Ask Arthur: I’ve got the Black Friday blues

Q: I avoided Black Friday but now I think I missed out. How can I make up for this?
A: The only good reason to have joined the Black Friday and Cyber Monday frenzy is if you needed to buy an item in the first place, and a bargain price came up for that specific item. Remember the golden rule about saving on purchases: the only money you save is the money you don’t spend. If you get an item you didn’t want, even at a bargain price, you haven’t saved anything.

That said, there are a few pieces of good news.

First, most Black Friday deals are available through the whole month of November, giving rise to the term Black November. That means you are still likely to get equivalent bargains until midnight tonight.
Second, many Black Friday deals were part of general holiday season shopping promotions and will be available until Christmas.

Third, deals will keep coming up on various sites in the coming weeks, leading up to Christmas, and then in the post-Christmas returns frenzy, when stores will be attempting to offload unsold inventory or returned items.

Here, again, the rules of bargain hunting apply: 1. Know what you want; 2. Know what it normally costs; and 3. Know where all it is available and do comparison shopping to make sure you get the best deal available.