Home and garden: the discount calendar worth knowing

Home and garden is the most seasonal category in retail, which means the savings are large and the timing is knowable in advance.

Garden furniture and barbecues are cheapest in late August and September, when retailers clear stock they cannot store over winter. Discounts of forty to sixty percent are normal. Buying at the start of summer costs roughly double.

Plants and bulbs follow the planting calendar rather than the sales calendar. Autumn is when spring bulbs are cheapest and also when they should go in the ground, so this is one case where the cheap moment and the right moment coincide.

Large appliances drop around public holiday weekends and in January. Washing machines, fridges and ovens are sold at thin margins and discounted to move floor stock, so the discount is usually real. Check the model number against the manufacturer's site, since retailer-exclusive variants are common.

Mattresses and bedding are heavily discounted in January and again in late summer. The list prices in this category are close to fiction, so judge by the absolute price rather than the percentage.

Paint and DIY materials go on offer in early spring, before the season starts rather than during it. Buying in February for an April project is consistently cheaper.

Christmas decorations reach their lowest price on the twenty-seventh of December, at seventy percent off or more. Storing them for a year is free.

Kitchenware follows the wedding season, with promotions in spring and early summer.

The general principle: retailers discount to free up space, not to be generous. Anything bulky, seasonal or about to be replaced by a new model is where the real reductions are. Anything small, storable and evergreen rarely drops much, so buying those when you need them costs little extra.