I used to ignore Black Friday, brushing it off as another marketing, consumerist gimmick to get people to buy stuff they don’t need to impress people they don’t know. When I needed stuff, I just bought them, without discount. But that was when I was younger, more self-righteous and had an overly-idealistic and poor view of money. But over the past 1-2 years, I had done some work on re-evaluating my relationship with money and consumption, and I’d say, had arrived at a more balanced view. 

My take now: If I’m going to spend money on luxury items, I might as well spend it on a day when things are cheaper. Money saved means more money on other things that matter to me. If I’m going to consume luxuriously, I might as well consume on as pre-defined days instead of letting loose throughout the year. Kinda like a cheat day. Be good as much as possible for most of the year, and have a cheat day on Black Friday. (Of course I buy luxury stuff on non-Black Fridays too throughout the year, but with as much restraint and/or necessity as possible. Black Friday is when I can loosen that valve a bit.)

So, time to share that shopping list! These are some of the stuff that I’d been deal-hunting for:   

✅ Carrd.co - 50% of Pro plans till 6 Dec

Carrd is a sleek website builder made by @ajlkn. It’s super easy to use, and allows you to make beautiful, fast websites within minutes. Seriously, even though I know how to code things myself now, but sometimes you don’t want to commit too much time to an idea that might not even work in the first place. I’d always wanted to get on the Pro plan for Carrd, so that I can make MVPs of ideas I have, with as little time invested as possible. 50% off on the $49 Pro Plus annual plan is just crazy affordable for a tool that can potentially give me so much more returns.

✅ Vessi - US$99 for first pair (usual $179) till 3 Dec

Ever since I backed this Kickstarter project, I’d been a big fan of their waterproof knitted sneakers. It rains a whole lot in Singapore, and I hate walking around the whole day with wet socks. Ever since I got this sneakers, I even hop onto puddles without a care in the world. #firstworldproblems

❌ Perfect Keto Bars - 50% off for 5 items till 2 Dec

I still crave for a sweet snack from time to time, and these keto bars are great for those moments. It doesn’t kick me out of ketosis, and they taste great. Only problem, it’s not available easily in Singapore and they are not cheap. Happy to have a chance to buy more this time! [Update: But US$40 for international shipping! Hmmm have to re-evaluate now.]

?‍♂️ Field Notes - no promo code yet

I have a whole collection of them at home but I still can’t get enough of them. Field Notes are my go-to note books of choice, for everything from reflections, idea journals to project notebooks. I start a new book for every project I start. Every year I start a new one too. The designs are awesome, the craftsmanship is inspiring, and I love the whole grassroots genesis story behind it. It’s not to surprising then that there’s a cult following for Field Notes, on par with or maybe even more fervent than Moleskin notebook fans I’d say. 

❌ Bellroy - US$60 discount if you sign up till 30 Nov

I have one of their slim wallets and really like their thoughtful, minimalist design and practical, clever compartments (like for SIM cards, a pull tab to get cards out of a slot easily, etc). So am already a fan, and going for their crossbody bag seems a no-brainer. [Update: After much struggle, decided not to due to price point. Can get similar ones at half or less.]

✅ Honey

I recently discovered this free Chrome extension that crawls the internet for promo codes and adds them to your cart automagically. PayPal recently acquire this company for $4B, so that’s says something. Great tool when you’re shopping around and might have missed out on promo codes, and not just on Black Friday.

Ice cream maker

Also in the market for an ice cream maker to make keto-compliant ice cream… anyone knows any good deal on it?

✅ Namecheap - 36% off .com domains in first year, and up to 97% off for others

If you’re an indie maker, buying internet real estate is probably a side hustle you can relate to. I buy mostly on Namecheap, because as the name suggests, the domains there are cheaper, though that’s fast changing because Cloudflare is getting into the game and they are offering no markup prices on domains. Until Clouflare arrives, I’m pretty happy with the user experience on Namecheap so far. But price-wise, they had been marking up their prices more and more recently, which isn’t so good for poor indie makers like us. So it’s good news when I heard there’s a Black Friday deal on Namecheap domains - it so happened I needed to buy 2 domains for my side projects. Pretty happy with the 36% discount. Even crazier is 88% off for .co domains, and 97% off for .online domains!  

✅ Reader Mode - 50% off till 29 Nov

An awesome Chrome extension made by fellow indie maker @ryzalyusoff. I always enjoyed using the reader mode in Safari, but have to miss out on that on my laptop because I use Chrome. Reader Mode allows me to do just that, and more -highlighting, annotating and note-taking and exporting those notes. Great tool for building a second brain! You can even change the colours and fonts, even dyslexic fonts for better visual accessibility for those with dyslexia. Who says you can’t make a useful product for the masses, yet also have social impact for the minorities?  

✅ CSS Scan - 52% off till 3 Dec

CSS Scan takes away so much of the pain of using the Chrome developer console. Thanks to how poorly designed the console is (there’s never space to read the syntax! And everything is hidden away! Grrrrrr…), there’s an opportunity for stand-alone products for the different features of the console. I wrote about this before. CSS Scan is one of those stand-alone products which works like magic. If the console was hell, then CSS Scan is heaven. That’s how vastly different the user experience is. 

✅ Xiaomi Air Purifier 2S - US$101 on Qoo10

With the haze and air pollution becoming a annual season here in Singapore, being able to have better control and experience over the air quality of me and my loved ones is becoming increasingly important. Xiaomi is great for smart household products, and the design is nostalgic of Apple’s snow white themes in the past. With real HEPA filters, it does the job for real, not cosmetically. It doesn’t even feel like a luxury… it’s a necessity. 

Moo minicards - 30% till 5 Dec

I’d only ever had Moo cards for my businesses. Their Printfinity technology means I can print up to 50 different card designs in small batches of 50. That means every card would have a different design on one side - great for showing off your portfolio, especially if you’re a photographer or designer. I love the craftsman quality to their products, and it’s always great fun taking out a whole bunch and letting your customer pick the one they like. Without fail, everyone is always thrilled to be able to do that instead of being handed a generic business card which they will toss aside after the meeting! This time, I’m printing cards for Keto List Singapore, since it’s a local business and I might end up meeting people to network.