Black Friday Tips

A group of Local Knoxville Bloggers including

Blue Frog Creations, Coupon Katie, Coupon Mommie, Couponing in Critical Times, Coupons Are Money, Frugally Farming Family, Knoxmoms.com, Knoxville Mamabelle, Knoxville on a Dime, and Sharing Savings with You are doing a series on different Holiday tips throughout December.

Today I get to share with you my Black Friday tips.

Make a list. Who are you buying for?
Get the paper or go online to get the ads. There are websites that list the ads for the stores. Like Black Friday 2010, Black Friday Ads, Thanksgiving Black Friday Ads, or Black Friday Info. You can go to these websites and get email alerts too. Write down what stores have what and at what price so you are prepared. Keep the ads with you so in case store A is sold out you know what other stores have the same product. Also keeping the ad with you helps if you come across a deal that you did not notice in the ad you can compare the price to the other sales to make sure it’s a good deal.

Use Coupons
You can find store coupons and coupons for a lot of things this year. Go to Awesome Freebies and Deals. You search online for coupons for the items you are looking for. When I am looking for something, I google the item or store and coupon code, so an example would be The Children’s Place coupon code. You would be surprised at the coupons you can find on toys and electronics. Also look into products with rebates too.

Make a plan
Figure out what time stores open and make a game plan and order you plan to go to them in.

Figure out what stores price match
No sense in going to store A for one thing when store B has more things on your list. Wal-mart, Target, Best Buy are some stores that price match.

Have a partner
Divide and conquer. Maybe one of you goes to electronics while the other toys. Or 1 person goes to one store and another the other store with each others lists. I did this last year and saved myself a trip to Toys R Us and Kohl's. My 2 friends got the stuff on my list and I got a couple things my friend needed while I went to Target. Grab your cell phone or walkie talkie too so you can call each other if you have a question or problem. My hubby laughed when I said walkie talkie. Sometimes you can't get the best cell reception with hundreds of others on their phones and you all are in a metal box. So a walkie talkie can come in handy.

Leave the kids at home
Waking kids at the crack of dawn and then trying to shop just don’t mix. Talk about stressed out. Black Friday is insane enough let alone dragging kids along. You really will not get much down with them in tow. Plus you are buying gifts for them so that can be quite tricky.

Wear layers and pack a snack and water
It is cold in line outside waiting for the store to open then once you get inside it is hot and the adrenaline is flowing. You also want to stay hydrated and a snack helps keep the energy level up.

If Black Friday scares you….
Do your shopping online in your jammies that morning or the days leading up to it. Retailers this year have gone crazy with pre-Black Fridays deals. Also retailers hold back deals for the Monday after Thanksgiving otherwise known as Cyber Monday. Websites like Black Friday Info help you find deals in the comfort of your home.