It's Black Friday! Will you be snapping up a bargain?

Ross_Alumni

The most notable shopping period of the year is upon us. It's not long now until Christmas and soon after will come the new year celebrations, but before it all, following Thanks Giving, we have Black Friday weekend.

Gone are the days where Black Friday was just a one day event, nowadays it often spans days or even weeks, with many retailers starting their Black Friday promotions a month in advance. 

What tips do you have for finding the best deals?

Of course this year Black Friday will be experienced completely differently to how it is normally given that many shops are closed over this weekend still, and because of this the focus very much turns to online shopping, and with Cyber Monday to come next week you can very much expect websites to be crashing due to demand (although I hope not).

Deal hunting has become a skill in itself in recent times, there are so many different ways to shop and so many retailers to choose from, both online and on the high street, that it can be hard to tell the difference between a bargain and a rip off.

I would advise giving this Black Friday shopping tips guide from Which a read, because it is full of useful hints for getting the best out of the sales, but I would also love to hear what tips you could offer to help everyone find the best deals this Black Friday weekend.
A few of mine would be:

• ensure you know what you want to buy. Do your prior research on the products you are after so that you can make an informed purchase. 
• use the app "hotukdeals" app on your Android phone, iPhone or through your web browser. I would call this a must have for anybody based in the UK, the app lets you track pretty much any product category, specific item or retailer and it will send you notifications when trending new deals appear. It's also relatively accessible, and you can set up custom alerts so that you can be notified when new deals match a specific keyword or phrase you set.
• compare the prices of products between retailers. Just because you see something you want on offer at a certain shop, that doesn't mean it's the cheapest price out there, it's always worth looking around and seeing if there is better value in shopping elsewhere, whether that be a lower price altogether, or cheaper shipping costs when online shopping.

Looking forward to hearing your tips  

Will you be snapping up a bargain?

I'd be interested to know if you have any big plans for this Black Friday weekend:

• are there any items you're hoping to grab on sale? 
• will you be getting some Christmas shopping done this weekend?
• what amazing bargains have you managed to snap up in the past?

Happy shopping, folks!

Ross_Alumni

For me this year, Black Friday will be taken up by Christmas shopping, because I've been quite lazy and haven't done much yet  

[Deleted User]

Nope. Black Friday, smh... Another pointless "import" from across the Pond.... I mean come on, it's Christmas in 4 weeks, can't people wait? Only thing my Brother and I want is an Xbox Series X, my 12 year old Nephew wants one and I want one but everywhere's sold out apart from [removed by moderator - language] selling them for stupid prices on eBay.

Ross_Alumni

Thanks for your thoughts @MrAllen1976, not a fan huh? I understand that, it's not for everyone and it has been a bit of a saga throughout the years.

I always love a sale, when I know it's definitely good value, so I can't really complain  

I hope you manage to get your Xbox soon.

OverlyAnxious

I was intending to buy a cordless vac (started a thread a few weeks ago) but got completely sidetracked by other things and haven't done enough research into them yet!  Might still see if there are bargains about though...

leeCal

I ordered a Black Friday ‘deal’ on Monday and I’m still awaiting delivery from a company. I’ve stayed in every day when for once I could have gone out yesterday but still no delivery. Not happy.

66Mustang

I like bargains, I never buy anything at full price! However I don't have anything to buy this Black Friday so will be saving even more money by not buying anything at all!

poppy123456

I had a fantastic deal at oakfurniture land. Bought a sideboard and TV unit, original price for both was £650... sale price £473

poppy123456

OverlyAnxious said:

I was intending to buy a cordless vac (started a thread a few weeks ago) but got completely sidetracked by other things and haven't done enough research into them yet!  Might still see if there are bargains about though...

HI,

Cordless vac's, here's my honest opinion of them. I bought one a couple of years ago, paid £200 for it and it was a shark one. I found it good on hard flooring but carpet, it's the worst vac i've ever owned in my whole life.

When i moved house a year ago i had it fully carpeted at my cost, when hoovering i thought it was me being extra fussy because it never looked like it had been hoovered. My daughter always does the majority of my housework and she has OCD (undiagnosed) She also always used to say to me, there's something wrong with the hoover but i always pushed it to one side.

Eventually, after an extremely long research into various hoovers i decided to buy a dyson (upright) oh my goodness me, what a huge difference! You just really can't compare a cordless vac to an electric one and for me the exlectric ones will win every single time! The first time we used the new hoover, we emptied it twice and this was doing the whole house (2 bedrooms)

Am i right in thinking you have OCD? if you do then i'd seriously think twice before buying anything and this is my complete honest opinion. Of course it's your decision and only you can make that.

OverlyAnxious

poppy123456 said:

OverlyAnxious said:

I was intending to buy a cordless vac (started a thread a few weeks ago) but got completely sidetracked by other things and haven't done enough research into them yet!  Might still see if there are bargains about though...

HI,

Cordless vac's, here's my honest opinion of them. I bought one a couple of years ago, paid £200 for it and it was a shark one. I found it good on hard flooring but carpet, it's the worst vac i've ever owned in my whole life.

When i moved house a year ago i had it fully carpeted at my cost, when hoovering i thought it was me being extra fussy because it never looked like it had been hoovered. My daughter always does the majority of my housework and she has OCD (undiagnosed) She also always used to say to me, there's something wrong with the hoover but i always pushed it to one side.

Eventually, after an extremely long research into various hoovers i decided to buy a dyson (upright) oh my goodness me, what a huge difference! You just really can't compare a cordless vac to an electric one and for me the exlectric ones will win every single time! The first time we used the new hoover, we emptied it twice and this was doing the whole house (2 bedrooms)

Am i right in thinking you have OCD? if you do then i'd seriously think twice before buying anything and this is my complete honest opinion. Of course it's your decision and only you can make that.

Thanks for that honest review, Poppy!  I do have OCD and must admit my 12 year old Henry still does a fantastic job.  Trouble is I can't put much 'force' into it, especially while leaning forward, as it worsens my stomach problems.  I have to leave it with a full bag now as I can't push it across the carpet with an empty bag, the suction is too strong lol.

So I need something lighter to manoeuvre, ideally tall enough not to bend and 'effortless' to push around.  Older relatives have the GTech Airram which is fine for floors, but can't do crevices or car seats.  So I was thinking about a cordless vac, which separates down into smaller pieces for stairs or the car and has crevice attachments.  I am sceptical about the power and the battery life of a cordless one though...I wonder if I can find the same thing in a mains version?   Will definitely have to do some more research before making a decision!

66Mustang

@OverlyAnxious just in case you didn’t know, you can send online purchases back within 14 days even if it’s been opened so you do at least have a chance to test drive it first so to speak

janer1967

I am wondering whether to treat myself to an Ipad or new laptop will have a look around later 

poppy123456

@OverlyAnxious one thing i forgot to mention was the battery life of the cordless hoover i had.... hideous! is really the only word i can think of. 15 minutes, if i was lucky so this meant we had to be extremely quick so if it was me that was hoovering, i didn't stand a chance because i'm far too slow. Corded versons of the stick hoover are available from shark, don't know about any other makes though.

Tori_Scope

I saw similar news earlier today too @woodbine. Something like 13,000 jobs at risk  

Ross_Alumni

woodbine said:

HDUK (hot deals uk) is a great source for bargain hunters, people post what they have found and where they have found it and it's free to use 
https://www.hotukdeals.com

@woodbine, such a useful tool I hadn't heard of before

OverlyAnxious

I've been using HUKD for years, I get daily email updates so I never miss a bargain! 

Didn't buy a new vac in the end, will continue to research those!  But I did buy some half price gloss enhancer and hydrophobic window cleaner from Auto Finesse (that's one phobic that I don't have haha!).  And also a couple of items from the Helping Hand company that a relative had asked for with 15% off, plus another 10% for being a new customer.

Ross_Alumni

Sounds like you got plenty of stuff bought @OverlyAnxious, I hope you got good deals on them.

I've done some Christmas shopping this weekend, primarily through Amazon, Not On the High Street and Menkind

[Deleted User]

I did my Christmas shopping last week on Amazon.

Bought the er, thingy, for Mum and Dad.

Ross_Alumni

I will be doing a good chunk of mine on Amazon too @MrAllen1976