Save Money All Year Long

You can’t always avoid the cost of convenience, but a little planning ahead will save you a lot

Things always seem to be expensive exactly when you need them. A bikini in May? Zero percent off. A tank of gas before your Saturday errands? Not cheap. That January vacation in the Caribbean? No one would call it a bargain. American women spend trillions on consumer goods and services every year, and a lot of them pay full price simply because it’s convenient.

But by planning ahead — which doesn’t require more time, just better use of your time — you can get great deals. Wait for the right day or month and invest time in making purchases instead of shopping on the fly, and you’ll see the annual savings start to add up.

Save Money on Groceries, Gas

GROCERIES

Save $840
Redeem weekly
The estimated average weekly grocery bill for an American household is $90, according to the Food Marketing Institute, a food retailer and wholesaler trade association in Washington, D.C. By using a store’s discount card, you can shave about 18 percent off that cost. Another way to keep the register from ringing: Don’t bring the kids, who may ask for treats you weren’t planning on buying. You can also save by stocking up on coupons. www.couponcart.com or CoolSavings (www.coolsavings.com), and shop on double-coupon days if your grocer has them. Avoid buying prepared and packaged goods. For example, Consumer Reports found that two pounds of carrots cost $1.29, compared with $7.16 for the same amount of precut carrot sticks. Finally, stock up on freezable foods after their peak times. Gary Foreman, publisher of the Dollar Stretcher website (www.thedollarstretcher.com), notes that prices for turkeys are slashed after Thanksgiving and Christmas.

GAS

Save $240
Redeem on Tuesdays
An American family with one car and one SUV or minivan consumes about 1,200 gallons of gas each year, according to the Federal Highway Administration. At any time, however, the price of a gallon of gas can vary by as much as 20 cents within a metropolitan area, says Brad Proctor, founder of GasPriceWatch, a consumer-advocacy website. To get the best bargain, avoid buying gas on weekends, when most people travel or run errands and gas stations raise prices accordingly. (Tip: Plan to take care of errands all at once instead of making extra trips.) Also, stay away from stations on toll highways, which charge high prices to their captive customers. To find the lowest price near your home or job on a given day, go to www.gaspricewatch.com or GasBuddy (www.gasbuddy.com) and enter your home or work ZIP code. These sites bring together volunteer “price spotters” (GasPriceWatch has 110,000) who regularly update the sites with prices at local stations. If you can stick to pumping once a week, says Proctor, you can often find the best prices on Tuesdays.

Save Money on Books, Health Club, Consumer Electronics

BOOKS

Save $100
Redeem anytime
The average American book-buying household purchases about 19 books a year, according to the Chicago-based industry research company Ipsos BookTrends, spending $176 in the process. To trim your family’s bill, wait for the paperback (which typically comes out six to nine months after the hardcover, at about half the price), or check sites like Powell’s Books (www.powells.com), Strand Book Store (www.strandbooks.com), www.amazon.com, and www.overstock.com for used and overstock books. If you buy a lot, consider an annual membership card from a chain like Barnes & Noble ($25) or Books-A-Million ($10), which will give you 10 percent off most in-store purchases. Remember, though, that you have to spend plenty of money on books annually (at least $250 at Barnes & Noble and $100 at Books-A-Million) to break even. Of course, the library offers the best deal: It’s free, as long as you remember to return the book before those 20-cents-a-day fines start piling up.

HEALTH CLUB

Save $149
Redeem at the end of the month
There are only so many “Two weeks free!” coupons out there, and eventually you’ll have to pay for the gym. The International Health, Racquet & Sportsclub Association (IHRSA), an industry group located in Boston, estimates that on average it costs $150 to enroll and $50 a month for a single adult membership. If you go rarely, it may be cheaper to buy a few day passes. See if you can join through your company, which can shave an average of $65 off the enrollment fee and $7 off the monthly charge. Even better, learn when your local gym runs sales. Susan Gerson, a spokeswoman for Town Sports, which operates clubs in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C., says the company runs an anniversary sale every November and (like some other clubs) cuts about 50 percent off its $199 enrollment fee at the end of some months, when it’s trying to make its monthly quota. Similarly, Curves International, with 8,500 locations, offers free enrollment (it’s normally $149) during a food-drive week in March and a breast-cancer–awareness week in October.

CONSUMER ELECTRONICS

Save $750 on a laptop computer
Redeem when a discount is offered
There is no set yearly schedule for sales on computers and consumer electronics, says Glenn Cunningham, director of the electronics store at Amazon.com. Instead, these items go on sale when manufacturers introduce a new version or need to sell a lot quickly to impress investors, says Tim Storm, president of FatWallet, a website that tracks consumer-goods prices. Last October, for example, computer maker Dell offered a one-day promotion that cut the prices of some laptops by 50 percent ($750) a few weeks before it was due to make a financial report to Wall Street. To take advantage of these sudden, deep discounts, decide exactly what you want to buy, then go to a site like www.SlickDeals.net, www.fatwallet.com, or TechBargains (www.techbargains.com), where you can check for the day’s latest discounts. The latter two sites let you set up free e-mail alerts that tell you when a specific item — or something in a general category, such as “Dell laptop” — has gone on sale.

Save Money on Dry Cleaning, Commuting

DRY CLEANING

Save $30 on drapes or $50 on bed linens
Redeem in January, July, or August
Americans spend nearly $7.8 billion on dry cleaning each year, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, much of it for low-priced orders (like shirts) and must-haves (suits for work). For expensive projects, like drapes, which run about $200 in a typical cleaning order, or bed linens, which can cost several hundred dollars, it’s best to have them cleaned in January, July, or August. Those are slow times for cleaners, when many offer discounts of about 15 percent on large items, says Nora Nealis, executive director of the National Cleaners Association, an industry group in New York City. If your local cleaner doesn’t advertise discounts during those times, try negotiating one.

COMMUTING

Save $500
Redeem anytime
You can save 30 to 40 percent on public-transportation costs by signing up for an employer’s commuter-savings program, which lets you buy tickets or fares with money that’s deducted from your paycheck before it’s taxed, says Laura Wheeler, the consumer-trend expert at the industry group WageWorks Center for Commuter Studies, in San Mateo, California. Suggest one of these programs to your employer if it isn’t currently offered — it saves the company money, too. If you take public transportation often enough, it also might be smart to buy a monthly pass. To see if you should, divide the cost of the pass by the number of times you’ll use it; if that amount is lower than the cost of a single ticket, buy the pass. There are some public-transportation systems that sell discounted advance tickets. The Long Island Rail Road, in New York, for example, offers up to 5 percent off tickets ordered online.

Save Money on Movies, Directory Assistance

MOVIES

Save $175 on movie tickets
Redeem anytime
Movie tickets cost Americans $9.5 billion in 2003, according to the National Association of Theatre Owners, a Washington, D.C.– based group that represents film houses. For a family of four, going just once a month — 48 tickets a year — can be a big expense. Cut your movie costs by buying corporate bulk tickets, like those offered by Regal Entertainment Group (www.regmovies.com), the biggest theater chain in the country. Regal sells blocks of 50 “VIP Super Saver” tickets that let you go to movies that have been showing for at least 12 days. At $5.50 each, these tickets are up to 40 percent less than regular tickets (depending on the region). You can also find price breaks through Working Advantage (www.workingadvantage.com), which offers discounts of up to 40 percent on movie tickets and DVD rentals through more than 4,000 companies and organizations, or through Entertainment (www.entertainment.com), which charges $25 to $45 for books of half-price coupons for movies and live events.

DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE

Save $60
Redeem anytime
At up to $2.50 each, those calls to directory assistance can really inflate a telephone bill. In 2004 Americans called 411 an average of two times a month, says Kathleen Pierz, managing director of the Pierz Group, a directory-assistance consulting and research company based in Clarkston, Michigan. To stop throwing away money on the operator, try looking up numbers in the phone book (store a magnifying glass next to it if you have trouble reading the tiny type) or on free websites, such as WhitePages.com and SuperPages.com, that provide U.S. business and residential numbers. Not near a phone book or a computer? Both Google (www.google.com/sms) and UpSNAP (www.upsnap.com) offer free directory assistance that replies within a minute to a text-messaged request sent from a mobile phone.

Save Money on Vacation, Holiday Items

VACATION

Save $193 per person
Redeem between February and April
While many airlines tout last-minute fares, the simplest ways to get the best price are to book far ahead; travel during “shoulder” seasons (just before and after peak travel times); and reserve your hotel, flight, and car all at the same time. Only 5 to 10 percent of an airline’s seats are reserved for fre-quent fliers, so if you want to get restricted frequent-flier tickets — the ones that eat the fewest miles — you’d better book about 11 months before your trip, as that’s when the airlines load seats into their computers, says Tim Winship, founder of www.travelocity.com, a site that provides information on mileage award programs. If you are paying for your seats and are willing to risk bad weather, it’s much cheaper to travel to popular destinations during shoulder seasons and to book hotel and flights as a package. Kari Swartz, a travel expert at the travel site Expedia, says that customers who book a hotel-and-flight package to one of its top 50 domestic and international destinations save an average of $193 on what they would have paid had they booked these separately. Shoulder trips — February in Europe, April in the Caribbean and ski country — can save up to $400 per person for a one-week vacation. Check sites like Travelocity (www.travelocity.com), www.expedia.com, and www.offpeaktraveler.com for deals. You may also be able to get discounted tickets through your company’s corporate-travel program or through SideStep (www.sidestep.com), which compares prices on different travel and airline sites.

HOLIDAY ITEMS

Save $32
Redeem seasonally
The average American household spends about $64 on holiday cards and gift wrap each year, according to the market-research firm Business Trend Analysts, in Commack, New York, and the most obvious seasonal sale on those items comes on December 26, when prices drop by 50 percent. On that day, suggests Deana Ricks, coauthor of Cheap Talk With the Frugal Friends: Over 500 Tips, Tricks and Creative Ideas for Saving Money (Starburst Publishers, $10), buy plain, one-color wrapping paper that you can use for any occasion, as well as items like Christmas-colored Hershey’s Kisses and M&M’s that you can freeze and use for other holidays — red for Valentine’s Day, for example, and green for Saint Patrick’s Day.

Save Money on Summer Camp, Mortgage, New Car

SUMMER CAMP

Save $320
Redeem in September
Four weeks at a typical sleepaway summer camp costs $3,200, and an average camp raises its price 5 to 10 percent a year, according to Jeff Solomon, executive director of the National Camp Association, a New York City–based organization that offers guidance in choosing a camp. To lower your camp costs, lock in your rate the year before. For a month or two after the end of each summer session, many camps offer early-bird specials, letting you sign up for next year’s camp at this year’s prices. This deal typically applies to general summer camps but not to one-week specialty sports camps, says Eve Eifler, who runs TipsOnTripsAndCamps. com, a referral service that matches kids and camps. Some camps may even let you lock in a lifetime rate if you’re willing to commit to — and pay for — several years in advance.

MORTGAGE

Save $933 a year
Redeem Monthly
Sometimes it seems as if you’ll never pay off your mortgage. The typical American homeowner has about $70,000 left on it, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Housing Survey, and about a third owe more than $100,000. To cut down the number of years before you’re finally free of debt, make one extra mortgage payment each year, says Susan Jones, the author of The Money Rules: 50 Ways Savvy Women Can Make More, Save More, and Have More! (McGraw-Hill, $13). Instead of sending in a whole extra month, which can be difficult for many families, divide your monthly payment by 12, then add that small amount to each check you send to the bank. You’ll cut almost six years off a 30-year mortgage and save about $28,000 in interest on a $100,000 mortgage financed at 6.5 percent. To find out exactly how much you’ll save — and how much quicker you’ll own your home outright — use a mortgage calculator at a site such as www.bankrate.com.

NEW CAR

Save $4,300
Redeem in September or October
Buying used is almost always a better deal, but if you have to know that you’re a car’s first driver, buy new in the fall. Automakers release new models in September, so that’s when they generally slash prices on the previous year’s cars. You can save a lot of money by buying last year’s model, especially if the car has been extensively redesigned, says Phil Reed, the author of Strategies for Smart Car Buyers (Edmunds Publications, $15). When Ford rolled out its redesigned 2005 Mustang, the sticker price for the basic two-door coupe was about $25,700. At the time, savvy car-buyers could get the 2004 model, which had a sticker price of about $24,800, for about $20,500. You can save even more money by waiting until December and buying one of the last old models on the lot.