5 tips for smart shopping ideas on Black Friday

The biggest deals of the year are approaching and shortly you'll be bombarded with marketing emails and messages from various brands. From my 10 years of experience as a personal shopper, I've concluded that unless you have a full proof plan to tackle these sales one is sure to overspend or make purchases that are regretted later on.

First a little history, what is Black Friday sale?

According to wikipedia, Black Friday is a colloquial term for the Friday following Thanksgiving Day in the United States. The day following Thanksgiving has been marked as the commencement of the United States Christmas shopping season since 1952. In order to reap benefit of this, virtually all retailers in the country, big and small, offer several sales including limited quantities of "doorbuster" items to entice traffic.

Now Black Friday as far as I remember was a very strategically placed shopping spree in the United States but now the whole world participates.  

To help you deal with this I’ve put together a list of tips & tricks to shop smartly in sales and get the best benefit out of huge discounts offered by brands. 

Make a shopping listWhen you walk into a store without a list of items that you need, be sure you will be swayed with the discounts. This often leads to buying items that you may not need or wear, but the discount was too good to resist! Make that list to avoid impulse buying and to keep you on track. Keep in mind that things like makeup have an expiry date, so be wise when creating a shopping list on the immediate use of products or for future use during the year.

Statement Pieces or Unexplored stylesThis is a good time to buy that statement piece of jewelry that you have had your eye on or the garment style that you are considering exploring but are unsure of. The marked down price ensures that your cost per wear is in check even with limited use of the item.