Do You Plan to Spend More Money this Holiday Season?

Northern Virginia's economy is relatively strong, but the looming threat of sequestration has some shoppers nervous.

Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, holiday parties—it's an expensive time of year.  According to the National Retail Federation's national holiday consumer spending survey (conducted by BIGinsight), the average holiday shopper will spend $749.51 on gifts, décor, holiday cards, entertaining and other things this season. That's a minor increase from $740.57 — the amount shoppers spent last year. Two-thirds of respondents to a recent poll by the NPD Group said they “plan to spend about the same” as last year, while 10 percent planned to “spend more.” Unlike other areas of the country, the fiscal cliff and sequestration are really on the minds of thousands of federal employees and government contractors. With that in mind, will you be more…

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Yard Sales and Thrift Store Shopping this Weekend

Gaming Tables, Collectibles, Original Art, and More

Area Yard Sales:  Local Thrift Stores:  

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Tech Trends

Online Deals Benefit Your Holiday Shopping

Keep the savings coming even after Black Friday and Cyber Monday

Holiday spending has begun with the biggest bang on record in the world of ecommerce. ComScore Inc., the Internet tracking firm which happens to be located in Fairfax County, reports that Americans spent $816 million online on Black Friday and $1.25 billion on Cyber Monday. If you missed participating in the online shopping frenzy thus far, never fear. There are still good deals to be had on products, services and events this holiday season and all year round. Burke boasts both your favorite Mom and Pop stores and large chain stores like Target, Walmart and Kohls. Many offer coupons online as well as a listing of daily or weekly deals. Simplicity is a virtue. Online services that gather these deals for you make fast work in pursuing the …

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A Mom's Musings

Casual Black Friday

A different approach to Black Friday may make a difference all Holiday season.

By the time we watched the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade stroll into Herald Square and our turkey was cooked and served, the 2011 holiday shopping season at our house was already in full swing.  As for my gift lists, for the first time in many years, I was already in pretty good shape. They say the early bird gets the worm, but that was kind of hard to determine this year because the biggest shopping day of the year, Black Friday, morphed into Black Thursday, with pre-Black Friday deals running all last week.  The best thing about it all in our house were the hilarious Black Friday commercials on TV – my kids and I couldn’t get enough of them!  While I've succumbed to the Black Friday insanity on more than one occasion in the past, …

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Susan Larson

10:52 am on Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Congratulations to Karen on her one year anniversary writing A Mom's Musings for Patch.   more ›

Support Small Business Saturday® in Burke, Springfield

On November 26, shoppers are encouraged to bypass the mega-mall for Main Street.

"Independent and locally-owned small businesses are critical to our local economy," said Nancy-jo Manney, executive director of the Greater Springfield Chamber of Commerce.  "Small businesses bring prosperity to our community and create jobs for our families and neighbors." Manney encourages area residents to make a special effort to shop local on November 26 for the second annual Small Business Saturday®.  "It's a day dedicated to supporting small businesses on one of the busiest shopping weekends of the year," according to founder American Express. "When small businesses succeed, we all benefit," said Manney. Here’s how you can help.

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Nancy-jo Manney

8:44 am on Sunday, November 27, 2011

Let's not stop with Small Business Saturday. There are still many days to do your holiday shopping. Make those purchases locally. Make a big impact when you shop at small businesses.   more ›

A Mom's Musings

Snowtober

An early dusting excites the kids and motivates mom for holiday shopping.

“Hooray!  No school on Monday,” my kids yelled when they saw the snow falling last weekend.  “Not likely,” I told them based on weather reports that we were only supposed to get a light dusting in our neck of the woods (and hoping they were right).  Earthquakes, floods, a hurricane and now snow in October?  This is Virginia after all!  Just when we thought it was time to rake the leaves, we nearly had to drag out our snow shovels and ice scrapers.  But it appeared that we dodged a bullet this time, as many of our neighbors up north had power outages due to snowfalls measured in feet, not inches.  I reminded my kids they already used up one snow day when we got the flooding rain. That only leaves two remaining, and we still have a long …

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