?  If you haven't I highly recommend it.  It is a fabulous book about how different people give and perceive love in different ways.  For me my love language is gifts.  Which my husband has had a hard time with, he hears gifts and he hears materialism.  Which isn't what it is about at all.  For me getting a gift says "I was thinking about you when you were not around and I know you well enough to know that you would love this".  And for me giving a gift is the same thing, it is seeing something that reminds me of you and getting it for you as a token of my love for who you are.   

So you can bet how much I love Christmas.  But its probably not like what you think.  I love the traditions of Christmas, I love the tree and the baking and spending time with your loved ones.  And I do love shopping for the perfect present.  What I don't like is what black friday is to so many people, what the retailers have made it. 

My family, like many families live on a budget, and that includes Christmas.  I have shared in previous posts but I will share here that we only give each other three gifts at Christmas - something you want, something you need, and we each draw names so that the children can get in on the fun as well.  The something you want tends to be the big present for the kiddos, the something  you need tends to be something like new shoes, clothes, etc. and then the name draw is a smaller present but the kids absolutely LOVE getting to shop and what the pick is priceless.

So I'm pretty much done shopping, I need to get a few things here and there, we still have to shop for my husband's family but their name pulling tradition has prevented us from doing it yet. 

And then rolls around black friday.  Perhaps you LOVE black friday?  You look forward to it every year.  I've shopped it in the past, never at 3 a.m., never camping out, but I've gone.  I enjoy Target's cheap DVDs because my husband loves to watch movies and they make great stocking stuffers.  But ultimately I do not like what Black Friday represents, the need to buy more because you think you're getting a great deal and ultimately, what the retailers hope, is spending more too. 

If you have to put an item on credit and spend the next six months paying 16% interest on your purchase that deal is not a deal. 

If you're buying to get the most possible under the tree what are you really doing?  And what message are you sending?  I can spend $100 on ten gifts that will be quickly forgotten, broken, lost or I can spend $65  on that one very wanted Harry Potter Lego set and save $45 to put towards groceries, the braces fund, a rainy day.  My son will only have one present to open but guess what will get more use and is a better value. 

So I've decided that instead of going out with my inlaws on black friday like they love to do I am going to stay at home with my children and make ginger bread houses.  I'm going to block black friday and the unnecessary spending.  And instead I'm going to gain a new tradition with my kids.  I think I've made a priceless trade.