Thursday, October 4, 2007

More Savings At The Grocery Store

A nearby grocery store marks down cuts of meat early on Thursday mornings in order to restock for the weekend rush of customers.

The marked-down meat is usually 50% off and all of it is still within date (usually 1-3 days until its "sell by" date). I look through the racks and pick out a few good deals. I take them home and re-wrap them, then put them in the freezer.

Then, because I plan meals far in advance, I work them into the next month's menus. I include them as a specific dish such "Swedish Meatballs" or the more ambiguous "something with ground beef". By planning ahead, nothing stays in the freezer long enough to get freezer burn.

Today I was able to pick up four KC strip steaks, a pound of hot Italian sausage, three pounds of ground beef, two packages of smoked bratwurst and a couple of lamb shoulder chops for $18.75 in all. (Regular price on the steaks alone would have been $17.)

Not all stores do this, even within the same chain. The meat department staff can tell if and when your favorite store slashes prices on meat.

2 comments:

Violet said...

Interesting... We should do something like this. We are terrible about buying more stuff that we already have in the freezer and even worse about remembering to use it in a timely manner.

Annie Jones said...

Violet: It's a system that works for me. It's a little tricky the first 2-3 months, but after that it kind of becomes second nature.