Shopping Black Friday and Cyber Monday

If you haven’t been hiding from civilization, you probably know about the big holiday shopping discount days today and Monday. Black Friday (retail sales) and Cyber Monday (online sales) occur each year on the Friday and Monday bookending American Thanksgiving, kicking off the holiday shopping season.

In Canada, retailers and shoppers have embraced this US phenomenon. In a recent survey by IPG Media, more than half of all Canadians—or 19.3 million people—said they planned to take advantage of Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales, and 1.2 million said they would call in sick to work to partake in deal hunting.

While rural communities offer fewer bricks-and-mortar shopping venues for Black Friday deals, statistics show rural residents are more likely to travel to nearby urban centres for bargain shopping and are just as likely as urban dwellers to dive into Cyber Monday sales. And why not? Who doesn’t like a good bargain, especially with the holidays around the corner?

The danger with Black Friday and Cyber Monday, according to financial advisors, is that the bargains, the crowds, the ads, and the one-day time frame all create a sense of urgency around shopping. This makes it easy to overspend and can lead to a nasty financial punch in January. Here are four financial tricks that let you take advantage of the deep discounts without submarining your financial goals:

Tip #1:
Breathe before you buy. If you’ve found a deal you think you can’t refuse, pause for a moment before heading to the checkout. Take a few deep breaths and consider the purchase. Ask yourself: Do you need it? Were you planning to buy it anyway? Are you actually saving money on this?

Tip #2:
Plan what you’re going to buy before you get there. Make a list of who you’re buying for and what you’re planning to buy.

Tip #3:
Make sure that deal is really a deal. Once you have a sense of what you’re buying, comparison-shop online before you start or while you’re shopping.

Tip #4:
Leave your credit card at home. Set a Black Friday budget for yourself and withdraw that much cash before heading to the stores. Once the cash is done, so is your shopping trip. Cash won’t help on Cyber Monday, of course. While you’re shopping online, jot down your max budget, then subtract the cost of each purchase from that budget amount.