Over the past few decades many aspects of the ‘American dream’ have crept into everyday life in Britain, be it our reliance on a tall chai latte from Starbucks or our unabashed obsession with US TV and pop culture.

And now, judging by the emails filtering into my inbox this week, it seems to be the turn of ‘Black Friday’.

‘Black Friday’ is traditionally known as the busiest shopping day of the year in America and is associated with the first Friday after Thanksgiving in the US. It promises shoppers a selection of highly sought after products at discounts of 70%, over a 24 hour period.

The popularity of this mega-shopping day has been growing in the UK since 2009, but unsurprisingly the sales have now started to expand beyond just the one day – bringing with it a whole week of festive discounts for online shoppers and early go-getters.

Predictably, the biggest backers of this shopping frenzy here in the UK are American retailers Amazon and ASDA (which is owned by US retail giant Wal-Mart).

The latter will deck out 350 of its UK stores with giant Wal-Mart logos, and promises ‘earth shattering deals’ on goodies like the Cyclone Explorer 7 inch tablet computer at £49 and LG 42″ Plasma TVs at £259.

Although the promise of a genuine bargain so close to Christmas may be too hard to resist, a note of caution needs to be relayed to the masses.

The savvy deal hunter should know by now that not all that glitters is gold.

If you do have your eye on something in particular, it’s worth looking around online to check that any flash new deals tomorrow will actually work out cheaper than what the product would normally retail at.

Do not feel pressured into panic buying in a desperate bid to avoid the Christmas rush.

Some retailers will have over inflated their original price so they can use their pre-Christmas sales to tempt shoppers into buying low-quality or bad value goods, meaning you may not be getting the bargain that you think you are.

Take your time and do your research, and make sure you compare other options available on the market to ensure you’re getting a good deal. If you’re not sure, ask around.

Remember, a slashed price tag doesn’t automatically equate to a good deal, and you may end up paying over the odds for a poor quality item that the retailer simply wants rid of.

One last word of caution, if you really don’t need a new TV, and you can’t really afford it – no matter how great a discount, do not buy it.

A report out this week found that a tenth of the nation are living beyond their means just to ‘appear’ to be better off. With so many people in the UK already trapped in a vicious cycle of debt, and many more edging closer, I really can’t stress how important it is that ‘keeping up with Joneses’ isn’t the trigger for unnecessary future financial misery…

Tahmina Mannan is a personal finance reporter at YourMoney.com