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Timing is everything.
When’s the best time to get a tattoo? (A: Winter, less exposure to the sun.) Renew a magazine subscription? (A: Right before it expires; they’ll offer the best deal.) Tweet to the largest audience? (A: 4 p.m. because it’s lunch hour on the West Coast.) Get the best deals? (A: In the four days before Christmas, not after.)
These quirky, money-saving tips come together in “Buy Shoes on Wednesday and Tweet at 4:00: More of the Best Times to Buy This, Do That and Go There” (William Morrow) a breezy, 175-page guidebook by Mark Di Vincenzo out this week.
The former veteran newspaperman, who lives in Newport News, Va., says many of the tips are inspired by fans of his first book, “Buy Ketchup in May and Fly at Noon,” which became a 2009 best seller.
(For those who can’t figure it out, ketchup is discounted right before the picnic season, and flying at noon avoids morning and afternoon rush-hour backups at airports.)
Di Vincenzo said the experts he tapped aren’t lawyers or scientists, but grocers and car mechanics. His tips also come from industry data and “calling a million people.”
“Some of it is common sense, but some of the smartest people I know don’t necessarily have common sense,” he said.
From his book, here are the best times to . . .
. . . get money from an ATM if you live in a crime-ridden neighborhood?
Between 5 a.m. and 9 a.m. This is a time when fewer crimes occur and when bad guys — even night owls — are more likely to be asleep. In fact, some criminologists say hourly crime patterns make 5 a.m. the best time to chart the beginning of a new day because the vast majority of drug abusers, bar patrons and partygoers — in some cases, the most likely criminals and crime victims — are in bed or are at least at home. Did you know? The average amount someone withdraws from an ATM each month is $411.
. . . buy things online ?
ShopItToMe.com, which tracks online sales from more than a hundred retailers, came up with this list:
Mondays: Men’s and women’s dress pants, on which shoppers can save nearly 50%. They can save more than that — about 55% — buying sunglasses.
Tuesdays: Men’s apparel (40% off).
Wednesdays: Shoes and children’s clothes. Shoppers save about 40% on both.
Thursdays: Women’s handbags (36% off).
Fridays: Jewelry, belts and scarves (42% off).
Saturdays: Lingerie (37% off) and jackets/outerwear (51% off).
Sundays: Swimsuits (52% off).
. . . buy a gym membership?
Summer.
Most of the folks who made New Year’s resolutions to work out abandoned them by the spring, and lots of people would rather exercise outdoors while the weather is nice. So, not only is there less competition for weights and exercise equipment in gyms in the summer, but this is the time of year when gyms will waive sign-up fees and give away a free month to entice new members.
. . . buy clothes?
January or May, if you want to save a lot of money. January’s post-Christmas sales offer the best prices of the year, and you’ll find great sales on spring-season clothes on the days leading up to Memorial Day. The downside is the selection, which won’t be great either of those times because the clothes have been picked over. Department stores also discount socks, underwear and shoes in August, during pre-fall sales.
. . . sell stocks?
May. This is true if you’re a day trader or a long-term investor. To understand why May is the best month, you have to understand the significance of November, traditionally the first month of the market’s best six-month stretch. If you put $10,000 into the Dow during that six-month stretch — November through April — and switched to bonds during the worst six months every year since 1950, you would have $527,388. The November-to-April stretch is pretty remarkable. Five of those six months have enjoyed an average gain of at least 1.09 percent since 1961. (April happens to be the best-performing month for stocks since 1961, with an average gain of 2.2 percent.) So, whether you bought a stock in March and saw it do well in April or you bought the summer before and enjoyed watching its value rise from November through April, May is a great month to take some profits. Don’t wait too long, though. The market often starts dropping later in May and tanking pretty obviously in June, when others start selling, so don’t wait until everyone else is selling. If you do, you very well may leave some money on the table.
. . . buy Broadway tickets?
Broadway’s slow months: January, February, September and October. This has a lot to do with these four months being a relatively slow time for tourism in New York City. Less demand for tickets doesn’t necessarily mean cheaper tickets, but it means they’re easier to get.
. . . post on Craigslist?
It really depends on what you’re selling. Job posts tend to get a lot of attention on Mondays and Tuesdays. Personal ads do well on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, and furniture and household ads just about any day, but especially on weekdays.
. . . post something on Facebook?
At 7 a.m., 5 p.m. and 10 p.m. These are the highest-traffic times on Facebook, when most people will see what you’re posting. These times fall before most people leave for work, before they leave work and before they go to bed.
. . . enter a nursing home?
December. No one likes to admit aloved one into a nursing home as the holidays approach, and that makes this a time when there are usually plenty of vacancies. After New Year’s, nursing home administrators receive a large number of requests for placements and often there aren’t enough rooms then, so many nursing homes start compiling waiting lists starting in January.
. . . expect speedy service from your doctor?
Wednesday or Thursday. On Monday, doctors tend to see the most patients, some of whom should have gone to hospital emergency rooms or urgent-care centers during the weekend but didn’t because they couldn’t afford it or tried to tough it out. Tuesday is still busy due to patients who couldn’t get seen on Monday. Doctors’ offices typically are less busy by Wednesday and Thursday, making them the easiest days of the week to get an appointment. People who start to get sick on Thursday will want to be seen on Friday, before the weekend starts, so Fridays also tend to be busier than usual.
. . . interview for a job — first or last?
The conventional wisdom is first is worst because the company will forget about you and your attributes by the time it ends up making a hiring decision. There’s even a study that shows about 55 percent of the people who interview last get the job while only 17 percent of those who interview first do.
. . . sign an apartment lease?
December. Fewer people move in the winter than during any other season because the weather often is lousy and the days are shorter. In December, people have even less time because of holiday plans, and they have less money because they need to buy Christmas and Hanukkah gifts. This helps explain why apartment managers often offer the lowest rents and best deals of the year in December.
. . . book a hotel room?
The end of the quarter or the end of the year. Hotel sales staffers have quotas, just as car salesmen do, and they’re usually quarterly quotas. So if you know you’re taking a trip to a particular city sometime in the future, call a hotel you’d like to stay in at the end of March, June, September or December. Sales staffs become more eager to book rooms when the clock is ticking at the end of a quarter and bonuses are on the line. If you book a room then, regardless of when you actually stay at the hotel, it will count as a sale for the quarter when it is booked.
. . . wake up in the days before traveling from the United States to Europe?
Early, earlier and earlier still. In an attempt to reset your body clock, one researcher recommends travelers rise at 6 a.m. two days before the trip, at 5 a.m. on the day before the trip and at 3 a.m. on the day of the trip. Assuming it’s a late-afternoon flight, travelers, who are likely to be pretty tired by then, should try to sleep on the plane, avoiding meals, drinks and movies.
. . . eat lunch?
At 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. A growing number of doctors and nutritionists advocate eating four smaller meals a day rather than the traditional three meals. They urge their patients to eat a big breakfast, a small dinner and two 300-calorie lunches — an early lunch to raise your blood sugar and fire up your metabolism and a later lunch to boost your energy and combat early-afternoon sleepiness, the result of a dip in body temperature. Here are some suggestions for your two low-calorie lunches: a peanut butter pita, a small turkey wrap with cheese and lettuce, fruit with either low-fat yogurt or cottage cheese.
. . . put your young child in day care?
One year old. Young children in day care often have better language skills by 3 than do children who stay at home with a parent or a nanny, according to a Norwegian study. That exposure benefits their language development more than staying at home. And the ability to effectively express themselves gives them more confidence as they start school. The downside of day care: Another recent study shows that children in day care suffer more ear and respiratory infections than stay-at-home kids, but that evens out after the stay-at-home kids start kindergarten and become exposed to new germs from their classmates.
. . . break off an engagement?
In the evening. This is when blood pressure and heart rate drop, putting less pressure on arterial walls and making it less likely that the person who gets dumped will suffer a heart attack. No joke: Heart attacks occur more often within three hours after awakening. One out of three occurs within a six-hour period in the morning. The American Heart Association takes this so seriously that it has urged businesses to put off announcing layoffs and conducting firings until after 10 a.m.
. . . lose weight?
The winter. Who would have thunk it? Isn’t winter the season in which we bulk up and hide our additional poundage under big, thick sweaters and heavy coats? Well, it turns out there’s a type of fat that’s good, and it’s called “brown fat” or “brown adipose tissue.” Babies have more of this than do adults, but adults have it, too, and it’s good fat because it burns calories instead of storing them. Brown fat goes into overdrive — burning and burning and burning — when we feel cold. A study found that 86 mice that were exposed to a 41-degree room for a week lost 14 percent of their weight and 47 percent of their body fat even though they were given a high-calorie diet, including twice as many calories as usual. A study with humans sitting in a room chilled to 61 to 66 degrees also found that their brown fat burned calories at a faster rate than if they were in a warmer room.
. . . get your hair done?
Tuesday. It’s often the slowest day of the week at hair salons and barbershops, so you can get in and out quickly, and barbers and hairstylists don’t feel rushed and make fewer mistakes. The worst day? Saturday. It’s always the busiest day of the week, a day when many stylists say they feel the most pressure and stress. Salons that are open on Sundays are also busy and crowded, as are Mondays, when hair salons say lots of seniors get their hair done as part of their “errand day.”