Preparing for Black Friday

We are a few days away from the biggest holiday shopping day of the year, Black Friday. Many people will be using Thanksgiving Day as a day of camping out in front of their favorite stores, while others will be looking to go to bed early and wake up even earlier to take on the stores head on. While Black Friday seems like an intimidating event for some, it’s an exhilarating event for others. Men, women, and children are preparing for Black Friday to go to stores at the crack of dawn to get some of the best deals year round. So how can you prepare for the supercharged event?

• Decide On Your Budget: One year for Black Friday, my mom and I spent about $600 combined! Obviously, that was before money was this tight. This year, we don’t plan on spending that much money. We have a budget. Since there’s less people to shop for this year, I don’t plan on spending more than $200. If you’ve been saving money all year long for the holidays, you’ll probably have a bigger budget for gifts.
• Study Your Sales Papers: Many stores such as WalMart, Target, Best Buy, and Amazon have already announced some of their deeply discounted items on sale. Figure out what it is on your list that you’ll be looking to buy, and where it will be the cheapest. From there you can design your Black Friday roadmap of where you will go.
• Consider Shopping From Home: I’m sure you heard how brutal it can get for Black Friday, with people almost coming to blows to get things of limited quantity. Just about anything you plan on buying at the big stores will be available online. As I mentioned before, Amazon will be having a Black Friday sale as well, and many of the retailers will have sales on their website as well as in stores. Sure, you won’t get it that day, but you’ll get the same deal, and more than likely you’ll get free shipping too.
• Get More Bang For Your Buck: Sure, you’re going to be getting great deals for yourself and for your loved ones, but don’t forget about earning some additional rewards. Use your loyalty card, check for cash back rewards, use your rewards credit card (but remember to pay the balance off in full). If you can get money back for spending money, why wouldn’t you take advantage?
• Don’t Forget Daily Deal Sites: If you think you get your best buys from daily deal sites, try them out on Black Friday. Sites like Groupon and Living Social most certainly will still give you great products and services for great prices. These are the new gift cards! If you have a frugal person you’re shopping for, they’ll appreciate it just as much as you.
• Just Wait Until Cyber Monday: Cyber Monday is the Black Friday of the web. Whatever you don’t get on the day after Thanksgiving you can find online during Cyber Monday. Arm yourself with your plastic, your PayPal account, and search engines to find amazing deals without the lines, getting up early, or leaving your house. Again, the downside is that you can’t have the items immediately in your hand, but free shipping is usually a perk you get on this day.

Briana

Briana Myricks is a 20 something freelance writer and blogger. Striving for financial independence as a newlywed, she blogs about young married life at 20 and Engaged.