If you plan to brave the Black Friday crowds, then you owe it to yourself and your sanity to be prepared. That means arming yourself with the best iPhone apps for finding deals, finding your car, or finding your way home again.

Whatever you need to get an advantage in the craziest brick-and-mortar shopping day of the year, as the often repeated saying goes, there’s an app for that.

And, because we know the whole point of  Black Friday is to save money, most of these iPhone apps are free or cost $0.99.

Park’n Find ($0.99): Don’t waste time searching for your car in a crowded mall parking lot. Find your car quickly and move on to the next sale! Park’n Find uses GPS to remember where you parked so you can find it again later. The app can also remind you to put more money on the meter using push notifications.

Black Friday Wish ($0.99): This shopping app turns everything around. Rather than searching by store and combing through numerous ads to find a super low price on a laptop, Black Friday Wish has users build a wish list. Then, as deals are found that match the list, the super low prices will find you. Users can search by keyword and compare items from different stores to find the best deal.

Black Friday (free): FatWallet.com is a year-round bargain hunters playground where thrifty forum members meet online to swap deals, coupons codes, and assorted savings strategies. But each year, as Black Friday rolls around they really get serious. Black Friday will keep users up to date on the latest BF ads and discounts. It pulls information from the online forums as new deals are posted.

TGI Black Friday (free): Powered by TGIBlackFriday.com and DealCatcher.com, this app is designed to help users prepare for the Black Friday. Find ads, deals and coupons from major retailers — sometimes before they are released to the public — then create a shopping list and compare prices.

inoDeals ($0.99): inoDeals isn’t tied to any particular website, instead the app compiles a comprehensive list of Black Friday deals from more than 15 different bargain-hunting sites. Search for the best Black Friday sale  by website, product, keyword, or retail store. If you do find a super low deal, then save it to your favorites where you can color code them for easy browsing later. Then, when you’re ready to shop inoDeals can use your current location to find the nearest local store.

Nearest (free): During a long day of marathon shopping, you don’t want to find yourself out on the road hungry and low on gas. But if you do, Nearest can help. Quick access to common searches such as “gas station” or “coffeehouse,” the app uses your current location to find the closest destination on your agenda. Never underestimate the convenience of one-handed search capability. Plus, Nearest won’t cost you a dime.

If you’re willing to pony up a few bucks (and you’re saving so much money you should be!), these premium apps may also be useful during your Black Friday shopping spree:

Mall Maps ($2.99): Tired of walking in on the wrong side of the mall? Get to those Black Friday deals faster by knowing the layout before you arrive. Mall Maps has detailed floor plans for more than 1,000 shopping centers in all 50 states. You can even directions to the mall or search the phone directory of the mall’s retail stores.

Gas Buddy ($2.99): The Gas Buddy website has long-been the go-to website for bargain hunters that need to top off their tank. The great folks at Bottle Rocket have packaged everything that is good about Gas Buddy into one convenient app, and (of course) added a few extras just for iPhone users. The most important difference between Gas Buddy and the me-too cheap gas apps is the user base. Most prices are submitted by users, so the platform with the most users is going to have the most accurate up -to-date low prices. ‘Nuff said.

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app category: An App For That, Round-Up