A Black Friday Warning

It is very easy to get caught up in all the hype of Black Friday, but don't forget to make a budget of how much you can afford to spend this season and stick to it. If you are using a credit card, do so with caution and realize you will need to pay that bill in a month or less. If you don't plan to pay the card in full when the payment is due your Black Friday savings are really not all that great (after you factor in the interest you will be paying on the purchase).

It is nice to be able to give nice gifts to those you love, but it is even better to spend time with them and create memories. You do not need to prove your love to anyone with presents. Sit down before you head out the door to snag those great deals and cross off your list items that you really don't need to get. Just because it is a door buster doesn't mean you need to buy it. It still cost money, takes up space in your home, and takes time to acquire, maintain, and keep picked up off the floor. I always like to calculate the cost of an item by seeing how many minutes or hours of my husbands time at work it takes to pay for it. When you look at an items cost in this way, you will find many things cost too much.


I am speaking from my own experience. My oldest daughter's first few Christmas's could have been much better had I not gone crazy "saving" money on all kinds of gifts for her. 4 years later I am still tripping over half of the gifts I got her then. During her 2nd Christmas I realized I wasn't doing anyone any favors by spoiling her with so much stuff. She was tired of opening gifts and ungrateful to others who didn't get her 20-30 gifts each. She finished opening 5-6 gifts at her great grandmother's house, realized she had no more gifts to open and pouted "I didn't get nothing". It broke my heart I had inadvertently made her greedy and unappreciative.

Now we have three children and our tree has less gifts under it than the first few years when we only had one child, but we have so much more time to spend with them actually playing with the toys and reading the books they receive. My kid's aren't overwhelmed. I don't have to worry about the huge credit card bill looming over my head or asking my husband to spend more time at work to pay for the gifts. And my daughter who once was insatiable now only has a list of two items she wants for Christmas(which she had to think long and hard about before she came up with).

So be careful when you are out getting all the great deals. There are plenty because retailers have been hurting all year. Don't jeopardize your finances buying what you don't need and do not go with out a detailed list which included a grand total. Do not go over your budget. You still have 6-8 weeks of bargains being crammed in your face.