Black Friday Shopping Tips to Save You Money

Posted by Madison on November 21, 2017

The countdown is on… it’s only a few more days until Black Friday!

Black Friday Shopping Tips

Here are some of our favorite Black Friday shopping tips and resources we’ve gathered over the years.

Prepare for Holiday Shopping

Prepare for holiday shopping! Keep your holiday spending under control with a gift list and holiday budget.

Once you make your budget and your list, then it’s time to do some planning for Black Friday (and Cyber Monday) sales.

When Do Black Friday Deals Start?

Black Friday, which traditionally marked the beginning of holiday shopping, is the day after Thanksgiving. However, in the last few years, we’ve seen stores open on Thanksgiving and then decide to stay closed on Thanksgiving. This year, Pre-Black Friday sales seem to be the trend again!

I’m closely watching the items featured in the Amazon Black Friday Deals Week. They plan to release new deals all week!

If you are shopping the Amazon Lightning Deals, see the list of 14 Ways to Save Even More Money Shopping on Amazon for tips and tricks.

How to Find Black Friday Deals

If you are interested in looking at the Black Friday deals in advance, here is my list of sites that share Black Friday ads before they are published:

Black Friday at GottaDeal.com. This is my favorite site because you can select the items you want and maintain a shopping list as the ads come out. They also point out which items can be bought online if you want to avoid the crowds. In addition, the discussion in the forums is usually fun to follow.

Here are some other sites that I’ve checked out:

Favorite Black Friday Resources

Most Wanted. Once I make my list, I cross-check it with the most wanted list at Gotta Deal. That way I know which items on my list I might need to prioritize. It’s not an exact science but it lets me know the popularity, which comes into play when planning our route.

Free List. My favorite list is the list of all the free items on Black Friday. I searched all over, but couldn’t find one years ago, so I have made my own ever since! Here it is: Black Friday Free Stuff!

Check prices online. I double check everything on my list against what is or will be available online. Many deals are available both in store and online. Check out Online Shopping Resources for ways to save money shopping online.

Organization. This is somewhat of a silly tip, but I keep it on my list because the key to Black Friday is organization. Once I have my list and route planned, I organize everything and put it into my expanding file.

I use one pocket per store in order of our shopping route. Each pocket contains an envelope with the list for that store, coupons I have, which credit card to use, and the back-up plan if an item is already gone. Then on Thanksgiving day, I pull out all the ads from the newspaper and put a copy of each ad in the pocket.

It makes it easy on Black Friday, each time we go to a store, I just grab the envelope. Being efficient and organized on Black Friday is much more enjoyable than being frazzled.

Flipp app. The Flipp app lets you look at ads and filter sales by % off. It’s a great way to look for deeply discounted items or search for the same item at multiple stores. I haven’t used it in a few years, but I’ll leave it on the list for anyone who is still using it.

Do you plan to shop on Black Friday? Will you shop in person or online?

More Black Friday Shopping Resources

Cyber Monday

After Black Friday is done, don’t forget about Cyber Monday, which gets bigger and bigger each year. We will update the Cyber Monday resources before the big day, but here’s a look back at some of the Cyber Monday resources from years past to get you started.



Check out today's hottest holiday Lightning Deals. Hurry, they change fast and sell out quickly!




You can get my latest articles full of valuable tips and other information delivered directly to your email for free simply by entering your email address below. Your address will never be sold or used for spam and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Email:

Comments to Black Friday Shopping Tips to Save You Money

  1. I love your blog and refer to it from my money blog. I just wanted to thank you for your great words.

    Julie


  2. I don’t like Black Friday because I feel that a lot of people buy things simply because they are ‘good deals.’

    If it isn’t something you were planning to buy anyways, then why buy it?

    Neko



Previous article: «
Next article: »