The Martin Lewis Money Show: best tips for Black Friday shopping 2021

Money saving expert Martin Lewis has shared his top tips for Christmas shopping and Black Friday bargains.

The popular presenter, famed for his tips for saving those pennies, shared his hallowed knowledge during The Martin Lewis Money Show Christmas Special.

Here are some of the best tips to make your Black Friday shopping go a littler smoother than normal.

Know your sale type

Martin Lewis gave a handy explanation so that you know what sales to hit and what to miss.

‘One off’ discounts applied to single items may be useful for those looking to buy items that they would not usually purchase.

For example, those looking to buy electronic as a gift or for themselves, these are the discounts to look out for with big savings up for grabs at

‘Up to’ sales will include either all full price or all items a store has to offer, but not every product will have the same discount.

The money saving expert pin-pointed a few sales to keep an eye on including up to 80% off at ASOS until Tuesday (30 November), up to 50% off at Adidas until Sunday (28 November) and up to 40% off at Halfords until 1 December.

Flat discounts will see a specific percentage off either all items or all full price items.

Lewis said he believes that the flat discount off everything is the best sales to look out for, with stores such as H&M offing 20% of everything until the end of Friday (26 November) and GAP, who will be offering a whopping 50% off everything until Sunday.

Use a price comparison tool

Price comparison tools have become a popular shopping utensils in recent years, with the handy browser extensions and websites saving a lot of money for users.

Recommended on The Martin Lewis Money Christmas Show was pricespy.co.uk, although others are available.

These tools allow shoppers to compare the price of an item on several different websites to make sure that they are getting the best deal.

This is handy for big ticket items and those more expensive Christmas gifts if there are too many sales to keep a track of.

Double check the discount is worth it

There is nothing more infuriating than thinking you’ve bagged yourself a bargain on Black Friday before seeing that there was in fact no change to the price at all.

A common trick used by traders on Amazon will be to temporarily raise the price of an item before the Black Friday sale, only to “discount” it back down to it’s original price, making shoppers believe that they’ve saved more than they actually did.

Some even raise the price much higher and “discount” it to a price which was above the original value.

The practice is anger-inducing but there is a tool you can use to keep a track of prices prior to the sale to make sure you are getting the best deal.

Camelcamelcamel.com will allow you to track the price of Amazon items before clicking buying.

Note that this website will only work with items from Amazon and not any other shop.

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