If there’s one thing I love that money guru Suze Orman says, it’s People First, then Money and then Things.
Personally I love to shop, so thinking about what Suze says helps me with my spending, especially the recent Black Friday sales and the bombardment from businesses to buy on products and services.
If this is you, here’s some tips I recommend to see you through any Black Friday or Christmas shopping.
1. Apply the walk away test. Whether it’s online or in a store, walk away for 5 minutes to calm your emotional response to buying. This will help you to decide if you really need it, and indeed if it is a bargain at all.
2. Can you afford it? This is important because quiet often we are upsold on the appeal of something shinny and new that we blow our budget.
3. Do you really need it and does it add value to your life? The hype of Black Friday sales and the approach of Christmas increases the appetite to spend. But if you don’t really need the item, chances are it will only give you a short term dopamine hit from spending before you are back in the same place again.
4. Only once you have passed these tests, then transact.
New research from NAB estimates Australians will spend $5.5 billion from day through to Monday, with shoppers in NSW spending $1.74 billion, Victoria $1.45 billion and Queensland $1.12 billion predicted to spend the most.
A survey from ING shows 64 per cent of Australians are planning to buy more in these sales than ever before.
RateCity.com.au research director, Sally Tindall, said shoppers should be careful not to get carried away.
“Sale events such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday are marketing stunts designed to get you spending,” she said.
“These events typically have a deadline on them to encourage people to buy on impulse, potentially without thinking through the purchase or doing a price comparison.
“That said, savvy shoppers who take time to plan out what they need, compare prices and stick to their spending limits could come out the other side with their Christmas list ticked off and their budget intact,” she said.
The latest APRA statistics show Australian households have $1.20 trillion in the bank, that’s up $108 billion from the same time last year.
“If you’ve spent 2021 building up your rainy-day fund, be careful not to blow it all before you’ve even got to Christmas,” she said.
“Anyone resorting to using credit in the upcoming sales should check whether they’ll have enough money in their account when the bills are due, whether that’s on a credit card or via a buy now, pay later platform.
“If a new TV or the latest headphones come with a discount it might seem like a great deal, but if it’s going to cause you a financial headache you might be better off deleting it from your basket and shutting down your browser,” she said.
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