Economy can make bargains necessary

It's practically a tradition now. Stuff yourself with turkey and pumpkin pie, get a nap in, maybe catch some football and then suit up for the Black Friday shopping battle.

To kids who don't remember: It wasn't always this way.

On Black Friday 10 years ago, there may have been some early bird specials and there were certainly some extra department store inserts in the paper, but it was more of a "I'm not getting up that early and going out in the cold" kind of deal for most folks -- at least in my recollection.
My now-husband, then-boyfriend and I did decide to mozy over to the mall to check out the sales back in 2001, but it certainly wasn't at 5 a.m.

At that juncture in our lives we had begun to talk about marriage. We were 18, and broke, and I'm sure our parents probably didn't think it was a good idea. But our hearts were becoming increasingly set on the idea of spending all our days and nights together, on our own.

I hadn't been proposed to, but we both knew we were wanting it to happen. So, we swung by the jeweler that day, even though I don't remember it being what we had set out to do.

They had a special on a set that included both wedding bands and the engagement ring, and we took it. Well, I should say, my future husband applied for credit, got accepted and then we took the deal.

Romantic, right?

But I actually have come to embrace my engagement story. Over the past 10 years, my husband and I have managed to make it on our own, through college, buying our first house, starting our family.

We've had only minor bumps and we maybe haven't saved as much as we should have, but we've always gotten by. Sometimes that means shopping for the best deal, or going for the bargain instead of the splurge. It's a pretty all-American situation, I think.

With Black Friday sales starting earlier and earlier as the years go by, and some even officially encroaching on Thanksgiving day this year, I have to admit the overall feel of the Thanksgiving holiday seems to have evolved over time.
 
What used to be a day spent at home pigging out has turned into a day of running out to buy the paper to see the sales ads.

I know there were reports of a few pepper-spraying, fighting and stealing incidents from this most recent Black Friday, too -- though my husband, father-in-law and brother did manage to survive a very successful, even civil, trip to Wal-Mart for a midnight deal on a TV.

It's easy to declare that "the holidays" are getting more and more commercialized, that people are getting more selfish or that the world is quite simply a scary place.

I guess there's some truth to that. The way I see it, however, the economy stinks and we have less money to spend than in years past, but we still have people we love. We still have little kids we want to make squeal with delight on Christmas morning. Boyfriends still want to propose to their girlfriends.
We just, more than ever, can't afford to pass up a good deal.
• Contact Jessica Wiant at jwiant@nvdaily.com