Paying less than your neighbor for everything from ketchup to cars often boils down to carefully timing your purchases right. The best time to get a deal often isn’t when you need the item at hand, but when the magic mix of seasonality, low consumer demand, and the likelihood that retailers are swimming in excess merchandise means that stores are eager to unload goods even if they have to take a loss to do so. This is why, for instance, you should shop for winter coats in March (this March especially) rather than November or December. What do smart shoppers buy in April?
Talk about dropping the ball. Best Buy waited until as late as this week — mere days before Christmas — to admit that it’s not going to be able to fulfill the online orders placed by some customers. These are customers, by the way, who made their purchases around Thanksgiving weekend, more than three weeks [...]
The only rational explanations for lining up outside the mall before the sun rises and putting up with monster crowds to go shopping on Black Friday are: 1) You just love the crazed, festival-like atmosphere; and/or 2) you assume Black Friday gives you the best chances of buying holiday gifts at the cheapest prices. Turns [...]
When money is tight, a $350 laptop is a seductive alternative to a full-powered machine that might run anywhere from $1,000 to $2,000. And there are plenty of options out there. But with Black Friday season around the corner, there’s a strong case to be made for considering a higher-end model.
Interested in trimming your lawn care expenses? Want precise, wonderfully dumbed-down specifications for what you need and how much you should pay for a laptop? Seeking advice on where to find a cheap haircut (and we’re not talking a “recession-chic” DIY cut)? Have you always wanted to hide your money in a safe inside your [...]
Be on guard at the checkout line: In all the chaos of holiday shopping season, you can easily get talked into paying extra for some sort of extended service plan you don’t want, or into signing up for a credit card that saves you 10% upfront—and then hammers you with fees down the line.
