Plan Your Black Friday Shopping

It’s Thanksgiving Day. After you wake early to put your turkey in the oven, then you get your newspaper. Here’s how you plan:First, sort the news from the advertisements. Do not toss out any ads because you think you won’t be shopping at that store. You’d be surprised what offers may be available at stores at which you don’t usually shop.Next, carefully sort through each ad and make a list of the store and item you wish to purchase, along with the price. As you go through further ads, you will find that the same item is available at another store, or maybe more. Go back to your list and find which store you saw it advertised at first, and compare prices and specs. Perhaps the sweater you want is the same price at two different stores, but one store is offering a free matching scarf.You should also make note of which times the stores open. If you have two stores that both open at 5:00 a.m., but one store only offers a certain item from 5:00 until 6:00, you may want to visit that store first. Or, alternatively, if a store has an item of only 100 in stock, you will want to be one of the first to pick that up before it’s gone.This entire process may take hours, but the potential savings is going to be well worth it. At the end of the searching, circling and planning, you should write or type a list of the order in which you want to shop. Write down the items you need to purchase at that store also. Make sure you take all store ads with you when you shop. Sometimes when you’re out you may need something that is only available on the ad itself.One last piece of advice: do not waste your time scoping out the store the night before. Most stores change the layout of merchandise on the morning of the sale to stop the hurried shopper.