How Early Should You Purchase Your Holiday items?

This year the holidays are going to feel different. They are probably going to function a little different, but with a little planning we can bring that traditional feeling into our homes.

With more people staying home and more of us baking, it’s important to understand when you should be buying your baking supplies, gifts and decor.

We’ve learned with the Coronavirus pandemic that we can see items run out and not become available until months later.

We’ve seen shipping delays and more.

If you plan on doing any holiday baking there are some items you can stock up on soon, and others you can wait until the time is a little closer.

Target and Walmart have already announced they will be closed on Thanksgiving this year. Black Friday sales will take place in October. BJ’s is always closed on Thanksgiving , but I doubt they will be running early Black Friday deals.

That is what I believe will be a good time to do your holiday shopping. Even baking items after October are going to be in demand.

If you really want to save money and avoid the empty shelves come November- this is what you should be doing in the months of July and August.

Baking Items to Buy Now

• Chicken Stock
• Vanilla Extract
• Sweetened Condensed Milk
• Evaporated milk
• Chocolate Chips/Baking chocolate
• Nuts and dried fruit
• Canned Veggies- like green beans, corn, the popular ones
• Canned Pumpkin
• Powdered Sugar/Brown sugar
• Dried Herbs
• Flours
• Rolled Oats
• Oils/Shortening
• Cinnamon, Nutmeg, Cloves, , Allspice, Ginger
• Vinegars
• Butter- it freezes well too!
• If you buy Stovetop- that’s a good item to grab now

BJs has their apparel clearance event going on now. This is a good time to grab gifts too.

Any of the clearance deals we are sharing are good things to buy now.

Items to Buy When They Become Available

These items will be better to buy sooner than later when BJs starts selling. Turkeys have always had a limit of 2 per member. We could see that decrease to one per member this year.

• Turkey
• Ham
• Eggs– these are a hit and miss in stores now- eggs will last awhile in your fridge or look for farm stands selling eggs too
• Any premade items like pies, mashed potatoes etc.
• Frozen Cheesecakes
• Floral Arrangements- BJs does Thanksgiving and Christmas ones

If you need gift guide ideas I have a BUNCH here for you.

Thanksgiving Decor

Any seasonal decor that will be available at BJ’s, is best to buy when you see it. Things aren’t going to be sticking around the shelves like normal this year.

Check out my 5 Thanksgiving Must Haves at BJs here.

When Christmas items become available same thing.

If you are curious when BJs marks items down and brings in seasonal items check out the list we created with dates HERE.

Gifts

This can be done now. I know us frugal money saving folks are always shopping for deals and holidays year round, but this year with Black Friday deals coming in October, the time to shop is now.

The above deal is an amazing coupon stack you can do at BJs through 8/12 here.

Target does the huge toy clearance in July and probably still has some items left. If you are shopping online this is a great time to order items too because you don’t have to worry about shipping delays.

We share Amazon deals in our Facebook group here too. There have been some really good discount codes lately too.

Let me know what tips you have for shopping early for the holidays this year in the comment section below?