Black Friday
On personal finance cliché
Verbs > nouns
I spend whatever it costs to get the correct gear for adventures. I like saving money as much as anyone, but ice tools aren’t where I choose to scrimp. Falling off of rock with a bit of safety gear redundancy and luck is (sometimes) okay. Falling off of ice isn’t. I climb with spiky things in my hands, on my feet, and around my waist. Whipping is unlikely to end well. So I decide what I want to do, then get what I need to stay alive and approximately 98 degrees.
Zero(ish)
Then once I get my gear for this and that (for me it is CrossFit, jiu jitsu, and adventure runs) I try to get the rest as close as possible to zero. I love saving the money. I love avoiding the clutter. I have a few personal consumption tricks that serve me well to cut expenses to the bone. The biggest theme is that you should have stuff that gives you incredible joy that is identical if you have a billion dollars or zero in order to take pressure off of financial highs and lows. For me that’s lifting and running.
Ads
Avoid as much advertising as possible. Marketing works. If they can get you thinking about stuff, then you’ll eventually buy stuff. Stay blissfully unaware. Watch zero ads on screens. Avoid ever going into stores. I get all of my staples delivered to my front door, which lets me avoid going off of my narrow routine of food and consumer staples. Buy the latest thing? I don’t even know what it is. I try to completely wear stuff out before replacing. Charities wouldn’t want my hand me downs.
Cars
I buy cars so infrequently that I’m in awe of the updates. If you pay zero attention, then replace cars only after the predecessor isn’t safe to drive, it is shocking what’s new. I got a truck for my long-suffering wife recently and it started automatically wiping the windshield when it rained (who knew?) as well as a warning if you creep out of your lane. The warning — the seat rather enthusiastically vibrating. Seems like they didn’t get the incentive structure quite right.
Black Friday
I only shop on Black Friday. I put everything that is a want instead of a need in a tab on my calendar for Black Friday: November 28, 2025. Throughout the year, I accumulate several dozen potential purchases, but they constantly get switched out. I lose all interest in about half. By the time they would have otherwise been gathering dust, I’ve often bored of the idea and don’t want them even on sale, so I save 100% instead of 25%.
Abandon Cart
What I still want? I put in the online cart, register, then close. Everyone has sales to entice you back. I like the Black Friday strategy for a one year cooling off period for any wants and similarly like the abandoned cart for an extra cooling off for the day or so awaiting emailed discount codes. I often take 20–30% off codes but reject 10–20%. Oh and when I get the codes, I experiment with bigger numbers — if they send SAVE10, first try SAVE30, SAVE25, and SAVE 20 which often work.
Skip Skipping Starbucks
One of the personal finance clichés is skipping Starbucks (SBUX). I don’t. First, I have an investment in a company with a major Starbucks contract so I like informal channel checks. Secondly, I get free Starbucks each week. Aven offers a novel sign up bonus with code CD258H2XBE: free $5 (just for signing up — no capital/risk/taxes) then free $5 SBUX gift card each Monday. You need decent credit but that’s the only catch:
Everyone should join me! If you get rejected for your credit score, then consider steps to fix it. $5 of free coffee each week is fun, but far more important is to keep a big underutilized borrowing capacity for the occasional disaster recovery or bonanza opportunity. It is a wild world. Be ready for it.
