Christmas Money Savings: Black Friday and Cyber Monday Money Savings

Black Friday is considered the biggest shopping day of the year, and for decades, has been the headlong rush into the brunt of the Christmas shopping season.  Cyber Monday, a close second, the online follow up.  The fun pre-Christmas activities of my childhood post-Thanksgiving Day shopping were crowd drawing melees, and in my early parenting, I made my own efforts to participate, reaching my preferred store in the darkness of the pre-dawn chill, standing in winding lines with the hopes of snagging a few small treasures.  Modern era Black Friday stands in a whole new realm, with leaked ads a highlight of early fall.  Whereas we used to have Thanksgiving Day to pore over the extensive holiday ads, now, strategies and lists are made weeks in advance, while eager shoppers speculate over which retailer will offer the sweetest deals, the deepest discounts, and the greatest chance of filling the wish lists of our friends and family at the lowest costs.  Cyber Monday, the online follow up, the perfect time to begin whittling away at the remainder of the lists at great discounts.

The best preparation I can suggest for the new Black Friday shopper is research. Gotta Deal is my favorite site for this, as they maintain archives of Black Fridays past. Not only will you find information about deals of previous years, but also, tales of shoppers' experiences. Further, you can easily register for email alerts to be sent as ads are leaked. You can participate in forums discussing the prelude to Black Friday, and you can catch details on deals that precede the official Day after Thanksgiving event.

You will find the die hard camp out folks who can advise how early to be in line at various venues. You can find people who know the approach to tickets or places in line at different retailers. You can find out what people have noticed in terms of items being stocked and set out at different places. From this information you may draw your own conclusions, make your own Black Friday game plan.

Another good point to investigate is quality of deals verses savings. For example, I have purchased Black Friday Pajama Specials from our big super center in years past, only to find that the sizes were not appropriately matched to my kids. The jammies were small, and had to be passed down to younger siblings. After giving it a couple of tries over a couple of years, I know that the quality is not worth the $5 sales price. On the other hand, if you keep up with technology, you may notice some really good deals on older models of particular game systems, for example. Game Boy Micro went for a stunning $40 several years ago, but the flip side of that was the soon phasing out of Game Boy. Some children's game systems have gone at a mild $30 some years, but the quality of the games available vary. I didn't care for the VTech System at that price a few years ago, but a couple of years later, an older model of Leapster was a fantastic deal at that $30 price, as I saw it, because the quality of Leap Frog products and games is so worthwhile. Being able to interact in online communities may provide you the opportunity to get input from folks who have had experience with the product in question, giving you the information you need to decide on whether you want to hunt down that bargain, or bypass it for another option.

Living in a rural community, I don't have many day after Thanksgiving sales available without better than an hour drive away.  The few retailers I do have available, I don't usually need to go to.  With a heavy population of retirees, it generally seems easy to come across most of the deals later in the day that Friday.  However, if there's something I really want from such a retailer, I shop online.  Not only is online shopping a way to get an earlier purchase handled, but it gives me access to stores that are not located in our town.  Some do better, some are not so great in terms of handling their internet traffic when sales go live.  Again, that online forum is a resource to learn about what went well, and what didn't, for shoppers the previous year.  There are several such forums across the internet, so look around, and stick with the ones that seem to have the best information.

Most of these venues also discuss deals that are available for Cyber Monday. Further, Social Networking venues such as Facebook can provide advance notice of these types of sales. Likewise, signing up for email notifications from your favorite retailers will often lead to email details highlighting Monday after Thanksgiving sales. Ask questions in forums or on blogs discussing Black Friday and Cyber Monday, and make the most of the time leading up to these shopping days.

Take time in advance to search out the information you need.  Many of the online sales begin as early as the night before Thanksgiving, and it is possible, in such instances, to get a jump start on your shopping, with some of the better deals available well before the stores open.  If you love the thrill of getting out in the chilly air, being jostled about by the masses, you can still do so, but with good information, you can make the most of the busiest shopping days of the year.

 Thanks to the following photographers at Flickr, for use of their photos through Creative Commons Licensing:

Aarontait for Christmas Shopping Photo

Swimparallel for Bows

R Stanek for Red Christmas Present