Black Friday 2025 is OFFICIALLY A SCAM (Can you call these deals?)

Summary

Frugal Friends Podcast

Episode: Black Friday 2025 is OFFICIALLY A SCAM (Can you call these deals?)

Hosts: Jen Smith & Jill Sirianni
Date: November 21, 2025

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Episode Overview

Jen and Jill dive into the truth about Black Friday in 2025, exploring how the iconic shopping day has evolved—and not for the better. They break down why most Black Friday "deals" are often a scam, highlighting manipulated pricing, psychological marketing traps, and the power of nostalgia. Through stories, statistics, and candid conversation, they arm listeners with practical tips to resist spending traps and approach sales season with intention and clarity.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. How Black Friday Has Changed

• Early Black Fridays were all about excitement, real bargains, and in-store adventure.
  • Nostalgic stories: both hosts remember waking up early, strategizing with family, or simply enjoying the energy of the occasion.
  • “Black Friday used to mean deals so good you’d wake up at 4am to fist fight for a TV. Now you’re losing sleep just to save six bucks on a blender that's been marked up all month.” — Jen (01:39)
• The experience was a cultural event, complete with gamified in-store promotions (e.g., Old Navy’s purse game for prizes).

2. Black Friday is Now “Black November”

• The shopping period and “doorbusters” start earlier, with online deals saturating November.
• Online spending continues to outpace in-store shopping:
  • 2024 saw $10.8 billion spent online on Black Friday—a 10.2% increase YoY; 87.3 million Americans shopped online vs. 81.7 million in-store. — Jill (07:37)
• The hosts point out that much of the urgency and “event” element is now lost in remote, extended sales periods.

3. The Psychology of "Deals" and Why We Overspend

• Many so-called “sales” are recycled discounts or fake price drops. Retailers often inflate prices in October to offer “deep discounts” in November.

  • “Our brains love saving money by buying stuff more than we love saving money by not buying something.” — Jen (10:38)

• Anecdotes and videos prove that Black Friday pricing can even be higher than normal prices days before.

  • Example: A “deal” on a video game raising its Black Friday price above what it was days prior. — TikTok clip (22:35)

• Social media haul videos and influencer culture stoke FOMO and normalize overspending, even when no real deals occur.

  “I did tons of Black Friday shopping, naturally none of it was on sale. Like literally none of it was really on sale.” — Social Media Clip, Female Influencer (14:03)

4. Retailers' Marketing Tricks & Manipulated Savings

• Data-driven sales cycles: Most big-ticket items go on sale every 5-7 weeks. Brands build discounting into their regular pricing (18:16, 31:29).
• Companies count on luring you in with a single “deal,” then upselling full-priced or marked-up items.
  • “Wall Street Journal found that Wayfair uses deals to draw in shoppers...around 70% of the revenue generated is from non-promoted [full-price] items.” — Jill (33:18)
• Psychological barriers have eroded—shopping from home is easier and less risky, but often leads to increased overspending.

5. Consumer Trends: More Spending, More Debt, Less Value

• Despite economic challenges, spending continues to climb—outpacing inflation.
  • “General inflation rate rose about 2.9%. What we are consuming...is outpacing inflation. So how did we get here?” — Jen (08:50)
• Mobile purchases dominate: Over 54% of Black Friday online purchases in 2024 came via mobile devices, up from 51% in 2023 (27:33).
• “Buy Now, Pay Later” options encourage higher spending and mask the true cost of purchases.

6. How to Outsmart the Black Friday Machine

Practical Tips:

• Recognize sales as marketing: The “black” in Black Friday refers to retailers getting out of the red, not consumers saving money (12:18).
• Track price histories: Use tools like CamelCamelCamel, Honey, or Capital One Shopping to see true historic pricing, especially on Amazon.
  • “See what the prices have been over the last year. You can anticipate a little bit of inflation for a lot of things.” — Jen (34:13)
• Have a shopping list & stick to it: Only buy what you planned for, not what’s pitched as a “deal.”
  • “What else are you tacking in? That’s where that shopping list...and sticking to that shopping list is so important...” — Jill (33:18)
• Create friction: Delete shopping apps or shop in-store with a clear plan—physical barriers can limit impulse buying.
  • “If you’re gonna spend on Black Friday, you’re better off deleting the apps on your phone and going in store and creating more barriers.” — Jen (30:59)
• Use cashback tools: Leverage platforms like Rakuten for additional savings, but with intention (49:08).

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Black Friday nostalgia:
  “For me, I thought Black Friday was an Olympic sport. It truly was.” — Jen (03:45)
  “I want this to be an elevated, not one issue way like the CBS reports. I just think it’s so fun. I mean, I’m originally from Philly...some of that, like, high intensity, like, we’re gonna fight people today, they had to grease the poles.” — Jill (20:18)
• On fake sales:
  “They care so little about us. They are making so much money that...they're gonna shop anyway. Let’s just mark it up. We'll just say it’s Black Friday and we will change nothing and we will increase the price.” — Jen (24:03)
• On overcoming sales pressure:
  “Checking...price histories...see if it’s something that is a legitimate, like legitimately drops to its lowest price during Black Friday and then think about, do I need it?” — Jen (34:13)

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• Black Friday nostalgia and evolution: 01:39–07:30
• Online shopping trends and sales data: 07:35–10:38
• The “deal” psychology and real-life examples: 10:38–14:59
• Influencer hauls and social pressure: 13:52–14:42
• Retailers’ tricks & evidence of price manipulation: 22:13–25:41
• Buy Now, Pay Later & increased spending: 27:41–28:24
• How to really save / price tracking: 31:29–36:12
• Listener’s frugal win (Bill of the Week): 37:15–40:24
• De-influencing lightning round (what hosts actually bought last Black Friday): 42:32–46:46
• Cashback resources and hacks: 49:08–51:15

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Actionable Takeaways

• Don’t trust the hype: Most Black Friday deals are recycled or artificial.
• Be intentional: Build a list, do your price research, use tools like CamelCamelCamel and Rakuten.
• Create barriers to impulse buying: Remove apps, shop physically when you can, and unsubscribe from sale emails/social.
• Know your motivations: Are you buying for need, or because a sale is telling you to buy?
• Connect with community: Share resources creatively (see Bill of the Week story, 37:15) and source items via Buy Nothing or secondhand options.

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Resources Mentioned

• CamelCamelCamel for Amazon price tracking
• Honey and Capital One Shopping for broader price history
• Rakuten for extra cash back
• Buy Nothing groups and local secondhand/creative reuse craft stores

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Final Thoughts

Jen and Jill drive home the message that Black Friday, as marketed today, is less about helping you save and more about prompting unnecessary consumption. With a mix of nostalgia, humor, and frank advice, they encourage listeners to be intentional, skeptical, and values-driven in their shopping habits—especially during sales seasons designed to benefit retailers more than consumers.

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For more frugal tips, subscribe to the Friendletter or visit frugalfriendspodcast.com.

Transcript

[Jen]

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[Jill]

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[Jill]

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[Jen]

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[Jill]

Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast where you'll learn to save money, embrace simplicity, and live a richer life. Here are your hosts, Jen and Jill.

[Jen]

Black Friday used to mean deals so good you'd wake up at 4am to fist fight for a TV. Now you're losing sleep just to save six bucks on a blender that's been.

[Jill]

Marked up all month. We've been tracking these so called door busters and deals for a while. And spoiler, most of them aren't really deals at all. Instead there's some sort of recycled discount or a fake price drop and psychological traps designed to get you to actually spend more. So we're covering all of this in today's episode. For two months she'll barely move, conserving all her energy.

[Jen]

Welcome Frugal Friends. I'm Jen.

[Jill]

I'm Jill.

[Jen]

And if you are conserving your energy for Black Friday, maybe hold off because the deals are not dealing.

[Jill]

Ugh, it's so unfortunate. Yeah, which is kind of sad because growing up I think I do have that recollection of Black Friday being we didn't do it every single Black Friday, but kind of a fun event. Like I remember at one point they would, they would gamify standing in line like Old Navy. They had somebody standing up at a ladder at one point and calling out to the Crowd that was waiting in line to buy their purchases playing games like, look in your purse. Whoever has the oddest thing that they can show is in their purse gets a $5 gift card.

[Jen]

Oh, wow.

[Jill]

Whoever has this, like, made it an event. And then, of course, like, everywhere I went, I felt like I had to have something unique in my purse just in case somebody was throwing out $5 gift cards.

[Jen]

And what was the unique thing that.

[Jill]

You carried in your purse O win it? I don't.

[Jen]

Yeah. But then from then on, did you carry something unique in your purse?

[Jill]

Probably, yeah. I mean, it would change periodically, but it would just be like, oh, I've got random jewelry or calculator or.

[Jen]

Okay, yeah, we'll come back to that. For me, I thought Black Friday was an Olympic sport. It truly was. I wrote about this in our book, buy what you love without going broke. Link below. And it was this thing my mom and I looked forward to. I would spend all day Thanksgiving. I didn't care about the food. I cared about getting those ads and mapping out our route, circling the best deals, planning everything. I love planning. And that was like my big deal. And then we would get there at 4am and we would go to JCPenney to get the Christmas snow globe, the Disney snow globe. Drop. Drop something in the comment if you too, were all into the Disney Snow Globes from JCPenney, because those were like my. That's what started the holidays for me is that holiday snow globe.

[Jill]

It's.

[Jen]

It was so tiny. It meant so much to me. And we would shop all day and it was a sport for us. And so when I stopped buying a lot of stuff, when I stopped shopping as a hobby, my mom was actually very disappointed.

[Jill]

You had to, like, mourn the loss of this.

[Jen]

It changed things for us, which is just a natural byproduct of when you do this with people and you change your shopping habits. It's a conversation you're going to have to have maybe for 15 years.

[Jill]

Oh, no.

[Jen]

But so Black Friday was, like, big for us. And whether you can relate or not, you will probably remember scenes like this.

[Jill]

It looks like madness, but this is.

[Jen]

What fuels the US Economy.

[Jill]

Consumers driven enough to line up for.

[Jen]

Hours in the middle of the night.

[Jill]

Oh, my God.

[Jen]

Shopping is a national pastime. But in this economy, big ticket items are walking out of stores only because retailers are offering deep discounts. Everything has to be the best deal possible.

[Jill]

They call this Black Friday Friday because traditionally it's the day that kicks off a season when retailers get out of.

[Jen]

The Red unlikely this year. For every shopper today loading up on bargains, there were others empty handed. Buddy Boyd lost his job almost a year ago.

[Jill]

We'll get Christmas for the kids, the grandkids, but as far as we're concerned, we won't do Christmas this year.

[Jen]

Americans are understandably gloomy about the economy and worried about their personal finances. If they're spending this holiday season, they're spending less. Surveys suggest they'll spend about 30% left.

[Jill]

So, yeah, footage from 2008 and that's.

[Jen]

Honestly, I feel like we're back there in many ways. Yeah.

[Jill]

But those kind of seem like the glory days of Black Friday to me.

[Jen]

It's such this like, like double edged sword. Like, I remember those days and I was in college at that point, so I wasn't as, as into it as I was in high school. But I remember being there was a tour, like a tear because my dad had just died and my mom had just gotten like, you know, a claim on him. So, like, we didn't feel this as much as other families, but, like, I feel like we're seeing it. I feel like we're feeling it now. Like, I feel like we're right back there. But people are still shopping like this just online now, right?

[Jill]

Well, because Black Friday has evolved a bit. We can't go to the store and throw bows. Like, we used to be able to.

[Jen]

Get that, like big pallet with the, with the. What was the. I think it was like vacuum cleaners. It's like falling off.

[Jill]

Just like racing to get the very limited supply of the thing everybody wants.

[Jen]

And they featured a frugal friend in that video. Everything has to be the best deal, right?

[Jill]

So true.

[Jen]

He An OG.

[Jill]

So people are shopping more online now. So in 2024, online spending in the US on Black Friday reached $10.8 billion, which is a 10.2% increase from the previous year, which is quite a significant increase. Another study from Reuters said that online sales grew 14.6% year over year, while in store sales grew only 0.7% for Black Friday. So in terms of Numbers, that's about 87.3 million Americans shopping online on Black Friday versus 81.7 million who are shopping in stores. So that's millions of people shopping online more than they're shopping in person. But the thing is, now it's practically Black November. Sales start earlier in the month. I think there's so many more retailers. People are shopping online a lot more often than they are going to the store. It's just Far more accessible. So it really changes the landscape of what true deals actually mean.

[Jen]

Yeah. And honestly, people are still putting up with all this nonsense. Online spend for Cyber Week, which is Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday, over the last five years, has increased year over year since 2021. We had a little dip there, which I feel like, again, very reminiscent of that 2008 video, but just steadily increases. And we were at 38 billion online, and then we went to 41.1 billion. And according to MasterCard, overall online plus in store spending on Black Friday rose about 3.4% year over year. And that's 2023-24, the general inflation rate rose about 2.9%. So again, it's a case where we're not just spending more, we are buying more, we are consuming more. What we are consuming is. And spending is outpacing inflation. So how did we get here to where we are today with Black Friday? So I think Black Friday, in my experience, it has normalized that Black Friday is a time to shop. Whether you need something or not, you find something because you're finding a deal. And you trust most of the times that deals are deals if they're advertised as deals. Right. But now we're not seeing that. And also, so Black Friday is associated with deals. And our brains love saving money by buying stuff more than we love saving money by not buying something.

[Jill]

Isn't that wild?

[Jen]

Right?

[Jill]

Doesn't that not make sense?

[Jen]

Right. Tell me. Let us know in the comments if you have ever bought something that you didn't need or even maybe want because it was on sale and it was such a good deal. Like, I even heard. So in our thrifting episode where we talk about, like, over consumption, like secondhand over consumption, there was a girl, and I know if we featured the video in that episode, but I found it while doing research. She bought a whole bu, like from a consignment store, bulk clothing from this one designer who is very well known, very good quality, 75% off. And she's like, I can't not buy this. I can't just leave this here. This is an insane deal. And then she gets it home. And after a few months, she's like, this designer. Yes, it's good quality. Yes, it was a great deal, but it's not really my style. This designer is not my style, and I'm never going to wear any of this. It was such a good deal, but ultimately was money wasted. Yeah.

[Jill]

Unfortunately, it pushes us to just spend the money because right now is the time that's dictating this is the time to buy rather than what, waiting till we need something, Searching out whether or not there's a deal on it. But, but more so following when do I need it? Rather than a company dictating right now is when you buy it. And I just learned that Black Friday, the reason it's termed that is because it's when retailers get out of the red and into the black. Yeah, I didn't know that.

[Jen]

CBS taught us that in 2008. Where were you?

[Jill]

Oh, yeah, well, yeah, right. Yeah, that's what the CBS thing referenced was exact thing. And it's like, yeah, it's not for us, it's for them.

[Jen]

It's an internal term and we praise it. We're, we're so excited about putting retailers from red to black. We are so pumped for it.

[Jill]

Well, that's the thing.

[Jen]

I think that instead of putting ourselves into the black, I do think that.

[Jill]

There was a time when like real deals were to be had. And now I think there's just such an association with Black Friday as being deals that we don't even think about whether or not it's actually a deal. And we've got that nostalgia element tied to it of we used to do this.

[Jen]

Millennials different, I think are in peak nostalgia, error, era error and era right now where we are participating in that. And I think so all of this combined. Right? And so even though we don't have the mad rush in the stores, despite this, like insane times we live in, like fiscally, even though we don't have that, we still have it in another way on social media. Watch a thousand dollar Black Friday haul with me. I did it again. I spent like 15,000 yesterday, but it was Black Friday and it's all winter clothes and I need that because it's getting very cold. Spent over a thousand dollars on Black Friday Black Friday haul. I don't remember the last time I actually went Black Friday shopping and bought this much stuff.

[Jill]

Here's my Black Friday shopping haul.

[Jen]

And yes, I did buy this all with my own money. So I don't want to be hearing.

[Jill]

Any daddy's money comment.

[Jen]

Here's my 2024800 Black Friday shopping haul. Did I do Black Friday shopping or.

[Jill]

Did Black Friday shopping do me? Did you know you could do this.

[Jen]

Much damage in eight hours? Okay, guys, I have an 800 Black Friday shopping haul. Not gonna lie, I did not know I spent that much until right now that I added everything up. And I was like, obviously I did tons of Black Friday Shopping, naturally, none of it was on sale. Like literally none of it was really on sale. You know what, I actually don't even feel that guilty about any of this because in my personal opinion, I've been really good at shopping this year. I too have been really good at shopping this year.

[Jill]

Did you know you could do this much damage in eight hours?

[Jen]

And, and all things that I think that we have said before, but in a different way.

[Jill]

That's so true. Yeah, yeah. And then, and to even with the one girl recognizing I didn't even. Most of this wasn't even a deal. And that's the game that these retailers are playing, is get you in the door with one little carrot and then have you spend on everything else.

[Jen]

Well, they don't need the carrots anymore because Black Friday has been so normalized to be associated with deals. People are just going to shop and influencers are going to share haul videos to get you over that edge. Like maybe you were like, no, I don't think I'm going to Black Friday shop this year. The deals like, aren't really great. There's not a deal on like what I need. And then we are just inundated with these early Black Friday deals again. They start at the beginning of November and you can only see so many of them before you're like, oh, well, maybe I will buy one thing. Maybe I will buy a few things on Amazon or Walmart or whatever. And that's, that's how it goes. They're not trying to get you to spend 800 or a thousand dollars like they are, but if you spend an extra one or two hundred dollars that you weren't planning on it using their affiliate link, then they have succeeded and you have, you know, not succeeded in putting yourself in the black. We're worrying around our own Black Friday, going from red to black, not concerning ourselves with Target and Walmart's fiscal year.

[Jill]

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[Jen]

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[Jill]

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[Jen]

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[Jen]

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[Jill]

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[Jen]

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[Jill]

Okay, so what do you think about Black Friday as it exists today?

[Jen]

So in total, like this is a well known understanding that like sales are marketing, right? It's just well known that companies do sales every five to seven weeks on products and that is built into their how they price things. And and I think a big anchor to that strategy is Black Friday. It is fully marketing and I know that. And there can be some things that are still a good deal on Black Friday. Like I will admit I always buy something on Black Friday.

[Jill]

I don't have the haul. You can't shake the nostalgia piece.

[Jen]

I don't think it's even nostalgia, but typically there is like one thing that is actually a legitimate deal. Like I used to come home when I was in high school with like bags and bags just like those haul videos. I was her in high school, like she was me and now because they were deals but we weren't going to like Lululemon or Hermes or coach.

[Jill]

Weather vane. I was stocking up.

[Jen]

Yeah, we were going to Old Navy.

[Jill]

Buy one, get five free.

[Jen]

We were pulling weird things out of our purses and standing outside of JCPenney Best Buy. So I. So that was me. But now I will typically use like, a strong strategy and typically only come away with like two or three things. What about you?

[Jill]

Honestly, I'm bummed at where Black Friday is today because they used to be such good deals. And you know me, I love to hunt. I love a good deal. I am no longer buying things that I don't need. But that high energy piece of people lying outside of a door, the energy.

[Jen]

Is truly something we are missing. I.

[Jill]

There was a point in time early in marriage where I was like, all right, Eric, I don't know what I. I don't actually have any idea what I want to buy, but I want to get out there and I want to be with the people. I want to be running and rac. Chasing people to the door. No one was doing that. No one was running. But I was because I just like, I want this to be an elevated, not one issue way like the CBS reports. I just think it's so fun. I mean, I'm originally from Philly, you know, so like, some of that, like, high intensity, like, we're gonna fight people today, they had to grease the poles.

[Jen]

Outside the Old Navy so nobody would Spider man in the door.

[Jill]

That still exists in me where I. I want there to one item left and we are just racing for it. And we're diving and like, I'm ready. I'm wearing my sneaks. I got my crossbody.

[Jen]

The hair is up.

[Jill]

And we're just doing this thing. And shopping isn't like that anymore.

[Jen]

And so we don't do it.

[Jill]

I was like, no, sleep in. Get it from your computer. And that's lame.

[Jen]

And honestly, it drives us to buy more because the shopping experience for most people, not for us, is better. So you can buy more. You're not running out of stock. Like, nobody is throwing a punch at you for getting the last frying pan. You know, I am. So that's one of the reasons that we're.

[Jill]

No more verbal altercation. So, yeah, it's just not risky anymore. You're not taking a risk on Black Friday.

[Jen]

But that's also one of the reasons that retailers can throw their hands up on offering the really good deals. And I think that's how you get stuff like this.

[Jill]

Check out this awesome Black Friday deal. 229. Interesting. That's how they do it.

[Jen]

What are you knight in. This? Tastes like. Was horrified.

[Jill]

Black Friday is a scam. So a few days ago, I ordered Call of Duty Vanguard for my boyfriend. 41.58 is what I paid. Out of curiosity, I went back today to go see what the price was, and their Black Friday deal is now 53.99, claiming that the video game was $70 when I just purchased it a few days ago for 42. So I seen on the news that they're talking about Black Friday wasn't that spectacular this year.

[Jen]

There's all kinds of videos here on.

[Jill]

Tick Tock that show prices that are. That are more on Black Friday than they were previous. I mean, these stores four times, four to five times a week with the work I do. And I didn't see anything special. Most of these prices you can get on a daily basis, if not even better. Yeah, this is shocking, and it's one of the reasons why I've just opted out of Black Friday in recent years because there's just not actually deals.

[Jen]

And.

[Jill]

And Home Depot was one of the ones referenced the most in this video. And specifically that especially when we were in. In our own renovations or running a renovation company, we would. Home Depot was one of the places we would go like, okay, today's the day to get the tools to get some of the supplies that we need. And there just weren't real deals. It's like, okay, yeah, no one's fighting each other, so let's go back to bed.

[Jen]

And if you are listening and not watching those first few, they were like showing a TV for 229 and like, oh, I wonder what it was before. And the price behind it was 229. And then actually putting at Home Depot, they put a 49.99 sticker over a big 39.99 display. And then you could see underneath it was had 49.99 crossed out. Like, it was originally 49.99, but it was still 49.99. And so, yeah, like, what is in these people's minds that this is happening? They care so little about us. They are making so much money that they're like. And. And they're like, they're gonna shop anyway. Let's just mark it up. We'll just say it's Black Friday and we will change nothing and we will increase the price the last couple weeks of October so that we can say it's 53% off. I saw one video that I didn't include, but it was a An electronic and had a regular and a pro version. And of course the pro version was more expensive, but you could see the previous price under both on the same page. And for some reason the pro version was previously 109 and then it was on sale for maybe like 99 or something. And the regular version was 69.79, but the previous price was like 150. So that it could look. So on Amazon they have a percentage off. So it can look like it's like 50 off and it's right there in front of you.

[Jill]

Wow.

[Jen]

Like, they just don't even think we have brains. And sometimes, okay, so we do. And that's the problem. Our, our like desire for like our biases and our propensity to meet those overrides our brain. That's the problem. We get into this nostalgia or this bandwagon effect and we lose. We. We have this critical thinking and then it just slips by the end of the day. So at 11:59, you're making a purchase and you were strong all. All month. You are strong for 26 days.

[Jill]

Yeah.

[Jen]

And they get you. Just wear you down.

[Jill]

Yeah. And it's hard to have some of that fortitude and resilience when the deals are happening, or seemingly deals are happening all throughout the month and spending is getting spread out more and more because we are able to not have to be in person. It's a heavier lift. It's a greater amount of time consumption to go to a store, look around, versus just be able to scroll on our phones and shop from anywhere. Even when we think we're just checking our emails or we're just checking in on what friends are doing on social media. We're being sold to. And so we're just being inundated. And so a lot of the shift that we're seeing, as we've already said, is driven by some of this mobile shopping that, you know, we are shopping so much more, not just, just online, but like from our phones. The. This one study showed that in 2024, the amount of purchases made online or on Mobile was 54.5%, which was up from 51% in 2023. So a steady increase of how much we are purchasing more than online.

[Jen]

Half of all purchases online in Black Friday, Black Friday week, Cyber Week, is mobile.

[Jill]

And we talked about buy now, pay later platforms as well recently in an episode. And that also is increasing a lot. And I think in some ways it's probably incentivizing these companies even less to be offering true deals when people can just break it up into payments. That's more so the way that people are leaning of we can anchor bias you to this lower price of 1999 in four easy installments rather than, you know, the true price of it. Right. And so there's other ways that they're getting us to spend again even more. Not only are we not getting a discount, sometimes we're spending more than what we should be on that product.

[Jen]

I mean, yeah, data has shown that we are consuming and spending outpacing inflation. So we are consuming more and more. Yeah, like what you said, we have more days to spend. And what we saw with our de influencing Halloween episode when these haul videos were starting in July. So the more time you have to see and to think about something, the more likely you are going to be to. To just pick up something. And while you're at the grocery store or you're at Target, like, the more you see something. And this is also something we talked about in another episode, but there are billions of pieces of content going out to social media every day. And if you were on social for, I think it was like four hours a day, every day, you would consume probably two to 4,000 pieces of content in total. When there are billions of pieces of content going out, billions and billions going out daily or weekly. So you are only ever seeing the tiniest, tiniest sliver of reality in your algorithm. But if you see the same thing a thousand times, that's a very good argument for it to be real reality. Right. It doesn't have to be. The algorithms are are made to make you think that way. But that's not true. And I think that's what we're seeing with Black Friday is people taking advantage of these Black Friday deals all month. I think in November, all I ever hear about is Black Friday. I would love to get a count of what I hear between Black Friday and Thanksgiving, because I swear they have to be in a similar algorithm. But I'm sure a lot of the Thanksgiving is tablescapes. Right. So this less heavily concentrated day, like when we were in Black Friday shopping in real life, you had to stand in line. You had to stand in a lot of lines. Oh, yeah. You had to carry all your things or at least push it in a cart. If your vacuum falls off, you got to pick it up. Like there are physical barriers. And we say staying out of the store can help you save money on groceries. I don't think this is the case where it can help you save money. I think if you're gonna Spend on Black Friday. You're better off deleting the apps on your phone and going in store and creating more barriers.

[Jill]

But having a list, knowing what is it that you're looking to buy and having done the research on do those things typically go on sale this month? Like I, I know TVs at this time of year truly are at good prices. So if you are in the market for a new tv, yeah, now is the time. But like maybe like don't.

[Jen]

Clothing market.

[Jill]

Probably not. You don't have to be.

[Jen]

Don't.

[Jill]

That's the thing.

[Jen]

Yeah, you don't have to.

[Jill]

So here's what we're saying. Recognize that sales are marketing, right. They are not for you. They already get the retailers in the black. And also sales are cyclical, meaning they don't just happen at Black Friday. And again, we're saying that they really aren't deals during Black Friday. But typically things go on sale once every seven weeks. So an item might average a discount of about 20% off the regular price. And nearly 30% of that product's total sales happen while it's on sale. So keeping track of the sales cycles for the things that you're buying can be really helpful. We like to use Camel. Camel. Camel. We're not sponsored by them, but that's something that you can use to check the price history of something on Amazon specifically. So if that's where you're shopping, definitely run that item through Camel, Camel, Camel. It will let you know if that item, what the pricing of that item has been. I want to say, like in the last 30 days.

[Jen]

Oh, a year.

[Jill]

No, you can look a year, you.

[Jen]

Can look lifetime, but I'll usually look for a year. I want to know what it was last Black Friday and if they increase the price in October to create an artificial sale for November. And then also I think that that extra prime day in October is a result of this shift in Black Friday shopping, is that they can host this early October sale to get in some, you know, some extra buys and then after the sale, artificially inflate all the product so that they can deflate them in November. I don't know that for sure, but that is a conspiracy theory that I believe.

[Jill]

Yeah. And recognize that these companies are putting some items on sale. There might be some items on sale, but it's to get you to buy more and other items that are not on sale. So this Wall Street Journal article found that Wayfair uses deals to draw in shoppers. And they're not the only ones who do this. But specifically when they looked at Wayfair, that finding that those people aren't just buying an on sale item, they're browsing more, tacking on other products. And that around 70% of the revenue generated is from non promoted items. So again, not just Wayfair that's doing this, but other companies. So keep that in mind. Whether you are online or in store, the one thing you might be buying that you've done all your research on, what else are you tacking in? And that's where that, that shopping list. Yeah, and, and sticking to that shopping list is so important and not overspending.

[Jen]

Yeah. I found that article so interesting because it's, it's whatever, it's full cart price of anything with a sale item. And they found that people that were going there for a sale item and buying a sale item were ultimately more often than not leaving also with something not on sale. And that's, that has always happened during Black Friday because not everything, especially now, is on sale during Black Friday. And they are counting on the fact that you're gonna be like that last girl in the hall video who was like, I went in to check out the sales and ultimately everything I bought was not on sale. Because we're getting wrapped up in the, the culture and the feel of Black Friday. It is an adrenaline high. Like truly the dopamine is dopamining and we are it. It's like a high and you get caught up in it and it's just normal. And the only way to limit it is to limit your exposure to it. So checking. So we said Camel, Camel, Camel for price histories on Amazon. You can also use Honey or Capital One Shopping to check prices, price histories of everything else. See what the prices have been over the last year. You can anticipate a little bit of inflation for a lot of things. Check the prices, see if it's something that is a legitimate, like legitimately drops to its lowest price during Black Friday and then think about, do I need it? Don't go through all the sales ads. If you are looking around your house and you're like, okay, I feel content. Practice saying that to yourself and if you really believe it and see if there's anything else that you need to truly be content in your home. Like, yeah, we can have aspirations. But you know, I don't, I don't think houses are going on sale for Black Friday. I don't think groceries are going on sale for Black Friday.

[Jill]

One of the things that we is our foundation of what we do as Your Frugal Friends is teach you how to spend money better in a more values aligned way. And one of the ways that we do that is through our friend letter actually, throughout the year, every single month, we do a budget toolkit for the upcoming month. We've already done the research for you on what's on sale this month.

[Jen]

Yeah.

[Jill]

What to be budgeting for in that upcoming month. So you can keep some of these things in mind. So if you're not already subscribed to the friendletter, get that. It's, it's a free thing that we do every week. But again, that budget toolkit is every month. We'll also have it linked in the description. Yeah.

[Jen]

Frugal Friends podcast.com right on our homepage. And yeah, we use a lot of tools to save money in addition to those price history websites. But I mean, yeah, I was thinking, I was thinking of some while we were talking and then they've slipped my mind several times.

[Jill]

If they come back up, we'll, yeah.

[Jen]

We'Ll add it, we'll talk about it.

[Jill]

You know what else I love to talk about and we actually do for free every episode.

[Jen]

And this will never slip my mind.

[Jill]

The bill of the week. That's right. It's time for the best minute of your entire week. Maybe a baby was born and his name is William. Maybe you paid off your mortgage. Maybe your car died and you're happy to not have to pay that bill anymore. Duck bills, Buffalo bills, Bill Clinton. This is the bill of the week. Hi Jen and Jill. My bill of the week is $250 that I did not pay. I'll explain. So my husband and I had six.

[Jen]

Huge contractor bags of yard waste and.

[Jill]

A broken grill that we needed to get rid of. And I'm a little embarrassed to admit it, but my first instinct was to.

[Jen]

Call a junk removal company that we've.

[Jill]

Used in the past and see if they would take it. They quoted me $250 to remove those.

[Jen]

Items and I said no way. I reached out to a bunch of my neighbors on the street and four of them had room in their trash cans on trash night. So I was able to toss all of my yard waste by just driving.

[Jill]

It up and down the street to the neighbors.

[Jen]

And then a few weeks later, I.

[Jill]

Made friends with the guys who were painting our house. And at the end of the week.

[Jen]

One of them asked me if he could have the grill to fix it up. And I said, absolutely, it's yours for free. And we were try and find a Way to toss it. Anyway, so a little bit of patience.

[Jill]

A little bit of community, and I.

[Jen]

Ended up having to pay $0 instead of 250. Yes, Alison, this is it. This is frugal friendship personified.

[Jill]

This is what we're talking about, Alison. You are it being connected with your community in that way. And yeah, it takes a little bit of extra effort, but you saved yourself $250. And I love that tip about you might not want something anymore and it might not be functioning, but that doesn't mean somebody else might not want it. We actually had a wine fridge that broke. It would have been more to fix it like it needed the new, like Freon or condenser, I don't know exactly what. But it was going to be more money to get that part than the wine fridge itself cost. But instead of just throw it out, Eric put it on Facebook Marketplace for free. Because you can do that. And somebody took it to do a free little library in their neighborhood. I'm like, people can have creativity beyond what you think you might be able to do with an item. And so yeah, similarly, somebody might want even though it's a broken krill, you have no idea what they might want to do with that grill.

[Jen]

Broken wine fridge, they turn into a free little winebrary.

[Jill]

Oh, I mean, it wouldn't be chill, but it's free. So invite with books. So definitely utilize that, that Facebook Marketplace to throw up free stuff. Your own community to throw up free stuff. So we love that. Alison.

[Jen]

Yes, absolutely.

[Jill]

If you all are listening, have a bill that you want to submit. If it's about not paying a bill, being creative, about bills that you might have had to have paid, or your name is Bill, don't leave us hanging. Girlfriendspodcast.com bill we can't wait for it. I learned a few years ago that I grind my teeth at night. Turns out I'm not alone. About 30% of adults grind their teeth in their sleep. That's why I use Remy night guards.

[Jen]

Remy's custom night guards are clinically tested to prevent teeth grinding and reduce jaw tension. And they cost 80% less and are more convenient than going into the dentist office.

[Jill]

The process is simple. You get an impression kit shipped to your door, follow the instructions, send it back, and Remy crafts and mails back to you a custom fit night guard that protects your teeth and improves sleep quality.

[Jen]

And for the holiday season, Remy is gifting their customers with their 2 in 1 foam that both cleans your night guard and whitens your teeth for free. When you order a night guard between now and December 24th. Go to shopremy.com frugal and use code frugal to receive 55% off your new night guard plus a free foam gift. That's shop r e m I.com frugal for 55% off a night guard plus free gift using code froogle. Thank you Remy for sponsoring this episode.

[Jill]

It's time for Black Friday, Dell technology's biggest sale of the year. That's right. You'll find savings on select Dell PCs like the Dell 16 plus with Intel Core Ultra processors and with built in advanced AI features, it's the PC that helps you do more faster.

[Jen]

From smarter multitasking to extended battery life, these PCs get the busy work done so you can focus on what matters most to you. Plus earn Dell rewards and enjoy many other benefits like free shipping, expert support, price match guarantee and flexible financing options.

[Jill]

They also have the biggest deals and accessories that pair perfectly with your Dell PC, improving the way you work, play and connect. Whether you just started holiday shopping or you're finishing up, these PCs and accessories make perfect gifts for everyone on your list.

[Jen]

Shop [e-mail] deals and don't miss out. That's Dell.com deals.

[Jill]

And now it's time for the lightning round.

[Jen]

Okay, what did you buy last Black Friday?

[Jill]

Based on my receipts that I keep my transaction history.

[Jen]

Yeah. That's wild. I looked at my Amazon history. That's it.

[Jill]

And that too. We bought a pipe bender on Amazon. So obviously, clearly we were deep, deep in renovations, as we we did for five years straight. But then we returned it. So I guess we bought the pipe bender. It came and we didn't need it. It wasn't the right size. And then we bought something from Walmart. We must have gone to Walmart for $17. Who knows?

[Jen]

Nice.

[Jill]

Could have been anything.

[Jen]

Could have been anything.

[Jill]

Probably food. It was probably food.

[Jen]

Yeah. So I bought some things from Amazon. I'd had my eye on this embroidery practice kit for a while and that was on legitimate sale. Like I checked the price and I even checked, actually I checked it the other day when I did this and that was the lowest price it has been since too. So I bought that and that's been helpful because I've done several embroidery pieces this year.

[Jill]

I do like that. Like test it out first before you do. Full set.

[Jen]

Yeah.

[Jill]

Yes.

[Jen]

And it, it came with everything and I still use the stuff that it came with too. Sippy cups, like cups with straws. Atlas was transitioning out of the Bottle. So we bought a bunch of different kinds because you don't know what kind they're going to like. It's very. They're kids are so temperamental and. Yeah, but he, throughout the year has used all of them. So even if he didn't like some at first. And then the door hook, which I actually talked about on another episode as being like my best Amazon purchase in the last year. It's a hook that we put on the top of the door so Atlas doesn't just escape out the door without our consent and let the dog out. Because you can't reach all the way up that high. Chainsaw chains. Oh, and trash can deodorizer.

[Jill]

Wow. Okay. I'm gonna de influence you from a year ago on everything that you've just. That you purchased last year. I don't know.

[Jen]

Okay.

[Jill]

Because it's fun for me.

[Jen]

Okay.

[Jill]

So an embroidery practice kit. You could have gone to that art supply store. The, like, secondhand art supply store.

[Jen]

Yes.

[Jill]

And gotten embroidery things there. Although I think you found out about that place after this past year.

[Jen]

So.

[Jill]

So now. Now you know.

[Jen]

Now you all know.

[Jill]

Craft supply. Secondhand craft supply stores do exist.

[Jen]

Yes.

[Jill]

Look it up. See if there's one near you.

[Jen]

I saved. I definitely would have saved money because I spent $15. But this also had videos for every stitch to teach you every. All the stitches.

[Jill]

YouTube. We love YouTube. Like and subscribe.

[Jen]

The videos were on YouTube. Honestly, they were. That's where they were housed.

[Jill]

Sippy cups, Door hooks. Chainsaw chains. Buy Nothing. You could have reached out to your buy Nothing group and seen if these things existed there first. Trash can deodorizer. Raw onion.

[Jen]

I hate raw onion.

[Jill]

You're not. You don't eat it, Jen.

[Jen]

I hate the smell and the taste.

[Jill]

Shockingly. You really don't. Don't smell it. You just put a raw onion in the bottom of your trash can. Raw onion absorbs bacteria odors.

[Jen]

Tell me if she's telling the truth in the comments. I think I don't care if she's telling the truth, but I'd like to know.

[Jill]

Yes, a raw onion can be used.

[Jen]

Let me de influence you, pipe bender. Be stronger or sell your house.

[Jill]

Don't require a pipe bender in your life.

[Jen]

Thanks for watching and thanks for listening.

[Jill]

And thanks for being here. And thank you for reading our book called buy what you love without going broke. Because we. We love doing that. And for those of you who have read it and reviewed it, like Rissy, who gave us five stars. Thanks for your review. Who says this book is is full of reasonable ways to spend and save money. I just finished reading straight through and now I'm going to reread slowly while doing all the action steps and lightning round activities. Risy. Yes, because that does exist in every single chapter is something an action you can take and something that you can think about. The action item is something that you could accomplish, like quickly. It's not, you know, less than 30 minutes. We don't want this to be such a slog to get through, but we do want you to kind of gain and maintain momentum with the thing. So that's another reason to get the book and then review it.

[Jen]

Yeah. So thank you for listening. Please hit that subscribe button, hit the like button. Leave us a comment with your thoughts on raw onions and the podcast and we'll see you next time.

[Jill]

Bye.

[Jen]

Frugal Friends is produced by Eric Sirianni. Okay, what are the other ways that you will use to save on Black Friday or just in general?

[Jill]

Wait, did I say there were more ways?

[Jen]

I did.

[Jill]

Oh, so you want to answer this question?

[Jen]

Yeah.

[Jill]

Okay, go ahead. It's your podcast. You could just be like, hey, I want to say this.

[Jen]

Well, I'm still drawing a blank, so I was hoping what you could say could like inspire me because I know I have so much to say and so little memory of what it is. And unfortunately, most podcasters will just say words until they have the right words.

[Jill]

I mean, honestly, as far as resources go, I truly do love Rakuten. We are sponsored by them and frugalfriendspodcast.com Rakuten R A K U T E N Hopefully they're still offering their $50 bonus to new user. It sounds like. It sounds like not a legit thing as I'm saying it, but it is. It's this browser extension where as you're shopping it will alert you to hey, you can actually get an extra 5% off or here's a cash back that you can get on these items from this store.

[Jen]

Yeah.

[Jill]

So you, you not only get extra savings and discounts from stores, but also cash back. And so they pay you quarterly so the amount kind of accumulates and then you get a literal check in the mail or on your or to PayPal.

[Jen]

Yeah, PayPal is the easiest.

[Jill]

This just happened for Eric and I with our personal account. I periodically will just check what's in PayPal. There was a hundred bucks from the last quarter of just, you know, random stuff that we would have bought. One of my biggest hacks was when we had purchased a vacation through Groupon through Rakuten. So the Rakuten browser extension was there. We activated it. It was like, hey, there's cash back through Groupon. It pops up, you hit activate, and then you just keep shopping as you would on Groupon. And so because it was a higher ticket item buying this vacation, we got over $100 cash back just. Just through booking our vacation. Obviously, the vacation was even less expensive because we booked it through Groupon. So.

[Jen]

Yeah. And we got cash back for opening the Chase Sapphire.

[Jill]

Oh, that's right.

[Jen]

Yeah. So we'll. When there's extra cash back, definitely subscribe to the friend letter, because we'll let you know when there's bonus cash back for just getting a travel rewards card, which is fantastic. So, yeah. Okay. You win. That's it.

[Jill]

Okay. That's the one.

[Jen]

Bye.

[Jill]

This holiday, discover meaningful gifts for everyone on your list at K. Not sure where to start. Our jewelry experts are here to help you find or create the perfect gift in store or online.

[Jen]

Book your appointment today and unwrap love.

[Jill]

This season only at K.