The Black Friday 2014 giveaway.

thSome people think Black Friday is fading away. Me, I think it’s simply spreading out.

Gray Thursday, Black Friday and Cyber Monday are on the way whether you like it or not — and you can bet that Saturday and Sunday will have their own forms of deal-mongering, too.

Don’t want to shop on Thanksgiving or Black Friday? Prefer to buy locally? Do what works for you. But this week’s giveaway is designed to provide a little help for shoppers of all stripes, plus a little entertainment afterwards.

Up for grabs are:

A $10 Starbucks card. Whether your caffeine of choice is coffee, hot chocolate or tea, let me buy it for you. The most frugal approach, of course, would be to use the card toward buying the ingredients at Starbucks and fix them at home. Which brings me to the second item…

An insulated travel mug. Sip while you’re shopping online from the couch in your PJs, or use it to keep warm while waiting in line for a store to open (or to keep yourself peppy while you shop). This 18-ouncer is courtesy of Vanguard by way of FinCon14 — and apparently Vanguard agrees with me about frugality because printed on the outside are the words, “Caution: The contents of this mug are extremely cost-effective.”

A Black Friday T-shirt. This BFAds.net shirt was donated by my daughter, who blogs at I Pick Up Pennies. It says “Black Friday 2013” on it, which means that it’s vintage. Bonus: Since it’s (of course) a black T-shirt, no one will be able to tell if you spill coffee on yourself.

A $10 Fandango gift card. Once you’ve finished your shopping — or as a way to avoid shopping — go see one of those movies that opened on Thanksgiving. Or wait until closer to Christmas. Or give it to someone as a holiday or hostess gift, thereby trimming your expenses somewhat. You’re welcome.

If you’re feeling daunted by all the ads — which are already leaking, and which BFAds.net will send to your inbox if you choose — then you should let technology do the legwork. For example, the FatWallet Black Friday app compares deals from among more than 1,600 stores; type in what you want and the app pping app do all the work for you. The app also provides info on discount codes and whether or not free shipping is available.

Plenty of other BF apps are out there, including Retail Me Not, Shopkick and Brad’s Deals. Since these and other apps are free, you can try as many as you like until you find one that works best for you.

Again, you don’t have to shop on Black Friday — or shop at all — to enjoy this week’s giveaway. The winner might prefer to sleep in, go out for coffee and then go see a movie, and to wear the T-shirt the next time s/he has to paint a room. To enter:

If you do any (or all!) of these things, please leave separate, additional comments to get credit for each entry.

Edited to add: The contest is closed due to vacation brain. That is to say, I drew the winner and notified her, um, a day early. See what happens when you go visit your daughter, watch way too much “Archer” and eat pumpkin pie? Total loss of timeline, that’s what.

But what happened was actually very sweet: The winner asked that the prize be given to a reader who is currently out of work. Wasn’t that nice? I’m sending the original winner a separate prize.

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193 thoughts on “The Black Friday 2014 giveaway.”

    • That’s probably where I’ll be: Walgreens. Other than that, I’m pretty much done shopping. However, DF is looking hard at snowblowers and there’s a decent price for a Consumer Reports Best Buy model in one of the leaked Black Friday ads. Because of shoulder issues I’m not going to be much help with shoveling this year so I’m encouraging him to go for it.

      Reply
  1. What a fun giveaway! I’m still not sure if I’m going shopping on Black Friday…but if I do, I’ll wait till the crowds die down.
    Thank you!

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  2. I would gift the cards, helping me to reduce my Christmas budget, and would turn the shirt into a scarf, probably. I’ve been sewing lately – so frugal!

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  3. Thanks Donna! If I win, please give my prize to Lisa below who lost her job. Been there girl! Hope things turn around fast!

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    • thanks, Valerie. what a sweet person you are. this is so kind, i’m determined to pay it forward when/how i can, thanks for renewing my faith in people. best wishes and with a heart of gratitude…Lisa

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  4. Nice giveaway! My daughter loves Starbucks, so If I’d win, I would probably give that to her. Years ago I did BF, but now, no way! I can’t hack all those crowds! I will either go after or watch for online sales. Thanks!

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  5. My sister-in-law heads out Thanksgiving night to maximize her budget for the 4-H tricky tray come spring and my son has taken to going with her. It will give him war stories to tell his grand kids. I did my share back in college when I worked for Macy’s.

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  6. Enjoyed black Friday when kids were young, and even older. Now they and we don’t need anything. Still enjoy black Friday, I sleep in! Always enjoy your thoughts.

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  7. My favorite way to shop …. sipping hot chocolate, perusing my favorite online sites. I usually try to have most shopping done earlier in the month (my adult and almost-adult kids are patient and accommodating to my list requests in Oct.) We save Black Friday for heading north to cut our tree.

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  8. I don’t shop on Black Friday, but I love this giveaway!! I prefer to sleep in. And I find that our past Black Fridays were all purchases for ourselves on things we didn’t really need anyway.

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  9. We enjoy Black Fridaying. We get up the same time as if we are going to work/school. Treat ourselves to breakfast out and split a platter. Usually we shop Kohls for gifts, Sam’s Club for discount ITunes cards and then Ulta for the $1 items.
    Thank you for introducing me to Bradsdeals:)

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