Free Apps: Black Friday Shopping

Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving when stores offer various deals and incentives to try to turn a profit for the year, has grown into an intense, competitive, in some cases week-long or month-long shopping extravaganza. If you're planning to head out this Friday, please keep these tips in mind:

1. In most cases, the store employees would rather be at home with their families (or in bed sleeping) than ringing up purchases at 5:00 a.m. Be courteous, be respectful, be friendly, and make sure to say "please" and "thank you" and "Happy Thanksgiving!" or "I hope you have a good day." A little kindness can go a long way to make someone's day better, and you'll usually get a better experience out of it, too.

2. Be safe and be cautious. It might sound ridiculous, but people really have been seriously injured and even killed in Black Friday chaos. Keep your wits about you, don't try to fight over anything, and, if possible, use the buddy system.

3. An advertised price isn't always a good deal. Just because it's Black Friday doesn't mean that all the prices are the best they'll be all year, or that every store has the best price on every item. And, in general, just because a price is listed in a weekly advertisement doesn't mean it's a significant sale, or even a sale at all. So have a rough idea of what you're looking for and what the "regular" prices are; you can also use a comparison app to scan barcodes to check prices at other stores.

...which leads me to the main point of this post: free apps (for Android, since that's what I use) to help you with your Black Friday shopping. Just click through for a run-down of the best apps to help you find deals, score more, compare prices, and calculate your discounts.

(Friends using iOS: Most of these apps, or something similar, should be available in your app store, too. Just search by app name or function.)

Find Black Friday Deals

Black Friday App: View leaked and confirmed ads and deals, price compare with online retailers, find store locations, save items to a shopping list, and click through to retailers' sites to buy online. The most popular Black Friday deals app.

Smart Aisles: More than 450,000 in-store deals from more than 25,000 stores. The app aggregates and rates deals, then sorts them from best to worst. The prices are compared to the MSRP, not a store's "regular" price, so you can evenly compare and determine which price is the best, even if it's not the greatest percentage off the store's list price.

Black Friday Deals: The best Black Friday deals, handpicked and manually checked by their staff coupon clippers and deal finders, plus reviews, exclusive offers, an e-mail newsletter, and deal notifications (occasional and saved "for only the best deals", when they're about to expire).

GeoQpons: Find coupons and deals for stores near you, then show the coupon image/code on your phone to the cashier to use it. Also includes a barcode scanner to check prices, the ability to add coupon reminders to your calendar, starring/saving coupons for later use, and a savings calculator.

Score More by Checking In

Foursquare: Check in at the malls and stores you visit to earn your way towards rewards, discounts, and other incentives. Some are offered just for checking in once, others for multiple check-ins or becoming mayor of a location.

shopkick: Collect "kicks" (rewards) for checking in at stores. Kicks can then be converted to gift cards, music downloads, Facebook credits, etc. It also has a "Buy & Collect" program: you link your Visa credit or debit card with your shopkick account, then pay for purchases with that card and rack up thousands of extra kicks at no additional charge.

Compare Prices

ShopSavvy: Scan a barcode and ShopSavvy provides you with a list of prices for the product, both online and in local stores. You can even add your credit card to the app to be able to make purchases with one "slide" through the app from stores like Walmart, Target, Barnes & Noble, and Buy.com.

Price Check by Amazon: Scan a barcode, snap a photo, or say or type a product name to check prices on Amazon.com. Amazon often has some of the lowest products, especially on popular products, so comparing to Amazon can give you an idea if the deal is good or not. If Amazon.com has the product for an even better price, you can even buy it through the app or add it to your wishlist.

ShopAdvisor: This app lets you save products you want to buy, then alerts you when it drops in price. The app can find products, show sale prices, alert you to drops in prices, list pros and cons of products, and remind you later.

Calculate Your Discounts & Totals

Discount Calculator: Calculate discounted prices one at a time or in bulk, with or without tax included, and also see how much you're saving. Easy to use and easy to read.