Forget about Black Friday. If you haven’t noticed the sales fliers yet, we are already in the Christmas shopping season.

The deals will be especially sweet during the next few weeks for those of you who like to cook, or who are needing to cook more at home to keep overall expenses down. Do make some treats that require expensive ingredients such as chocolate pieces or pecans if that is part of your holiday tradition – but limit the amount. You can alternate or add to your selections with treats that are not as fancy; and in the meantime, watch the sales fliers for those baking and pantry supply deals.

Here are the sales fliers that were in my home-delivery edition of The Monroe Evening News today:

• Wal-Mart (sale starts Sunday) has Star Wars Clone Wars figures at $6.97 each. Air Hogs has three toys available for $25 each. Mainstays bakeware is two for $9. Pillsbury cake mixes are 88 cents each. Crisco vegetable oil is $2.98.
• Busch’s supermarket (sale starts Monday) will have General Mills cereal at $1.88 a box, Spartan yogurt at 10 for $4, sweet potatoes at 89 cents a pound, Spartan flour for two for $5, Jennie-O frozen turkey at 69 cents a pound. The feed four for under $10 special features pork chops, green beans, Rice-a-Roni, applesauce and crescent rolls.
• Rite Aid (sale starts Sunday) will have Crest toothpaste deals (and check tomorrow’s coupon fliers). VO5 shampoo is 79 cents a bottle. Free after rebate on GUM toothbrush value pack. Soy Joy purchase 10 for $5, get $5 back on Single Check Rebate (you can use whatever coupons you have at checkout and still file for the rebate). Buy one get one free on food gift sets. Duracell batteries are on sale + rebate.
• November Saving Sense booklet is also in my newspaper today. This is a coupon flier published by my newspaper (click the link if you need a pdf copy) featuring local businesses. Monroe Multi-Sports Complex has a coupon on public skate, Head Quarters has haircut coupons, and Cribs to Bibs (the new resale shop at Monroe Factory Outlets) has coupons on clothing and furniture.