Shopping the Black Friday Sales

In this week's Musing I talk about my strategy for how to shop the many, MANY sales that are happening at the moment AND not put your financial goals at risk. 

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Transcript

Hey, and welcome to Mel's Money Musing's. Now, I love me a good sale. However, what I don't wanna do is shop a sale at the expense of my financial strategy. And what sales are designed to do is to take money out of your bank account. There is a psychology behind sales, and what I have seen over the last week is that Black Friday sales are happening earlier and earlier than ever before. I was talking to a retailer friend yesterday and she was saying how she was all set to press go on her Black Friday, sale on Black Friday, and now seeing the influx of retailers that are doing their Black Friday sales, she's about to bring hers forward. Now, what that means for us as consumers is one, we're kind of spoiled for choice, but two, we also means that we want to make sure that we're being wise about taking advantage of the sales, but at the same time, we're not sucked into buying something just because it's on sale.

And yes, I know you've done it. So during this sales time, my key recommendations to how to shop the sales successfully is one, create a list. Work out everything that you are going to buy anyway over the next few months. That might be Christmas shopping, that might be a silly season outfit that you really were hoping to have. That might, things that you need for the new year, like school supplies and more. It might be Christmas presents. And then go to the sales with that list, put a figure on it, put a a dollar figure around, this is how much I'm willing to spend and no more. And then your job is to go and find the best deal for what's on the list. My challenge to you is one, not to shop outside the list or two, if you put a dollar amount on what you are happy to spend during the sales period, if you can get everything on your list for say, 80% of what you were happy to spend, then the next 20% is yours to buy the most ridiculous sale item that you can, but that figure and no more.

Now, if you really want a dopamine hit during the sales, fill up the a basket and then don't click to buy. Or even better do what I do and use the sales period as the opportunity to say, stop to any sales text messages you received and to unsubscribe from sales emails that you are receiving that you know are causing you to behave financially in a way that you are not comfortable with.

I love me a sale, however, it's about shopping the sales in a way that is financially smart for you. Oh, and making sure that we are not using credit cards and Afterpay when we shop.