Money Saving Monday Tip #8 – Buy Items At the Right Time
By glblguy
I was talking to a co-worker the other about how my wife is really great about purchasing items at the right time. What I mean by this is she waits until items are out of season to buy them. For example, she purchased a pool for our kids (affiliate link) a few weeks back. Since summer is about over, pools have been significantly reduced in price. The pool she purchased is normally about $150.00, she got it on sale for $40.00.
Many items can be purchased at a great discount this way. End of season discounts are a great way to save money. Here’s a few tips to help you out:
- Spring and summer merchandise usually goes on sale in June and July
- Fall and winter merchandise usually goes on sale in January
- When demand is high, prices are high. When demand is low, prices are low. For example buy outdoor products like lawn mowers, grills, and deck furniture in the winter. During the summer, buy winter items.
- Overstock.com often has off-season items for great prices.
One word of caution, only buy when you have the money. If you’re going to end up paying on it for a few months by using a credit card than it won’t be a bargain. Try to plan ahead, and save up your money so you can pay cash for the items.
Good luck, and happy bargain hunting!
September 4th, 2007 at 2:16 pm
Great tip! We do this quite a bit. Another point, if you are buying something big like a pool at the end of the season, make sure you have room to store it for a 6-8 months before you can use it. We ran into this problem of not having room to store something and it became a pain in the arse.
September 4th, 2007 at 2:31 pm
Kyle, I can see that :-) We stored it over at my in-laws house, so their pain in the “arse” ;-)
We have the same issue sometimes with buying in bulk. It’s much cheaper, but finding a place to store it can be a bit difficult. Thanks for the tip on the tip!
September 4th, 2007 at 2:37 pm
At the In-Laws!! Great Idea, I will have to remember that one as my in-laws do live in town!
September 5th, 2007 at 12:41 am
My wife and I have done this with clothes for my oldest boy. Target usually have twice yearly clearances of clothes and we buy for the following year. Usually we save 50 to 70 % off the marked prices. We get twice the wear out of them because they are used for our youngest boy.
September 5th, 2007 at 7:14 am
Ben, great tip. My wife does the same thing, but not only at Target, but at Sears, Carters, Gap, Old Navy, etc, etc.
We have five boys and do the pass the clothes down thing as well. Of course they don’t generally make it through the our 3rd son :-)
Thanks for commenting Ben!
September 11th, 2007 at 10:32 am
This is quite the useful tip. I covered this a little while back when consumer reports actually released the shopping calendar. Who knew there was an’official’ when to buy list : Here is the link if you are interested.
http://www.thehappyrock.com/2007/08/05/follow-the-shopping-calender-for-big-savings/
Also the other tip, like you said, is to not buy things just because you can get a good deal on them, but delay buying things you really need until the right time.