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10 Tips for Surviving Black Friday

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Black Friday Shopping Tips

Can you believe that Black Friday is only four days away?!? If you’re planning to hit the sales, it really pays to do some prep work ahead of time to ensure that you walk away feeling like you got the most for your time and money. In fact, some retailers are offering deals throughout the week, and many retailers, like Staples, will be open on Thanksgiving, so you can get a head start on those deals and shop right after Thanksgiving dessert!

10 Tips on How to Successfully Shop for Black Friday Deals:

1. Make a list.

There is little time for browsing on Black Friday. To maximize your time and savings, make two lists — a shopping list of the deals you want to take advantage of and a gift list with the people that you still need to buy for.

Start by scanning the Black Friday ads and writing down any deals that are within your budget for yourself or as a gift on your Black Friday shopping list. Identifying these awesome deals in advance is a key first step to help you not only save money that day but lots of time, as well. And, if you’re really looking to take advantage of all the great deals out there, you may want to head to the stores right on Thanksgiving day! Many retailers, like Staples, have already released their Black Friday deals and will be open starting at 8 p.m.

Before you head out, make a separate gift list to take with you with the people that you still need to buy for. This way you can keep your eyes peeled for unadvertised specials that are the perfect gift that you may not have considered before!

2. Prioritize.

Once you have your shopping list done, decide which items are your highest priority. Prioritize both by store and by item so that you start with the deals that are most important to you.

3. Be realistic.

Realistically, you’re going to have to choose just one doorbuster item at one store as your top priority because you simply won’t be able to wait in line to be the first person at each store. You’ll also want to be realistic about how much you can get done in the amount of time you have to shop and how long your energy will hold up.

4. Take a shopping partner.

Taking a shopping partner who is interested in the same deals as you is a great way to score multiple deals at your first stop. Split up when the doors open and each head for a different section. Pick up two products instead of just one and then split them between you!

5. Research prices ahead of time.

It’s important to remember that not all advertised deals are as great as they seem — beware of inflated retail prices that make a sale price seem better than average! Spend some time researching the low prices of any items you’re hoping to score so that you know what’s really a deal and what’s not.

Brush up on stores’ return and price matching policies at this time, as well. You may not need to drive clear across town for that must-have gift when you realize that Staples is right next door and will match their online sale price!

6. Carry the sale ads with you (or at least your smartphone).

As I’ve mentioned before, carrying the sale ads sounds like a pain, but they can be a huge help in a pinch. Say you’re planning to buy a Keurig at a specific store, but it’s sold out when you arrive, you’ll be able to check to see what the sale prices are at the other stores on your list. Or you might come across a deal that you hadn’t noticed in the ad and want to compare the price to the other sales to make sure it’s a good deal.

Smart phone users can just access the weekly ads directly from their phones while shopping. How convenient is it to just pull up, for example, the Staples weekly ad to cross check prices and compare features while you’re out and about?

7. Set your expectations.

While it’s important to have a list of the items you’d like to get so that you don’t end up wandering through a store, don’t expect to get everything on your list. Some items may be sold out, shopping at a certain store may take longer than you planned, or you may just run out of steam. This is when the time you spent creating a priority list really pays off. Work through your list in order so that you get the most important gifts taken care of first.

8. Wear layers.

If you’re planning to stand in line outside early in the morning, it may be chilly. Dress accordingly so that you’re not miserably cold while you wait, but be sure to wear appropriate layers so that you can shed them as the day warms up and as you race around the stores!

9. Bring snacks and water.

Pack plenty of snacks and water so that you have something to eat and drink while you wait in line or drive between stops. Waiting too long to eat because you’re afraid you’ll miss a great deal will affect your mood and energy level, so don’t do it!

10. Leave the kids at home

Dragging young children around on Black Friday will most likely just make you, them AND everyone around you miserable. If you’re like me, you’ll probably end up spending more than you intended, getting less of what you want and feel frustrated and overwhelmed in the process. Leave the kids home so you can focus on your list, your budget and the deals. You’ll enjoy your day much more!

Are you planning to shop on Black Friday? Share any other tips you have in the comments!

I’m thrilled to be on the Staples Holiday Council this holiday season, bringing you fantastic deals to assist you in finding the perfect gift for every person on your list. Staples will be offering great deals (including exclusive offers!) throughout the holiday season, helping you get more for less! For more holiday tips be sure to check out the Staples Holiday Center.

This post is brought to you by Staples. All opinions are 100% mine.

Save More on the #PerfectGifts at Staples this Holiday Season

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Staples Holiday Deals

As I mentioned last week, I’m really excited to be the deals expert on the Staples Holiday Council this year! Staples may not be the first store that comes to mind when you’re searching for holiday deals, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that they really do have a wide variety of products available, making it easy to find the perfect gift for everyone on your list.

And not only can you find the perfect gift, but they have some pretty great ways to get that perfect gift at the perfect price that I want to make you aware of:

  • Weekly Deals — Be sure to check the weekly ad for special deals that are available all week long at Staples. Look for the new ad online each Thursday to start planning for the upcoming week’s sale items!
  • Daily Deals — In addition to the weekly deals, Staples also offers special online daily deals. These deals are available for a 24-hour period, while supplies last only, so don’t wait if you spy an item on your shopping list!
  • Staples Rewards —  Join the Staples Rewards program to receive 5% back in rewards on everything including technology, plus score FREE shipping on Staples.com!
  • Price Matching — Many stores offer price matching; that’s really nothing new. However, Staples takes their price matching policy one step further by matching not only the in store prices for competitors but also the online prices for items that are sold and shipped by one of the competitors.  For Staples.com price match, customers can call 800-333-3330 and visit Staples.com for exact details.
  • Black Friday — At most retailers, Black Friday is a one day event, but this year at Staples, there will be an entire WEEK of Black Friday Deals!

Want a sneak peek at some of the #PerfectGifts Staples will be offering over the next few weeks? Here’s some of the Hot Black Friday deals you can look forward to:

  • Kindle Fire with Special Offers for $79.99 (save $80)
  • HP Pavilion Chromebook for $179.99 (save $150)
  • Toshiba C55D-A5382 Laptop for $249.99 (save $200)
  • Samsung Galaxy S4 mobile phone for $49.99 after savings with new 2-year contract agreement or qualified 2-year upgrade. Available on Staples.com and select stores.

What items in particular are you hoping to find a deal on this holiday season?

I’m thrilled to be on the Staples Holiday Council this holiday season, bringing you fantastic deals to assist you in finding the perfect gift for every person on your list. Staples will be offering great deals (including exclusive offers!) throughout the holiday season, helping you get more for less! For more holiday tips be sure to check out the Staples Holiday Center.

This post is brought to you by Staples. All opinions are 100% mine.

5 Tips to Save this Holiday Season

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The countdown to Christmas is on! As of today, there are only 46 days until Christmas — that means only 45 days to shop for everyone on your list…

Have you started your holiday shopping yet? I have a few small gifts put away and a few larger ones on preorder, but I still have a long way to go before my list is complete. Luckily that’s still enough time to score some great deals, especially if you use some of the tips I’m sharing with you today.

1. Start with a written budget.

It’s easy to overspend on impulse over the holidays, so having a written budget puts everything right there in front of you in black and white, helping to curb those tendencies. I love that this Christmas budget worksheet divides your budget into areas beyond just gifts, including food, decor, charity, and more, for a more complete view of your overall budget.

2. Make a gift list.

List everyone that you intend to buy for, along with some gift ideas for each. Leave room to allow this list to double as your shopping list! Just write down the deals that you intend to purchase next to the recipient. This way if you come across other fantastic deals, you can easily see if they might be a good fit for someone else on your list.

3. Research prices.

Do research beyond the weekly flyer. Many retailers, like Staples, will feature online daily deals, so that hot gift item you have your eye on may not be in the weekly flyer but may be a fantastic price for one day only.

Also, it’s important to remember that not all advertised deals are as great as they seem. Sometimes retailers over inflate the suggested retail price of a product to make the sale price seem more impressive, so spend some time researching the low prices of any items you’re hoping to score so that you know what’s really a deal and what’s not.

4. Carry the sale ads with you when shopping.

Carrying the sale ads sounds like a pain, but they can be a huge help in a pinch. Say you’re planning to buy a Keurig at a specific store, but it’s sold out when you arrive, you’ll be able to check to see what the sale prices are at the other stores on your list. Or you might come across a deal that you hadn’t noticed in the ad and want to compare the price to the other sales to make sure it’s a good deal.

Smart phone users can just access the weekly ads directly from their phones while shopping. How convenient is it to just pull up, for example, the Staples weekly ad to cross check prices and compare features while you’re out and about?

5. Know the price match and adjustment policies.

There’s nothing more disappointing than scoring a great deal only to see it at an even lower price mere days later. Many stores offer price adjustments when you bring your receipt back in along with proof of the lower price.

Even better, stores like Staples are price matching Amazon up front this holiday season — allowing you to score rock bottom online prices in stores, minus the shipping fees!

Have you started preparing for Christmas yet? What’s your best money-saving tip for the holidays?

I’m thrilled to be on the Staples Holiday Council this holiday season, bringing you fantastic deals to assist you in finding the perfect gift for every person on your list. Staples will be offering great deals (including exclusive offers!) throughout the holiday season, helping you get more for less! For more holiday tips be sure to check out the Staples Holiday Center.

This post is brought to you by Staples. All opinions are 100% mine.

Save Time & Money with Once-a-Month Cooking, Part 2

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freezer cookingPhoto by Rubbermaid Products

The following guest post is from Melissa at Mom’s Plans and Dining Out Challenge:

Yesterday we looked at the benefits of freezer cooking and some helpful resources. Today we’re going to look at the process and tips:

I hear from many moms (and dads) that they would like to stock their freezer with meals, but they don’t know where to begin.  They are overwhelmed by the entire process.

You can do this!  Just start small.  Don’t plan on cooking 15 meals for your family the first time you try freezer cooking.

You can start slowly by picking 5 meals for one week and doubling each meal on the night you cook it.  Just like that, you have 5 meals in the freezer for later in the month.

If you’d rather jump into the process, I would still say start small.  Plan no more than 5 different meals for your family and double each recipe so you have a total of 10 meals in the freezer.

Steps to Follow to Make Your Freezer Cooking Day Go Smoothly

Choose your recipes. Try to pick a variety of dishes, such as one chicken meal, one beef meal, etc.  Also, choose a variety of meal types.  Nothing could be more boring than having to eat endless casseroles all month.  Finally, choose a variety of cooking methods—one slow cooker recipe, one oven recipe, one stove top recipe, etc.  That way you can utilize various cooking methods and make your freezer cooking day much more productive.

On the day before your freezer cooking day buy your groceries. Look for ways to save time on your actual cooking day. For example, if you know you will need cubes of chicken, buy your chicken and ask the butcher at the grocery store to cube it for you.  Most do this for free, and it will save you a great deal of time.

Chop all of the veggies you will need for your recipes. Again, if you want to save time, consider buying your veggies already chopped at the salad bar.  Of course, this is a much more expensive method than doing it yourself.

Write out a freezer cooking plan. See an example freezer cooking plan here.  Yes, it takes more time in the beginning to do this, but you will find it invaluable when it is the actual cooking day.  An ordered list makes the whole process much smoother.

Freezer Cooking Day

1. If you have young children, ideally have someone watch them so you can focus on cooking.  On the day I do my freezer cooking, my husband takes care of the kids so I don’t have to be interrupted.

2. Choose a day when you don’t have many responsibilities.  It is hard to get all of the freezer cooking done if you have to take your son to soccer at 10 a.m. and your daughter to dance at 1 p.m.

3. If you have older children at home, enlist their help.  They can stir a meal simmering on the stove while you begin another recipe, or they can do dishes to help you stay caught up.

4. Follow your plan.  If you have a slow cooker meal planned, start that one first as it will take the longest.

5. Make sure to take breaks.

Storing Your Freezer Meals

Proper storage is necessary to keep your meals fresh.  Make sure to use heavy duty freezer Ziploc bags and heavy duty aluminum foil.

To maximize your freezer space, place soups, chilis, etc.  in a Ziploc bag with the name of the meal and the date made.  (You may also want to place the reheating instructions on the bag.) Distribute the ingredients in the bag so it lays flat and then place it that way on a cookie sheet in the freezer until it is frozen.  You will be able to stack your meals so they take up the least amount of room.

Many people think that they can’t do once a month cooking because they don’t have a deep freezer.  While it is convenient to have a deep freezer, it isn’t essential.  You can store many meals in Ziploc bag “stacks” in your regular freezer.

Many people are intimidated by the idea of making many of their meals for the month in one day.  I hope this guide has helped you realize that it is not as intimidating as people think.  With a little planning and a fair amount of work on the actual cooking day, you can save your family money and provide them with healthier foods.  Try it.  You will see it is possible.

Melissa is a recent convert to once a month cooking and can’t imagine cooking a meal every night now.  She is the mom to three young children, 6, 23 months and 5 months.  She blogs about eating healthy, freezer cooking and managing family resources at Mom’s Plans.  Her other blog, Dining Out Challenge, is about her family’s attempts to eat out for $25 or less a week.

Save Time & Money with Once-a-Month Cooking, Part 1

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freezer cookingPhoto by Nancy JonesFrancis

Do you find yourself taking inventory in your mind of the items in your refrigerator every night and panicking because you don’t have any meal ideas and everyone is hungry? Do you stop by the store several times a week picking up items for your daily meals? Do you order take out or spend more money at restaurants than you would like?

If you have experienced any of thes (haven’t we all?) then freezer cooking, also known as once a month cooking (OAMC), may solve your dinner woes.

Years ago, the extent of my freezer cooking was preparing a dish that we discovered we did not care for too much and then freezing the leftovers because we did not want to eat them. Guess what? Those  same leftovers did not taste any better coming out of the freezer. I gave up on “freezer cooking” (even though I wasn’t really doing it).

However, two years ago, right before I had my second child, I cooked up several meals for us to eat for the first few weeks postpartum. This time I picked recipes specifically for freezer cooking, and my entire family was happy with the results. Now that I have three little ones, I freezer cook out of necessity. During the last year, every month I have cooked up two to four weeks of my family’s meals over the course of two to three days. True, cooking that many meals can take some time, but with careful planning, you can minimize the time spent on cooking and reap the rewards all month long.

Five Ways Once a Month Cooking Benefits Your Family

1. You erase the nightly what’s-for-dinner panic.

2. You can save money on your groceries because the majority of your shopping is done in one trip when you buy the supplies for OAMC. The other weeks you can simply buy some items to round out your meals.

3. You dirty the majority of your dishes at one time. Yes, freezer cooking can turn your kitchen into a disaster area. But it only happens once a month. The rest of the month you may dirty only one pan or baking dish a day when cooking the meal you pull from the freezer.

4. You’ll feed your family more nutritious food than you would if you picked up a frozen meal at the store, ate fast food or dined at a restaurant.

4. You can be a little more relaxed during that crazy time between 5 to 7 when little ones are cranky, older ones have homework to do and everyone is hungry. All you have to do is pull out one of your ready made meals.

Once a Month Cooking Resources

To have a successful freezer meal, it is essential to pick a recipe specifically designed for once-a-month cooking. Some of my favorite resources include:

  • Food.com (formerly RecipeZaar.com): This site is free and has plenty of freezer cooking recipes. Just type in OAMC in the search area and you will find hundreds of recipes.
  • Don’t Panic: Dinner Is in the Freezer: This cookbook breaks down recipes and lists the ingredients for you by how many meals you would like to make (1, 3, 6 etc.) You don’t have to do the math to double or triple the ingredients; they do it all for you.
  • 30 Meals In One Day: I love this set! It contains 3 cookbooks: Dinner Is Ready, Lunch Is Ready, and Sides are Ready. Two things put this set over the top. First, the author includes over 40 pages in the beginning of the first two cookbooks giving strategies and tips for freezer cooking. Second, this set comes with software that lets you pick your recipes and choose your serving size. Once you have done that, the software automatically generates a grocery list for you of all the ingredients you need. You have the choice to delete items off the list that you already have or add other items that you need to buy at the store not related to OAMC cooking.

Deal Seeking Mom here — I just wanted to share one other great resource for learning about once a month cooking. Check out Once A Month Mom where my friend Tricia guides you through a step-by step process for cooking a month’s worth of meals, with a new meal plan available every month!

If you are new to freezer cooking, I would recommend borrowing some of these books from the library. If you decide you like freezer cooking, you may want to invest in a few cookbooks full of the OAMC recipes your family enjoys.

Tomorrow, Melissa will share her method and tips for once-a-month cooking with us, so be sure to watch for part 2!

Melissa is a recent convert to once a month cooking and can’t imagine cooking a meal every night now.  She is the mom to three young children, 6, 23 months and 5 months.  She blogs about eating healthy, freezer cooking and managing family resources at Mom’s Plans.  Her other blog, Dining Out Challenge, is about her family’s attempts to eat out for $25 or less a week.