How to Find The Best Deals This Black Friday

How to Find The Best Deals This Black Friday
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It's coming up fast; one of the best days of the year to shop on the cheap. With consumers spending over $4.4 billion online back in 2015 during Black Friday, it seems that the deals are proving to be worth it. While the immense amounts of deals and discounts may seem like an easy way to save some money, finding the best deals can take a bit of work. Since this shopping day only comes around once a year, arm yourself with the resources to make the best of it. If you are ready to find the best deals possible this Black Friday, here is what you need to do.

Find Out About Deals Early

While most of the deals take place on the actual day, many stores will make their deals known ahead of time. Ads typically are available to the public weeks ahead of time and can be found with a little bit of digging. Websites like Blackfriday.com and BFads.net let your search by store and item to see what the sales will be like on Black Friday. You will also be able to find out about the hours that stores run specific sales as well so that you can create a game plan for which store to hit first.

Utilize Shopping Apps

They seem to have an app for everything these days and more often than not, it can make your life easier. Moneycrashers.com even put out an article listing the top 5 smart phone apps to help people save money. If you're tech savvy or willing to learn, check out these apps that may help you save even more this Black Friday.

Black Friday App: Keep all of your Black Friday ads in one place right on your phone. You can use it to keep track of stores, times, sales and to bargain with competitors for lower prices.

ShopSavvy: Scan a bar code and let the app compare the prices of the product to online and other nearby stores.

Nifti: This app will track product prices based upon historical data of sales. It will tell you if the price is worth it and if you can get it for a better deal later on.

Use Credit Cards With Points

As long as you can pay your credit card bills on time and in full, this option can really help you take advantage of Black Friday deals. If you have a credit card that accumulates points on purchases, it may be best to use this at each and every store. Not only will you leave with Black Friday bargains, but you can also reap the rewards that you gain on your credit card. If you don't already have one of these credit cards, check out Nerd Wallet's round-up for the best ones out there.

Track The High Ticket Items

While many people use Black Friday as a way to get Christmas gifts on the cheap, others utilize the big day to purchase high ticket items. If you have been waiting all year to buy a new mattress, refrigerator or other household necessities, Black Friday may be the best time to do it. Websites that specialize in helping consumers find specific products are all over the internet and are great resources to consult if you want to purchase something specific. Sites like What's The Best Bed offers articles that guide consumers in finding the best Black Friday deals on mattresses. Websites like Style Caster put out guides for finding the best makeup while other sites like Forbes offer guides on the best automobile deals.

Be Strategic

Black Friday deals can actually be much different than the kind of sales that go on during Cyber Monday. Make sure to check out the differences so that you know which day is best to spend money on the item that you need. Back in 2015, Retailmenot shared data on the discounts for various categories across the two days which looked like:

Black Friday Percentage Off

-Office Supplies: 50%
-Travel: 60%
-Clothing: 32%
-Electronics and Computers: 47%
-Gifts: 31%

Cyber Monday Percentage Off

-Designer Clothes: 43%
-Computer/Electronics: 48%
-Home and Garden: 31%

With just a little preparation, you can be saving more money than you ever have before this Black Friday.

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