I’m not a big shopper. Never have been, never will be.
However, I do love scoring a great bargain, which is why I do some shopping on Black Friday. However, I always remind myself that even the best deal isn’t a deal if I’m buying something I don’t need.
If you want to snag some great Black Friday deals, but you want to be mindful of your money (and your spending), trying using these strategies.
Make a List of What You Need
Notice I didn’t say, make a list of what you “want.” There are lots of things you might want looking through the Black Friday ads. You might want the electric blanket that will keep you toasty all night long, but do you really need it? Your son might want the latest gizmo toy, but does he already have so many toys that he doesn’t have room to put them all away? Move on.
Make a list of things that you truly need. Last year, my husband and I noticed that our kitchen pots and pans were getting scraped up at the bottom and the non-stick coating was coming off. We bought a set from Kohl’s on Black Friday, and after the sale and rebate, we got the pans for less than 50% of the retail price. I was also tempted by the deal on a Kitchen Aid mixer, but I didn’t need the Kitchen Aid mixer, I just wanted it, so I passed that deal up.
Think Beyond Toys and Electronics
Many people think of toys and electronics when they think of Black Friday deals, but expand your horizons. If you need new towels because yours are ragged, Black Friday is the perfect time to look. Look around your house at anything you think you may need to replace in the next year and consider taking advantage of the Black Friday sales.
Shop Online
Thanks to the Internet, there’s no need to go shopping on Thanksgiving to score the deals or to fight with the hordes of people flocking to the store. Most of the time, the stores only stock a limited supply of an item that will likely be sold out before you get to the right aisle.
Shop online from the comfort of your home, and you’ll find almost everything you want in stock. Better yet, many retailers offer free shipping, so it can be delivered right to your door.
Capture Additional Savings
If you’re shopping online, make sure to take advantage of additional savings. Use a site like Ebates to get cash back for some of your purchases. You can also shop online codes to get free shipping if the store doesn’t already offer it.
Learn When the Sale Starts
Now that Black Friday sales are so popular, retails are trying to extend the Black Friday shopping season. First, they began opening their stores late on Thanksgiving night. Last year, many retailers offered their Black Friday sales online during the entire week of Thanksgiving. I think we scored our pots and pan deal on Monday, four days before Black Friday.
Find a deal blogger to follow, if you don’t already, to get the latest scoop on when the sales will start.
Use these tips to score the best Black Friday deals, keep your budget intact, and enjoy your time with family on Thanksgiving.
Do you shop on Black Friday? What other tips would you add to this list?
Melissa is a writer and virtual assistant. She earned her Master’s from Southern Illinois University, and her Bachelor’s in English from the University of Michigan. When she’s not working, you can find her homeschooling her kids, reading a good book, or cooking. She resides in New York, where she loves the natural beauty of the area.
With the recent changes in my employment, it’s become pretty darn important for us to not only keep to our budget, but to reduce our budget as much as we can in order to keep from sending our finances into the whirlpool of red ink that is broke.
One of the ways that we’ve got to cut back, because of the time of year, is in our Christmas present shopping. We’ve already come to the agreement with our extended family that we wouldn’t be exchanging presents with them. However, with the wonderful consumerism myth that is Santa Claus, it’s a bit more difficult to completely cut off the kids from any presents whatsoever. With that in mind, we decided that we’d still be getting the kids a few things, but would have to take advantage of as many great deals and coupons as we possibly could. And, you all know what that means.
As a general rule, I avoid the masses of people that throng to the Black Friday specials. I don’t have the patience for all those people rushing around the aisles, searching for that one last electronic door buster special, or digging through the mountain of cheap DVDs in the middle of the aisle. But, when you’ve got to save some money, sometimes you’ve gotta take a few risks. 😉 Late Thursday night, after all the turkey had been eaten, we went through the flyers for the stores and decided on a few things that we should pick up to give to the kids.
Luckily, for us, our kids are still young enough that they are satisfied more by quantity, than by amount, so it’s easy for us to buy a few bundled items and pack them individually and still come away with as much present opening satisfaction as we would have otherwise.
We took the tips that I wrote a week or so ago, and put them to good use. We went into the day with a detailed idea of what it was we were looking for, and where we were looking for it. We had a list of what we wanted to get, and a budget to spend on that list. If the stores were out of something, we didn’t substitute with the similar, more expensive, item that was conveniently set up next to the empty shelves.
And, we conquered Black Friday. We stuck to our list, only buying one extra item. We not only kept to our budget, but we beat it! When we were done with our busy morning of shopping, we had everything on our list, and we’d spent less than $150! Christmas will be a little lighter under the tree than it has been in previous years, but I’m pretty sure the kids will be happy with it, and we’ll all have a great time, like usual.
Now, we just have to avoid the impulse purchases that will come today in all the Cyber Monday emails and ads, and we’ll be all set. 😉 But, we conquered Black Friday, and that’s something!
How did you all do this Black Friday? Did you go out and shop with the masses? Did you stay home and polish off the turkey leftovers?
I started this blog to share what I know and what I was learning about personal finance. Along the way I’ve met and found many blogging friends. Please feel free to connect with me on the Beating Broke accounts: Twitter and Facebook.
If you’re like almost every other American, after you’ve gorged yourself on all the Thanksgiving day feasts, you’ll be headed out to do a little gorging of a consumer variety. Black Friday is well known as one of the largest shopping days of the year. Most every retail store has some huge deals for the turkey-drunk shoppers that wander to their doors. And, like most every other American, you’ll likely spend way more than you had planned on spending.
As your favorite personal finance blogger, I urge you to not do that. I’m all about buying what we need at a price that is below the normal retail price. Sales, coupons, and rebates are the way to go when buying things that we need. But, chances are, the things that will be on sale on Black Friday will not be things that you need. In fact, they’re likely to be things like big-screen televisions, computers, and the hot toy of the day. You’re going to be tempted to buy them all, because the marketing department makes it look like such a incredible deal! Here’s some tips for avoiding that temptation, and coming away from your Black Friday shopping with a happy account balance.
Have a budget. This should be the only tip you need. But, you’ll get in the store and be tempted. But, having a defined budget for how much you are planning to spend is still a good thing! Even if you go over that budget, you’re much more likely to at least stay close to it if you have a budget, than you are if you don’t have one at all.
Make a list. You’re likely shopping for gifts for everyone, hoping to make them all happy while saving some money on what you buy them. Make a list of the people you’re planning on buying for, compare it to the flyers that will be inundating your vision over the next week, and then make a master list of people, with the things you plan on buying for them, and where you’ll be buying them. Now, stick to your list!
Be aware of prices. Just because the marketing department put the price in big yellow letters over a big red starburst does not mean that it’s really a good deal. The stores will be full of items that they are marketing as a big savings, when they really are not. Be aware of the prices of competitors, sure, but also be aware of what the price for that item was last week and be wary of artificial sale prices that aren’t really sale prices.
Don’t fall for the swap. Many of the places will have a very limited amount of the big sale items on hand. When they run out, they’ll “swap” the sale item for a similar item that’s more expensive. You’re there for the big sale item, and you can’t leave without it, so you pay the little bit extra to get the similar item. Usually, that “swap” item is regular priced, and not on sale at all.
Free can be bad. More than any other day in the year, the stores will be pushing free items. “Buy a tickle-me-broke, and get a free tin can!” The free item is usually a low cost item (loss leader) that they can afford to give away, while the item you have to buy is usually not on sale for as much as they’d like you to believe, and is a much higher profit item.
The biggest thing to remember while you’re doing your shopping next friday is to be aware. Be aware that the store isn’t out to save you money. They want to make money, so they will do what they can to bring you in the doors with a huge sale and then sell you all the high-profit items that aren’t on that huge sale list. We’ve all seen the videos each year of the people trampling each other trying to get one of the ten of those super cool kitchen gadgets, or video game systems. Don’t be that person. Be conscious of what you want to buy, how much it sold for before, and what the price should be the day you’re buying it. Have a set amount you want to spend and stay close to that amount. You’ll be happier that you did.
What are your plans for Black Friday? Gonna be in the crowds at midnight? Or wait until it cools off later in the day? Or, are you a Cyber Monday shopper?
I started this blog to share what I know and what I was learning about personal finance. Along the way I’ve met and found many blogging friends. Please feel free to connect with me on the Beating Broke accounts: Twitter and Facebook.
