Best January buys

Hey gang! Can you believe how fast January is flying by? The tree is down, decorations are packed and put away, and my stash of 50 percent off Christmas candy is getting alarmingly low. I’m trying to parcel it out slowly enough to last until the postValentine’s Day half-off sales in a few weeks. Wish me luck.

It’s at this point that many experience post-holiday spending hangovers, grimacing at incoming credit card bills and vowing to be more disciplined with their cash until bills are paid in full. With that in mind, however, there are a few popular, bigticket items with incredible sale prices in January, reduced by hundreds of dollars, or more. If you’re in the market for any of the below items, January is an outstanding month to make them yours.

Carpet: sales typically peak just before the holidays, when people are sprucing up their homes for upcoming celebrations. January, on the other hand, has the stores hearing crickets. Hence, fabulous sales. Carpet stores are often advertising price reductions of as much as 30 percent off, adding up to savings in the thousands of dollars if you have several rooms to re-do. Christmas decorations:

having just dragged mountains of holiday decorations back down to the basement, it seems strange to point you toward picking up more. However, if you found your artificial tree was on its last legs at Christmas, or if the family dog crashed spectacularly into this year’s tree and wrecked a good number of ornaments and half the lights (true story from Donna L. of Exton), there are still some stores out there with brand new items waiting for you, often as much as 80 percent off! White sales: if there’s one thing that my holiday (overnight) entertaining showed me, it’s that a good number of my towels and sheets are in moderate-to-severely shabby shape. If you’ve got anything like that going on as well, hit your local department stores and home stores for outstanding January “White Sales” – they’re fantastic. Bed products, bath products, it’s all there, as much as 50-75 percent off. Load up!

Electronics: Black Friday is well known for its savings on electronics. A less known fact is that if you’re seeking one of those big-screen HDTV’s (55 inches and up), January is your best month, with some retailers offering sales as much as 10 percent lower than Black Friday prices! Reason? Say it with me now… Superbowl.

Video games: I’m literally cringing as I type this. With school-age kids, I’m finding that video games have taken a mental near-stranglehold on the 8-15 demographic. Tough to combat, but I always win. Always. (Insert Victorious Mom Smile here…) With that in mind, tho, these kids of mine are great kids, and their buddies are too. Chances are excellent that all of them will have a birthday or some other occasion to celebrate sometime this year. If they’re longing for the latest video game entertainment, hit the local electronic stores and see what they have to offer. With the holidays behind us, January brings rock-bottom prices to the latest video game selections — often as much as 30 percent off. Stock up, and give Mario my best. Frugal On!

Kristen Hagopian is a Syndicated Radio Talk Show Host, Columnist & Author of Brilliant Frugal Living. She co-hosts WCHE 1520’s Morning Show, and “Dad and Daughter Talk Real Estate” with local Keller Williams Realtor John Herreid Wednesdays at 3:00P (www.johnherreid.com). She was raised in Delaware County, and now resides in Chester County with her husband and kids. You can find her online at www. BrilliantFrugalLiving.com