OK friends, I mentioned that I need Black Friday crazy stories because I was unable to go shopping this year due to my husband's work schedule.

I am still waiting to hear some of your awesome adventures! Did you have any crazy stories? Score any AMAZING deals to brag about?! Anything fun?

I have a couple awesome weekend/Black Friday updates to share with you.

First, I talked to my mom about her Black Friday adventures with my brother (he's 15). They went all over throughout the night. I am most jealous of the H&M stop they made-sounds like it was a great stop!! Here's the crazy part though. My mom decided it was not worth fighting the Walmart crazy crowd at the beginning, so it was their last stop of the morning. The thing is, there is a new Walmart that JUST opened near her. She walked in to an almost empty Walmart on Black Friday morning. There were MANY of the doorbusters still there and she got lots of deals without crowds! She asked the manager if it was busy when the deals started and he said "No not really." Apparently no one knew that Walmart had opened yet...that is like my Black Friday Dream come true!!! I am SOOOO jealous!

AND my story...I have to shoo my kids away first...ok, they are gone. So, my son broke our Wii recently. Completely brokw it. I like to do Wii fit on there and have not been able to for a while and I am getting FAT! I need my workout back, so I wanted to get the Black Friday Wii deal for $89 at Walmart. I tried to get it online but it sold out in seconds online, and I could not go to a store (where I am sure it sold out is seconds at most locations anyway). Fast forward to Saturday afternoon...all doorbusters that were still in store had the prices extended through the weekend. I had to make a test drive to the Mesa airport so I knew where it was. I drove out there and on the way back the kids were crying for a potty. I had a list of groceries and we passed a Walmart. I exited off the freeway and stopped. I walked past the electronics aisle where most things were pretty picked over and the best deals were long gone...then I saw it...on a bottom shelf pushed to the back, an $89 Wii...really?! I distracted the kids with the tvs and games, got some help and snagged the last $89 Wii. The checker said she could not believe that it was still there-they thought they were all gone within 10 minutes of the sale starting! YEAH!!!! Lucky Me!! So, what did you score?!

Oh Black Friday! How I love thee...ye...you?! Seriously. I do a lot of shopping through the year, but I FINISH (well mostly) on Black Friday. It is my big triumphant shopping day of the year...usually...or at least it was before Walmart and the Internet (darn you Cyber Monday!) ruined it for me.

Let me explain by first talking a little bit about "Black Friday" shopping the Beckee's Deals way. (Some of this explanation is reposted from one of my Black Friday posts from last year!)

I have, for YEARS, been a huge Black Friday Shopper and usually have done all my shopping for Christmas on Black Friday (well I do end up getting a stocking stuffer or 2 after). During my husband's residency the last 5 years, he has often been working on Black Friday (Which really was the first thing to ruin Black Friday before Walmart or the Internet stepped up to the plate). In spite of his work schedule, most years I still managed to get in a few REALLY early morning (and late night Thanksgiving) deals before he left for work. I love it...Love my Black Friday Adventures.

Here is my take on how to do Black Friday! When my newspaper comes on Thanksgiving morning, I am like a kid in a candy store! I sit down on my bed with the Macy's parade playing and the food already cooking in the kitchen and I whip out the ads. I go through and circle the GREAT deals I would LOVE to get in each ad-taking special note of the door busters. I write a list of each store, what door busters I would love to have and what time that store opens for their door buster sales. (BEFORE Thanksgiving, I sit down with my husband and we write up a list of who we need to buy for and what we think we might want to get them.)

Before I go on, I must note that already in my plan, the Internet and Walmart have interfered. First, the Internet now posts the Black Friday ads early so I lose that excitement and the anticipation of waiting for and devouring the Thanksgiving day ads. Oh I know it means I can plan ahead, but frankly I think that is overrated! :)   AND that is not all...Walmart you dirty beast! Now you open up for your Black Friday ads on Thursday night?! Really? On the Holiday? Oh and don't think I am forgetting all of Walmart's friends (competitors...) that ALSO open up during the evening/middle of the night hours. Sure, that gives me the chance to shop before my husband (that trouble maker) has to go in to work, but come on! When do I get to hang out with the family, and when do I sleep (I can answer that one-I sleep on Black Friday afternoon!)

Moving on with my Black Friday plan. Next, I compare the 2 lists I have made (the one with who we need to buy for and the one with the best prices and the times the stores open) and prioritize-are there specific items from my list of gifts I am looking for that are great deals somewhere on sale? What Door busters do I really want and are they at a place that usually has a ton of the items (like Walmart usually does here) or a place that limits the number to the first 25 (like Nebraska Furniture Mart)? Basically I look at what my odds are of getting what I want at the stores and PRIORITIZE.

Once I have prioritized and listed which items I actually want to get and at which store they will be sold, then I look at the times the stores open in the morning and write up a plan of action as to where to go first, second, etc.
Here is another place Walmart has stepped in and ruined my traditions. How? Two words: Price Matching. Oh Price Matching how I love and loathe you! Sure you save me more money and make it more convenient to get everything is one place, but really-those are some INSANE crowds and lines!! Wow...

Growing up in Utah, my mom and I would Black Friday shop each year and I LOVED it! We had adventures planning and carrying out the plan. We would do things like drag my teen sister along so we could get enough door busters and we would go store to store dropping off family members to try to get the best stuff at each store (BEFORE we all had cell phones). We would socialize in the long lines, make new friends and fight for the items we wanted! I LOVED our adventures, and I seek after them year to year still...

However, a lovely little thing on the Internet (adventure ruiner!) has arrived in force over the past years that makes it almost too convenient for me to get the same or better deals without leaving my laptop! That would be "Cyber Monday." More and more places have their weekend sales ONLINE (door busters and all) and "Cyber Monday" just seems to grow exponentially from year to year.

To quote Belle (from Disney's Beauty and the Beast), "I want adventure in the great wide somewhere, I want it more than I can tell" And friends, I want that adventure OUT of my House on Black Friday! Curse you Walmart and the Internet for making my adventures harder to come by, and Walmart's Price matching policy this year with Retroactive Price matching is stepping it up again! It will make it even more convenient to do all shopping there!

Sigh...I guess if Walmart and the Internet keep making the shopping so easy and convenient I will have to seek adventure elsewhere...maybe I should try bungee jumping?!

Have you all heard about Walmart's New Holiday PriceMatch Guarantee? It is Sah...weet!! Here is the deal (According to their Press release:

If a customer buys an eligible product at Walmart anytime between Nov. 1 and Dec. 25, and then finds that same product advertised for less at another store, Walmart will give the customer a gift card for the difference through Dec. 25. Guaranteed.

Walmart’s Christmas Price Guarantee is valid on purchases made Nov. 1 through Dec. 25 on identical items (the same brand, size, color, quantity, grade and model number) that are currently available at competitor’s stores located within the same local market as a particular Walmart storei. To apply for the Christmas Price Guarantee, customers need to simply bring in their original Walmart cash register receipt and the local competitor’s current printed ad to Walmart’s Customer Service desk through Dec. 25. Once validated, a gift card for the difference will be issued. Items placed on layaway will also be eligible for the Christmas Price Guarantee.

Did you catch all that?! I can buy my presents at Walmart when it is a good deal. THEN if I see it advertised anywhere later for less, for a GREAT deal, I can bring in the reciept to Walmart and they will go back and give me the pricematched price-I get the difference in Walmart cards (which I will use anyway)! AWESOME!!

I feel like I should recklessly go get all my Christmas stuff now and hope it goes on sale...

Tune in tomorrow to read about how Walmart and the Internet are ruining my cherished tradition... :)

Wal Mart has a fantastic free sample of Pull Up flushable wipes. Go here to claim yours before they are gone!

You may or may not be aware that Wal-mart updated their ad matching guarantee policy and coupon policy recently. I have not mentioned this to this point, but I want to say a few things about the new ad matching guarantee policy and how it has affected me locally.

First thing I want to note is that the new policy states "We do not require customers to have the ad with them to honor a competitor's ad." Many, Many bloggers are praising this new note as it makes ad matching easier to do when you do not have to bring the ads and prove each price match. Apparently at most Wal-Marts nationwide in the past it has been commonplace to have to have the ads with you before this change. That is not the case here in Omaha.

Here in Omaha, I have never before this policy change brought ads with me to price match. I just have a list with the price matches listed on it. I have never had a problem price matching like that and have only been asked to prove an ad match 2 times total (thank goodness I happened to have the ads with me both times).

Since this new policy went into effect, it has actually made price matching harder here in Omaha and has caused me to NEED my ads with me all the time. Why you ask? Well, because the checkers are supposed to be responsible to know the ad matches, so the local managers have made up basically cheat sheets of the most common ad matches from week to week for the checkers to use. This means that each time I have a price match the lovely checkers grab their list and check to see if it is listed on it. The problem there is that not all ad prices are listed-only the most common or popular ones (I have found that ends up being the front page items usually).

So, if I give a valid price match that is not on their incomplete list from the managers, the checkers will NOT believe it is valid and will NOT give the price match. So you have to get a manager over and depending on the manager, they often will also NOT match the price UNLESS you show it to them in the ad. SO...I have to have my ads with me all the time to shop now because their lists are SOOOO incomplete. It sucks...that is all.

Another note about the new policy that I hate is that they "DO NOT match the price of Competitors' private label price promotions." This means they no longer price match generic brand to generic brand. DANG! That is super frustrating...

So, is price matching at Wal Mart still worth it? Well, it is now a bigger hassle than it used to be, but it is still a bigger hassle to price match at Target (since I have to go to customer service to check out with price matches there). So, yes, I will continue to price match at Walmart as it saves me so much money, but I will also continue to complain to the managers and corporate at Walmart about how their new policy has had the opposite effect they wanted.

I also will continue to keep my ads in my diaper bag just in case and I will make sure to keep a copy of the ad matching guarantee policy and the coupon policy with me as well. I recommend you also print out the policies and keep them with you.

Have any of you had similar problems or is this just me?

In the past, I have recommended that you print out the coupon policies of the stores you shop at and have them with your coupons. I always do this just so I can show the checker if need be-often employees do NOT know the company policies as well as they ought to. So, I just print out and keep a copy with me so I know what I can and cannot use and I can show the checker or manager if need be (politely of course...at least at first).

I mention this today, because it is time to get rid of your old Walmart coupon policy and print out a new one as they have updated and made some changes to their coupon policy. You can check out and print the new Walmart Coupon Policies here.

I had a fantastic shopping trip to Walmart the other day and have not yet posted it for you to see!! I have to admit, I have quite a few FREE coupons and I had some great price matches as well-plus they had a FANTASTIC sale on the clothing I bought! ($1 for kids clothing regularly marked $12 to clearance out the winter stuff!!)

OK-here are my deal details. You can see all the items in the picture above. I figured out that had I paid normal price for all of it (no coupons, pricematches or sales), I would have spent $145.08 + Tax. Check out the receipt to see my final price:

Yes-you read that right, the final price on all that was $39.08 + Tax. (May I also note that of that money spent,  $13.75 was on 5-12 packs of soda, and $4.66 was spent on the only 2 items I spent full price on-mushrooms and celery. So, the other 21 items cost me a grand total of $20.67) My total overall savings was a WHOPPING $106!!! WAHOO!!

In case you cannot see all I got in the pic, here is a list:

• 2-3 lb bags of chicken
• 1-2 lb sliced mushrooms
• 1 bunch of celery
• 4 packages of Pillsbury Crescent Rolls
• 5-12 packs of soda
• 1 bag Mission Tortilla Chips
• 3 boxes Fiber Plus bars
• 1 package of the NEW Philadelphia Cooking Creme
• 2 Hazelnut CoffeeMate Creamers
• 1 30 oz bag od El Monterey Taquitos
• 1 HUGE bag of Gorton's Fish Fillets
• 1 Package of Purex Complete Crystals
• 1 girls skirt
• 2 boys hoodies
• 2 girls tee shirts

Trips like this still amaze me!! What great deals have you scored lately?!

Today is Dr Seuss's birthday and were he still alive, he would be 107 today (according to my son who just got home from preschool). To celebrate this morning, my husband read a Dr Seuss Book (If I Ran the Circus) to our first graders class, and our preschooler ate green eggs and ham and made a Dr Seuss hat. I am sure there will be more school excitement to hear about when the older kids come home!

If you are looking to celebrate, you can do so by purchasing some SWEET Dr Seuss books from Wal-Mart. Many are only $3!!! (I paid $9 each for 3 Dr Seuss books YESTERDAY...not my finest dealing moment. I needed something for Wes to read to E Dawgs class.) Anywho, this IS a great deal for Dr Seuss books, so go shop here!  Oh and friends....this deal has FREE shipping too!! SWEET!!!

Thanks for the Book deal alert Bargain Divas.

Well, You know it is a good shopping trip when the checker comments that you did really well at the end of the transaction!! And I really made out at Walmart yesterday!!! I did not take a picture of everything before I unloaded the bags sadly, so I will have to just tell you about it. The gist of it is that I got items that before price matching and coupons would have cost me $159.21 plus tax, but after coupons and price matching, it cost me $47.67 plus tax. Friends, that is a Savings of $111.54.

I won't give you the detailed run down (unless you want it), but here is what I bought:

• 4 matching Kids Turtlenecks
• 1 Hannah Montana Skirt
• 2 pairs of Girls Pants
• 2 Nice Button Up Girls shirts
• Duck Tape
• a replacement Headlight (this was the killer item...it was $10 on its own with NO discounts of any sort...ouch)
• 1 box Hard Taco Shells
• 3 Loaves of Bread
• 2 Dozen Large Eggs
• 3 8 oz bags of shredded cheese
• A 3 lb roll of Ground Chuck
• 8 2 Liter bottles of Pepsi Products
• Herbal Essences Shampoo & Conditioner
• 1 HUGE can of Mini Ravioli
• Egg Beaters
• a HUGE bag (40 Fish Filet bag) or Gortons Fish
• Planters Almonds
• Doritos

WOW! I felt good, and it made me feel even better when the checker comment about how well I did at the end!!

GO quickly here to score a FREE Chef Boyardee coupon on Walmart.com (lower right corner). Only available to the first 50,000, so hurry!

Thanks The Freebie Junkie.

Oh my gosh-I cannot BELIEVE this Walmart smoking hot deal!!! It will not last long! You can get your color choice of the new MiniRemote and MiniChuk (perfect for little hands) plus a game for just $35 (plus tax and shipping)!
Many of the games are actually usually $45-50 alone! Check out the list:

• Disney’s Epic Mickey
• New Super Mario Bros
• Wii Sport Resort
• Hasbro Family Game Night 3
• Just Dance 2
• Cars: Race O Rama
• Super Mario Kart
• Pokepark: Pikachu’s Adventure
• Just Dance
• Wii Party
• Super Mario Galaxy 2
• Super Mario Allstars 3

I just bought 2of the remotes with Epic Mickey & Super Mario Bros for a GRAND TOTAL of $85.50! I cannot believe I got that price for those 4 items!! Go check it out here.

Thanks Couponing to Disney.

If you go here you can print out a coupon to get 2 FREE 5x7 HP photo cards from Walmart. The coupon is good through Nov 15th. I would go print the coupon now and use it whenever you want between now and Nov 15th.

I have been asked about the Price matching at Walmart. I have mentioned quite a few times how much I LOVE to price match there as they make it easy and convenient. I will tell you my experiences price matching there and how I do it, but I want to let you know first that you can read Walmart's official Price matching policy on their website here.

Now, it says on there that "Store managers make the final decision in always taking care of our customers, but we do have guidelines for matching our competition". So, there is some discrepancy from store to store with how they price match or what they will match. Here in Omaha, I have never had a problem price matching.

Basically they will match any advertised price from a competitor on a like item. If the item is a generic/store brand, my Walmart will price match that with their generic/store brand of same items (same size and product). When I go shopping, I generally just make a list of what I am getting and what the price match is. So, my list will look something like this (I am making up the deals though-these are not actual sales going on):

Milk: gallon $1.77 @Hyvee
Bread: Sara Lee $.99 @Bag N Save
Crayola Crayons: 24 pack $.19 @ Hyvee
Coke 24 packs: $5.48 @Super Saver

Then I go to the store with my list and get it all and head to the checkout. I ALWAYS let the checker know before he/she starts putting items through that I have a lot of price matches and coupons. As they scan, I just watch my list and give them the matching price on the item before they scan it. It is pretty easy in my store.

However, I have heard stories of people having trouble price matching, so I always have the ads in my bag with me in case they question a price match, I have only had that happen 2 times ever, and all I had to do was show them the ad and the manager had to come over and approve it (the reason this happened both times was because the price difference was so great between the Walmart price and the price match that it flagged in the system.) Since the price match is kind up up to the store manager in the end, it is nice to be able to have the ad there if there is a problem. I would also just as a precaution, print a Walmart price match policy out and bring it with you to show them if necessary.

I have not had any major problems price matching at Walmart just make sure you have the SAME item to match, make a list of your items/price matches to refer to as you check out and shop, and bring in the ads and price match policy in case you do have an issue that needs to be resolved.

I hope this little guide to Walmart price matching was helpful! Let me know if you have any further questions about it by leaving a comment on this post or emailing me at beckeesdeals@gmail.com

Freebies2Deals posted that tomorrow (8/11/10) from 7:30am-noon will be the Grand Re-opening of the American Fork Walmart-there are a lot of fun free things going on there includign free hot dogs and soda as well as free samples (which usually means coupons). Our Grand Re-opening of the Walmart here in Omaha had TONS of crazy deals so I would go check it out in the morning if you live near American FOrk (Utah). Please see the full list of activities on the Freebies2Deals post here.

This is a great coupon available! Go here and print out the coupon for $3/2 Johnson and Johnson Red Cross Brand Products. Many people are reporting that their Walmarts have the small travel size first aid kits for around a dollar which means you can get 2 free and possibly overage. I have not seen these at my Walmart, but MANY others have reported seeing them so I wanted to let you know.

Thanks Who Said Nothing in Life is Free?

If you have a Picture Me studio in a Walmart near you, this is your chance to get a free 10x13 wall portrait with no purchase necessary, Simply go here, print the coupon and take it in to a Picture Me studio near you before August 31, 2010.  To find a nearby studio go here.

Thanks Money Saving Madness.

Well friends, there is good and bad here...Let's get the sad news over with first...$5.00- 24 packs are done at Walmart. They are now marked as "on sale" for $6.48 (with $7.48 as the regular price). Luckily if you are in Omaha, you can price match them this week for $4.98. So you can still get a good deal this week-stock up just in case this is the end of the cheap soda rush!

The fantastic news is that corn on the cob is only $0.05 each right now!!!! Yes, you read that right, $0.05 each-so I got 20 for a buck today and I was lovin life!!!!! I have not seen corn that cheap since I was a kid shopping with my Papou (that is grandpa in Greek). Boo-yeah!!!

Snapfish has a fantastic deal on photo prints this weekend! 25 prints (to pick up) for only $1!!! That is only $.04 each-GREAT price! Here's how to get the deal...

• Go log in or creats an account at Snapfish. 
• Order prints using code JUL4PRINTS when you checkout.
• Choose the “pick up at Walmart” option, and the prints will only be $1.

Please note that this code is good only until Monday, July 5.

Thanks Freebies 4 Mom.

July 1-3 Participating Wal*Mart stores will be having a Kraft Independance Day Sampling event. My kids LOVE to go to these things and they are free entertainment (and samples that often have coupons too)!! So, Click here to find a participating Wal*Mart near you. (It looks like basically all the local Omaha ones are participating)

This will go quick-HURRY!!

Right now you can get a FREE sample of All Oxi-Active at Walmart. You will have to copy and paste this: http://www.startsampling.com/sm/walmart/captureAddress.iphtml?item=101224&source=&url=http://www.startsampling.com/alldetergent

Thanks Mojo Savings.