PYP Blog

As a coupon'er/bargain shopper over 13 years, I've discovered (and you may have, too) that coupons and sales run in seasonal cycles. Here's a comprehensive guide to cracking the what and when is on sale. It may be a repeat for some, but I believe it is worth repeating. Hope it helps!

Seasonal Sales Cycles

JANUARY - Historically, Quaker has hot deals on cereal/all items. We see Pepsi/Tostitos go on sale mid-January (again, rebates abound for these). Other items of note this time of year are chili, side dishes, anything for hearty/warm meals.
• Post-Holiday Sales
• White Sales
• Sports and Weight Loss Equipment
• Computers
• Winter Apparel and Accessories
· Organizers, Rubbermaid totes, shelf organizers, planners, filing cabinets

FEBRUARY – many of the same food items as January
• Electronics
• Floor Coverings
• Housewares
• Furniture
• Candy and Chocolates

MARCH - Frozen food month. You'll find many stores are offering free freezers or fill-a-bag deals. Between March and April, look for spring cleaning deals, so many cleaner items will be on sale. With Easter, looks for eggs, ham, Kraft products to cycle into good sales. Paper products like towels, napkins, plates are starting to come on strong. Beverage items.
• Spring Apparel and Accessories
• Winter Sports Equipment
• Gardening Supplies
• Luggage

APRIL –
• Spring Apparel and Accessories
• Coats and Hats
• Paint
• Wallpaper
• Jewish Foods and Eggs

MAY -
get ready for summer! Here come loads of deals on BBQ sauce, frozen veggies, baked beans, and condiments of all kinds, summer-time meats (ribs, hotdogs, and ground beef). Also with all the holidays, look for tons of paper goods that match the holiday and pick them up after clearance. These deals generally continue through September!
• White Sale - Linens and Towels
• Spring Cleaning Supplies
• Auto Maintenance
• Home Maintenance
• Sodas & Bottled Water, Hotdogs, Hamburger Meat, Condiments, Paper & Plastic plates & cups
* Raid/Off bug repellents and sunscreens

JUNE –
• Summer Apparel and Accessories
• Pianos
• Television Sets
• Building Materials and Hardware
• Dairy Products

JULY –
• Air Conditioners
• Summer Sports Equipment
• Sportswear
• Craft Supplies
• Sodas, Hotdogs, Hamburger Meat, Condiments

AUGUST –
• White Sale - Linen and Towels
• BBQ and Patio Equipment
• Back to School Supplies
• Bathing Suits
• Fresh Fish and Vegetables
• Breakfast foods (Cold cereal-Juice-Waffles-etc)
• Cold lunch items for in lunch boxes

SEPTEMBER - back to school; time to fill up on snacks! Pudding cups, Capri suns, fruit snacks, cereal sales start up hard again, peanut butter/jelly. Also, like clockwork, there will be Prego coupons in August, and plan on getting lots and using them in a hurry before they expire in September when the spaghetti sauce goes on sale. Sauce wars between Ragu and Prego this month. Campbell’s soups will go on as well and there will be coupons in the end of August for these as well. Lunchables are on sale this time of year, too.
• Back to School Supplies and Apparel
• Gardening Supplies
• Housewares
• Bicycles
• Canned Goods

OCTOBER - Stock up on holiday foods – Stove Top, turkey, instant mashed potatoes, broth, cranberries, marshmallow, ice cream, pie shells, whipped cream, pudding. Look for great Kraft deals again this time of year. Piggyback those Kraft coupons when you can. Crackers are a biggie - going on for $1 or less a box. Lots of extra deals like $ off cheese WYB crackers. The real kicker is the after Christmas food deals! Save your coupons because pie fixings, fried onion, broth and canned green beans will be on deep discount. I got those onions for .50 a can, normally almost $4. These generally continue through December.
• Cars
• Houses
• Fishing Equipment
• Crystal, Silver, and Glassware
• Candy
· Baking/candy-making items (choc chips, sprinkles, vanilla, corn syrup, nuts, etc)

NOVEMBER -
• Winter Apparel and Accessories
• Quilts and Blankets
• Heating Devices
• Turkey, Sweet Potatoes
• Canned goods (soup, chicken broth, condensed milk, veggies etc)
• Baking goods

DECEMBER –
• Toys
• Gift Items
• Party ware
• Post-Holiday Sales
• Party Foods, Baking Goods, and Various Meat
• Canned goods (broth, soups, etc)

Year-round after a holiday, you can always pick up cheap cookie dough and any food related to a holiday.

Continual sales are candy, popcorn, chips, anything snacky, cereal (heavier in the fall/winter, but still around in the spring).
Frozen food sales seem to centralize on a brand and the switch brands the next month. I think the manufacturers buy slot time for sales. So last month, Stouffers was on sale hard, now lean cuisine is. Save the entire frozen coupon and then keep checking back for the brand of the month.

Frozen pizzas go on sale in the fall and then again the spring; not often in the summer because people don't want to turn their ovens on in the summer.

By all means, this isn't everything that you can get on sale, but if you follow the cycle and stock up (I never buy BBQ sauce in the winter), then you can get where you have enough on hand and only need to refill when the items are in season. The result is that you spend less and less with each successful cycle.

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Sources: Various numerous sites on the internet over years of time from an obsessive compulsive cpn-er

See PYP's forum of hints/helps for ideas and discussion.

Please note: This is the second article (2 of 4) in a series about post Holiday clearance shopping.

Grab the keys and let's hit the mall. Not! Unless you want to spend more money, take more time and simply be more frustrated. It is time to prepare for your shop before you leave home.

Clearance Shopping Guidelines

1. Familiarize yourself with the Bargain Huntress Holiday Clearance Rules.

2. Check out Pinching Your Pennies forums. Thismust stop on the internet will help you save time and money. There are over 60,000 registered members across the country, and it is nice to have all the extra sets of eyes doing research at stores and sales for you.
*Check out the Screaming Deals around Town to see what % off savings you can expect today (and decide if you want to wait for a higher saving %).
*Check out Your State forum to see if there is a Must -Have hidden gem in your neck of the woods.
*Check out your Favorite store’s thread (Target is mine, for example) to see what deals you might have missed, but now know to keep your eyes peeled for when you hit the store.
*Check out Printing Pennies for HOT Printable Coupons that might match with a hot clearance sale item. A great example would be $1 off Emerald or Diamond Nuts. Many nut gift baskets are at low clearance prices and a coordinated $1 off coupon would make for a great double play!
*Have a particular item you are searching for? Use the Find a Penny forum to get assistance in finding that $20 Christmas tree you are searching for, but cannot find at your local Big Lots. Others in nearby cities can check out their stores for you!
*Check out Screaming Deals Online forum. Many online retailers are having clearance sales, too. The staff at PYP are the best deal finders on the net, and you don’t want to miss out on some great gifts with savings of 75% or more.

3.Go shopping by yourself, if possible. And try not to bring your children. If you bring the kids, you have added items that you do NOT want into your cart and it is very easy to get frustrated, faster.

Here's an idea that might work for you... A good friend & I trade off clearance shopping days- one baby-sits while the other shops, then the next day we trade. Our kids have fun play dates and we get a day of Clearance Shopping by ourselves!

4. Remember that there is more to Christmas clearance shopping than leftover bows, tinsel and wrapping paper. Bath sets, Desk sets, and other unique gift items that you do not see at your store throughout the rest of the store are most likely Holiday clearance.

5. Be creative when shopping Holiday sales. Have a girl friend who loves to scrapbook? Look for Christmas scrap booking items that probably are on clearance. Continue to purchase Holiday themed clearanced supplies for your friend (I would wait til 90% off) and when it is time for her birthday, you have a unique and fun present that didn’t cost you much.

6. Have a person in mind when buying non-Holiday clearance items. This will prevent you from overbuying bath sets AND maintains control over your budget.

7. Limit how many stores you will shop. This may seem obvious, but try to stick to a few stores, even one mall, to maximize your shopping time and minimize wear & tear on you. If you focus on one or two stores, say Target, you can patiently wait for items to be marked down to a lower price in a few days (as it will be. See tomorrow’s blog entry for some golden Target clearance information)

8. Check out the store’s website for any information about sales, printable coupons and rebates to add to your savings.

9. Sign up for your favorite store’s newsletter and store loyalty rewards cards. Many times, you will be the first to hear about sales and rebates and new coupons. Bath & Bodyworks do this all the time. For example.

10. Get a Store Charge Card. (Disclaimer: I am NOT advocating using credit or going into debt simply to shop Holiday Clearance sales.) Please let me start by saying that I do not have store charge cards that I use, nor carry a balance. However, store card holders can receive special coupons and discount cards/codes that the general public cannot use. Kohl’s is the best example of this.

11. Get to know Target & its Clearance system. This is a whole entry unto itself and you will see it Monday morning. (This is one of my most requested shopping secrets)

12. Get creative with cheap clearance items. This is another blog entry, too. Stay tuned for some fun & unique ideas about Christmas clearance on Tuesday morning.


If you use the above ideas while Holiday Clearance shopping, you will maximize your monetary and time investment while minimizing stress & frustration. Happy Shopping!

Just one of the awesome tools here at PYP...ready-made shopping lists. We scour grocery ads to find the best deals at many of your favorite stores, and match them with available coupons. Check the list below and see if you find your favorite store!

Idaho Albertson's Idaho Smith's Utah Albertson's Utah Associated Foods Stores Utah Bowman's Utah Dan's Utah Dick's Utah Harmon's Utah Kent's Utah Kohler's Utah Lee's Utah Lin's Utah Macey's Utah Ream's (Salt Lake & Davis counties) Utah Ream's (Springville) Utah Smith's Arizona Fry's Arizona Albertson's Arizona Safeway Arizona Basha's

National Walgreen's National CVS Nevada Albertson's Nevada Smith's Nevada Von's Nevada Food For Less Nevada Sunflower Market California South Albertsons California South Ralph's California South Von's California South Stater Brother's California South Pavilions California South Food For Less California South Rite Aid Washington East Albertsons Washington East Fred Meyer Washington East Safeway Washington East Walgreens Washington East RiteAid

Want to try Quizno's new Toasty Torpedos? Save 50% on 2nd one with printable cpn from coupons.com I'll be trying this next week, but please share your thoughts on this new sandwich!

BTW, super thank you to supermod Dewey for keeping all of our coupons.com and other printables updated! See here for more AWESOME printables good all month of June!

The amazing Shelley has done it again! Next week's PYP Utah Albertons shopping list is done early. Week of Wednesday, April 8th through Tuesday, April, 15th is available for viewing, planning and strategizing.

View the shopping list here.
Check out the forum thread discussion, including catalina (checkout cpns) promotions, extra printables available and extra unadvertised deals around Utah.
See the complete Albertons grocery circular online early, too.

Another reason PYP ROCkS!