"On sale", "clearance", "promotion", "Black Friday": words we all love to hear. I love to buy everything in clearance, even though I have the money to pay full price. It is a guilty pleasure, I love to see something I like and follow its price until it gets a promotion. I have to admit that I have lost many lovely items because of my obsession with paying less.
At this time of the year, during Black Friday or Cyber Monday, we run to get as much as we can because we think everything is on sale. I have worked at least seven Black Fridays during my life and I have learned that not everything is on sale those days.
I have five tips that will help you save even more next time you go shopping during clearance time.
1. The "three-day-before" rule.
I want to illustrate this rule with an example. Black Friday is coming and you are expecting to have the best prices that day, but the truth is most of the stores offer great deals the week before. You can go to the mall the Monday before Black Friday and you will find almost the same clearance as three days later, but without the lines and the chaos.
2. Know the OG prices.
You cannot go to clearance without knowing the real price of the items. Why? Because many times the prices are not too different and you think you are saving a lot of money when you can buy the same article a month before for the same price. Sometimes, stores give us false promises.
3. Do not waste time.
As a salesperson in a store, you do not know how much I hated people who go in the sales season to try sizes, flavors or smells. You have the whole year to go to the store and check items. In the sales season, there are too many people at the same time and it is impossible to show all the products to one person (who, by the way, is only going to buy a couple of items). I know it sounds rude, but it is real life.
Take some time in the year to go to the mall, check sizes, products, smells, and flavors, and when holidays are in your calendar, you can only go and buy what you need without wasting your own or anybody else's time.
4. Focus.
I am the kind of person who can see an offer and go for it even though I do not need the item on sale. For example, one year, I subscribed to FIVE MAGAZINES and three years later, I have not read any of the issues I bought for a year.
For this reason, in the clearance season, I make a list of my priorities, and I go for them, only for them.
5. Be careful.
The other problem we have when we get crazy for the sales is we do not read the deal. For instance, last year, I bought a plane ticket full price on Cyber Monday because I did not notice they changed the price from dollars to pesos. It is easy to make mistakes with the adrenaline we have when we shop!
Now, go and buy whatever you want and enjoy the privilege of living in a country where you can buy any article and as many of them you want!
