Black Friday / Cyber Monday Shopping?

**bjl584** · 11-21-2018, 09:39 AM

No plans to. I'll probably do a few things around the house. I need to hang the Xmas lights on the house, and my truck is due for an oil change.

**disneysteve** · 11-21-2018, 09:52 AM

Originally posted by scfr View Post

Are you doing any Black Friday / Cyber Monday shopping?

I want a Costco membership (we tried Sam's Club for a year but let our membership expire). I know the odds are slim that there will be a Black Friday promo

Do we have any shopping planned? No. We buy what we need when we need it. We don't wait for a special day or time.

As for Costco, keep an eye on Groupon and Living Social. They don't currently have an offer but they do periodically. That's how we joined last year. It ended up costing about $5 after the perks and discounts. We let our membership expire after the year as we just didn't care for the place. We do maintain our BJ's membership though as we find that to be far better for us than Costco.

**scfr** · 11-21-2018, 02:17 PM

Forgot to add ... A friend is getting married in December and I will be ordering her gift on Black Friday. I pulled up her registry and scoured the Black Friday ad previews for items on her list. I'll be spending as much as I would have if I didn't delay the purchase and plan ahead, but I'm able to buy her something with a much higher full retail price. Most of the time I'm willing to plan ahead and delay purchases in order to get a better deal.

**kork13** · 11-21-2018, 07:23 PM

We're terribly difficult to buy gifts for, because when we decide we need/want something, we go buy it. But I almost never count on Black Friday specials. I've read studies that show Black Friday deals often aren't as great as advertised, and you can do better by knowing what an item normally sells for, then watching for a sale off of that throughout the year. Yes, you can get some bargains.... But 80% of the deals are merely hype.

**Like2Plan** · 11-22-2018, 05:24 AM

DH has been shopping for a high ticket item for almost a year. A couple of days ago when he was in the store they told him he could buy the item at the BF price. It was about 20% off. Sold!

**disneysteve** · 11-22-2018, 05:38 AM

Originally posted by kork13 View Post

We're terribly difficult to buy gifts for, because when we decide we need/want something, we go buy it. But I almost never count on Black Friday specials. I've read studies that show Black Friday deals often aren't as great as advertised, and you can do better by knowing what an item normally sells for, then watching for a sale off of that throughout the year. Yes, you can get some bargains.... But 80% of the deals are merely hype.

Agreed. We're the same way. When there's something we really need or want, we buy it. We don't do it mindlessly, just paying any old price, but we won't wait weeks or months either. We'll shop around and take the best price we find at that time.

Originally posted by like2plan

DH has been shopping for a high ticket item for almost a year.

I think this is a big part of it for us. We very, very rarely buy any big ticket items. We hardly ever buy anything costing more than maybe $50. So the potential savings from shopping around or waiting for a special sale is pretty limited. Usually, going on Amazon or ebay gets us the best price. Or I'll check for discounted gift cards to the retailer and save money that way. If ordering online, I'll do a quick search for promo codes and sometimes save money that way.

**scfr** · 11-22-2018, 09:13 AM

Originally posted by kork13 View Post

I've read studies that show Black Friday deals often aren't as great as advertised, and you can do better by knowing what an item normally sells for, then watching for a sale off of that throughout the year. Yes, you can get some bargains.... But 80% of the deals are merely hype.

Absolutely. The magazine I want to get for myself? Followed "Black Friday" links via Groupon and the "special" via-Groupon "savings" are the exact same price I've found in the months leading up to Black Friday.
So this is another one I'll wait on until after my move, unless an extra discount unexpectedly pops up on the magazine's web site tomorrow. One less change of address to deal with, and will save more $ by delaying gratification further. And who knows? I will hold out hope that the library where we live after our relocation will have this magazine available on-line.

**scfr** · 11-22-2018, 09:17 AM

Originally posted by disneysteve View Post

As for Costco, keep an eye on Groupon and Living Social. They don't currently have an offer but they do periodically. That's how we joined last year. It ended up costing about $5 after the perks and discounts. We let our membership expire after the year as we just didn't care for the place. We do maintain our BJ's membership though as we find that to be far better for us than Costco.

Yep - Been looking at promos for months, since we decided to drop Sam's Club. The only legit one I found is on the Clark's Deals web site, where you get some freebies and coupons for joining via UPS My Choice. The supposed "savings" of $60 really aren't worth that much to me, I'd much rather have a straight $$ discount or cash card, but I'll take it. And as I said, this is one I'm not going to wait for past Black Friday because I do need to get new glasses before the end of the year

**scfr** · 11-22-2018, 09:20 AM

Originally posted by disneysteve View Post

Agreed. We're the same way. When there's something we really need or want, we buy it. We don't do it mindlessly, just paying any old price, but we won't wait weeks or months either. We'll shop around and take the best price we find at that time.

Understood. We all have our areas in life where we just can't be bothered. As household CFO, this is one area where I am 100% willing to step up.

**corn18** · 11-22-2018, 10:15 AM

I just bought a Nest doorbell that we wanted for our new house. $50 off.

**disneysteve** · 11-22-2018, 10:29 AM

Originally posted by scfr View Post

Yep - Been looking at promos for months, since we decided to drop Sam's Club. The only legit one I found is on the Clark's Deals web site, where you get some freebies and coupons for joining via UPS My Choice. The supposed "savings" of $60 really aren't worth that much to me, I'd much rather have a straight $$ discount or cash card, but I'll take it.

Yeah, the Groupon deal was we paid $60 (which is the regular price). We got a $20 Costco card, making the net price $40. Then we got coupons for a pizza, a 12-pack of paper towels, and a 24-pack of vitamin water. The net cost for the membership was about $5. We were able to make use of the pizza, towels, and water, so it was worth it to us. In fact, we found that we liked the Costco paper towels just as much as the Bounty we have always bought, and it's cheaper, so it actually led to us saving more money. Before our membership expired, we went over and stocked up on paper towels. We liked the water too and bought a couple of cases of that before our membership ended.

**scfr** · 11-22-2018, 02:49 PM

I have my new Samsung Chromebook ($99 + tax). It took 35 minutes total including drive time plus 16 minutes at the store (wait in line outside for a few minutes, grab a ticket, wait in a slightly longer line, hand my ticket to the clerk who grabbed my Chromebook off a rack, pay, wait in a super short line to have receipt checked at the exit, done). The store was quite busy but the use of the ticketing system (no shoving carts or grabbing at items) and the police officer standing prominently at the entrance kept things very civilized. Easy peasy.

**disneysteve** · 11-22-2018, 03:05 PM

That�s great. Glad it went smoothly. How much is that computer normally?

**scfr** · 11-22-2018, 03:13 PM

Originally posted by disneysteve View Post

That�s great. Glad it went smoothly. How much is that computer normally?

$229 is full retail
Currently $160 on Amazon

Black Friday / Cyber Monday Shopping?