So I just got an email from Rite Aid announcing that they have their Christmas on clearance starting at 50% off.
I'm not so sure this is great. A month or so ago I was talking to a young lady in my FPU class about chocolate! We are both chocolate lovers and she mentioned how after Halloween she'd passed up on some chocolate that was on sale because they were trying to be frugal. She went home and thought about and went back the next day but by then it was gone! :( My response to her was that she'd probably find better deals shortly than she saw after Halloween anyway as many stores were having great sales on chocolate leading into Christmas.
Since I was trying to learn more about what works and what doesn't I have been paying more attention this year than ever before. In the past, I would shop the after holiday sales to buy certain holiday themed things; Shopping after Halloween to buy Halloween decorations and chocolate and shopping after Christmas for wrapping paper, cards, etc. Ok, I would shop after any holiday for chocolate - Hello, my name is Julie and I have a chocolate problem! So I told her about the great deals I'd seen at Rite Aid and CVS on chocolates already, getting them for .50/bag.
It was at that point that I realized that perhaps it's not worth waiting till after the holiday to stock up on things, but that you might actually get better deals BEFORE the holiday. .50/bag for candy is way better than 50% off. A couple of weeks ago I got tape for better than free on multiple occasions. I didn't buy any wrapping paper because I knew we'd bought enough after Christmas last year to last us a few years (same on bows).
Decorations may still have the best deals after the holiday. You rarely see the nicer decorations, dishes, serving items, etc marked down very much (or even on sale for more than a little off) before the holiday. Of course, waiting till after the holiday means you may not have much of a selection BUT if you are frugal and only buy a few items that you really like each year when they are on sale you can build a really nice collection of items.
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