Black Friday is almost upon us. Widely recognized as the busiest shopping day of the year, it’s the day when shoppers brave the crowds and the cold to save a few bucks on Christmas gifts.

Sure it may be called “Black Friday” but this year some sales are actually starting on Thanksgiving Day. For instance, the Black Friday sale at Walmart actually begins at 10PM on Thursday. This year 152 million shoppers plan to brave the crowds this Holiday weekend, and will spend an estimated $465.5 billion at various stores. That’s up almost 3% from 2010.

To help you on your quest to save money this season, we’ve put together a list of 5 essential apps for black friday, along with their official app description. One of the featured apps could prove quite handy if you were to lose your iPhone while out shopping. Check them out below and leave us a comment with your favorite Black Friday / shopping apps.

1. BFAds.net Black Friday (Free)

The BFAds.net Black Friday app lets you plan your Black Friday (Day after Thanksgiving) shopping trip weeks in advance! Brought to you by the largest Black Friday site, the BFAds.net app provides you with early access to the season’s best sale advertisements and deals from major retailers. Browse the ads by store or category, read the latest sale news and even create your own shopping list to take with you to the store on the big day!

2.) Black Friday (Free)

The Black Friday Deal Finder 2011 is the best on-the-go resource for reviewing and organizing Black Friday deals. Powered by FatWallet.com’s innovative Black Friday Deal Finder (online), this mobile version displays ALL major retailers’ Black Friday ads (pre-released) so you can quickly search, save customized lists and never miss a deal. User friendly features include: sort deals by store and category, filter stores by cateogry, search by product name, reference individual deals for quick comparisons… among other great features.

3.) Price Check by Amazon (Free)

Ever wondered if you were getting the best price on a product when you were out shopping? With Price Check by Amazon, you can use your iPhone to instantly compare prices with Amazon.com and its merchants while on-the-go. Price Check enables you to search Amazon products quickly using barcode, picture, voice, and text search. All prices are in US Dollars and search the Amazon US catalog. Compatible with iPhone 3Gs and iPhone 4 devices with auto-focus cameras and iOS 4 or greater.

4.) RedLaser – Barcode and QR Code Scan (Free)

The ALL-NEW RedLaser is the fastest and easiest to use RedLaser yet! It has everything you loved in RL Classic and more of the functionality you have told us you are looking for! RedLaser is still free to download! Shop smarter. RedLaser searches thousands of ONLINE and LOCAL retailers for the best prices and features product results from Google, TheFind, eBay, Milo, and many more.

5.) Find My iPhone (Free)

If you misplace your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, or Mac, the Find My iPhone app will let you use another iOS device to find it and protect your data. Simply install this free app on another iOS device, open it, and sign in with your Apple ID. Find My iPhone will help you locate your missing device on a map.You can then choose to display a message or play a sound, remotely lock your device, or erase your data on it.

Black Friday is one crazy day of shopping, but possibly armed with the right app you can make it a huge success for your budget.

[Lead image courtesy: pinoytutorial.com]