Do you REALLY like your Fridays black?
Brace yourself, Black Friday is sweeping towards us like a tsunami, threatening to sink consumers deeper into debt. An American holiday in South Africa, a trend fueled by our interconnectedness that retailers eagerly take advantage of. The craze spread to South Africa in 2014, now it is as commonplace as a braai.
Black Friday is the official start of the Christmas shopping season. It falls on the Friday after Thanksgiving Thursday. It is ironic that people give thanks for everything they already have one day then rush out the following day to queue to buy more.
Sure, the prices are cheap, but the products often are too. Sale items include products you are likely to use infrequently, like ice cream makers and juicers. Items we buy on Black Friday are, almost by definition, things we don’t need. Buying something you don’t need just because it is on sale is NOT a saving. It is an unnecessary expense.
Black Friday retailers deliberately offer desirable items in “limited quantities”, often 5 or less items on sale which means if you are 6th in line, you lose out on that discounted cell phone. They expect thousands of customers to show up for the deal. Since you are prepared to spend, you are likely to default to impulse buying and grab any other attractive deal simply to satisfy the buy mentality the marketers work so hard to fuel.
Try these tips to avoid the hysteria:
Set a budget based on how much you can afford to spend. Be strict about it. Reframe Black Friday to what it really is - a slick marketing machine intent on making you spend.
Shop online. Not only will you avoid long queues of desperate people clamoring to get the last fridge/laptop/couch, you will also avoid being lured into panic buying because you are surrounded by people frantically grabbing items from shelves.
Intentionally stand up against the cultural pressure to spend money. Rather than adding debt this Black Friday, choose to pay it down instead.
Marketers make us believe we can find happiness in our purchases. But the premise is wrong. You are already enough.
Deciding to be content with our current level of possessions is one of the most freeing decisions any of us can ever make.
Happiness and self-worth simply cannot be purchased at a store.
