by Ashley
My husband and I sometimes joke that I missed my calling – with as much as I love crunching numbers, I would’ve been a great accountant or financial planner!
I run a pretty tight ship with regards to our finances. And I’ve gotten pretty good over the years at anticipating and planning for those once-in-awhile type of expenses. I have a “semi-annual fee” budget line where I save a flat rate per month to help cover those one-off expenses that come up. This includes things like our annual Costco membership, our quarterly HOA payments, our biannual car insurance payments, and here lately, I’ve added another thing to the list: savings dedicated to Black Friday purchases.
Now, this isn’t those gift-giving type of purchases (those come from a separate part of my budget specifically set aside for gifts). This is for household purchases that are cheaper if purchased during big Black Friday promotions and sales. The thing that’s brought this up is our Water Filter replacements and our Reverse Osmosis filter and membrane replacements.
At first glance, this may seem a silly item to budget for and plan to buy at Black Friday time. But I’ve been watching the sales for long enough now to know that the biggest sale, by far, is at that time of year. You can find a 5% or 10% off coupon once in awhile. But last year for Black Friday, Dupure had a 40% off site-wide sale. And if you are familiar with reverse osmosis systems, those filters and membranes can get PRICEY! I’m talking $121 for the outer filters (required annually), and $169 for the membrane/inner filter (required once every 3 years). This is the year we have to replace all the filters, with a price tag of right at $300! You better believe I’ll be waiting for the 40% off sale instead of buying right now.
I’ve also been looking at products I use for skincare. Sometimes you can find little discounts, but last year at Black Friday time was the only time I’ve seen a 25% off coupon for a specific brand I really like.
The same is true for the yoga studio where I practice. The only discounts they offer are for new client sign-ups. But once a year they offer a sale on pre-purchased packages and – yep – it happens to fall right around Black Friday time.
Now that I’ve noticed and paid attention to these sales and know how much these items cost, I’m going to add them to my “semi-annual” budget so I can save and account for them. It’d be a lot of money to drop all at once at the end of November if it wasn’t planned out in advance! And with Christmas time coming up, I likely wouldn’t be spending extra money on things like skincare and yoga memberships. But again – if I plan and save up in advance, then it’s no big deal when I make those purchases because I know I already have the money sitting in an account ready to cover the expenses.
It’s easy to do once you’ve been tracking your spending for a while. I simply add up all of these “semi-annual” expenses across the entire year, divided by 12 months, and that’s how much I need to save per month! For me, it comes to about $350/month. Then I use this as a revolving account. I spend when expenses arise, and I replenish with a new $350 every month!
When the really expensive months arise (like our car insurance, which costs $858 every 6 months), I don’t have to stress about it being a high-spending month. I pull from my savings to cover the cost (over and above the $350 that I budget), and the next month when I have no semi-annual bills due, I put the entirety of the $350 back into the bank to save back up again.
It works great and relieves so much stress from when I used to “borrow from Paul to pay Peter” (which trust me – I’ve had to do in the past!)
I know lots of people anticipate irregular expenses, but I wondered if anyone else has done this method of anticipating Black Friday purchases (not gift-related purchases, but the more typical household type of purchases) and specifically budgeting and saving to make those purchases at a time when big sales are typically in effect?
What types of things have you noticed go on great sales for Black Friday that I might want to anticipate for the future?
Hi, I’m Ashley! Arizonan on paper, Texan at heart. Lover of running, blogging, and all things cheeeeese. Early 40s, married mother of two, working in academia. Trying to finally (finally!) pay off that ridiculous 6-digit student loan debt!
Another really good one here is to check out your local butcher. It sounds crazy but a lot of them run killer sales around Black Friday. You can order a half cow or even full cow/pig for about 30% off sometimes. Given the discounts already in place from ordering in bulk anyway that can result in very cheap meat if you can afford to invest a grand or two at once. Obviously you need a deep freezer to do this but I have done this every year for the last 10 years and have been able to average less than $200 a month for meat for a family of 6 when we have meat for dinner at least 5 days a week and many lunches as well.
I buy all of our socks, underwear and bras at black friday time. Same with any outdoor stuff like hoses, pools, etc. End of the season combined with black friday equals huge money saved if you don’t buy stuff you don’t need or wouldn’t buy anyway.
In addition, we also buy any electronics we will be buying for Christmas or birthdays the next year on black friday sales. 2nd hand where possible. Amazon tablets, fire tv sticks etc are practically given away during black friday because they usually roll out the new version shortly thereafter. Prior years version is plenty sufficient for what we need and I can often get a solid tablet for 50 to 75 bucks for the kids.
Lastly, check out your car repair shops in town. Sometimes you can prepurchase things like oil changes in bulk. If you drive a lot this can be a big money saver too. My oil change for our van costs over $100 normally because it’s pure synthetic and needs a special filter but if I buy them in bulk I can get 4 for $200 sometimes. That’s huge and I will need 4 over a years time at least.
Just some ideas to consider!
These are some great ideas! I never thought about checking the local butcher for meat sales!
I’ve seen articles saying that companies hike up their prices right before Black Friday only to drop them closer to the date. I guess if you keep an eye out year round though it’s different – you can compare it closer to the date and budget for it.
This is a good point! I’ve heard this about the “Amazon day” too! What I like about Amazon is that it tracks all your past purchases so you can see what you’ve paid for an item in the past (particularly for items you have to re-purchase) so you know if its truly a good deal or not.