How To Win On Black Friday & Cyber Monday

   

If you’re like me, you believe that it feels almost as good to buy something on the cheap or a great deal as it does to not buy anything at all! Keyword being ALMOST. But there are those times when we see a deal so good, so tempting, so mouth-watering (too much, ok sorry) it’s hard to pass it up.

 

Many of these deals come the day after Thanksgiving. This is also known as Black Friday. Bonus: some of these great deals com following Monday which is known as Cyber Monday (mostly deals on the internet). Here are some ways/tips/rules to make sure you don’t get something you’ll regret or don’t need or end up spending more than you would have liked to in the first place.

 

The first and most important rule is to determine if you really want or need this item and can you convince yourself of that. As an example, I’m planning to upgrade my TV in my family room to a 70 inch one. I really want it because I want to watch football and movies, and binge watch on Netflix on a bigger screen than the 40 inch I currently have. I can picture myself having this and am drooling at the thought. So I have satisfactorily convinced myself that I want this bad enough.  By the way, according to Bankrate.com, TVs and other electronics are a steal on Black Friday and possibly until January (Bankrate).

 

The next step is RESEARCH. And when I say research, I mean the item or product, not the specific brand, at least not yet. If you want to get a bargain, you have to be open to all brands. In the example of a TV, the top brands are arguably Sony and Samsung. But I’ve found there are others that have great quality and are much cheaper (I mean hundreds of dollars cheaper) like I dunno……Sharp and Visio. Some of my friends have these brands and I’m impressed! Aspects such as picture quality and the features in terms of connectivity to the internet, number of ports on the back etc. are very comparable to higher end brands. So research means checking out pricing, features, and customer reviews.

 

Put Plan into Action

 

The third and final step is timing, that is finding the right time to buy. This is where Black Friday and Cyber Monday kicks in. Now it is not guaranteed that the specific item you’ve researched and finalized in step 2 above will go on that awesome sale. It’s nice to be flexible and have a couple of backup items. If for example, a higher end brand goes on a great sale than that can be purchased and you can feel even greater about buying the best at the best price.

 

Be Safe Out There

 

Personally, I prefer shopping online when the stores are too busy. The reason is I want to avoid getting up early in the morning if I possibly can, large crowds/lines and the risk of items being sold before I get to the store. I can much more easily click a few buttons at home in my pajamas. That being said, there are people who like the excitement of going out and finding random awesome deals and running around in these overly crowded stores (hi wifey 🙂