Did You Black Friday?

Ugh, I did. Sort of.

Traditionally, the day after Thanksgiving is spent at home, supine on the couch eating mashed potatoes out of a Tupperware and watching home renovation shows. This year, with the long weekend beckoning and the idea of days of downtime looming, I opted out of Black Friday, deciding instead to drink wine with my sisters in the living room until two out of four of us fell asleep on the couch. Instead of surrendering myself to the masses on Friday, I went on Saturday instead. After a flurry of texts planning store routes and sales with the precision of a military strategist, my sister and I went to the pits of hell — Herald Square — to fully subsume ourselves in the spirit of the season.

Saturday was just as bad as I imagine Friday was, but worse only because it felt like every other person who had decided to sit Friday out woke up, drank a coffee and headed to Old Navy to fondle sweaters at 50 percent off. Though I want to resist the siren call of retailers offering me steep discounts in order to buy things I maybe don’t need, I’ve realized that I cannot resist a sale.

Here’s a $50 sweater I like only in concept, marked down to $10. Look, a pair of shoes that you tried on once that gave you blisters in the store, marked down to $15. The purchases I regret — a dark pile deep in the corner of my closet — are often the results of these sprees, bought under the influence of some primal part of myself that abandons reason for a good deal. I’ve gotten better about it; maybe it’s just age or maybe I’m realizing that saving money feels good. Either way, I made less purchases this year than I thought I would and all of them were useful.

My quest to decorate my new living room in under a month spurred most of my purchases. I pawed through pillows at Cost Plus World Market with my sister, bickering quietly in front of an employee who politely pretended not to listen. At the home goods section of H&M, I abandoned a lovely turtleneck sweater on a pile of Christmas pillows and shoved $3 throw pillow cases into my bag with wild abandon. Half the things I bought had to be returned, so I dragged myself back to the scene of the crime on Sunday, early in the morning, and did what I needed to do. I bought a new winter coat ($49.90, marked down from $129.90!) and a pair of shoes and some earrings ($15 and $8 respectively). I escorted myself out of Uniqlo when I started filling my arms with soft cashmere and turtlenecks, emboldened by the lack of hustle and bustle, eyes alight at the thought of a good-ass deal.

How’d you make out this weekend of shopping or not shopping or online shopping from your phone for an Amazon Echo or whatever?

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