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If you’re like most people, you spend several hundred to a couple of thousand dollars every year buying gifts for the people on your list. Yikes! That's some serious shopping!

The holidays are the best time to snap up great gifts, but you want to be careful not to overspend and wreck your budget.

To shop like an expert, you will need to plan your Black Friday shopping for both online as well as in-store purchases.

(But let's be real -- it's gonna be mostly online shopping this year for many of us!)

Here are some tips for you to shop Black Friday 2022 like a savings pro!

Be prepared to start WAY early this year. Like, right now.

If you wait until the *actual* Black Friday to get your shop on, you'll have missed out on weeks and weeks of great online scores. Amazon, Target, and Walmart have all already been sharing terrific deals!

I'll be posting my favorite deals from those three chains, plus other fantastic finds, over in my Jenn's Q Codes + Deals Facebook group. Feel free to join us!

Don’t be a one and done person.

If you choose one store or one website and you buy everything there, you could miss out on better savings at other stores or websites.

Get your gift list ready ahead of time.

This will be your secret weapon during the biggest shopping day of the year. If you know what you're looking for and what your budget is, you'll be better prepared to snag those deals when you find them. I've got a master holiday shopping list below here for you to print!

Not everyone is easy to shop for, no matter how great the deals are.

Before the sales event happens, ask the people you plan to buy for if they can give you some ideas on what they’d like to have.

There are two reasons that you want to do this. First, you’ll be able to get the people you care about something they’ll really enjoy and will actually use. Knowing this information can help you create a winning shopping strategy.

Some people might suggest items from sites or stores you hadn’t planned on visiting online. But knowing ahead of time will enable you to add the site to your list. Check out the sites that you’re not familiar with ahead of time.

Maximize your holiday shopping list.

Under that person’s name, put their first choice and second choice gift ideas. Then put the amount of money that you’ve budgeted for that gift.

This will help you in two ways. First, it will help you not overspend.

Second, if you end up spending a lot less than you anticipated, you can use the leftover money to buy something extra for that person or even a special goodie for yourself.

On this master list, beside the gift you plan to get for that person, have direct links to the gift item.

Know when a deal is really a deal.

Not everything that's advertised as a doorbuster really is at the lowest price possible. In general, we see the genuine lowest prices around Black Friday in the following categories:

off-brand and name-brand TVs, phones and tablets, gaming systems, video games, and clothing and pajamas.

On the other hand, historically you're better off waiting until the first week of December to shop toys -- price points tend to be even lower than Black Friday then!

To sum up...

Even on Black Friday, you still need to bargain hunt to be sure that you’re getting the best deals.

Do your research ahead of time. Know what you're looking for. Consult your list. Make notes on your list. Have backup items ready in case what you want has sold out. Know if you can find the same item at multiple stores.

Whether you’re shopping in person or shopping online, work your plan and have the willpower to stick to it. You'll be able to snap up the biggest bargains of the year and gift some amazing items to the people on your list!

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