• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Clever Dude Personal Finance & Money

Clever Dude Personal Finance & Money

Family, Marriage, Finances & Life

  • Toolkit
  • Contact
  • Lunch
  • Save A Ton Of Money
  • About Clever Dude

Frugality • Spending

5 Steps to Successful Black Friday Shopping

November 20, 2013
By Brock Kernin
- Leave a Comment

black friday shopping tips, black friday shopping success, black friday shopping advice

I walked through the door of the electronics super store with the ticket I was given for a killer deal on a laptop.  On the way to the claims desk at the back of the store, I passed by a Nintendo Game Boy display that had a large red sale sign on it. I managed to shove an arm through a crowd of people and grab one as there weren’t many left.

It was a Black Friday door buster, so I figured it had to be a good deal.

Continuing further, I found a portable DVD player for a steal of a price. At the time my kids were very young, and we didn’t have a built in DVD player in our vehicle. Seeing a great opportunity to allow my children to watch their favorite shows in the car during longer trips, I snatched one of those as well.

 

 

 

 

 

While the laptop ended up giving my family years of great service, the other items I purchased that morning didn’t work out very well.

The Game Boy was discounted deeply because the Nintendo DS had just been released and the store was trying to get rid of it’s stock of the original Game Boy devices. My son was only mildly excited about the Game Boy, as he preferred playing his games through his game console on a much larger TV.

Within a few months, the cheap DVD player had fatally scratched more of our kids’ favorite moves than I could count.

As illustrated by my experience, one danger of Black Friday is impulse buying. When retailers open their doors on Black Friday, they are met with crowds of people who have potentially been waiting outside for hours ready to rush in and find the products they saw advertised at unbelievable discounts. As consumers scamper through the store, many will do exactly what I did and grab items in the heat of the moment because they are perceived to be great deals.

If I’m going to brave the crowds and participate in Black Friday shopping, I need a game plan to make sure I don’t make the same mistake again:

Make Your List: I always have the list of items that I need to purchase for Christmas presents, or any additional items for my home that I’m in the market to buy.

Scour The Ads: The ads are made available in the Thanksgiving Day paper. I scour the ads looking ONLY for items that are on my list.  It’s NOT a sale if you buy something you weren’t already going to buy anyway.

Do Your Research: Many times the items that retailers use as door busters are items of sub par quality (Anybody want a used DVD player?), or are items lacking features that you may or may not be interested in. Research the items that you are contemplating buying and ensure they meet your needs and that they are getting generally good reviews.

Make Time: Looking through all the adds, making your list, and doing research is a lot to do in one day. The good news is, it is possible to get advanced copies of the Black Friday Ads from websites like FatWallet or BFAds.net so you can start your research weeks ahead of time.

Stick To Your List: Retailers pull all kinds of tricks to get you to spend your money on Black Friday. For example, notice in my story that I had to walk all the way to the back of the store to get the laptop passing by all their merchandise tempting me to buy more. It worked!

With this game plan, I’m confident that I can get some great deals on Black Friday, without coming home with unneeded and unwanted low quality items.

Do you shop on Black Friday? Do you have any tricks to stay on task and on budget?

Brought to you courtesy of Brock

  • Follow Clever Dude on Twitter
  • Like Clever Dude on Facebook

 

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Cathie says

    November 21, 2013 at 12:15 pm

    NO. I hate shopping in crowds. I hate parking in crowded parking lots. I hate feeling like I’m missing something somewhere. So I do most of my shopping online, with free shipping. I am not a Black Friday type person.

    Reply
  2. Bryce @ Save and Conquer says

    November 21, 2013 at 12:49 pm

    I always make and follow a list when shopping, whether it is Black Friday or any other day. Impulse buys almost always never work out.

    Reply
  3. Donny Gamble says

    November 21, 2013 at 2:42 pm

    I’m planning on doing all of my black friday shopping online so that I can avoid all of the crowds. I will just pickup all of the things that I purchase a few days later.

    Reply
  4. Brock says

    November 21, 2013 at 8:00 pm

    @Cathie – there is quite a trend towards free shipping from online retailers, especially this time of year. I’m becoming more and more of a fan of online shopping every year. Great to hear from you, Cathie, I always enjoy hearing your perspective!

    Reply
  5. Brock says

    November 21, 2013 at 8:01 pm

    @Bryce – True story about impulse purchases….obviously I’ve learned that the hard way as well. Thanks for dropping in!

    Reply
  6. Brock says

    November 26, 2013 at 8:09 am

    @Donny – Great plan….nothing wrong with shopping from your office chair for sure!

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Are you feeling the call to be a Clever Dude? Then, let's get down to brass tacks and explore what it takes to be one. Get ready for an in-depth look into the anatomy of someone who exudes cleverness!

There's nothing like hearing you're clever; it always hits the spot!

Best of Clever Dude

  • Our Journey to Debt Freedom
  • Ways to Save Money Series
  • Examine Your Motives Series
  • Frugal Lunch by Clever Dudette
  • An Illustrated Frugal Lunch
  • I'm Tired of Buying and Spending
  • 50 Tips for New PF Bloggers
  • Other Personal Finance Blogs

Footer

  • Toolkit
  • Contact
  • Lunch
  • Save A Ton Of Money
  • About Clever Dude
Your subscription could not be saved. Please try again.
Your subscription has been successful.

Subscribe to our newsletter and stay updated.

Copyright © 2006–2025 District Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Contact Us