A few years ago, late in the day on Black Friday, my wife and I were at Target . We weren't looking for anything in particular, but we ended up leaving with a stack of sub-$10 appliances.
We bought two toasters (the old pop-up kind), two coffee makers, and a low-end handheld blender. One of the toasters still sits on our counter (next to a much-nicer toaster oven), but the other items ended up in offices where we no longer work, and at least one coffee maker was thrown away when we moved to a smaller home.
Spending, maybe $40 on impulse buys did not break our annual, or even our holiday budget, but the event did show how easily things can go off the rails.
My story is the perfect example of how Black Friday can go awry for shoppers. And if I had walked by a large television or a video game console at what I perceived as a good price, our unneeded, unplanned spending spree could easily have been much worse.
To avoid the same fate this shopping season, follow the four steps below.
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