The sales are coming

Nov 25, 2021
 

This week: The sales are coming

Today is the Black Friday Sales and the start of sales season and silly season shopping. I know many of you are going to be shopping for a bargain and here's the thing - I am too. Surprised?  In this video I talk about how I make the sales work for me and how to shop them as a conscious consumer (and guilt free). 

In the video I mention Anylist and the free app details are www.anylist.com.

If you want to receive my free weekly Mel's Money Musings, make sure you sign up to receive them.

Transcript

And welcome to another week of Mel's Money Musings. 

So today's Black Friday sales and followed by Cyber Monday sales and probably whatever Wednesday sales. But the reason we have seen such an amplification of Black Friday sales, where it's now embraced by pretty much all retailers. And let's be honest, it's lasted a week is because retailers are doing it tough and they want you to part with your cash.  

And what I want you to think about is the psychology of a sale and not just selling to get that dopamine hit and the thrill of the chase, you know, once upon a time we hunted and gathered. Now it's things like sales that make us feel like we are hunting and gathering and still giving us that same rush. 

So you may be surprised to know that I'm actually a fan of sales.  

I have in Anylist app. And I keep track of Christmas presents that I wanna buy, staples that I wanna buy such sheets and other like tea towels and towels and all those sort of, uh, staples and sales are the time that I'll go out and hunt those down. Hear my language. It's terrible.  

So in that respect, I think sales are a great thing. I also have a little a pot of money where I put it aside and I say, right, I've created wishlists on a whole bunch of retailers where I haven't bought them and I'll go and see what items are on sale up to the amount of money that I've put aside. And I will guilt free spend up to the amount that I've predetermined using my wishlist. So I'm not, you know, that thing where you come home and go, what the hell was I thinking? 

I've been guilty of that so many times before, whereas this way it's like a coordinated attack if you like. So Cyber Monday sales, Black Friday sales, whatever Wednesday sales, this is how I want you to attack it.  

Create a list of Christmas presents that you wanna buy and go and see if those things are on sale. Have a look at the staples that you are gonna buy in the next six months and see if they're on sale. And again, they might be the sort of things that you're looking for. If you are hosting Christmas lunch and you know that you're gonna have to run out and buy some platters or some bits and bobs for the extra people coming, see if they're on sale and buy those things. And maybe even do what I do and have your wishlists and have your amount of money put aside. 

And that's what you spend guilt-free on. You might even have, you might even transfer that to a bank account, call it your 'sales spending account'. And then that's the money that you will guilt-free and happily spend on the sales.  

What I don't want you to do is be sucked in by the avalanche, the tsunami of emails and social media that I am seeing where it's all about the sale. And what I wanna say to you is if you feel like you are going to spend, if you feel like you're spending against your values, or you're no longer in control of your spending, when it comes to sales, that I want you to unsubscribe and unfollow. So that's you unspend.  

So sales. I actually think that can be a great thing. Definitely too many retailers use sales as a crutch. And certainly they've taught us to wait for sales for particular things. But for you, whether it's kids' school shoes for next year or whatever those things that you are going to have to buy anyway, they're the perfect thing to buy for sales.  

All right. Have a great week. And as always, if you've got something that you want me to cover, send me an email or drop me a DM at more money for shoes. Have a great weekend and shop the sales consciously. 

Imagine how it would feel if you could financially sort yourself out in 8 weeks. Check out the My Financial Adulting Plan & join over 3,000 others who have transformed their finances.

CLICK HERE TO JOIN THE WAITLIST FOR THE MY FINANCIAL ADULTING PLAN!