Shopping

Make a List and Check it Twice

Create a Holiday Shopping Plan

Holidays

Sheri here –

Thanksgiving is just around the corner; but overshadowing it are the holiday shopping ads AND the big kick off: BLACK FRIDAY.

Traditionally, the retailers make about 40% of their sales in the last couple of months of the year.  And Black Friday is one of the biggest shopping days in the brick and mortar stores and online.

EVERYONE rolls out their best deals.  

Some stores will open late on Thanksgiving afternoon and you can shop online anytime.  That can be a blessing or a curse.

As you may know, I worked in the retail industry for a long time – in a Corporate Finance Organization and the holiday sales were nurtured.  The numbers were closely watched, starting on Black Friday through the after Christmas Sales.

If you are a business owner, you probably already have a holiday sales plans in place to entice your customers to grace your business with some of the money they will spend this year.

Right after Black Friday is Cyber Monday, where the online shopping sales abound. 

Frankly, it can all be quite overwhelming!

Create your holiday shopping plan

Now, is the time for you to plan your holiday shopping strategy.  Use Black Friday and Cyber Monday to YOUR advantage.  That’s right PLAN is the operative word.  Create your plan to harvest the best bargains you can, preserve your sanity and nurture your pocketbook.

You might want to use a gift budget worksheet to help plan both your giving your holiday entertainment plans. 

Money strategies for Black Friday

Here are a couple of quick ideas to help you do a little advanced planning for Black Friday.

  1. Decide on your budget before you start and stick to it!
  2. Spend cash or use your debit card and avoid building credit card debt.
  3. Make a list of what you are looking for and the people you are shopping for.

Have a great week!

Ciao,

Sheri

P.S. If you’d like more tips for saving money, download my free eBook “101 Ways to Save Money”. Just click this link.

Pause Before You Buy

Negotiation

Sheri here –

Have you ever found yourself caught up in the moment and pushing forward with something that you thought was going to be a really, really good deal. Then just when you were going to say YES! You paused to think about it and realized No, No, No. What was I thinking???

Of course, “they” say, that if seems to good to be true, it probably is!!

I recently had an experience where I thought I needed a new computer; the reason was ALMOST in the category of buying a new car cuz the ashtray was full and I don’t smoke.

I was negotiating a PC purchase. Yes, I admit it, I’ve been a PC Gal since the earlydays of computers. The days of the big floppy disks. Oh, but I date myself.

Buying from the manufacturer with special “referral” pricing from an organization I belonged to, just HAD to be a good deal, right? I was assured I was getting the best deal that they had to offer. (Ding, ding, ding – how many red flags went off for you here??)

Comparison Shopping

But after looking at the price, I thought wait, is it REALLY a good deal. It was time to stop and do some comparison shopping.

One might ask, why didn’t I do comparison shopping first? Good question!

Comparison shopping and shopping are just so easy today. Almost too easy.

Sure enough, the deal wasn’t as good as I’d been led to believe. The excitement of a shiny new object was fortunately overruled by good sense.

This time, I escaped a bad and expensive, impulsive decision.  This was followed by still deeper thought about whether this purchase was necessary.  That answer was no.

Sometimes the negotiating and the buying just seem like fun, even if it isn’t a good decision.  Pausing saved the day!

Have you found yourself in that same situation – caught up in the heat of the moment, wanting that shiny new something?  Thinking that you’d just die if you didn’t get. And then you pause, you said wait, let me think this through?

Would you share your experiences and your shopping stories?  Those times that you almost bought something but decided to wait and saved yourself a LOT of money.  

Share your favorite negotiation tips in the comments below.

A Few Money Saving Tips

  1. Be specific and know what you want before you start shopping. 
  2. Avoid impulse buying or retail therapy.
  3. Do your research, your comparison shopping, especially on a large purchase, so that you recognize a good deal.
  4. Make a list of people or items you are shopping for and stick to your list.
  5. Think about what you are buying and why, is it necessary or the right gift for that person on your list.

Find these tips helpful? Then you might want to download my free ebook “101 Ways to Save Money” – just click here to download!

Have a great week!

Ciao,

Sheri

P.S. Would enjoy hearing your stories of shopping experiences gone awry, post in the comments below, just to know I’m not alone….

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