How to save money on ‘real’ jewelry

Costume jewelry has been chic since Coco Chanel made it so, but sometimes there’s no substitute for real gemstone jewelry. If you’d like to pick some up for much less than usual, here’s how.

Hint: It’s all about timing — and March is my favorite time to hit the jewelry counters.

The secret is that many popular gemstones are also birthstones, so you’ll see them pushed hard one month, then deeply discounted the next. (Birthstone jewelry is marketed as a birthday gift for our husbands and boyfriends to buy us; if they don’t know which stones we like, they can fall back on birthstones.)

If your favorite stone is one of the many that is a birthstone, you can get some great deals a month or two after its designated month. Say you have a penchant for peridot: a quick look at a birthstone chart will tell you that late fall (October and November) is probably a great time to add more to your collection.

There’s nothing that says that you have to buy your birthstone, though people do ask me if I was born in February because of all the amethyst I have! (Nope, I just love purple. Even my engagement features an amethyst heart — my husband bought it on clearance about this time of year.)

If you love February’s birthstone amethyst as much as I do, now is the time to buy because there are amazing discounts out there. For example:

• This stunning amethyst heart ring, set in white gold with diamond accents is now $149 — 39% off the original price.
• This chic amethyst tennis bracelet is on sale for $325, down from $525.
• This elegant amethyst and yellow gold pendant is 51% off, down to $95 dollars.
• These large amethyst and white gold earrings are on sale for $160, 42% off of the original price of $275.

If your favorite is something else, take a look at a birthstone chart and you’ll see when it will be everywhere, so you can work out when it will be on clearance.

Finally, there’s just one exception to this rule: April’s birthstone is expensive all year round…