While Black Friday has come and gone, it’s never too early to start thinking about next year. While some holiday shoppers would rather have a colon cleanse than to step foot into a store on the Friday after Thanksgiving, many begin their shopping since it is a great day to get bargains.

Here are some tips that I wished I had followed last Friday. First, bring your sales paper. Silly me thought that I could just pick one up at the stores but not all had them available. So, a lot of my shopping time was spent aimlessly wandering around trying to remember which store had which bargain.

Wearing comfortable shoes is a must. Even if I’m trying to break in a new pair of sneakers, Black Friday is not the day to do that. Since I was doing a lot of wandering around since I didn’t bring my sales paper, my feet paid the price. Never again will I make that mistake.

There are bound to be more that I can add but these stand out as mistakes made and consequently lessons learned. Maybe by next Black Friday I will have more sage advice for those brave enough to fight the crowds for a good bargain.