Four rules to help you beat the Black Friday sales

1 hour ago 1

Opinion

November 30, 2025 — 5.01am

If you’ve suddenly found yourself panicking because Black Friday has been and gone for another year and you didn’t manage to nab everything you’d wanted, the good news is that more sales are just around the corner.

And while it may be true that I love a sale, discount and bargain just as much as the next person, if you think I’m here to encourage you to spend wildly and freely this sale season, think again, my friend.

Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales this month are expected to attract cost-conscious consumers.

But just as parents know their teenage children are likely to try their first sip of alcohol before they turn 18, I, too, know that spending during the end-of-year sales is all but a foregone conclusion. So, with that in mind, my logic is that if you must shop, I’m here to encourage you to do it as safely as possible.

Combining Black Friday and the coming Cyber Monday events, it’s predicted that roughly one in four Australians (6 million people) will take part in the sales this year.

Collectively, we’re on track to spend $6.8 billion, according to new research from Roy Morgan and Australian Retail Association, compared with the more than $5 billion spent last year and the $1.3 billion parted with during the Boxing Day sales. In real-world figures that works out to each person shopping in the sales spending an average of $1133 this year.

With such big numbers in the mix, and the news of an unexpected jump in inflation this week, it’s my firm belief that if we are going to spend that much of our hard-earned cash it’s essential that we do it well and strategically.

At the end of another long year the last thing you need to do is close it with unnecessary debt and financial stress.

Rule 1: Plan

This might sound obvious but you’d be surprised (read: horrified) at just how much people overspend when they don’t go into the sales season without a plan. Rumour has it that some people can responsibly window-shop for hours on end and walk out empty-handed, but if they do exist I’m yet to meet one of them.

Another fact that might sound obvious but is also often overlooked or forgotten is that sales like Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Boxing Day aren’t actually designed for us to save money.

They were created to help companies make money. Retailers have spent decades formulating the perfect way to entice people not only to spend in the first place but to spend more than they had originally planned.

That’s why, when looking ahead to Christmas in particular, you actually have more power than ever to resist the urge to overspend. Shopping with a plan of who you need to buy gifts for and how much you intend to spend will be the guardrails you need to stay within budget.

Rule 2: Know your shopping style

In the same way that some of us cannot be trusted with a credit card, some people cannot be trusted to enter a shopping centre during sales season and not come home having purchased things they either didn’t need or couldn’t afford.

But for some reason, very few of us ever spend much time thinking about the fact that there have never been more options for how we shop, and we can use these options to complement our natural preferences and curb our weaknesses.

For some this might be “hybrid shopping”, which is a mix of online and in-person. Perhaps it’s buying everything online from the one shopping centre but choosing the click-and-collect option instead so that you don’t have parcels arriving for days on end.

Maybe it’s all done online because you can avoid in-store temptation. Or it could be the opposite, where everything is in-store and you can avoid the temptation of recommended items and targeted advertising.

Whatever the case, understanding what your shopping style is before you hit the sales will allow you to be more in charge and take a beat before parting with your money.

Rule 3: Stick to your budget

Again, this sounds like a no-brainer, but you’d be surprised at how often people throw their budget out the window when the word ‘sale’ appears before them. Most often that’s because they’ve set themselves either a shopping limit or, worse, nothing at all.

Making a list and checking it twice can help you stay on budget during the sales period.

So when I say stick to your budget, I don’t mean just set aside a pool of money that you’re allowed to spend and keep tapping your card until it’s all gone. Instead, have an itemised plan with maximum caps. If that’s for presents for loved ones, plan to spend no more than a specific amount per person and go in with ideas about what you’re looking to get.

If you’re shopping for yourself it’s worth setting a maximum total budget and then working out how that will break down in practice. If you want to buy some new clothes, for example, work out where the gaps are in your wardrobe and what specific items you want before diving in.

Rule 4: Ask yourself this one question

In the heat of the moment it’s easy to get swept up and justify spending money in the sales. But the real question you should be asking yourself before you pay up is this: is this purchase actually saving me money?

Just because something is on sale doesn’t mean it’s a saving. If you don’t really need it, if the sale price is out of your budget, if you had to stretch your budget to afford it, or if it can’t be returned if you or the recipient of the gift changes their mind, it’s not a saving; it’s just wasted spending of hard-earned money that could have gone elsewhere.

The cold, hard truth is that it’s only a bargain if you had been planning or wanting to buy it (hello, Christmas presents and back-to-school items), can comfortably afford it, and if it was part of your pre-existing budgeting or savings plans.

At the end of another long year the last thing you need to do is close it with unnecessary debt and financial stress.

Victoria Devine is an award-winning retired financial adviser, a bestselling author and host of Australia’s No.1 finance podcast, She’s on the Money. She is also founder and director of Zella Money.

Advice given in this article is general in nature and is not intended to influence readers’ decisions about investing or financial products. They should always seek their own professional advice that takes into account their personal circumstances before making any financial decisions.

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