Any day now, your email inbox is likely to start being flooded with emails about Black Friday. And I wouldn’t blame you if you just wanted to delete all of them in one fell swoop.
Black Friday used to be all about saving money on big expensive things like tech products, but you now get everything from Lego to Mountain Warehouse fleeces to eco-friendly deodorant bars to vitamin supplements being advertised in Black Friday deals. Every seller wants in on the act.
But you can get some amazing deals through Black Friday sales, so I wanted to dedicate this newsletter to giving you some tips on how to make the most of it and how to not get sucked into deals that aren’t actually deals after all.
Here are my top tips for keeping your head above water:
- Make a list
It’s a good idea to make a list of the things you want/need before you start looking at any of the sale prices. It might feel too early to be thinking about Christmas, but if you know you want a particular Lego set for a grandchild or the telly’s on its last legs and likely won’t see you through the festive season, it’s sensible to think about it now, at least, while bargains are afoot.
- Don’t forget the details
Make sure you note down any important details too, like how big it needs to be, whether it needs to have Bluetooth, etc – so you don’t get carried away by a brilliant bargain, before remembering that the new laptop you’ve just bought doesn’t have enough storage, or the right number of USB ports that you wanted.
- When is a deal not a deal?
One of the big things I’ve seen with Black Friday deals is that they’re not always as unusual – or as amazing – as they appear to be. For example, Amazon’s “Prime day” deals in October can be just as good (although they’re only for Prime members). And sometimes a deal might be labelled “Black Friday deal” but actually it’s only a very small reduction. And some more unscrupulous companies have been known to inflate their prices in the run up to Black Friday week, just so they can say they’ve taken more off the price. It doesn’t mean the sale price isn’t reasonable, it’s just that it might not be as big a saving as it looks.
- Do your homework
All this is to say – do your homework beforehand. Work out what you need and what you’d normally expect to pay for it. If you’ve no idea how much it should cost, there’s a really handy feature on the website pricerunner.co.uk where you can click on “Pricing History”. This shows you the price that product has been sold at for the last 3 months. So if it’s frequently on sale, you maybe don’t need to be in such a hurry. On the other hand, if it’s normally double the price, then you might want to grab the bargain now.
- Shop around
Not all companies will have the same deals on – one company might have your ideal TV reduced by 10%, another by 17% – so definitely look around for the best price. And you can jot this down on your list, so that you remember which company had the best price – especially handy if there are a lot of things on your shopping list.
- Set up your accounts with the relevant companies beforehand
Sometimes you might find a bargain, but once you’ve decided to buy, it can take a while to set up a shopping account with that company. And if there were limited numbers available, you could miss out. I have hesitated with a brilliant deal on a Lego set before now, only to find out they’d sold out by the time I wanted to buy. Some deals are just so good that everyone wants them, and stock is often limited.
To avoid missing out, it’s a good idea to get yourself set up with an online shopping account now with any companies you’re likely to want to shop with during the Black Friday sales – so that when you’ve decided, it’s quick to check out and you’re much less likely to be disappointed.
Setting up an account is usually pretty easy to do – you just need to put in your email address and make up a password (write it down so you don’t forget it!). Some companies ask for extra information upfront, like postal address and/or credit card details, which they’ll save to make the checkout process quicker when you order something.