Ultimate Buying Guide: Best Day of the Week to Make Purchases

May 13, 2014 by Kyle James
Updated: April 29, 2024

Were you aware that certain items are a better deal on specific days of the week? I have always been a HUGE advocate of timing your purchases in order to score the best bargain.

So I have gone ahead and spent the time to crunch the data and coupon usage numbers here at Rather-Be-Shopping.com to figure out which items provide the best value depending on what day of the week you shop. I hope you can use this info to save some money on purchases you would make anyways.

Ultimate Buying Guide: Best Day of the Week to Make Purchases

Monday

– Consumer Electronics: Many electronics retailers (Best Buy, Abt, J&R, etc.) apply manufacturer rebates on Mondays making it your best day to shop for bargains on HDTVs, digital cameras, and tablets.

– Automobiles: Crickets can be heard on most car lots on Mondays, both new and used. Thus your ability to negotiate a great deal goes up substantially.

See Also: What Day to Shop? Here’s When 12 Popular Stores Do Their Markdowns

Tuesday

– Airline Tickets (3 pm EST): This has been a fact for quite sometime. Airlines typically start to discount tickets or offer sales late in the day on Monday, other carriers notice the price dips and lower their ticket pricing in order to stay competitive. Make sure to book your next air travel on Tuesday and you’ll definitely save some money.

– Make an Offer on a Home: Specifically, according to Zillow.com, the first Tuesday of the month is the best day to make an offer on a home. Why? Well, many home sellers will be examining their listing at the beginning of the month, especially after a weekend, and will often be considering lowering the home price if action has been slow and will be much more receptive to a low offer and willing to negotiate.

– Laptop & Desktop Computers (Online): We are given new coupons for online computer retailers like Dell Home, Hewlett-Packard, and Tiger Direct every Tuesday without fail. The coupon codes typically last for a few days or a specific number of redemptions.

Wednesday

– Jewelry: Our numbers point to Wednesday as being a great day to shop for jewelry, both online and in-store. Not only are we given great coupon codes, but for whatever reason, midweek is when more women (and men) shop for jewelry and retailers offer impressive incentives and coupons to try and close the deal.

– Gasoline: According to GasBuddy.com, Wednesday mornings are historically the cheapest day to buy gas for your car as the weekend uptick in gas prices has dissipated.

– Groceries: Weekly sales circulars typically hit the street on Wednesdays. Weekly coupon deals also typically come out on Wednesdays. If you do all of your families grocery shopping on one particular day, you’d be smart to give Wednesdays a shot.

– Cheapest Day to Fly: Historically, Wednesday is the cheapest day to fly domestically. If you have the flexibility, book your summer air travel with a Wednesday departure and keep more of your money. Always check Expedia, Travelocity, and Orbitz for a coupon code to save even more.

See Also: Learn How to Read Price Tags and Score a GREAT Deal

Thursday

– Various Entertainment: Things like movie tickets, play tickets, museum admission fees are typically at their lowest on Thursdays as foot traffic is slow right before the weekend crowds arrive.

– Clothing & Shoes (Brick & Mortar): Most weekend sales and in-store printable coupons come out on Thursday for weekend shopping. At the very least wait until Thursday to shop for apparel and footwear and save some money.

Friday

– Clothing & Shoes (Online): Here at Rather-Be-Shopping we are inundated with new online coupon codes at clothing and shoe retailers on Friday mornings that are good through the weekend. When shopping online, always wait for Friday morning to roll around before buying from online stores like Gap, Old Navy, Lands’ End, and American Eagle Outfitters.

– Enjoy Happy Hour Specials: Most bars and pubs across the U.S. offer Friday happy hour specials that you’re not going to find throughout the week or on weekends.

See Also: Here’s How to Find Amazon Unclaimed Packages and Save

Saturday

– Books and eBooks: Book sellers like Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble are notorious for discounting books and eBooks on Saturdays. They are simply enticing readers who actually have time to read a book on the weekend to make a purchase.

– Fly Into Vegas: According to Expedia.com, Saturday is a much cheaper day to fly into Las Vegas than on a Friday.

– Garage/Yard Sales (Late Saturday): The majority of garage sales these days start on Friday and run through Saturday afternoon. If you wait and go yard sale shopping on Saturday afternoon your ability to negotiate a sweet bargain goes way up as seller are really anxious to cut a deal to get rid of stuff.

Sunday

– Major Appliances: Having recently purchased a new refrigerator, we took advantage of a Sunday sale and saved 25%. Look for box store deals from retailers like Lowe’s and Home Depot.

Ask the Reader: What would you add to my list? Let me know in the comments below, thanks.

By Kyle James

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Laurie @thefrugalfarmer

Interesting! I did not know about most of these, Kyle, but we do always try and fill up the gas tank on Wednesdays. At least we’ve got that going for us. 🙂

J$

Love it man!

I’ve been doing the Tuesday airline tkt thing for YEARS – it most def works! Sometimes I forget and check on Wednesdays but by then I feel like it’s already higher, so then I wait until the next Tuesday again 🙂 At least when booking far out – sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.

Free To Pursue

Love this post. I definitely “time” purchases.

As an example, my car purchase fit that exactly AND it was in November, just when car dealerships are putting their numbers in to get their next year’s allocation. My Monday deal was even sweeter.

Wednesday flights and gas prove that if you can ebb while others flow, you come out ahead!

Money Saving Dude

Great article! Now I know when to buy the stuff I’ll be needing. Thanks!

dumire1

The buying groceries on Wednesday thing makes no sense. At least at all the grocery stores in my area, the “weekly” circulars last for a week. So it doesn’t really matter if you shop on Wednesday or the next Tuesday – you get the same price.

Everything else is spot on

DC @ Young Adult Money

I plan on going to Vegas sometime within the next year so good thing to know about the cheapest day to fly in.