Buy Nothing Friday

I really dislike how crazy this whole Black Friday shopping thing has gotten. It's the dark side of humanity: stampeding hordes at midnight because they can save $50 on a new tv.

I know people who "do" Black Friday. They do get fantastic deals on clothes, toys, and other things so that they can give their children a happy Christmas morning without breaking the bank. My scorn is not for them.

Heck, I've done Black Friday a few times myself. 6When I have, it's been years when I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted to get for everyone on my shopping list, and I was able to finish all or most of my holiday shopping.

After listening to the horror stories from some friends who work retail full-time, I just couldn't do it this year. The whole "stores open at  6am! no, 4am! no, midnight! no, 8-fricken-pm-on-Thanksgiving-Day" is ridiculous. So I decided to participate in the Buy Nothing Day "boycott" of the big-box stores. How did I do?

Well, I wound up spending $80. Not exactly "Nothing". But I tried to be conscientious in my spending, I think I made some pretty reasonable purchasing choices.

-$15 to hire a Personal Minion (aka one of my Girl Scouts) for 3 hrs of helping me put away garden stuff, put up my outdoor Christmas decorations, and gather some firewood and kindling from all the downed limbs in the woods.
-$44 at the Orange Big Box hardware store to rent a multi-position ladder to hang things up high in my stairwell.
-$18 at my local, independent, family-owned hardware store for joint compound and a spreader. Because what everyone wants to do on a holiday weekend is fix drywall. But I have the ladder, so might as well fix the dinged walls that have been driving me nuts for 7 years.
-And finally, $3 on a soda and Powerball ticket. Totally unnecessary purchase, other than the fact that I needed to break a $20 so I could pay my Minion.

Tomorrow is Small Business Saturday. Seems like a good excuse for me to go get frou-frou coffee, a giant cupcake, and some handmade truffles at the local patisserie!