What I’ve Been Up To

This Week in Your Wallet: November 20, 2012

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! Or should I say, “Happy-Early-Black-Friday-Sales-Day”? After all, the trend we saw last year will be in full force this year: stores that previously waited to open their doors until 5am on Friday will be revving up their cash registers at midnight or even 9pm on Thursday.  

As this Marketwatch piece points out, retailers aren’t doing this to ruin your Thanksgiving dinner; they’re doing it because “Field of Dreams logic” has proven accurate. “If you open, they will shop.”

I won’t be among the early bird shoppers — I like having enough time to digest my apple pie, thank you very much — but I know that budgets are tight and that some of you will be out there, trying to nab the best deals possible. I gave you some deals previews last week, but as I want you all to be as prepared as can be, I wanted to pass along a few more nuggets of info before the shopping frenzy begins.

First up, another Marketwatch piece. This one sketches out your shopping game plan, day by day. It basically goes as follows: On Wednesday, you plan. On Thursday, you gobble and go. On Friday, you keep shopping. On Saturday, you rest. On Sunday, you plan for Cyber Monday.

Next, some fun shopping data from shopping site Shop It To Me. Did you know that while you should use 40% as your barometer for what makes a good deal, there are some brands that you should nab even if the discounts are less? Marmot, Prada, Ray-Ban, Oakley, Fossil, Dior and several others rarely saw discounts over 30% in 2011. If you see these products discounted for 30% or more, grab them and run (to the cash register, not the door)!

Finally, this one isn’t entirely wallet-related but I thought it was interesting nonetheless. The New York Times created this Thanksgiving Help Line, and there are some useful answers to questions of etiquette, entertaining and more. My favorite question (and answer) thus far:

Q: “How do I prevent my guests from leaving Thanksgiving early to go Black Friday shopping?”

A: “You don’t. You tell them to go whenever they want to, and then you eat their pie.”

And now, here are the other headlines for the week:
Gift Giving Made Easy

I don’t know about you, but I love flow charts, and I find this one, courtesy of Bloomberg Businessweek, especially fun. If you have an office gift exchange — be it a Secret Santa, White Elephant, Pollyanna or Parcel Pass (yes, these are all real things) — you might be at a loss for what to get. This chart has yourback, and all of its options are under $40. Not bad, right?
Catch “Money Matters” tonight, on RLTV!

You’ve heard me talk about it for weeks now, but the day is finally here: “Money Matters with Jean Chatzky” is premiering on RLTV tonight, at 8pm ET. I’m so excited for you to see the new season — I think we have a lot of interesting episodes for you to watch. You can head to RL.TV to find out which channel number it is in your neck of the woods, and if your cable provider doesn’t offer RLTV, stay tuned to my website and Twitter feed. I’ll be posting as many segments as I’m allowed. And, as always, if you have a money question you’d like me to answer — or an “Oh, I Shouldn’t Have” purchase you’d like to share (in particular I’m looking for timeshare stories), don’t hesitate to email me at jean@jeanchatzky.com. I want the show to be as helpful as possible, and that means answering all ofyour questions!

Have a happy and safe Thanksgiving, everyone!

Jean