Friday Favorites – Black Friday Alternatives

Hi All!

I hope you had a delicious and fun and relaxing Thanksgiving! Did anyone watch the parade? Or the dog show? Or football? Or play football? Or participate in a Turkey Trot? Or just eat lots of turkey? I started off my day with a little bit of barre to prep for all the food, and watched the parade and snippets of the dog show while helping out with the cooking! And then I ate. A LOT.

I know that a lot of people like to participate in Black Friday and start the holiday shopping frenzy, so I’m stopping in today with some of my favorite Black Friday alternatives. The whole first weekend seems to be a very popular shopping time, so when you’re thinking about your game plan, perhaps consider some other options. They have greater benefits than Black Friday – AND you can stay in your jammies Friday morning and skip all the frantic shopping insanity.

I think Small Business Saturday is becoming much more popular, but it’s a great way to get some shopping done, and support your local businesses. If you’d like to learn more about Small Business Saturday, or to find a small business by you to support, you can visit the American Express website here. They have listings of all kinds of small businesses – restaurants, specialty shops, general merchandise type stores, and so on. Basically anything you could want. I always like doing some holiday shopping in local small businesses since they tend to have more unique items and it supports my local economy. Win-win!

The second option if for Cyber Monday. Cyber Monday is becoming more and more popular given the convenience of online shopping, not to mention the diversity of options! If you are a Cyber Monday fan, specifically an Amazon.com fan, I’d like to suggest and encourage you to sign up for AmazonSmile. It is exactly the same Amazon.com (and you can still use your Amazon Prime – I do!), but when you make eligible purchases, Amazon donates 0.5% of the price to the charitable organization of your choice. When you sign up, they have a few pre-selected charities that you can choose from, or you can search for whichever one you prefer or that has special meaning to you. It’s such an easy way to help make a difference; you literally buy exactly what you were planning on getting, but your favorite charity gets some help too! You can’t go wrong!

Another option for Cyber Monday is to consider shopping at some less traditional online shops, or shops with sustainability or ethically-centered/fair trade missions. In the “small business” vein, Etsy is a very popular online shop, and Zibbet is another option. Some of my favorite shops that have sustainability/ethical/fair-trade missions are: thredUP, Threads for Thought,  Thriftbooks, and Fashionable. I plan to go into more detail on these in the month of December, but wanted to quickly mention them here too. 🙂

Lastly, the alternative day that I really love to support is Giving Tuesday. I’m a big believer of giving to charities around the holidays and like to shop some of my favorite charity gift catalogs to pick up presents for friends and families. Giving Tuesday is a great day to do your holiday giving because often times, charities have matching programs and other benefits that can make your contribution go farther. To read more about Giving Tuesday, check out the website here.

I hope this helps you think a little more about your holiday shopping plans and maybe you’ll consider giving a couple of these options an try! If you do, or already shop any of these alternatives, or have other suggestions, drop me a comment! I’d love to hear from you!

This is not a paid post. I received no compensation from any of the companies I mentioned above, I don’t think they even know who I am. I just really love these websites and think they have a lot to offer so I wanted to share so you can check them out too!