Thanks to Jessica for sharing these shopping tips with our readers today.

It’s true that the number of deals available on Black Friday to customers are limited, but it’s also true that saving a little money isn’t worth risking your health or sanity. Here are a few tips for having a smooth Black Friday experience while also getting plenty of deals.

Use Apps to Locate Deals Ahead of Time

Half the time, it’s going to be those that plan out ahead of time that get the deals, not those who sacrifice all of their sleep to stand outside of closed stores in the rain, or run screaming into stores bulldozing everyone in their path.

This is hardly a safe, reasonable, or even effective approach to the situation. Fortunately, one solution is to use apps to keep you apprised of deals, opening times, rules and anything else you might need to be an intelligent deal hunter. Many major retail stores like Walmart have specific apps that can help you out specifically on Black Friday.

Look for Black Friday Deals on Websites First

If you use sites like BFAds you can locate these easier, but there are many retail stores that briefly offer deals on their website for a few minutes when they first open. According to Forbes, in 2013 around 70 percent of the famous Black Friday “door buster” deals could be found on the retail store’s website when they first opened. This means that you didn’t have to actually go to the store to receive the door buster deal, which is perhaps a bit counterintuitive but true.

In this way, you could avoid having to go to the store altogether. The key is to know about the potential deal ahead of time though, which is why you need to look for sites that specialize in keeping you informed about Black Friday ads 2014.

Loyalty Programs

Obviously, retail stores are going to want to give their best deals to their most loyal customers if at all possible. So the best thing you can do to find these deals safely is to make sure that you sign up for the loyalty programs for the stores ahead of time.

Some stores might actually inform you through the loyalty program about the deals, and some might only offer the deals to those who actually have the loyalty program membership. It also helps to sign up for email news letters in order to stay informed about which retail stores are going to be offering which deals coming up, so that way you can decide how exactly you want to distribute your shopping.

Consumer Electronics Are Key

Black Friday will often have some of the best prices for electronics of the entire year. They won’t be lower anywhere else throughout the year. All you have to do is check out some of the stores that have the lowest prices for electronics anyway like Walmart or Amazon, and then figure out which of them wins for the particular item.

Many of these stores will actually compete with each other and do instant drops in price during Black Friday randomly without actually announcing anything ahead of time. The important thing to do to try to keep up with this is to search popular consumer electronic sights directly to catch a deal as it happens.

Many of these deals are happening so quickly that you have no chance of keeping up with them if you just use a show room app. This applies especially to items like portable electronics and USB gadgets. Anything like phones, televisions, and anything else of this nature qualify as consumer electronics.

Try to Avoid Add-Ons

What you want when you look for a deal on a big item is that particular item. One method many retailers use to try to offset losses from huge deals is getting you to buy accessories. Then, they simply mark up the accessories by a ridiculous amount, sometimes three or four times what the accessory is worth.

The more accessories they can get you to buy that have been marked up like this, the more they offset the huge deal, so you may not actually end up saving that much when everything is said and done. As a result, it’s a good idea to buy big ticket items during Black Friday deals, but not any of the accessories. Save purchasing accessories like cables, lights and other add-ons for separate purchases from other stores.

Black Friday is going to be a huge event this year, all indicators point in that direction. Last year, according to Business Insider, there were $12.3 billion in sales for brick and mortar companies. There’s every indication that the sales this year are going to be even greater, which means potentially even more craziness at the brick and mortar stores nearby. The solution is to be prepared and be smart, and avoid the crush if at all possible.