Change Your Shopping Time

The right time to shop when large celebrations such as Easter and Christmas are due, is well before the event. If you are a last minute, panic buyer - forget it!

More interesting facts and tips on how to save money for Christmas are here.

The very best shopping time to buy Christmas presents, so saving money, is at the January sales immediately following the Christmas holiday. This also makes things easier on your credit card account.

Goods that are ‘Christmas specific’ such as festive tea towels etc. are another good area to research. It is even possible to find BOGOFs here - Buy One, Get One Free.

The summer sales are also a good shopping time for buying Christmas presents well before the event. These sales can also offer the opportunity for buying birthday, wedding and other presents. This is the way to cut your spending and saving money.

Mothering Sunday is a prime example of shops seeking to cash in on an event. The price of fresh flowers shoots up (excuse the pun).

An orchid is a good example here. These are an exotic gift, look very impressive and can be bought for around £7 or £8. They have a flowering period of about 6 months, so on this basis, an absolute bargain. Orchids normally come in their own special pot as they need to be watered from below and not directly into the soil. Just remember not to over-fertilize them!

There are also many other pot plants that are very good value both for presentation and where saving money is possible.

The other alternative is to buy the Mother in question some of her favourite perfume, face cream or chocolates. A pretty, flattering scarf would be ideal, particularly if you are canny enough to match it up with her favourite outfit - maybe from the January sales? Again - choose your shopping time!

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Father's Day is a secular holiday inaugurated in the early 20th century to complement Mother's Day and is usually celebrated on the third Sunday in June. Obviously you will want to save money here so choose your shopping time again.

One of the best ideas here is to keep an eye open for special offers in DIY stores if the Dad in question has this range of interests. Also Christmas time sales are a good place to watch. Maybe a sweater, the universal socks (poor Dad!) and gent's toiletries spring to mind. Maybe if a deodorant were included it might spark a thought or two - but tread carefully here.

Another shopping time to watch for is during bad weather.

Certain fresh foods such as vegetables and fish supplies, are likely to affected by bad weather conditions. Therefore, keep ahead, listen to weather forecasts, and then switch your shopping to avoid high prices.

These prices are automatically raised by the retailers even before the affected items arrive in the store. Therefore you need to counter (pun?) their actions. Frozen vegetables and frozen fish can be used to replace the fresh ones for a few days.

Alternatively just use totally different items, such as meat or pulse recipes. Again, you will be ahead of the game to save money.

If you are really canny and two steps ahead of the others, you will already have a supply of pre-cooked meals in your freezer for such occasions. You can award yourself ten Brownie points for astute thinking and planning here. Don’t be held a hostage to fortune!

With the present high price of wheat, it would seem to indicate a hike in the price of flour based products. Bread you cannot store, but pasta you can. Think about it, look around and take your own decision.

You will need to be ready, so take a look at our other tips. There are even more waiting for you.

You can even learn easy ways of saving money on loads of household items and many of these are top notch as far as keeping the money in your purse is concerned.

Another good shopping time is when the media abounds with 'scare' stories regarding food.

When one section of the industry, i.e., poultry, as in recent times, is in trouble, the herd instinct seems to develop amongst shoppers and every part of the poultry industry is boycotted. You will find evidence of this in the Reduced To Clear section of the supermarket. Take your opportunity.

The author recently bought some excellent Free Range chickens during the poultry scare regarding turkey broiler houses. When opportunity knocks, answer and benefit. Just think - you will save money, this will spur you on.

In addition, if you know when your local supermarket does the daily rounds of their shelves, sorting out goods that have reached their 'sell-by' date, this is also another very good time to shop.

If you live near a street market, then the best time to buy is during the last hour of trading. You will probably find that the greengrocery stalls will be keen to sell off any stock that has a relatively short shelf-life. Soft fruits and salad items are likely to be ones that are offered. Take advantage of this by doing a quick re-think of your meals for the week. A rapid bit of multi-tasking is needed here!