The Holiday Deal Calendar — When Each Major Retailer Drops Its Best Codes
This is general advice, not a measurement of any particular store or portal.
A month-by-month look at when the best discounts hit at major US retailers, so you can time your bigger purchases.
January
Post-holiday clearance is the most underrated discount window of the year.
February
Presidents' Day weekend is the season's big mattress, appliance, and large-furniture sale.
March
Spring fashion launches arrive at the same time as the early-spring sale on winter inventory.
April
Tax refund season fuels a wave of mid-tier promotions across electronics and home.
May
Memorial Day weekend is the year's second-biggest furniture and mattress sale. It's also the strongest window for grills and outdoor furniture before the summer season begins.
June
Father's Day promotions across menswear, tools, and electronics. Travel deals start showing up for late-summer trips.
August
Back-to-school season — apparel, electronics, dorm essentials, and laptops see their second-biggest discount window of the year.
September
Labor Day weekend wraps up the summer sales and kicks off the early fall fashion drops. Outdoor and patio inventory hits its deepest discount of the year as retailers clear for winter inventory.
October
Pre-Black Friday "early access" promotions start appearing in the second half of the month.
November
Black Friday week (the full week, not just Friday) is the year's biggest discount window, hands down. Cyber Monday extends the same prices through the following Monday.
December
Hannukah, Christmas, and end-of-year clearance overlap into the deepest single discount stretch of the year. Anything not sold by Dec 31 enters January clearance, so retailers price aggressively starting Dec 26.
Where to go next
- How to Stack Coupons and Cashback (The Complete 2026 Guide) — The full Promo Sweeper playbook for combining promo codes, cashback portals, store credit, and rewards cards into one checkout flow.
- — A side-by-side comparison of the three cashback portals every US shopper should keep installed — base rates, payout cadence, and best-fit retailers.
- The Best Cashback Credit Cards for Stacking on Top of Promo Codes — How to pick the credit card layer of your stack — by category bonus, annual fee, and portal compatibility.
- The Free Shipping Loophole Guide — How to Hit the Threshold Without Filler — Practical tactics for clearing free-shipping minimums without buying things you don't need or paying for shipping at all.
- The Browser Extensions Every Stacker Should Install — A no-fluff list of the cashback, coupon, and price-history extensions worth keeping in your toolbar — and the ones to delete.