More on "Shopping Ahead"

I did a post recently about "Shopping Out of Season." I love finding things for 80-90% off and saving them for the future. It definitely saves us money in the long-run!

Another way that I like to "shop ahead" is with buying birthday and Christmas presents. This came to my mind recently as we were celebrating my son's third birthday. Last year, in August, I came across these great Playmobil sets at our local ShopKo store marked way down. I also had a coupon for $10.00 off a $40.00 purchase. I knew that these were a "classic" toy that my son would love in the future, and so decided to buy them (almost a year ahead of time) to save for his birthday.

I was able to get these five Playmobil sets (an almost $90.00 value) for around $25.00. I have also been able to pick-up some of my kids' Christmas 2010 presents already...at more than 75% off their original prices.

I would like to add here, that this might not work for you if you do not have "Christmas gifts" and "birthday gifts" included in your yearly budget. We have started putting that in to our annual budget, so when we see a great price on a Christmas/birthday present, we know that we have the money set aside for that already.