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Your beautiful, food-bearing refrigerator, sad to say, will not last forever.

They certainly last longer than, say, a light bulb, but expect to go fridge shopping every dozen years or so.

Before that time comes, you’ll want to start saving up, so you don’t wake up one day to a warm fridge full of rapidly-rotting food, and no money to replace the thing.

As with most things in life, there’s a best time to buy your refrigerator, and it turns out that might well be the month of May.

Semi-scientific analysis (like the kind Beakman used to do, only with better hair) has shown that refrigerators, unlike pretty much every other appliance on the planet, regards May as its Happy New year.

That’s the month when manufacturers will roll out the latest models, meaning the old ones need to go, and FAST.

So you’re far more likely to get a nice, steep discount on last year’s perfectly good fridge models during the month of flowers than any other time of year.

This might be surprising to you, since general knowledge states that most appliances are cheapest in September and October, when the latest models come out to play.

Why Big Fridge decided to do it in May, we have no idea.

Maybe they knew with the warmer months, we’d need something good and sturdy to store all those cold, refreshing drinks that’ll keep us going through the hot summer?

Or maybe they just chose the month out of a hat and ran with it. You never know with those faceless industry leader types.

OK, so you’ve committed to making a new refrigerator the perfect Mother’s Day gift.

Here are some other money-saving tips to keep in mind, so as to drive that price down as far as possible:

Go Shopping on a Weekday

As anybody who’s braved claustrophobic parking lots on the weekends knows, that tends to be the time most people do their shopping.

You, though, should be different.

Pick a random Wednesday, use a personal day at work (or hack mightily into the phone and complain of the Plague, that works too), and hit the local appliance store.

Prices may not be advertised as cheaper, but there’ll be much less rush, less competition to buy the best model on the sales floor, if you catch the right salesperson at the right time, you might just get yourself a bit of an “I like you” discount.

Memorial Day Super Sale

Memorial Day is a special time of year, when we celebrate our veterans by hitting the mall and drooling over anything with a 50% off tag attached to it.

This goes for major appliances like refrigerators as well, especially since the sale already occurs in a month where the old models are on semi-liquidation.

That one-two punch could net you hundreds, and possibly thousands of dollars in savings.

The End of the Month

If you can’t get away from your barbecue long enough to take advantage of a great Memorial Day sale, at least try to get to the store sometime at the end of May.

That’s when appliance dealers will be at their most desperate, because those shiny new models are coming in just days from then, and the last thing they want is to write off the old stuff as a 100% loss.

If they can get at least SOME money from you in exchange for them, that’s infinitely preferable than getting none.

Time it just right, and you could be walking about with a $1500 fridge for under $500. Now that’s how you save.

For those last two suggestions, by the idea, just hand Mom on IOU on her special day, and deliver the fridge later.

She’ll understand, especially if you stick flowers in the crisper drawer.

Mary Hiers is a personal finance writer who helps people earn more and spend less.

Source: mint.intuit.com