You Can Save Big Bucks by Buying in the Offseason

I hate shopping!  Luckily for me, my wife not only enjoys it but is a master at finding good deals.  She saves us lots of money by using time as her ally.

Wait Out the Store
One strategy she uses is to find something she’s interested in and then stakes it out.  She’ll keep an eye on it to see if the price drops or they have a sale then swoop in for the kill. This technique is typically used on larger ticket items; you wouldn’t want to spend all your time watching the price of toilet paper.  It will also take you longer to buy certain things since you may be waiting for months at a time but you’ll definitely save some cash.

Buy Off Season
Another approach she takes that saves us 50–75% off of retail prices is to buy during the off season.  This works especially well for clothing, just today she cleaned up on baby clothes at the Children’s Place. She bought our son his wardrobe for next winter as the store cleaned out winter clothes to make room for spring/summer attire.

Her strategy was to cover his basic clothing needs for next winter and she saved around 65% on her total bill.  The follow up technique that’s even cheaper is to hit garage sales next summer where we can find kids clothes for next to nothing and fill in the gaps.

Obviously it would be nice to buy everything that cheaply at garage sales but little boy’s clothes pose a problem. We’ve found the majority of kids clothes at garage sales are for little girls.  It seems parents tend to buy girls more clothes in general so they just have more to get rid of.  In addition, little boys are pretty hard on their clothes so they’re more likely to wear out the knees and elbows to the point where parents don’t even try and sell them at a garage sale.

Whether you’re buying at a retail store, garage sale, or on eBay. Buying off-season can save you tons of money.  All it takes is a little planning : )

Ben Edwards, the founder of Money Smart Life, saved up enough to buy a Nintendo back when he was 12 years old. When he used the money to buy shares of Wal-Mart stock instead, he knew he wasn't like the other kids... His addiction to personal finance has paid off for his family and now he's helping you to afford the life that you want. Check him out on the web at Google Plus, Twitter and Facebook.

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