Normally, I would wait for the day after Thanksgiving to purchase the big ticket items.  For example, 2 years ago I snagged a Panasonic 42″ plasma TV for around $800 AND they threw in the $300 Tweeter gift card.  Last year, I grabbed some parts for my computer dirt cheap, and some nice jewelry items for my wife.  I’d wake up early, load some tunes on my Sansa, browse through the paper ads, and chill with other thrill-seekers outside some store.

Not this year.

Even though I’ve just read about people being pronounced dead after being trampled at some Wal-Mart, or pregnant women being hospitalized under similar conditions (which tells me that people are still shopping it up regardless of the economic situation), I decided to skip the shopping extravaganzas.

First of, we have everything we need — and the stuff we thought we needed, well, we don’t.  As Peter Schiff said in one of the many YouTube clips (paraphrasing), nothing bad would happen if people didn’t buy a new car and made do with the old one, or didn’t charge that new television set and just watched their 32″ RCA for another year.  We still have nice, fairly new things, and I can’t think of anything we need.

Second, I am stockpiling cash to 1) expand the safety net 2) pay down debt 3) convert cash into silver.  I’ll elaborate — basically, after food/utilities/bills, each dollar we make gets divided into those 3 categories.  We need more cash in case both of us lose our jobs.  We need to aggressively attack our remaining debts.  We need to set aside a portion of our budget that we won’t immediately need so it can be converted into tokens with intrinsic value, i.e. precious metals.

A quick note on precious metals — there’s evidence of big players shorting gold and silver to keep the price down … I believe gold will surpass $2,000/oz within 12 months.  I’ve been incrementally buying Silver Dollar bullion coin from the US Mint, although it takes longer and longer to order and receive (crazy demand).

And finally, this Black Friday bonanza makes me feel like I’ve felt right before quitting smoking — the realization of pointlessness, harm to my body, and waste of money finally helped me quit for good … not only that, I now cringe every time I catch a whiff of someone’s cigarette and run away from it :) Same with shopping — because shopping for the sake of shopping is … sickening in its decadence.

If you’re out shopping, just be careful.  Both with your money, and with not being trampled.