The American buying-frenzy-day has started to spread to South African retailers in the past few years. People go so far as to take a day of leave from work to be able to get to the shops and some even give up a nights sleep just to be the first ones through the door.
This year retailers have started early with Black Friday (probably to encourage social distancing) by releasing new deals every week or even opted to have deals for the entire month of November (more controlled website traffic and less change of server overload ).
When shopping for any Black Friday deals, keep this Golden Rule in mind: Only buy on special what you would have bought at full price anyway.
Wants vs. Needs
Yes, a new pair of leather shoes would be nice to have or perhaps a second TV for the bedroom, or even a fancy remote control car for little Jimmy for Christmas.
But do you really need this? Just because you can buy it, does not mean you should. Rather make your hard earn cash go further and put some money away for emergencies or save the future.
True needs
There’s “needs” and there’s “needs”. You might need to buy something to spread on the lunchbox sandwiches you pack for school every day, but you do not need seven different spreads.
Be smart. Pick three spreads that the whole (or at least the majority) of the family enjoys and stock up on those. Preferably something with a long shelve life, rather than a spread that needs to be stored in a fridge.
You will also be much better off stocking up on items that you know your family will definitely use (think toiletpaper) and that is part of your monthly shopping list in any case.
Shop around
With so many retailers having an online presence or publishing their Black Friday savings in advance, it gives you the chance to shop around for the best prices. Since every retailer will have different items on sale, know which items are most important to you to buy. This way you don’t drive to multiple stores queuing in lines or wasting fuel or shop online at multiple retailers paying delivery fees at all of them.
Set a spending limit
Even if you are only going to buy items that you truly need, you can still overdo it. You don’t want to run out of cash before your next pay-day and miss important payments or go into overdraft on our credit card resulting in increased interest payments. Set the limit beforehand, based on your budget and available cash, and then see which sale items will give you the most bang for your buck.
Savings savvy
The best way to truly win on Black Friday is to take the extra cash that you’ve saved by buying smart and bulk and put it away in a savings accounts or an emergency fund. Your future self will thank you.
Make every cent count.