T-25 Days to Black Friday. Here's How to Plan.

The Money Minute is your one-stop-shop for financial advice. Subscribe to get three articles/week on the best money tips, delivered straight to your inbox. 💸💸💸'Tis the season

It's almost November, and you know what that means: two of the biggest shopping holidays of the season are right around the corner. They are, of course, Black Friday (Friday, November 25th) and Cyber Monday (Monday, November 28th).

These two holidays usually mean big savings from mega-retailers like Walmart, Target and Amazon. Although, I wish Black Friday was a bit more of a national holiday. Can the government observe Black Friday and give my taxes a little love? Could my landlord observe Cyber Monday and get me a buy-one-get-one-free deal on my rent? A girl can dream. When I rule the world, that’s how it will go down.

But until then, what we have available to us are big deals at retailers, which makes this the best time to knock out your holiday shopping. Here are five things to keep in mind this year.

1. Take advantage of the sales and get your holiday shopping done early.

Seriously. If you’re the type of person who relies on two-day shipping for holiday shopping, you have to break the cycle this year. You might be hearing people say “supply chain issues” so much that you’re starting to tune it out, but snap back to reality. I’ve heard the same story from many folks this year. It goes like this: they place an order online, get an order confirmation and an estimated delivery date. Business as usual… or so it seems. Then, they get an email that their order has been delayed eight weeks. Then, a few weeks later, they get another email from the company that their order can’t be fulfilled, and the company has to cancel and refund the order. I’ve heard of this happening with everything from bed frames, to video game controllers to patio-furniture. The most unsettling thing is that this can happen even if you have an order confirmation. So submit your orders on Black Friday, so you have the best shot of getting what you want, at the price you want, on time.

2. Do not buy it just because it’s on sale.

Haven’t we all been tempted by a sticker price? It’s like that scene in Crazy Stupid Love—that rom-com with Steve Carrell, Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling (very good, highly recommend it). There's this one scene where Emma’s character goes back to Ryan’s character’s house for a little sexy time. But instead of doing the dirty, they go through all of the bizarre things he’s purchased from the Home Shopping Network and, I can only imagine, Black Friday sales. He has two massage chairs he keeps in his garage, a collection of fifty coin bears, just a ton of random junk he doesn’t need or use.

I know we all want to be Ryan Gosling, but don’t be this Ryan Gosling. The big categories where you can expect to get Black Friday or Cyber Monday deals are electronics and appliances. Is there a particular appliance you think you will need in the next year? If so, buy it now. If not, take that out of your cart!

3. Sign up for early access.

Many stores will have loyalty programs where you can sign up to get special deals early. I know all of our inboxes are clogged with too many notifications from big retailers, but if you have the chance to get an early start—take it.

4. Do not wait for Cyber Monday.

In the good ol’ days, Black Friday and Cyber Monday used to be somewhat distinct. Cyber Monday used to be “cyber” in two ways: 1) you could get deals on cyber-esque products, like electronics or tech goodies; and 2) you could find big sales on e-commerce sites that don’t have storefronts, and didn’t want to compete with the in-store Black Friday rush.

Over the years, Black Friday and Cyber Monday have become more and more smooshed into one mega-discount weekend. So, a lot of retailers are just keeping the same bargains from Black Friday to Cyber Monday. What does this mean? Well, it means that whatever you’re hoping to get on Cyber Monday may be out of stock on Friday. So unless you have your eye on something that you know is not going on sale until Monday, you should jump on that deal on Friday.

5. Support local when and how you can.

The tough thing about this time of year is that big stores have the money and resources to offer better discounts than smaller, or local, shops. Of course we all want to support the little guy and buy local, but sometimes it’s just not possible with our spending plan. Maybe your budget is tight and you can only afford the price a big store is offering you. I get it. If you’re in this position, you can always support local without ever taking out your wallet. One of my favorite ways to do this is to write a review. Mom and pop shops are hugely dependent on the kind of reviews they get on Google and Yelp. Even if you can’t spend money with a small store, giving them a 5-star review will help them make money.

xo,