Deal or Disaster
Thanksgiving was over and I was stuffed like the turkey we ate. I played board games, card games, and even an exercise game on the Playstation 3 with my boys. As the boys were getting ready for bed I grabbed my phone and continued to search through each store’s deals debating if it was worth going out Friday morning. I have to get those Black Friday deals!
I don’t do the whole shop on Thanksgiving day, it’s not for me. I cannot tell my sons that Thanksgiving is for spending time with family and then leave to go spend part of the day waiting in line with strangers to buy things that will in the end perish. It not the message I want them to receive, I am just keeping it a 100. I probably wouldn’t have ever thought about it if I didn’t have children. I would have been caught up in the hype because who doesn’t like deals!
Ok, Getting back to my story. There were some items we needed to get for ourselves and some gifts as well. Now, I’ve been searching for over a week and still wasn’t sold on going out especially when you could just order it with a swipe and click of your fingertips. I do like online shopping, which can be very dangerous and a huge budget buster. Good deals can make you broke, so sometimes it’s not a deal at all.
So I woke up Friday morning and decided I would head out. Now of course I strategized and first went to the stores that opened earliest, I was on the hunt. To my surprise there wasn’t a ridiculous amount of people shopping here in South Jersey. Overall I thought everyone seemed to be civil and behaved themselves. Driving from store to store as I picked up items from each store, I successfully survived the temptation of buying all the Black Friday deals that I wasn’t looking for or needed.
“A deal can be a thief if you let it rob your future”
Believe me it was hard. I had an empty car and a pretty big arm span that could carry a big screen T.V. especially since they had such great deals.
It was like a internal battle.
“We need a bigger T.V.”
“I didn’t come here for that”
“But they are so cheap”
“It’s not in our budget”
“You’re going to miss out” “
“We didn’t budget for a T.V.”
I even had a FULL conversation with myself trying to justify buying a new T.V. I thought about our current T.V, how it could die in January and it will cost me more in the long run because I would have missed this sale! Needless to say I resisted. I only purchased the items I had planned to buy. I brought some of my money I saved over the previous months just in case. But I didn’t buy myself anything.
I planned to purchase one of the items on my debit card. It has been a long time since I swiped that card. Well, I was quickly reminded that swiping your card is no longer a thing. You insert you card into a the chip reader. As I walked to my car I couldn’t get over that it’s been so long since I have used a debit card in a store. The majority of the time I use cash when I shop. I use a debit card mainly for gas, I travel quite a bit. But even then I don’t operate the machine, the gas attendant does. Here in New Jersey you receive “full service” at the pump. I get to sit in my car while the gas attendant takes my card, pumps the gas, and returns my card with a receipt. It’s not much as full service any more but more like a drive thru gas stations.
My wife and I have been handling our money instead of our money handling us for so long it doesn’t take much effort. The peace that those choices bring us are immeasurable and I can admit that at times we take it for granted. When I am serving our clients or speaking at an event I am continuously reminded of how far we have come. I have made so many mistakes with money in the past and now making the right choice comes natural, like walking or breathing. I pray that everyone who is reading this would take the appropriate steps in order that one day you could confidently say the same thing. I’m willing and able to help and walk alongside of you. Reach out to me today!
Keep your head up and keep on going!
