I want to take the time to share my review of 2009 and what I noticed went on sale and when.
Why on earth would this matter? Simple. If you’re a couponer and if you’re hoping to stockpile, you need to gage store trends. It’s important that you buy the items you need when they are at or near their “rock bottom low” prices.
This was my first year of couponing and here are my observations. Will 2010 repeat this list? Some of the items – most definitely. Others? We’ll have to wait and see.
January
Look for items related to New Year’s Resolutions. Weight loss pills, vitamins, smoking cessation helps, cleaning supplies, organizers. This is also a great time of year to find healthy items like bagged salads on killer deals. January is also National Oatmeal Month which is something I take note of because my kids love oatmeal. Watch for coupons and sales to hit soon. Also watch for great stockup prices on cold remedies, and canned soup.
February
I recall finding lots of “Superbowl Party” related items on sale including frozen pizza, chips, and Mexican food fixings. Canned soup and chili also continued at low prices, as did cleaning supplies. I found a few sales on pasta and pasta sauce.
March
National Frozen Food month…however, I didn’t see any killer deals on frozen food (although it was well advertised by the stores). An uptick in cereal deals this month – particularly Kellogg’s and Post. This is about the month you’ll stop seeing deals on items such as cough drops, too.
April
Earth Day meant lots of free reusable bags, rebates, and other goodies. Watch for them again. Safeway also kicked off a “Living Well” promotion that featured numerous healthy, organic, and green items at killer prices. A great stockup sale for the health conscious. I sure hope they do this one again.
May
We started seeing Kraft and Kellogg’s products being pushed – this would last through late summer. Watermelon could be found for around $0.29/lb, and we also started seeing a dip in dairy prices including milk, cheese, and eggs that would last well into fall. While razor deals could often be found throughout 2009, in May we saw a few deals on shaving cream/gel – a product that does not often go on sale – so take note! The ice cream and hot dog deals started appearing in store ads.
June
Full-fledged summer deals! Hot dogs, condiments, ice cream, and summer produce could be found at the stores. There was also a promotion on ConAgra products at Albertsons during the month (think Hunt ketchup and canned tomatoes). Grapes were at a good price. I also noted deals on Mexican food items such as canned refried beans and tortillas. Price on cheese very good. There were also a few deals on cleaning supplies and paper products around this time. Throughout the summer, deals on Band-Aids and Neosporin could be found.
July
HEAVY on Kraft and Kellogg’s deals – both offered rebates and there was an abundance of coupons including printables. Items such as mayonnaise, BBQ sauce, and tuna fish on rockin’ prices. Summer produce – such as cherries, tomatoes, and plums were cheap. Hot dog and ice cream deals continued. There were also a couple notable deals on bottled water and Gatorade. The best deals on school supplies were also found in July.
August
Kraft products continued to be good buys including cheese, Capri Sun, Macaroni and Cheese, and Crystal Light. Kellogg’s products also featured in many ads thanks to their “Fuel for School” rebate. Back to school items such as granola bars and fruit snacks also began to come on sale. Safeway ran another cereal promotion. A few deals on Skippy Peanut Butter and Ragu could also be found. School supplies continued to be a recurring theme on the drugstore ads.
September
The last of the summer ice cream deals! Now we started to trend into fall cooking/baking items. Campbells began their onslaught of insert coupons, pasta and pasta sauce started to come on sale. More deals on granola bars and fruit snacks (Betty Crocker in particular) continued. There were a few last deals on hot dogs and cheese. I also noticed a slight uptick in frozen food choices – pizza, Mexican, appetizer items. A few last deals on Band-Aids. About this time, Kashi started really pushing their cereals and these deals would last through the end of the year. Glade also seemed to issue more coupons than usual for their new Fragrance Collection.
October
Soup was the big item to watch this month. Most of Campbell’s coupons were very low in value which made it a little trickier to stock. Halloween candy deals appeared every week on ads, and we saw a few great printable coupons trickle in to “sweeten” those deals. Apples, oatmeal, Quaker items, and pancake mix were found on good deals. Nabisco launched a rebate, put out a great coupon, and the stores did a good job on the sales. This month we started to see more cold/cough medicines go on stockup prices.
November
This is probably MY FAVORITE month to stockpile because there are lots of coupons/sales on those pantry essentials. Flour, sugar, chocolate chips, oil, spices, yeast, canned vegetables, canned fruit, soup – all abounded. It was a good time to keep an eye for a turkey or ham deal. Ragu and Skippy went on stockpile prices again. Due to shortages, canned pumpkin rarely dipped below $0.99 for a 15 oz can and there was nary a coupon in site. Cocoa and tea coupons appeared in weekly inserts and stores obliged with sales. Batteries began going on sale in anticipation of holiday presents that would soon need them. Photo deals started cropping up. Black Friday? Amazon outperformed everybody in my book. Next year? I’m just going to stay home and watch Amazon outdo their competitors’ prices in real time.
December
Many of the November deals continued for the holidays – in particular canned and baking items. There were a few great deals on Satsuma oranges. Cold/cough remedies continued and the best deals were generally found at Walgreens. While cereal deals could easily be found all year ’round, Chex in particular was found at its lowest price in December. I suspect this has something to do with folks making Chex Mix for the holidays. More deals that you’d expect for the holidays were found – batteries, gift wrap (best deals at the drugstores!), and candy. The photo deals continued and Amazon continued to slash prices – particularly on toys – right up until Christmas Day.
Year-Round
There were some deals that repeated themselves throughout the months and seasons. Why am I pointing these out? Because some you may not need to worry about stockpiling as much – knowing another sale is likely to come.
Cereal
Yogurt
Coffee
Razors
Air Fresheners (Glade, Airwick)
Diapers (although some deals were certainly better than others!!)
Shampoo
Deodorant
Cosmetics
I hope that was helpful to you as you plan for the year ahead. Happy Stockpiling!
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
Thanks for the run down, when I started couponing in April, Post had a their catalina promotion running so I made money on cereal, that first week I had 40 boxes – overkill I know – but I couldn’t believe it! It’s amazing how low items must be before I buy and I about fall over when my husband picks up a can of refried beans for $1.50 when I got 30 last spring for .25 each (and we ran out somehow). This year not as much salad dressing and barbecue sauce and I agree the bagelfuls went down way too easy. Thanks for your blog
thanks for this list, its good to know, really helpful… i started in the middle of last year so i can’t wait to see all the deals throughout the whole yr and to see how my savings and pantry will add up!! thanks for all the help!!
This is so helpful. Thanks!!
Love this! Wonder if I will ever get time to do my own. We have people ask about this in classes all the time. If I never get to it, at least I know where to refer them!
Monica
Great post, Angela!! How helpful to look at it the whole year to see what kind of sales there were and when they took place!
This is great! Thank you so much!! Always meant to do this myself. Now I can spend my time doing the coupons for it instead
Thanks a ton!
Thanks for a great summary.
I remember being disappointed by Frozen Foods Month, too.
Couple more things for January – this is the second year now there’s been an outstanding Olay Rebate put out. Also, right now I’m seeing the best P&G Promo at Albertsons that I’ve seen in months…I seem to remember one about this time last year, too.
Folks, I’m going to try to keep a running log of some of this going into 2010 so I can make it more robust. I’ll also try to find a place to put it on my blog for handy referencing. Give me a lil’ time. This site is about to get a MAJOR overhaul!
Thanks for the list…very helpful.
I would also add that I think in early Feb stores have chinese food items on sale for Chinese New Year (which is Feb 14th).
We use a lot of the dark toasted sesame oil and I just had to buy a tiny bottle for 6 dollars last month and it was close to 3 dollars last Feb. I ended up getting sick and not being able to go to the store then.
Also I hardly ever see cans of water chestnuts go on sale around here except for early Feb. And soy sauce of course seems to be on sale then too.
What a great list, it’s very helpful since I am just starting out! Do you have any tips or pointers on how to create my own Year of Couponing list myself?
Brianna
For me, I was able to go back through my deal posts. Each month, you might want to jot down what items you saw on sale repeatedly that month. Meat, produce, brands, categories, etc. I also thought about the type of promotions that had been run.
{ 5 trackbacks }