Lauren Iannotti, editor in chief of Real Simple, shares some quick tips for shopping major sales this Black Friday and Cyber Monday, including cashing in on cash back, spreading out spending, and the categories that will and won't see major sales this weekend. But her number one tip? Stay calm: The supply chain is back up and running and there should be plenty of affordable options.

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Black Friday Shopping Tips That Will Save You Money

you know the black friday frenzy has officially begun. But big sell holidays can be extremely overwhelming if you don't know where to start. Well we've got you covered with all the dudes and dont's of black friday and holiday shopping. I spoke with Laura Nyenati editor and chief at real simple to discuss. Take a list first of all. Don't panic. Okay, thank you. Everybody stay calm everything. So my first tip is to make a list. We're going to list out everything that you're buying for people. I know that seems kind of obvious but not just that you want to list out when you bought it, what the tracking information is when it's supposed to come. You don't want stuff to kind of disappear off your ports. You don't want to forget it didn't come in the first place and not have that presence that's important. You also want to compare. So everybody gets like locked in on a brand right there. Like I have to get this certain brand of airpods. Just know that there are other brands out there. That could be very good and maybe less in demand. So read the reviews and keep them open mind to that. I want you to check your rewards. So check out your credit cards because you may be leaving money on the table if you're not using the right one. Right sign up for an app. If it's too much work for you to just to read the fine print and then do you need travel points? Do you want cash back? Use the right card and you'll get what you need in additional discounts and you're double dipping basically if you're getting like that that you know black friday price and then you're getting the discount then you're getting cash back. You're winning right? You're totally winning. Okay cool. You want to know I'm gonna keep going one more. You want to know that you want to know return policy because if you buy somebody a gift and then it's the two weeks or whatever and then you give it to them three weeks later they're in trouble. So most most retailers do have a grace period just make sure that's in you know in the fine print and that you're not gonna give somebody a gift that doesn't fit and they can't return it. That's a good point. Especially with out of town family it may take you a little longer to get there and give it to them. Alright so usually black friday is an end person type of activity where people are going around store hopping but now there's so much being done online. So what are some the things that we can do online are opportunities sales that we may benefit from. Right So what we have seen is that thanks to Covid everything went online like it was already kind of happening but then we had to write so now the big push has happened. So online is really where a lot of the action is that for black friday cyber monday. One of the big trends we're seeing is that it started early, it's actually already like it started a few days ago. It sounds like it's a one day thing, but really you'll see black friday sales online, you know all you know for the week leading up to black friday and cyber monday. Um So that's a big thing. Um And then the other thing is we're seeing a lot of home and wellness um and like sort of health care stuff because those were all also really in high demand during Covid. There was obviously supply chain problem. The supply chain is loosened up now and there's a flood of product out there and you can get really good discounts. Okay, so what categories can we expect those big discounts in? Sure. So um electronics always like TVs, monitors, right, TVs, monitors, consoles, all of that stuff, they will, you know, companies want to move and people want to upgrade their electronic situation, they want to upgrade their entertainment situation for the holidays. So you'll see a ton of that stuff. You'll see beauty and fashion, especially fashion from fall, the winter fashion stuff is really gonna go on sale, like coats and stuff is gonna go on sale after the holidays, but right now you can find really keep fall boots and you're gonna have to wait if you want to get it, you have to wait a second. And then the other thing is uh countertop appliances are huge and there's, that's another place where there was a supply chain problem and now it's off to the races. So if you were not on the air fryer bandwagon yet and I'm not sure what you're waiting for your moment. Okay, so you mentioned coats, What else should we avoid buying during black friday because we're not gonna get a great deal. Right? So I don't know about avoid, but you might not find the deals on things like large scale furniture, large scale appliances, mattresses, retailers know those sales are coming, They can move a lot of that product a Memorial Day, Labor Day President's Day. So they don't feel like they have to push it right now. Okay, so even though this is a day of deals, you know, it's so important to remember that don't overspend, don't go above board. Like you haven't talked to this person in a year, you don't need to give them a gift. So what can we do to stay on budget and not overspend overwhelm ourselves totally quit showing off. Nobody needs to show off right now. So my big thing is like, don't like don't wait, do it now because if you wait, you may end up wanting to pay like a rush fee and those shipping charges can double or triple the cost of a thing. Like it's just crazy. It's burning money. So try not to do that also don't wait because you can be more thoughtful if you have time. You know, if you want to get something like really sweet for uncle dog and you wait and wait and wait, you're gonna end up just blowing money on uncle Doug because you're gonna be like, I didn't figure it out and now here's a big expensive present. So plan early and you should be able to stay on budget the entire time. Okay, so real quick before we go. What's the big difference between this year's black friday and the previous years? I would say the big difference that I'm seeing is really that supply chain. The fact that we can get what we want and there's a lot of it, it's a buyer's market right now. So you should be able to find deals on every single thing that you want. Okay, I am ready to go shopping, get it, go get it and thanks again to Laura Nyenati editor in chief at real Simple