PLEASE NOTE: This is a repost from 2012.

There are so many reasons to stay home this Friday, but let’s start with the one that concerns me the most…you know, the one where people DIE so others can save a few bucks. The crowds you see above are not uncommon on Black Friday, and honestly, the prices are just as good online, if not better. Many places will be offering free shipping on the same items they will be having in the stores.

There is just so many benefits to NOT going out on Black Friday, such as the amazing online sales. You can go through ebates when you shop and even earn cash back! Heck, ebates is PAYING new members to shop online! When you place an order of at least $25, they will give you a $10 gift card!

That right there makes it worth your while! I mean, really, spend $25 on items that are deeply discounted, and get $10 back, plus most likely free shipping and you have just saved a ton! They have THOUSANDS of stores to shop at, and they even have special discounts, so you may see even more money off, just by shopping through them!

It seems like stores are starting “Black Friday” sales earlier and earlier. I remember when stores opened at 5am, then 3am, then midnight, and now 8pm on THURSDAY!? How is Thursday shopping “Black Friday”? I think the stores are getting pushier and pushier about this whole thing, and we give in to it.

I know, I know, I get it; EVERY year I say “I’m not going!” and I always find myself at WalMart at 3am, simply because I couldn’t sleep and knew the sales were abundant. Until today, I was on the “I’m not going!” kick again, and my mother wanted to go, so I am being dragged through the mobs with her. Yea, I make it sound like it wasn’t my choice, I totally agreed to it, but my goals are at CVS, Walgreens and RiteAid. I couldn’t care less about WalMart, but that is where she wants to go, so we’ll go there first, since they open earlier.

You see, Black Friday has become a tradition for me. Eight years ago, I was working at WalMart. I was a cashier, Customer Service Representative AND in charge of Layaway. I worked 3rd shift, and part of my job was bringing returns back to their rightful departments. Since it was so close to Thanksgiving, there were a lot of grocery items that needed to be restocked for one reason or another. There was a bag of Emerald Mixed Nuts in their shells, which was in the return bin and as I passed the produce section, I yelled out to the man working in that area “Are these your nuts?” and then I realized how it came out and BURST out laughing. He didn’t make it any better, since his response was “Well that is a little personal for just having met you.” and I literally hyperventilated and dropped to the floor in laughter.

Over the next couple of days, I would blush anytime I saw him, and we’d say hello and chat here and there. My days off were Thursday and Friday, his were Saturday and Sunday. I had the day off, so there was NO WAY I was going to step into that store on Black Friday if I could avoid it. I feared they would require me to clock in if I did. Well, come Black Friday a couple weeks later, he was working, and I decided to go shopping at the last minute, for the heck of it. I wanted to put a few things on layaway for my boys anyway, so saving some money was going to be nice. It was that day that I knew I was going to marry this man. I had only known him casually for a couple of weeks, but he protected me against the crazies like we were already married.

We hit it off and began dating. I knew he was my soul mate, but I never expected things to move so fast. Three months later we were engaged to be married. Our engagement lasted a little over a year, because I was pregnant with our daughter and refused to marry him while I was pregnant. We were married on July 22, 2006 and still to this day, we act like newlyweds.

I found my soul mate on Black Friday…at WalMart. There could NEVER be another Black Friday deal like that again, but I end up finding myself at WalMart every year and we joke about how me met years earlier.