I’m not sure what keywords to use in search to find a previous thread with advice about this, but some items can be had pretty cheaply if you time the purchases right and buy when people want to unload inventory.
The main examples are seasonal items that are weather dependent or items after holidays. I do my shopping for christmas decorations in early january; buy all the holiday candy the days after halloween/valentines day/christmas/easter; etc. I buy winter clothes in early spring/late winter and summer clothes in early fall/late summer, usually that stuff goes down to 50-75% off. But aside from holiday and seasonal items, I don’t know what other products you can get more cheaply by timing your purchases. If I wanted to I guess I could buy a bunch of turkey when it is $0.30 a pound during thanksgiving and just keep it in the freezer year round. But I don’t like turkey that much or have a big enough freezer.
I’ve heard that if you want to buy a car it is best to buy it at the end of the month or the end of the sales quarter since dealers want to unload it. I only buy used, but I’ve heard if you want to buy a new car it is best to wait until the newer year models are about to come out (ie wait to buy a 2011 car until right before the 2012 line is released).
Are there other examples of ways to save doing this or are those the main ones?
If you’re going to buy a new DVD of a popular movie, buy it the first week it comes out. The companies want to drive up sales so they can promote it as the “#1 best selling movie” so they discount the prices for the first week’s sales.
But if you don’t care about having a new copy, wait a couple of months. Then go to Blockbuster and they’ll be selling off all their extra copies for five dollars.
If you like cruises, you generally need to buy either very early or at the absolute last minute. The latter only works if you live in a port city, but it is rare that any cruise ship completely sells out, and the ship wants any incremental money they can get since they sail with or without the room filled. As such, sites like vacationstogo.com specialize in cruises, and even have a ‘90 day ticker’ because that’s when the prices really drop. If you can go a few days before the cruise, you can get 80% off and still get a nice room. That’s pretty much what my grandmother, who lives in Southern Florida, does most of the year.
I would agree on the new car thing. I bought my 2003 Infiniti in October after the 2004 models came out. I also went to the dealer who had the largest volume of them to unload, as the Infiniti website would let you check the stock on hand for the model you wanted in the color/package you wanted. I got the car for $300 over dealer cost.
If you are at any kind of show where dealers bring in their stock and have to haul away any unsold items at the end of the show back to their facilities, if you go at the very end of the show, there are some amazing deals to be had to save them the headache of shipping the merchandise back.
We haven’t tried it recently, but we used to be able to get meat at a discount on Thursdays. Butchers would stock up for the weekend on Thursday/Friday, and so they would mark down the slightly older (a couple of days) meat. Sam’s Club used to be a big one for this.
You may want to look at this site (The Best Times to Buy Anything in 2011), which offers the best times to buy almost anything. I’m not sure I buy it, but here you go. Here’s some examples:
The best time to buy an air conditioner and sporting goods is in the winter.
Laptops are apparently cheaper in April.
Get a gym membership in the summer.
Buy “microwinery” wine in August.
I used to drink soda (brand-name Coca-Cola, specifically) a lot more than I do now, and noticed that the twelve-packs of cans would go on sale before any big picnic holiday (Independence Day, Labor Day, etc) or before a big game like the Superbowl. So I’d buy a bunch (say six or ten twelve-packs) and go through it over the next few months.
I’ve never tried that, but several gas stations that also have restaurants usually discount the food half off or more around dusk. So donuts, pizza, etc can be gotten cheaper.
I didn’t know there was a pattern to nearly expired meats and breads at grocery stores (ie, if they tend to need to unload inventory at roughly the same time each week). If there is a day to go in to get the best selection, I don’t know it.
We’ve gotten good deals on our last 2 cars by buying when the new models were either out, or about to come out (e.g. a 1998 Civic in December 1998, a 2006 CR/V in September 2006). With this approach, you have to be prepared to be less picky about color etc. obviously.
Hotels: We will often use Priceline, and I’ve found we get better deals on nicer places if we book same-day, preferably as late in the day as possible. THe downside being you might not get a specific room type if, say, you want nonsmoking or need 2 double beds, so we’re leery of doing this when travelling with the kids.
Our grocery store often has packages of meat with instant coupons - 1-2 dollars off per package - on meat that has a sell-by date of that day. They also often have loss-leader prices on topical things, e.g. canned pumpkin in November.
Flights are supposedly cheapest on Wednesdays. I had been following flights from here to Chattanooga for a few days. Tuesday evening they were $450, Wednesday afternoon they were $150. Same airline, same flights.
It seems that a lot of bars have some really cheap drink specials (Dollar draft beers, extended Happy Hours, 2 for 1 deals, etc.) on tuesdays, wednesdays and thursdays, to lure a few cheapskates in the door, even on the slowest days…