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The best time to buy: Spend less by planning your purchases

Computers
Le Creuset

Got your eye on a new laptop, but worried the price will drop right after you shell out the cash? Avoid those wish-I-waited moments with Lifehacker’s annual “Best Time to Buy Anything” list, a by-month guide to buying smarter.

In this economy (I know, I’m sick of hearing it, too), it seems like every Starbucks run is bookended by bouts of guilt over spending $5 on a drink; why not try spending more strategically, to give yourself a little wiggle room?

The staff at Lifehacker obsessively track trends, from Apple’s like-clockwork annual unveilings to sales patterns at warehouse-style stores. (For this guide, they also cite Freeshipping.org's Best Time to Buy guide, PC World's gadget-specific buying guide and Mark Di Vincenzo's book Buy Ketchup in May and Fly at Noon: A Guide to the Best Time to Buy This, Do That, and Go There among their sources.)

January, for example, is perfect for post-holiday bargains on things like electronics and video games. But did you know that it’s also the best time to snag discounted tickets to theater shows? And that sites like PlasticJungle.com, which let you trade unwanted gift cards for cash, are overflowing with cheap certificates this time of year?

Offering tips both by month and by quarter, this guide has you covered, whether you’re looking to make a big purchase (save til September for that new ride, they advise) or just splurge on something small (try some new wines in June, since "wedding season comes around at this time" and "champagne makers are in furious competition with one another”).

Just make sure you don't trust this guy for advice:

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More Foraging

Free 'food forest' in East Austin expands with thousands of new plants

Angelina Alanis at Festival Beach Food Forest

Photo courtesy of KVUE

Angelina Alanis gives a tour of the garden, which is open to anyone.

In East Austin, there is an edible forest garden called Festival Beach Food Forest where anyone can walk around and harvest free produce, nuts, medicinal plant leaves and herbs. And over the summer, it grew to several times its size.

The forest has fig trees, peach trees, grapevines, asparagus and more that's not in season right now. You can grab passionfruit and plants like yaupon holly, with leaves that can make a caffeinated tea, rosemary and lemon balm.

"[Lemon balm] is part of the mint family," said Angelina Alanis, communication and partnership coordinator for Festival Beach Food Forest. "It has a lemony taste but it's good for a nervous stomach. I'm prone to anxiety so I always grab a hunk."

The food forest is located right next to Interstate 35 and Lady Bird Lake on 29 Waller St., near a part of town that's known for being a food desert, lacking grocery stores.

"There's as much as a 20-year life expectancy difference between parts of East and West Austin, and a lot of that comes down to food access, health care access and also access to nature."

Alanis said for the past nine years, the volunteer-based grassroots project been helping with the issue and just recently expanded in the summer from two-thirds of an acre of city parkland to over 3.5 acres.

"We're going to have hundreds of new trees," said Alanis. "We've already planted 150 new trees in the area and then thousands of plants on the ground."

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They also plan to add a community kitchen and a pavilion to do things like cooking classes or informational sessions.

Read the full story at KVUE.com.

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