Black Friday is the busiest shopping day of the year, and setting out to get the best deals requires a thick skin and a game plan. You can save hundreds or thousands of dollars if you shop Black Friday sales, but it’s not always realistic to make it to every store to get every item that you want. Still, you can get the majority of what you want with some good planning. You can also sign on to the Internet and take advantage of Cyber Monday deals the first Monday after Thanksgiving.
1) Plan Your Route
Don’t just head to the mall on Black Friday. The parking lots will be crowded, and the stores will be equally chock-full of people. To get through your day with the least amount of stress, it’s a smart idea to make a route or specific plan. Take a look at when the best sales are offered, since certain deals are only available during a particular window of time. Once you have a list of when you will attend certain sales and how long you plan to stay in each store, you can have a bit more structure to your day instead of just chaos.
2) Coordinate with Friends and Family
Splitting up your shopping list with friends or family members will also cut back on your stress. Write out a list of what everyone wants to buy and the stores where the items are sold. If each person can agree to take one or two stores, you can all end up with what you want and no one has to go all over town on Black Friday. You can either give each other cash for the items, or reimburse each other after the shopping day is over.
3) Look for Coupons
Sometimes you can save even more by adding coupons to your Black Friday discount strategy. Sites like SumoCoupon.com offer coupons for department stores and other small retailers for merchandise from clothes to home décor. Some coupons are able to be used alongside other discounts, while others must only be used alone. In either case, investigating available coupons may be able to save you money, but you should do your research at least a few days in advance of Black Friday. Know the coupon rules and have them on hand the day that you head out to shop, so you don’t delay your check out process.
Black Friday is notorious for being chaotic, but it doesn’t have to be if you head out to the stores with a strategy and stick to the plan. By splitting up the shopping tasks among different family members and having a list of which deals are offered at which stores, you cut back on a lot of the drama from the start. Allow yourself plenty of time in each store, accounting for long lines at the check out stands that might take up to an hour to get through. If you have too tight a time window, you might get behind schedule early in the day.
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- Surviving the Black Friday Pandemonium
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- 5 Helpful Frugal Living Tips for Moms
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