Black Friday Tips, Deals, and Steals

For those of you who know me personally, you know that Black Friday is the one day of the ENTIRE year that I look forward to the most. Birthday? Christmas? 4 of July? All awesome, but stores don't open at 3am for frenzied fun! Of course, I'm already done Christmas shopping this year, scanning ads for the best prices possible and finding that some items on our list had better prices pre-November, but that's not going to stop me from getting up at 2:30 am, hitting Starbucks and the Target line by 3:15!

~ My biggest tip for this year is to download the Foursquare application on your phone and use it! Check in at EVERY store you enter for secret deals. Places like The Gap, Starbucks, Toys R Us, American Eagle, Sports Authority, and JC Penny will have specials up to 40% off for the tech savvy. For a national complete list of Foursquare BF deals, click here. Also, start following major retailers on Twitter and Facebook for exclusive "fan" deals.

~ Shop early. The Gap is having 50% off until 10am, Banana Republic is offering 40% off until noon, Old Navy has $5, $10, and $15 deals for the whole family starting at midnight. Other stores offering doorbuster deals: Toys R Us, Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Kohl's, Target, and Lowe's. For a more extensive list, click here. Most online stores will host the same specials.

~ It's too late for most of us to scout stores, make maps, and take photos of items/prices/and aisle numbers {yup, I'm *that* kind of crazy}, but it's not too late to make a list. Grab the newspaper ads and start circling! Shop in teams and split up lists by department and help each other out. You can be done with holiday shopping by 7 am if you're organized enough! No time to stop for a newspaper? Make a list online and print at home.

~ One item on my wish list is a Kindle. Amazon will be selling a limited few {2nd gen} for $89 starting at 9am on Friday. It regularly retails for $140.

Don't forget when the Black Friday magic ends, Small Business Saturday begins followed by Cyber Monday. Of course, there's always the night before Christmas mad dash. However you shop, be safe and have many happy mall-idays!