The average American will spend nearly $1,500 this holiday season. And Black Friday (the busiest shopping day of the year) is the official beginning of the spending.
In fact, over 130 million shoppers will go shopping on that day. But the entire premise of Black Friday is based on the foundation of selling us things we don’t need.
If you don’t need an item on Thursday… why would you need it on Friday?
Or… what makes Black Friday any different than last Friday? If you didn’t need an item in your life last week, why would it be suddenly needed this week?
And yet many of us will succumb to the cultural expectation of shopping on Black Friday spending over $1,000 this weekend unnecessarily buying things we don’t need, adding to the collection of unneeded items already cluttering up our closets, drawers, basements, and garages.
Look around your home, you already have everything you need. If you really did need something, you already went to the store and bought it—well before a special Friday randomly placed after a holiday in November.
Your family already has everything it needs.
The things we buy on Black Friday are, almost by definition, things we don’t need. Only in America do we wait in line and push past others to buy items one day after giving thanks for everything we already have.
All those Black Friday ads you keep seeing—they are only there to convince you to buy something you don’t need.
And that’s exactly how they do it. Every advertisement, at its core, seeks to convince you that you will be happier if you buy whatever they’re selling. They stir up discontent and work to convince us that our lives will be happier, more convenient, more luxurious, or more impressive if we buy what they are selling.
The goal of advertising is to change our minds about what we need. As a result, what seemed entirely unnecessary last year has become this year’s must-have product.
But if it wasn’t needed last year, it isn’t needed this year.
How do we save our hard-earned money during Black Friday? We turn off the noise.
We turn off the messaging that is directly designed to convince us to buy things we don’t need.
This holiday season, rather than entertaining all the offers that will arrive in your email inbox, unsubscribe from as many retailer emails as you possibly can.
And see how much you save—not just financially, but in your humanity.
At the bottom of every email you receive this week announcing the biggest and best Black Friday sales, you will find a small sentence (usually in the fine print) that says, “To unsubscribe, click here.”
Go ahead, click unsubscribe. And turn off the noise.
At first, the project will seem unwinnable. But trust me, it is a battle you can win—and will be happier when you do.
At first, you might be clicking dozens and dozens of “unsubscribe” buttons every day. But slowly, the number of advertisements you receive in your inbox will get less and less. You may click 50 emails the first day… 40 emails the second day… 30 emails the third day… but you will be surprised how quickly they begin to subside.
When they do, you will discover a new level of peace and contentment in your life. You will discover a new approach to the holiday season.
Rather than being constantly bombarded with pictures of all the things you don’t have, you will be reminded of all the blessings you do have.
Thanksgiving will no longer become a day to map out your shopping path for Black Friday. Thanksgiving will become a day to give thanks for your blessings. Besides, if you are not content today, there is nothing you can buy this weekend to change that.
As you unsubscribe from the constant barrage of emails telling you that you don’t have enough, you will feel less manipulated. You will feel more like a human and less like a consumer.
And you’ll save $1,500 in the process.
Scott says
Even in Canada, Black Friday is hyped and our Thanksgiving was back in October. However, I believe there has been a movement over the last few years to call this Friday, “Buy Nothing Day”. Make it a goal to stay home and read a book, play some board games, take a long walk, listen to or make music, sit down and write a real letter—so many options to spending money.
Alice Curry says
I’m using BF as Unclutter SOMETHING Day.
Jose Baking says
Don’t click unsubscribe to emails. If you do, you will receive more emails. Clicking unsubscribe will show that someone is receiving the email. Leave it and it will eventually dwindle until it stops sending you emails.
joshua becker says
That is not true for reputable email newsletters.
Dan d Man says
It just doesn’t work that way. I tried for years to ignore them. They kept coming, so I started unsubscribing. I also privitized my email and keep a junk email address that attracts emails. Life is much simpler now. There are just too many trackers, even on your bank sites that sell information for profit. Credit Cards are the worst for generating more emails, even from people you never heard of, or never bought from. In fact, there are 6 trackers at work on this very site, all blocked by my software. WordPress, Adobe, Google, Gravitar, Convertkit, and hyros. My computer generates fake fingerprints that are hard to track.
Gene Seibel says
We make all purchases intentional. We purchase only for a reason. We have immunized ourselves against impulse buying. Freedom from debt is an awesome power.