Black Friday in South Africa: why discounted wants wreck financial plans

In January, when South Africans sat at kitchen tables, bank statements spread out like pieces of a puzzle, they dreamed of a disciplined year. They budgeted. They promised themselves to save more and spend less.

Did anyone in their spreadsheets, budgeting plans, vision board, or New Year’s resolution include Black Friday? Quite unlikely.

Yet, as the year winds down and fatigue gnaws at the willpower needed to see financial plans through to the end of the year, Black Friday rises like a glittering mirage in the desert of November. It promises relief, rewards, and once-in-a-lifetime deals. But for many households, it behaves less like a festive opportunity and more like a silent wrecking ball swinging straight into their year-long financial plans.

Black Friday did not arrive in South Africa as a saviour of consumer pockets, but rather as a powerful disruptor of financial discipline.

Black Friday was not transposed into the South African economy to save us. It has, in many ways, become a destroyer of financial plans. What makes it even more dangerous is its timing. It arrives right at the end of the year, when people need to hang on just a little bit longer to see their financial goals through.

Originally from the USA as the Friday after Thanksgiving, Black Friday, traditionally marked the start of the Christmas shopping season. But in South Africa, the day arrived without the cultural context or seasonal meaning. Instead, it landed heavily on a society already battling high living costs, debt pressure, and economic uncertainty.

And so, year after year, South Africans wait for November with an anticipation that becomes a financial event on its own, not planned for, not budgeted, but deeply desired.

This is the “Black Friday Blind Spot”. It is the temptation that exposes emotional spending, FOMO, and instant gratification, all disguised as smart financial choices.

We convince ourselves that buying something on sale automatically makes it a good financial decision. But a discounted want is still a want, and an unplanned purchase is still an unplanned dent in your budget.

For countless families, the impact is felt most painfully in December and January. The money that was meant for school uniforms, stationery, transport, festive responsibilities, and emergency savings often vanishes in the smoke of a short-lived bargain. Suddenly, the deal of the year becomes the debt of the year.

The real issue is that Black Friday has taken centre stage in November’s spending priorities, even though it was never part of many people’s financial plans to begin with. It simply hijacks those plans just as people are preparing to cross the finish line at the end of the year.

Black Friday has become a marathon of temptation. It is like being offered an ice-cold vanilla ice cream just a few centimetres before the finish line, causing you to forget the purpose of the 90-kilometre race in the first place. It’s the same as the temptation aisle filled with sweets and chocolates at the supermarket checkout. At the last minute, the unplanned want often wins.

Consumers should pause, reflect, and choose discipline over impulse.

The message is not that South Africans must avoid Black Friday entirely, but that they must approach it with clear and intentional planning. If it is not in the budget, it should not be in the trolley, no matter how convincing the discount.

Financial freedom will not be realised in November. It is something built in the quiet, consistent choices we make throughout the year, especially at the very moment when temptation is strongest.

As South Africans enter the final stretch of 2025, he encourages households to stay committed, stay focused, and protect the financial futures they have worked so hard to build. After all, a single day of sales should never dismantle eleven months of discipline.

* Manyike is the head of financial education at Old Mutual.

PERSONAL FINANCE