Black Friday is just around the corner. Secret Black Friday sites are starting to crop up again and are already getting hold of some unofficial ads. I thought this would be the perfect time to give some tips about Black Friday so that everyone can have an enjoyable and safe shopping experience during the mad rush that is The Day After Thanksgiving Shopping, better know as Black Friday.

Tips

Prepare for the trip ahead of time. Black Friday is a madhouse. You won’t be able to just browse through the different isles and find what you are looking for. The best thing to do is create a list ahead of time, scout out the store a few days earlier and know where things are most likely to be. Map out where you will go first and prepare to be bombarded by people while trying to get your things.

You may be asking, “How can I create a list when the deals are only revealed the weekend before?”. We live in the information age, and do you really think employees or others that know the deals are going to keep quiet? There are tons of sites that appear around the end of October that have gained quite a following. These sites get their hands on ads early one way or another and publish them online so you can better prepare for the day. They aren’t always 100% accurate and some retailers have even put out false ads to throw these sites off, but they will give you an idea of what will be available.

A few of the sites I usually check out are:

• BFAds.net (My personal favorite)
• Black-Friday.net
• Black Friday@GottaDeal.com
• BlackFridayAds.com
• TheBlackFriday.com
• BlackFriday@Become.com

Get there early! Most of the big ticket items you will find during Black Friday will be in limited quantities at each retailer. These items are obviously the most prized and more people will be after them. Needless to say, if you get there after daybreak, you will probably never see these items. If these are on your list, take a nap the day before then scout out the location you plan on shopping at around midnight. See if anyone else has lined up already. If no one has, you can probably take a few hour cat nap and go to the store around 2 or 3am to get in line. Usually around an hour before the store opens, an employee will come out and pass out vouchers to the big ticket items to those at the beginning of the line. This voucher will allow you to purchase the big ticket item, as long as there are still some in stock. Some years, there will be more vouchers than actual products in stock so again, get there early.

When you enter the store, leave the cart behind! Don’t think that having a shopping cart will give you an advantage over the swarming mobs because realistically, the place will be so packed with people, you and many others will have to abandon the shopping cart due to blocked isles. It’s better to be quick and nimble in this situation, forget the cart and just grab, guard, or set up camp around the things you intend to purchase. Some of the bigger items you will need store employee assistance to get such as a big TV or heavy computer set up. Don’t leave these things alone thinking they are too big for someone to swipe out from under you, I have seen this happen. Bring a buddy with you and have them go for assistance while you watch your items.

Tricks

If you would prefer to profit from the event rather than actually use the items you purchase, one of the best and safest ways to make a profit is to go early and get a leading spot in the line or get a voucher for one of the bigger ticket items with limited quantity in stock. By arriving early and getting your hands on either or both of these prime items you can easily sell one or both to someone willing to pay for the time they weren’t able to spend waiting in line. I have heard of people paying a high price of a few hundred for a voucher for an item they would be saving a few thousand on and I have heard of someone auctioning off their place in line for close to $100 dollars so the buyer would have a better chance at some fantastic merchandise

Don’t wait till Black Friday to look at the deals. I’m not talking about preparing for Black Friday as some retailers will have special pre-Black Friday deals. I’m not sure what the reason is for this, but some of the deals are even better than some offered on Black Friday. In fact, Saturday, November 8th there is a pre-Black Friday sale at Walmart featuring some pretty decent merchandise. The best of this sale is probably the Compaq laptop for under $300.  It’s not the best laptop, but it is definitely worth more than the price.

Buy online! Some online and hybrid retailers have the same deals online. You can get the same price and item without ever leaving your home. Some require the item be shipped to the retail store and picked up, but it’s worth it to avoid the crowd.

Cautions

Black Friday has been around for years but last year, it’s history gained a black mark. An employee at a Walmart on the East Coast was actually trampled to death by people trying to get in the doors and snag the big deals. This is a pretty sad occurrence and you need to be careful when entering, guarding or even waiting in line during Black Friday sales. There are some crazy people out there and if you think road rage is bad, it is nothing compared to angry Black Friday shoppers who got up at the crack of dawn and are looking to score big.

Don’t bring small children on Black Friday. If you want to come and have kids, try and find a baby sitter. Even younger teens should be careful when coming to Black Friday.

Lastly, this is a Personal Finance website, I hope anyone reading will remember that buying things just because they are on sale is not what I would hope you would do. If you don’t need it, don’t buy it and please don’t put any of this stuff on credit cards or anything silly like that

Image by NoDents

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I have been living the frugal lifestyle, in some ways, my entire life. Only as of 2009 did I realize this was a lifestyle

Recently, I have been thinking about value vs cost and in some areas of my life I have always taken the cheap road such as with clothing, some services I don’t value, etc.

I have a friend that has always paid the extra amount for the higher quality products. He intrigues me because he will pay $100 for a pair of sunglasses, or far more for high quality sporting equipment. At first I thought this was just him being pulled into the trap of the brand name game, or the Price Placebo but after talking with him a few times about these purchases, he explained why he pays the premium price for these things.

Firstly, he explained that he has purchased many different brands and types of the products he uses regularly. He found that in some cases the more expensive brands were of better quality though some cheaper brands were equally as good, so he chose some to pay premium for.

I agree with this philosophy, of testing all the options before deciding on one for the long haul, as long as the price for the premium isn’t outragous.

Then I learned the other reason he pays premium for some products. Not only do they last longer in general, but they come with a lifetime warranty that he has used many times.

I have never purchased anything that came with a lifetime warranty, on purpose that is. The products I have purchased that came with a lifetime warranty, I haven’t had long enough to actually cash in on the warranty, and I did’nt buy the product for the warranty.

My friend does. He will pay $100 for a pair of sunglasses because he knows how hard he is on his gear. If the glasses break, he calls the company and they send over a new pair of glasses, gratis. The same goes for his sporting equipment. He pays far more than I ever would for these things, but he knows how hard he is on them, and when they break he is covered by the warranty.

Thinking about how many pairs of sun glasses my wife has purchased that cost about $10 a pair. She is actually pretty good on her stuff and they last a few months, but eventually, they break. In the last two years, I can recall at least 5 pair of sunglasses that have broken on her. That’s $50 right there! If we had purchased sunglasses with a lifetime warranty, the high price would have been worth it and in another two years would pay for itself, if she continues to break them on schedule

More pressing, I always buy really cheap shoes and wear them until they are practically only being held together by the laces. The pair I am wearing now is no exception, Walmart, $12 shoes. They are currently about two stitches away from exploding and winter is pressing in. Needless to say, I need to purchase a new pair. These lasted nearly six months. The pair before these were hideous Payless clearance shoes, cost me $3 for the pair and lasted about four months.

I hate shoe shopping. I can’t stress that enough. They all look crappy to me and I hate taking my shoes off in public. I am tired of buying a new pair of shoes every six months, even if they are that cheap.

What do I do?

Should I find a pair of shoes that has a lifetime warranty, or at least has some amount of quality that will last me a few years, but costs much more than my previous pairs or do I just suck it up, pick up another pair or two of the Walmart tennies and stop complaining?

If the more expensive route is what you would do, do you have any shoe recomendations?

I’m a simple guy and just want something to cover my feet and last forever, nothing fancy.

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I am a pretty new writer. I have always loved to write and now I do so more often than I ever have in the past. I am still just an infant though, and I read all sorts of “improve your writing” articles and websites because I know I am not as good a writer as some that have been in the writing game for years. I am still on my first year.

Something I have a real problem with is self editing. When I first started writing this blog, it would take me close to five hours to finish an article. My articles were a bit longer than they are now, and I only posted a few times a week but even now, my shorter articles still take nearly two hours to finish.

Why? Because I self edit everything as I go. I will write a sentence once, change it, erase the whole thing and start over, without ever completing an idea! Some posts that I have self edited so much still sit in my drafts folder because the idea got so self edited out of itself that I lost the whole reason, the inspiration behind the post idea.

This morning I was reading a post about self editing by one of the leaders in copywriting tips, Copyblogger. Here is what the article said about self editing:

Writing articles drives us crazy. Our natural tendency to self-edit gets out of hand. We can’t seem to put it on hold, even for a few minutes

And the reason for that is our lack of competency.

Competency is a state of mind you reach when you’ve made enough mistakes that your brain can now move on.

That’s right. It’s not about getting things right in your brain — it’s about getting things wrong. The brain has to make hundreds, even thousands of mistakes — and overcome those mistakes — to be able to reach a level of competency.

After reading and thinking about self editing for a few minutes, I thought, that’s the same thing we do with Personal Finance and apparently for the same reason.

When I first got into personal finance, I had a hard time setting something up and sticking to it, just like everyone else. Creating a budget really helps as training wheels to get started but even then, it’s hard to not falter here and there. I still make mistakes that are so simple..so stupid, I feel bad just talking about them but they are necessary.

Our brains need to make mistakes to develop competency.

Making mistakes teaches our brain how to fix those mistakes next time the situation to make them arises, before we make them again.

We will never stop making mistakes, just like our brains never stop learning. There will be situations we have never encountered before, that aren’t even remotely like situations we have encountered that helped us learn but we will have to deal with them as they come.

So don’t fret over the mistakes you make with your Personal Finance. They will pass and you learn something in the process. Once you develop competency from all your previous mistakes, your finances will be on auto-pilot and you will be able to cruise pleasantly into retirement

PS I self edited almost every sentence of this post at least once..I’m still working on that haha

PPS I edited that PS five times..the words just weren’t coming out right..

Image by Matthew Haggerty

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