Yesterday was my first American Black Friday experience, and what an experience it was. I spent most of the day touring peaceful wedding salons attempting to find myself a dress (more on that later) but I did spent a solid chunk of time in the malls searching for savings. In the process, I witnessed firsthand the insanity of the American shopping mobs.

Yes, there were deals, but I also saw people spending loads of cash I would guess they didn’t have. Here are my two simple rules for shopping wisely:

1. It’s not a deal if you wouldn’t have bought it at full price: I will never understand why a 50% off sign will send women (and some men) into a tizzy such that they start purchasing things that they will never ever use, and often don’t even like. So if you weren’t looking at it before it went on sale, don’t buy it just because it’s on sale. Instead, use the sales as a chance to buy things that you were looking at before but couldn’t quite afford. In my case, I was searching for a sale on a handbag that I have been lusting after for months. But if I was smart and had saved before hand to take advantage of the sales, I also would have used it as a chance to replace my ailing Mac laptop or finally bought myself that adorable pink ipod nano, since apple rarely puts things on sale.

2. Don’t get sucked into the credit card offers: Yes, it’s tempting to take them up on those discounts they offer at the cash, in the changing rooms, etc, etc, to get “25% off!” if you only sign up for their credit card. But trust me, don’t do it. Not only is opening multiple cards bad for your credit score but having multiple cards makes managing your finances a lot more difficult. And frankly, it’s worth saving those discounts for when you really need them (ie: I am not opening any department store cards until I figure out where to order my wedding dress from… saving 15% on a $4000 dress means a lot more to me than saving 15% on a $200 pair of jeans).

Happy shopping everyone!