How to Set up your Black Friday Budget and Shopping Plan

Shopping with a pre determined budget and from a well thought out shopping plan is the best way to stretch your holiday shopping dollar. But how do you create a Black Friday budget, or a shopping plan for that matter?

Black Friday Shopping can break the bank if you aren’t careful. There are so many great deals, so how do you prioritize which ones to grab and know if they really are the best deal.

Take a look below at how to set up a Black Friday budget and shopping plan so you can pull off a flawless Black Friday shopping strategy and take advantage of all the awesome Black Friday Deals without creating a financial mess!

First, you need to set your Black Friday budget, to help with your budget here is a free gift. Download my free budgeting pack including a printable pack and a spreadsheet. This should help you out!

You can also take a look at The Personal Finance Planner to help you stay on track as well.  Here we go, let’s jump into how to do this.

How to Set Up a Black Friday Budget and Shopping Plan

1.) Create your list of people you need to buy for.

Make sure the list is thoroughly thought out and includes family, friends, co workers, service people in your life such as babysitters, mailmen, and hair dressers. Even if it is someone you give a small token to, be sure to add them.

For our kids we purchase only 3 gifts for each of them, so we know what the big gifts are usually around Black Friday time. Read about why we only give our kids 3 gifts.

2.) Look at your income and your outgoing expenses for the month.

Now that your list is made, look at your monthly income and your outgoing expenses for the month. What is the surplus that is left at the end of the month? This will be your disposable income you can put towards your holiday gifts. I always plan for Christmas starting in January and set aside a small amount each month in a Christmas Fund so that we have a budget to pull from at the end of the year, If you haven’t done that yet, start now and figure out where you could cut for a few months in order to set aside a small budget for gifts.

3.) Look for ways to Increase Your Budget

Is your budget not quite enough? Now is the time to brainstorm additional ways to make money this holiday season, like learning how to make money doing surveys.

A few ideas to make some extra money quickly: You could offer a few Babysitting Days for other moms to get their own holiday shopping done, have a Garage Sale, Sell items on Facebook you no longer use or Pick Up a side job one or two nights a week for a short season. Learning how to use Swagbucks is also another great way to earn Free Gift Cards to use on your Holiday Shopping!’

Here my guide to the Unconventional Way to Shop Black Friday.

4.) Using this amount, set your Black Friday budget.

Take your disposable income amount, your Christmas Fund you’ve been saving all year and additional income you have earned and combine them†to set your holiday budget. You may not wish to allocate the entire amount towards gifts, to make sure you†keep some reserved for emergencies, holiday dinner, wrapping supplies, etc.

5.) Using your budget, allocate a dollar amount for each person on your list.

Now that you have figured out your total budget, allocate a dollar amount for each person on your list. Some folks on your list might receive $10-$15 gifts while others may get $50 and up. Decide how much you would like to spend on each person and make a note.

There is no reason to feel guilty about how much you spend on people or that the amounts need to be equal, just keep these numbers to yourself, no one needs to know exactly how much you spent.

6.) Take the dollar amount for each person and write down some gift ideas that fall in that budget.

Once you know how much you can spend on each person, start writing down gift ideas that fall into your budget. Try to put at least 3 ideas down for each person so you have some options this will allow you to shop the sales and find the lowest price on a gift you know that person will love.

7.) Start browsing store ads for gift ideas that fall in your budget.

Next step, start flipping through the Black Friday Ads to see if any of your wish list items will be on sale! Ads will leak about a week or two prior to Black Friday, so this is the perfect time to comb them and see what deals you can get your hands on.

8.) Make a shopping list and shop online

Based on your research see which gifts look feasible and which ones won’t be in the budget. This can help you narrow down gift selections.

Once you have an idea of what you need make a shopping list and write down the time each stores Black Friday sale goes live online, by shopping online you can get exactly the items you need without having the temptation to buy additional items while in stores.

When you follow these 8 tips, you can easily set up a Black Friday budget and shopping plan that is fail proof and fool proof. Give it a try and see if you can create a budget and shopping list that works for you and your financial goals.

All of this Black Friday talk is getting me thinking – What would the world look like if Black Friday didn’t exist?

If you don’t have much extra money this year for gifts, consider making homemade gifts. Here are some of my favorite ideas:

How to make homemade candles.

Make your own Christmas Coupon Books.

I love sending this homemade Russian Tea Recipe to teachers.