MasterCard Here's to Mom Holiday Promotion

It is definitely time to start your holiday shopping. There are so many different presents you are going to buy for your children, loved ones and friends. When I was young, I used to always give my teachers and bus driver holiday gifts. They were sometimes homemade, but other times we would buy them a little something.  I know that teachers really appreciate those little thoughtful gifts, as a daughter of a teacher. Unfortunately, the economy isn’t at its best, so we rely on sales and promotions to help us stretch out our holiday bucks.  You all know how much I like to shop online. I won’t be fighting the crowds this holiday season.  I will be shopping online for gifts, that way Santa’s special gifts will remain a secret, until Christmas morning.

I am so excited to share with you a promotion from MasterCard. The promotion is called Here’s to Mom. Being a mom is hard work, so MasterCard thought they would celebrate us.  Signing up is really easy. All you have to do to receive your $20 MasterCard gift card is go HERE  and enroll with your MasterCard card (credit or debit) and e-mail address, shop online with that card between November 15 and December 31, 2011. After spending $200 online you’ll receive and e-mail where you can redeem your gift card reward.

This sounds like such a great deal and I hope you all will sign up and earn the rewards. I mean you are going to use those cards anyways, right? May as well, be rewarded for it. I love that it includes debit cards so, it shows that MasterCard really wants to reward us.  Let me know if you sign up. It takes only a few minutes and then you can kick back with a cup of hot chocolate and shop in your jammies.

Happy Holidays!

I am participating in this MasterCard Promotion and I received a complimentary special Here’s to Mom kit for my participation. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Save This Holiday Season with CouponChief

We are approaching the holiday season. I know I like to do a lot of my shopping online. I am a single mom so, when I go shopping my son is always with me. When he was a baby, I could easily buy his presents with him with me and he wouldn’t even notice. I was able to get away with that until he was two. Even trying to hide the presents in the cart under things doesn’t seem to work well either.  I have had to start buying presents for him online.  Sometimes you can find some great deals and toys you can’t find in stores.  I always scout out for coupon codes from different websites like CouponChief to save extra money or sometimes get free items.  I could sign up for every stores newsletter but, I get so much email as is with all the newsletters I have already signed up with. I also like to try shopping at new stores since Noah’s major interests right now include space and sea life.  Both of those are hard to find at just any store.  I also have to support my VS habit, which I couldn’t do without coupon codes.

Black Friday?

Call me crazy, but I don’t understand the hype of Black Friday. I mean seriously, what is the point? Maybe there is something I don’t see. I hate crowds of people, grabbing things out of your cart when you aren’t looking, waiting in really long lines just to get a deal. It seems silly to me. If it is something you enjoy that is wonderful. It’s just not for me. One year we went to Wal-mart on Thanksgiving, just to go and get out for a little bit. It was like 8 pm when we left, we drove buy Best Buy and there were people standing in line already. It was cold and was weird to see people waiting for that long just to go shopping.

I haven’t really seen anything that would be worth my time to wait that long or go out period on Black Friday. I have only really done Black Friday once, that was enough for me. I went with an old friend so he could have company. I was very cranky at the end of it. I did not have any fun what so ever. I don’t think he even bought anything because the lines were ridiculously long everywhere we went. There are sales all the way up till the week before Christmas. I just don’t know why it is that big of a deal. I could see if you were buying like a TV or something that was extremely marked down that normally would cost a fortune. Otherwise, just to get a toy for your child for Christmas? With online sales and websites you can pretty much find anything online from the comforts of your own home.

It’s not like when we were kids and our parents or grandparents had to actually go to the stores to buy the hot item of the year. I think that anything I wanted for Christmas I always got, or if I didn’t it didn’t traumatize me enough that I remember now. I survived. There were not huge tears and disappointment on Christmas Eve or Christmas Morning unless you count the whole silts, Barbie bed, Cabbage Patch cradle Christmas, which started with me crying on Christmas Eve, followed by my sister crying on Christmas morning.

Black Friday has turned in to this HUGE ordeal. I mean I think I have heard a lot more about Black Friday than Thanksgiving. That makes me very sad. Thanksgiving is an actual holiday when we remember what we are thankful for and about family. Black Friday is a day of greed and sales. It’s not even a holiday yet it gets more attention than Thanksgiving.

For Black Friday I will stay home. I will spend time with my family and play games and drink hot chocolate and snack on treats and make memories with my son, because Black Friday does not matter to me. There is also a Law and Order SVU marathon on. I can still find good deals on gifts; I am not worried about that.

So what if it costs me a little more, it is too much hassle and stress for me. I might shop online, but I haven’t found anything really worth it.
If you are going out for Black Friday, I wish you luck on finding deals and hope that you have a safe and happy experience.