So you missed the doorbusters. No worries. Who wants to cram into a store at dawn or set the alarm for 2 a.m. to get a virtual doorbuster? The best thing about Black Friday is you can go later in the day and still use many of the coupons retailers are sharing. Here are some of the best coupons out there.

Get 25% off your purchase at Michael's before noon local time or get fixed dollars off your purchase, depending on the total. Coupons here.

Spend $60 at Victoria's Secret and get a free runway bag. Print the coupon here. Online use code VSFRIDAY. If you're buying jammies, get a pair of free slippers with code PJGIFT. If you buy a sweater get a free scarf with code SCARF09. Some caveats.

If you want your Christmas shopping dollars to go further and support a great cause, then the Pink Friday charity fundraiser is the answer.

Systemax Inc., whose companies include CompUSA, Tiger Direct, TigerDirect Canada and Circuit City, will be hosting the third annual Pink Friday on the day traditionally known as "Black Friday."

The consumer electronics and technology retailer expects Pink Friday to help raise more than $100,000 for Susan G. Komen for the Cure, the world's largest breast cancer organization.

My wife and I occasionally shop for groceries at a supermarket that allows customers to collect points towards coupons, giveaways and other discounts. This year, we collected enough points to get a free turkey.

Hooray.

In years past, we never would've considered buying a frozen turkey from a chain grocery store. Not that we're arrogant or anything, we just prefer to buy local meats whenever possible. But because of the economy, we thought it might be a better idea to just take advantage of the free turkey and put the savings towards other things.

Cyber Monday deals traditionally come once a year, the Monday after Thanksgiving, when online retailers cut prices to lure in workers who have returned to work but still need to get some shopping done.

This year there will be plenty of Cyber Monday sales on Nov. 30, but according to the CEO of Coupon Craze, that's just the start of Cyber Monday deals this year.

By working with retailers and observing the online shopping trends, which show that online shopping jumps significantly on the Mondays leading up to Christmas, Christian Gordun, the Coupon Craze CEO, has come up with a list of additional Cyber Mondays and a Shipping Monday to keep in mind.

Many retail employees are forgoing Turkey Day with their families to offer a jump start on the Black Friday shopping mania.

According to the USA Today, Wal-Mart, Old Navy, and Radio Shack on the West Coast will entertain shoppers who decide to splurge after a hearty meal.

So will Toys R Us, says an earlier Walletpop post and Boscov's and certain Banana Republic/ Gap stores. These retailers will join Kmart, Walgreen's and other drug and grocery stores who began the tradition years ago.

"It's a big trend for retailers," said Scott Testa, professor of business administration at Cabrini College in Philadelphia in a phone interview. "I think a certain percentage of the population will go and shop especially if they can beat the Black Friday crowd."

Would you believe that a cookie, a single cookie, could make your Christmas shopping cost more?

That's right, and this cookie, well it doesn't win an award for taste, it isn't ginormous and it doesn't even have gold speckles in it. It's just a small file on your computer that tracks where you have been. At least one retailer is making use of a cookie from the Bing cashback program to charge you more!

John Puskarich, co-founder of deal comparison site Bountii, shared the new negative cashback feature on the company blog highlighting one example of how using Bing's cashback service could cost you more.

If you're looking for great Black Friday deals you should read WalletPop's Black Friday Shopping Guide, which will tell you the best places to shop for specific items, but if you still need to compare the Black Friday sales we have five tools to help you find what you're looking for.

First off Cheapism.com points us to an interactive online Black Friday offer browser that lets you sort, compare and filter on many categories so that you can compare the Black Friday sales that matter to you. It is easy to sort by store, price, category, brand, and even if there is a rebate involved.

Cheapism also pointed out a Black Friday Twitter aggregation tool put together by the Washington Post that is pulling in Black Friday deals from companies that Tweet. This is a great place to watch for last minute deal announcements and coupon codes.

If you've heard of Zhu Zhu Pets, those furry, robotic toy hamsters, you likely know they're popular. And now we know how popular.

The Associated Press interviewed Chris Handy, who, after watching a story about their newfound fame on The Today Show, bought 15 Zhu Zhu Pets at a Target store (they retail for about $8 to $10 a piece) and then sold them online. He made $1,000, what the AP says is a 900% profit.

Here we go again.

With so many retailers offering pre-Black Friday sales, Thanksgiving Day sales and of course Black Friday deals, you might have forgotten about the upcoming Cyber Monday sales!

Even though many stores are trying to keep their Cyber Monday sales under wraps until after Black Friday we found several places to go looking for the best bargains on Cyber Monday.

First off is the CouponShack which has a large collection of Cyber Monday coupon codes for Kohl's and many other small retailers who are offering Cyber Monday specials.

RetailMeNot is another great place to look for Cyber Monday discounts. The RetailMeNot Cyber Monday page currently has some coupons from last Cyber Monday mixed in but there are still some geed deals to be found. You can also install the browser toolbar for FireFox or Internet Explorer and be alerted coupons for any store you visit.

While most of us are preoccupied with gorging ourselves on turkey and stuffing, it can be easy to forget about the growing number of people who are struggling just to eat one meal a day. In fact, a recent government survey found that more than one in seven U.S. households are finding it difficult to afford putting food on the table.

Those 14.5% of U.S. households, representing about 49 million people, make up the highest rate of "food-insecure" households since the U.S. Department of Agriculture began monitoring the issue in 1995. As the recession has deepened, so has the number of people using food stamps from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, with participation growing by 23% in the last year, according to Hans Billger of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The situation would be far worse if not for food pantries and federal food assistance programs, such as SNAP. For the nearly 35.9 million people who receive SNAP benefits, they're a lifeline to survival. In July, more people were using SNAP benefits than at any other time in the history of the program.

The average SNAP benefit for one person is $101.53 per month with a maximum of $200. For a household of four, the average benefit is $226.59 per month (the maximum benefit is $668 per month). WalletPop recently spoke with a few families who rely on food stamps to find out just how hard it is to stretch their resources and put healthy meals on the table.

The ramp up to Black Friday has been more energetic this year than any I can remember. There's a near insatiable thirst for discounts and door busters and retailers are more than willing to do whatever it takes to satisfy that thirst.

I've been covering national big box retailers for nearly 15 years now, and the volume of discounts this Black Friday is simply astonishing. All the national retailers like Best Buy, Target, Toys R Us and Walmart are rolling out new deals so fast it's difficult to keep track (although WalletPop does, check out our Black Friday listing). But there's more to retailing than national chains, and it's important to remember that mom and pop shops need to ring their registers too. This year, more than ever.

Seasoned Black Friday shoppers know that the best way to save during this all-important shopping day is to plot out a course of action ahead of time. That means knowing what you want and where to get it -- at the lowest possible price, of course.

Such planning entails scouring the Black Friday ads and comparing prices and selection. To help ease the load, WalletPop has done some of the legwork for you. We've combed through the ads that have been released so far and dug up the best deals on everything from high-definition TVs and Blu-ray players to tools and sweaters.

Black Friday is only a few days away, and in addition to the numerous pre-sales and Thanksgiving Day discounts going on, many smaller or niche stores are sharing their Black Friday deals with us; before they hit your Wednesday newspaper.

Of note today are deals from Bare Necessities, Victoria's Secret, T-Mobile, Amazon, and Pet Supplies Plus.

Lingerie:
Bare Necessities is currently running pre-Black Friday deals including, bra sales on Tuesday and steals starting at $9.99 on Wednesday. On Black Friday you'll be able to find discounts on Nautica flannel drawstring pants, slips, bras and panties starting at just $9.

The Consumer Federation of America (CFA) and the Credit Union National Association (CUNA) have come out today with their tenth annual holiday spending survey, and here's what they have found: Consumers aren't going to be spending as much on their holiday gifts as in previous years.

Could there be any news that's less surprising?

Not to knock them for getting this information -- it's always good to have the data on spending, if you're a retail store owner or, I guess, a personal finance journalist. But this isn't exactly a shock.

Black Friday deals are already appealing, with plenty of Black Friday laptop deals and clothing deals and plenty more. But what would you say if you could get an extra; 5%, 10%, 20%, or even 35% off of your purchase in the form of cash back just by starting your holiday shopping on Bing.com?

For a limited time on Black Friday, November 27th, Bing will offer bigger cash-back rewards as part of their Bing Goldrush promotion. This will include cash-back amounts from 5 to 35 percent from retailers such as Macy's, Sears, The Gap, AT&T, Walmart, eBay, HP and many more.