The Cycle of Business- When items are on sale.
Sales are cyclical- certain items are on sale during specific times of the year, either due to holidays or special events. For example- Barbeque sauce is on sale in the summer, when people barbeque a lot. Manufacturers and stores will put out coupons and places items on sale to entice shoppers to spend more. Use this to your advantage. Combine sales with coupons and increase your stockpile and plan your menu.
Here are some examples:
JANUARY
- Diet Food and Weight Loss Equipment (New Year’s Resolutions)
- Gyms have sales and free trials
- Healthy Food including Veggies
- Television and other Electronics (Super Bowl Sunday)
- OTC Medications (FSA’s expire in Jan./Feb.- Use it or Lose it!)
- Winter Clothing and Shoes (Formal clothes are usually 75%+ off)
- Organizers (totes, Christmas ornament storage containers)
- White Sales (Sheets/Towels)
- Snack-y food for Super Bowl parties: chips, dip. Velveeta, salsa, taquitos. There are often times really great rebates for snack food and beer or soda around the Super Bowl.
FEBRUARY
- Diet Food and Weight Loss Equipment (New Year’s Resolutions)
- Healthy Food including Veggies
- Furniture and House wares
- Candy and Chocolates
MARCH
- March is National frozen food month. Many Stores like Albertson’s have a “fill a bag” sale where you are given a paper or plastic bag and you receive a discount (typically 15-25%) on each frozen item in that bag.
- Spring Apparel (Easter Dresses and Suits)
- Depending on when Easter falls, look for sales on Easter Dinner food: Ham, Prime Rib, stuffing, veggies, eggs, and Easter Basket Supplies.
- Luggage and Travel (Spring Break)
- Spring-cleaning sales will start and there will be rebates for cleaning supplies- especially with SC Johnson Products.
- Between March 13-17th (St. Patrick’s Day) Corned Beef, Potatoes and Cabbage are all Dirt Cheap. Stock up!
- During Lent, seafood is inexpensive.
APRIL
- More Spring cleaning sales and rebates
- Paper products (plates, napkins) start to have really good sales.
- Paint & Wallpaper (In the same vain as spring cleaning, a lot of people start to spruce up their homes in the spring)
- Jewish Foods and Eggs (Passover)
MAY
May is the start of picnic season. Barbeque food, Hotdogs, hamburgers, ribs, condiments will all be on sale throughout the summer and will be until September.
- Auto Maintenance (tires, oil changes, tune ups)
- Beverages, Hot dogs, Ground Beef, BBQ sauce, Ketchup, Mustard, Ribs (Often times there are some really great rebates WYB beer or soda)
- Bug repellents – Sprays and Candles
- Home Maintenance (carpet cleaning, duct cleaning)
- SPF and After Sun products (like Aloe)
JUNE
- Summer Clothes
- June is National Dairy Month- Dairy Products
- Summer Activities (local attractions sometimes have “locals only” days or rates)
- Beverages, Hot dogs, Ground Beef, BBQ sauce, Ketchup, Mustard, Ribs (Often times there are some really great rebates WYB beer or soda)
JULY
- Air Conditioning units
- Summer Sports Equipment & Craft Supplies (things for families to do together)
- Beverages, Hot dogs, Ground Beef, BBQ sauce, Ketchup, Mustard, Ribs (Often times there are some really great rebates WYB beer or soda)
AUGUST
- BBQ and Patio Equipment (Just in time for Labor Day!)
- White Sale - Linens and Towels
- Back to School Supplies – Sales may Start in Late July, Depending on when school starts in your part of the world)
- Bathing Suits and the last remnants of summer clothes
- Back to school clothes
- Jackets and light coats for fall
- Beverages, Hot dogs, Ground Beef, BBQ sauce, Ketchup, Mustard, Ribs (Often times there are some really great rebates WYB beer or soda)
- Breakfast foods (cereal, oatmeal, juice, bars) Cereal sales will start this month and continue into September as school starts up.
- Lunch box food- juice boxes, lunchables, snacks, chips, yogurt
SEPTEMBER
The traditional Back to School Sales will start. For most school, classes begin the Tuesday after Labor Day. This is a great time to stock up on snacks that are healthy and shelf stable. 100 calorie snack packs, fruit leathers, 100% juice boxes, bottled water, peanut butter. Watch the inserts for Lunchables coupons too- they will start going on sale!
- Back to School Supplies (Office Depot, Staples, and Walgreen’s often have Freebies)
- Canned Goods. Canned soup and spaghetti sauce also starts to go on sale in September.
- Frozen Pizza
The last three months of the year are packed full of holidays. Now is the time to stock up on “holiday foods”- Stuffing, turkey, instant mashed potatoes, broth/stock, cranberries (you can freeze the real ones for up to 6 months!), marshmallows, pudding, gelatin, flour, sugar, French fried onions, cream of mushroom soup. These ingredients can be used in everyday foods, not just once a year. Stock up when they are cheap (OR free!) and you will eat well all year.
There are LOADS of rebates during the last three months of the year for “holiday” foods, especially food that is usually served when entertaining, like crackers and cheese.
OCTOBER
- Home goods such as serving dishes, and glassware (to prepare you for the onslaught of entertaining you will be doing for the holidays)
- Candy, nuts
- Baking/candy-making items (choc chips, sprinkles, vanilla, corn syrup, nuts, etc)
- Fall/Winter clothing
- Fabric, Patterns, sewing machines (Halloween)
- Coats/Jackets
NOVEMBER
- Winter Clothing
- Blankets and flannel sheets
- Heating Devices (space heaters, in wall heating units)
- Turkey, ham
- Canned goods (soup, chicken broth, condensed milk, veggies etc)
- Baking goods (flour, sugar)\
- Baking wear
DECEMBER
- Toys Coupons.com usually has coupons for Fischer Price Toys in December
- Gift Items There will be a lot of TMF offers and rebates on personal care this time of year. Stock up and fill your stockings and keep your wallet full.
- Post-Holiday Sales I like to stock up on plain colored paper goods after each holiday and stockpile them to use throughout the year for parties and events. No one will know the red napkins are from Valentine’s Day, not from Christmas. Light Blue gift paper from Chanukah will wrap a present for a baby shower gift just the same.
- Party Foods, Baking Goods, and Various Meat There will be a lot of rebates, keep your eyes open!
- Canned goods (broth, soups, etc)
- Prime Rib, Turkey, Ham
Year-round after a holiday, you can always pick up cheap cookie dough. Cookie dough freezes really well for about two month. You can also find plain colored paper goods, including plain colored wrapping paper and tissue paper after each holiday in the clearance section.
Coupon Previews- You can see the Future!
There are several websites that preview the weekly coupon inserts. However, there are regional differences due to product availability. There also may be slight differences in the value of each coupon. Most coupons received on the West Coast have a higher value, .50 or more each due to the increased cost of food.
http://www.taylortownpreview.com/www.sundaycouponpreview.com/ Not all media outlets carry all of available the coupon inserts. In San Diego, We receive Smart Source (weekly), Proctor and Gamble AKA The P&G Saver (about once a month), General Mills Puts out a smaller insert with their brand specific coupons in it about once a month. The rest of the time their coupons will appear in the Smart Source circular.
Red Plum Coupons does not come in the newspaper in San Diego. It is delivered with the bulk mail on Mondays. Visit
http://www.redplum.com/ and type in your address to see which local newspaper delivers the Red Plum Insert. In Southern California, it’s the LA Times.
Once you visit the coupon preview websites, you can visit Hotcouponworld or Afullcup and check out the forums dedicated to the drugstore or supermarket. Those sites have forums dedicated to future weeks sales. Employees have access to future sale flyers, usually only 2-3 weeks worth, and many of the employees of various stores are members of these sites and they scan them and post the scanned images (referred to as ad scans).
Members of the community will post “match-ups”, matching the items in the sale circulars with coupons that have already been published, or with coupons that will be published (with information from Taylor town or Sunday Coupon Preview).
You can plot your trip out in advance. Then when the ad goes “live”, Weds. morning for grocery stores and Sunday morning for drugstores, you can take your list, your fistful of coupons and shop until you drop.
