Black Friday, this year on November 24, offers some of the lowest prices of the year on many consumer goods including TVs, other electronics and toys. Savvy shoppers save hundreds or even thousands of dollars on this single day.
Shopping on Black Friday is extremely hectic and overwhelming due to so many amazing deals. Stores open extremely early and most only offer their best deals on a first-come, first-serve basis. Finding and keeping track of all of these deals is not easy. To help you, we have put together these tips for saving at both on-line and in-store sales on Black Friday.
- Make a List of Items You Want to Buy – Your objective for Black Friday should be to buy only the items on your list at the lowest price possible. Please note, we did not say you should buy the items with the biggest discounts at each store because you should not. Why not? Retailers will try very hard to get you to buy things that are not on your list. This does not benefit you. Instead, you will end up spending more of your hard-earned money than you planned which benefits the retailers. Do your best to stick to your list.
- Scope Out the Best Deals Ahead of Time –
Make sure you scope out the best deals ahead of time to make the most of your Black Friday. Remember, you are only looking for the items on your list.
Look through the ads in your local paper to find some of the best deals for brick-and-mortar stores. You can view the same ads on the retailers’ websites if you no longer subscribe to the newspaper.
If you plan to shop online, check out your favorite websites ahead of time to see if they are promoting their best Black Friday deals. You might be able to find out about special deals if you sign up for a retailer’s email newsletter ahead of the big day. Some websites, such as blackfriday.com and slickdeals.net, compile huge lists of Black Friday sales for both online and brick-and-mortar shopping.
- Make a Plan of Attack –
Once you have identified the best deals on the items you want to buy, make a list of each item, the best store in which to buy it, the discounted price and the normal price.
Scan your list and look for the items with the biggest total dollar savings. Prioritize these items by making them the first stop on your Black Friday shopping trip. If there are other great deals on items that you want to buy at the same store, pick them up while you are there.
You may need to enlist the help of friends or family if there are multiple big dollar savings at different stores at the same time. If this is the case, make sure to entice them to help with a small bribe. Just make sure the bribe is smaller than how much you will save.
- Shop Online with Your Smartphone – Ensure that you are making the most of your time whenever you are waiting in a line to purchase an item. Pull out your smartphone and buy those great online deals while you wait to make your brick-and-mortar store purchases. This helps to save time and avoid missing the online and in-store deals.
- Use Rewards Credit Cards for Extra Savings – We always use our rewards credit cards to tack on a few extra percentage points of savings to every purchase. Make sure to use the best card for every store. Whether you get two percent cash back on all of your purchases or you use a rotating five percent cash back credit card, every penny counts.
Black Friday is hectic, but with a little bit of planning you can save a ton of money without losing your mind.
If you want more credit, check out our list of credit card offers.
Photo ©iStockphoto.com/Catherine Lane