The Frugal Retiree's Guide To Seasonal Sales



Posted: Friday, January 28, 2011

by Kerry Hook

One of the best things that you can do to save money is to plan your shopping year out according to seasonal sales.  As a frugal retiree, I have found the savings from using this strategy to be substantial.  The deepest discounts occur at the end of each “season” for any particular item.

Most everyone knows that there will be sales at the end of each season on clothing.  This means that cold weather clothing (shoes, boots, coats, gloves, etc.) will be on clearance in January.  It is also traditional a good month for linens, towels and bedding because retailers have “January White Sales”.   Look for spring clothing to go on sale at the end of spring because retailers need the space for their summer clothes.  This pattern is repeated for each of the four seasons which will vary slightly depending upon where you live in the country.

Don’t limit your thinking to just the seasonal pattern for clothing because there are many other items that have a season nature to them.  Winter recreational equipment will go on sale towards the end of March as will winter equipment such as snow blowers, shovels, sleds and winter tires.  Summertime is the best time of the year to buy television sets because demand is low.  (People are not sitting at home in front of the T.V.; they are out enjoying the nicer weather.  Stores will have sales to try to bring people in to buy their televisions because sales have dropped off.  The end of summer is the time to buy a new air conditioning unit, lawnmower, barbeque, or gardening equipment for similar reasons.

And of course after the peak Christmas decorating season – early December (Lowes) to after December 23 or so is the best time to buy all your Christmas wrapping paper, light bulbs, bows, ribbon or decorations.

Another strategy to use during those times that you cannot wait until the end of an item’s season is to shop at the beginning of its season.  The reason that the beginning of a season can be a good time for sales is because retailers are competing with each other to get shoppers into their stores.  This tends to lower prices, but don’t expect your savings to be as great as during end of season sales.

Some items, such as cars – have their unique season related to the release of new cars.  New cars come out in the fall of each year, so if you are shopping for a car late August or early September tends to be the best time for your purchase because the dealerships need to clear their lots to make room for the new inventory coming off the assembly lines.

National holidays are also good times to look for sales.  On nearly every weekend near a major holiday, furniture and electronics stores will have major sales with deep discounts.  Black Friday is just the most well known, but all the other holidays have sales associated with them.  Online sales are usually the best on the lesser known – Cyber Monday (the Monday after Thanksgiving Day).

Finally, the end of the year offers a last chance to save on many items because it is the year’s end.  Retailers hope to clear out inventory, and maximize profits during the last few days of each year.

By doing just a bit of careful planning you too can save a lot of money on all your purchases!  For more tips and strategies on frugal living, please visit The Frugal Retiree online.
Kerry Hook has been writing for many years and is an avid fan of Keurig coffeemakers.

She shares coffemaker maintenance tips at: Keurig Descaling Find more on the commercial version of this coffeemaker here:

Keurig b3000SE

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Top-level comments on this article: (1 total)
» left by Jennifer Stewart
 1 year 93 days ago.
152 fans.
This is such a good idea, Kerry, to plan shopping in this way.
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