Find the best price on Black Friday

This year’s biggest shopping day is just around the corner. Black Friday. As an avid consumer of everything from technical gadgets to household items and equipment for children, we are very aware of, and well prepared for, what ends up in the shopping cart tomorrow. That being said, somethings has already been bought as Black Week has become a more important event this year than last year, due to the pandemic. Some stores have even run with Black Month! Consumer-involved Norwegians have been feasting on good (and perhaps not quite so good) offers for several days already. But the purchases that we have already made, we are absolutely certain that will not be any cheaper tomorrow anyway.

How to make the best deals on black friday

So how can we be so sure of that ?! Doing research before each purchase over a certain amount (you set the limit yourself) only makes sense. No matter how much money you have in the bank, you will want to pay as little as possible for a product, something else would just be stupid! Doing great deals is also satisfying not only for the wallet but also for the mind. Knowing that you are making great deals and being confident that this is actually the case gives a peace of mind.

What is important to think about before Black Friday?

In the past, stores had sales once, perhaps twice a year. Nowadays, there is often some form of sale all year round. Despite this, Black Friday is still something many customers are “waiting for”, and Black Friday has really taken off in Norway in recent years. First it’s Black Month, then it’s Black Week, then it’s Black Friday, then comes black weekend. After the “black period”, Cyber Monday and of course Cyber Week start. And before all this, we have also had Singles day for those who like to shop from China. When all this is over, the so-called Christmas sale starts before we end the year and start the new year with New Year’s sales. Sorry, I completely forgot the Boxing day sale! It is by and large a period that is very lucrative for the stores, and they are fighting hard to hijack you as a customer.

We have seen a huge increase in online shopping in recent years, but since the pandemic started, it has skyrocketed. The Norwegian Post office writes in a press release that they have experienced a formidable increase in e-commerce in all the country’s counties. In the second quarter of 2020, the increase on a national basis was over 60 per cent measured against the same period last year. The same is true on a global scale as well, according to the UN.

Prices in online stores have become very easy to compare and the stores are aware of this. Although online stores compete primarily on price, there are also several other things that come into play when we shop online; terms of sale, delivery options, free shipping / free return or not. Price guarantees, moneyback guarantee for x number of days, interest-free installments or “buy now, pay next year”, to name a few. Also, customer service and support availability is something we as consumers are more and more concerned about. It should be easy to get in touch with the store! So it is not only the price that determines where we shop.

 

So, how do you proceed?

Plan well in advance

We use Notion.so for a lot in our everyday life, also to plan purchases. Here we can write shopping lists that we keep up to date with different tags, prices and other information.

notion.so purchasing list

We always do research of what we plan to buy. Is there a new and updated model of what we are looking for? Often the price of an older model decrease when a newer model hits the market. So in some cases it may make more sense to wait, but not always. Black Friday is often used by both manufacturers and stores to get rid of older models. Does the old model have what you need or should you go for the latest one? If you can get what you need in an older model, you can often get very good deals during this period.

Checking the price history of the product is usually the most important thing. What is the lowest price this item has had? How long ago did it come on the market? Here you can keep your own statistics and follow, but there are tools that make this very easy for you.

Get an overview with pricespy.co.uk

There are several sites where you can do this, but in this post we will look at pricespy.co.uk. You get a lot done in your preparations with Pricespy as a tool.

Pricespy logo

Ranking

When it comes to research, Pricespy has a ranking system for the vast majority of product categories. If you have done your research and are sure of the item you are going to buy, you know which model you should get. If not, a ranking of the different product groups can help you. Perhaps the one you had initially decided on is way down the list, and perhaps there is a model that is much better and that is even cheaper.

Price alert

This is the most important feature Pricespy offers, and something that should be used all year round, and not just during the Black Friday period. With a database of several stores, and bots that scan online stores, Pricespy notifies you by email if any of the products you have put a price alert on, decrease in price. If you have the Pricespy app on your phone, you can get the price alert on your phone instead.

Shopping lists

Instead of using Notion.so as we do, or post-it notes on the refrigerator as some does. You can create lists on your Pricespy account, so that you can follow the different prices in an easy way. One for Christmas presents, one for Black Friday, one for things you need in the new house, etc.

Price history

What’s really ingenious about Pricespy is when it comes to price history. Here you can check what the lowest price of the product has been, and in this way be sure whether you are making a good deal or not. Has the price gone up and then been reduced just before Black Friday? Well, here’s the answer.

Pricespy Price history

Shopping experience rating

It’s one thing that a store has the lowest price. Yet, if the price is “too” low, something might be off. Then it may be a good idea to check the store’s rating before making a decision on whether it’s worth paying the price you get. It may be that it takes a long time before you receive the item. In some cases you could end up not receive the item at all and have to buy it later at the regular price.

Summary

We are now well on our way into this year’s major sales period. It’s Black Month, then it’s Black Week, then it’s Black Friday, then comes Black Weekend and after that it’s Cyber Monday and of course Cyber Week. And do not forget Singles day! And when all this is over, the Christmas sale begins.

If there are products you are looking for that cost a lot, regardless of whether it is electronics, white goods, sporting goods, clothing or whatever it may be. It is worth it to spend some time on research before venturing out into the jungle of offers. Take the time to find the right product at the right price, avoid impulse buying, and use the tools available to ensure that you actually make good deals. Then you will with good reason be left with a good feeling!

Last year we bought some Dungeons and Dragons books and smart home products. This year there will be a bread baking machine and a new computer monitor on our list.

We want to hear what you are going to buy so comment below!

Why Ubiquiti Unifi networking is the best network

Ubiquiti Unifi starter pack

More and more of us are sitting in the home office during the day. Most of us indefinitely. Working from home can present challenges for some, at least if you do not have the equipment in order.

Is your network stable and good enough?  Does it work well enough even if there are two (or more) in the household who are dependent on running video calls at the same time? And how does the network work with streaming and gaming in addition to this?

Working from home requires that we have a home office that works flawlessly, and a network that has enough capacity for several people to use at the same time.

Like many others, we therefore needed to upgrade our network. We’d used our old Asus AC68 router now for a long time and although it has been working fine, it was time to make an upgrade. An upgrade that both opened up greater opportunities, but also to a system that can be adapted and adjusted as the technology gets better and better.

Ubiquiti’s Unifi network system is a series of products that do this exceptionally well. With Ubiquiti, we are equipped to handle not only Wi-Fi 6 (when it is more standardized than today), but also upcoming Wi-Fi technologies.

The old router, Asus AC68

If you have an interest in technology, why are you sitting on an old router then?

In our home, as I said, we have for a long time used a simple router. Recently we have used an Asus AC68 router. It was a period when we used Google Wi-Fi, but since we have some port forwarding rules and a need to have access to some applications outside the home network (ergo we needed DDNS), eventually we had to go back to our Asus router. Although we were happy with this router, there were still some functionality that we needed, that the Asus router didn’t have. The coverage was not good enough and it was more and more often that we had to restart the router to be able to connect to it.

Why did I let it go so long before I switched? Well, cost is one thing here. It’s no secret that if you want to have a good network at home, it will cost you. Of course, this applies not only to networks, but also many other things. Quality costs, and Ubiquity is no exception.

The Unifi system from Ubiquiti has many different products and combinations you can choose to go for.

They have a network router that meets the needs of the vast majority, namely the Ubiquiti Dream Machine. You can buy one Ubiquiti Dream Machine, and you have a ready-made router that has most of the features you need.

What you miss by going for a Dream Machine is the flexibility and scalability that you can get by going for some of their other products.

One possibility is to buy the different components separately. So instead of buying a traditional router, you buy different components with different functions.

A classic network router is basically several products merged:

  • A gateway
  • A software
  • A switch
  • An access point

If you want the flexibility that Ubiquiti can offer, it requires that you purchase these parts separately.

Gateway

Ubiquiti’s gateway has 3 gigabit ports, 1 WAN port (to the modem) for the external network and 1 LAN port for the internal network.

Software

You need a controller software for the network. A place for all the settings you can change, and an intuitive place where this can be stored. Worth mentioning is that this is possible to have on a dedicated server or PC, but to make it easy for you, Ubiquiti has this in a separate product, the Cloud key.

Switch

If you need more LAN ports than the ones in the Gateway, it is advantageous to buy a switch. Here there are many to choose from. It is a good idea to choose a switch with at least 1 PoE port, so you do not need to give the Cloud key a separate power connector, as it can get power through PoE.

Access point:

One of the things that separates a more professional approachable network system from a more common one is that the access points are sold separately, instead of being part of the router. This means that for every generation of Wi-Fi that comes, you can buy a new access point, instead of buying a new router.

For each category of products, you have several choices. It is best to buy parts that are tailored to your use. There are several different switches, depending on whether you need many LAN ports, and possibly more PoE ports (if you have many surveillance cameras for example). You can choose to go for several different access points depending on what need for stable Wi-Fi you have and how large an area you want to cover. There are mainly 2 different Cloud keys, gen1 and gen2. Gen2 also comes with hard disk space if you want to use this as an NVR (surveillance system).

 

For a household with 2 adults and 3 children, the following is enough:

Why Unifi

The benefits of going for Ubiquiti’s products and specifically Unifi are many. It’s one thing that if you have an interest in technology and gadgets then it’s just something fun to play around with. And having so many different settings to adjust and configure with… well it’s just fun – the more the better! However, it should not only be fun, it must have some other values ​​as well.

The performance

As I said, stable internet is something we are totally dependent on. In most homes, there is an area or more where you have slightly poorer coverage of Wi-Fi than in the rest of the home. Most people also experience from time to time having problems connecting and therefore have to run a restart of their router. Ubiquiti’s products have consistently been at the top of performance tests and their Wi-Fi is no exception.

Tech Radar Pro ubiquiti Access point review MBReviews ubiquiti Access point review The Geek pub ubiquiti Access point review

The cost

As I said, having a good network is not cheap. And this applies to everything. If you want something that is good, it will cost you. However, Ubiquiti’s cost model differs from some of the others. The products themselves are not more expensive when compared to similar Cisco, Linksys or Zyxel products as an example. But they also have no monthly license fee, or any other type of subscription required, that some others have.

The ease of use

Where Ubiquiti really shines is in their ease of use. It is very easy to set up, it is very easy to get started and it has all the features you need to make your network as professional as you want it to be. All in a nice and modern user interface. In addition, you have a mobile app from where you can control your network from, you have chat support function directly in the Controller platform, and you have full control of your traffic with great opportunities for reporting.

Example of network overview

Do you need all this?

Yes. Period. When you have an above-average interest in everything that is technical, you need to have the opportunities offered by a more professional system. This is what the Unifi system offers. I know we’ll need to upgrade to Wi-Fi 6 in a short time, and then it’s a simple matter to just swap (or just add) an access point that supports this. Ubiquiti recently released 2 Wi-Fi 6 access points, that are now available in their store.

The definition of a good product

Products, whether it is software or hardware (or games for that matter), which are based on the premise that it is easy to get started with, but which take a long time to master, are a good product. There are several such examples on the market.

You get started in a simple and straightforward way, but the more you tinker with it, the more you learn to navigate the user interface, the more familiar you become, the more functions and greater opportunities open up to you. Only your own knowledge sets the limits.

This is the definition of a professional and good product.

The future

Ubiquiti take networking into 2021 with their AR feature. You now have the opportunity with an app on your mobile, to see where your different cables go via an augmented reality view.

This is something most people obviously do not need in a home network, but for those who are a little more interested in technology, and not least for those who sit at 8 or more LAN ports that go around a home, this can be something that simplifies for example any troubleshooting.

Summary

In today’s home office revolution, there is a greater need for a good and stable network than before. If you are you tired of places around your home where there are dead Wi-Fi zones or that you sometimes can not connect to your network from some devices, you need a renewal of your network.  At least if you are a prosumer, or above average interested in technology.

The Unifi system from Ubiquiti is your best choice to never complain about the network at home ever again. With a modern and professional user interface, a simple setup and affordable products where you get all the flexibility you need, there is no need to choose anything else. You know you are secured for the future with Ubiquiti.

If you need any help with the setup of Ubiquiti, we leave that to those who are more professional than us. Crosstalk solutions on youtube has many videos about Unifi, but especially this video explains the whole setup in a very simple way. 

If you have chosen Unifi, or another system for that matter, we would like to hear from you.