Grocery Store "day old" Markdowns.... anyone else scour for them?

[shelbylovesmelby]

& I don't mean a good sale....

I mean the stuff that's day old or a week short of exp.??

Our Jewel-Osco across the way marks down their processed meats & some deli items all the time. I've found fancy deli sliced Lunch meats that were on the shelf for $5-6 a 12 oz container for $1.50 & it exp's 12/2, Jimmy dean pk sausage for .99, 2lb pkg of frozen green beans for .99 ect.

I do look for their bakery markdowns but unless it's a cookie cake (a day after the event/holiday it's decorated with) there hasn't been anything marked down lately. But I did pick up strudel & all sorts of goodies on Christmas eve for 50% off or more last year. Here's to hoping for a repeat holiday!

[fairy74]

I do this too! Our local Albertsons has great day old pastries and bread in the bakery---if I can't use the bread right away I freeze it and make french toast later on.

[lynclarke]

Walmart has day old bakery bread- usually on a rack near the milk section. I pick up as many loaves as possible- yesterday, I got sour dough, sweet wheat, asiago, garlic italian, and hard rolls. I slice off 4 or so pieces of each variety and give it to my 84 year old neighbor (she loves the variety-and she has tried things she would never have tried if she was shopping). I slice up a week's worth for us and freeze the rest. When it is gone- I go baack to Walmart.

[LuxLiving]

Count me in - got a BUNCH of hummmburger for $1.10-$1.35 a package this past shopping trip. Early mornings are the best time to catch these it seems.

[sarah]

Woodman's discounts meats and bakery occasionally. My favorite discount is soda for 15 cents a can. They sell this when the 12 pkg break open.

[Saving in So Cal]

I don't see these things that often, but I do consider them when I do. I've noticed that Ralphs tends to discount items earlier than some others. For instance, last summer I found some Pillsbury biscuits, some Louis Rich turkey franks, and some similar items marked down at the beginning of the month and they weren't set to expire until the end of the month. It wasn't any problem to use them before the expiration date and I had coupons for most of the items.

[lynclarke]

Another place to watch is Sam's meat counter. The discounted meat can only stay on the counter until 12N- then they toss it! I have gotten hamburger and brats for 99¢/lb, sirloin for $1.75/lb, and sausage links for 59¢/lb. I vacuum pack with food saver. Everything gets used.

[crazyBMB]

I actually got FF milk one time that was 2 days from expiring and I bought 6 half gallon containers and froze all but 1. It cost me .50 each. Score!

[Daylily]

I once got loads and loads of shelled nuts (walnuts and pecans) for $0.50 a bag, normally $3-5 a bag. They were not old but rather the manufacturer had changed the packaging and the store was getting rid of the ones in the old packaging.

Just after Thanksgiving this year the store had leg of lamb marked down to $1.99/lb, normally $7/lb. I was torn on whether or not to buy it and ended up passing on it because I didn't know how to cook it.

Just the other day I passed on $0.99/lb ham. I was so bummed that I had to pass on it but the smallest size was 17 lbs and my freezer was already full with ham that I had bought before the holiday.

[lynclarke]

I love leg of lamb!!! In fact, I love lamb of any sort! Lamb has a little different flavor than beef but it is still served how ever you like beef. I like rare beef therefore I eat rare lamb with mint jelly. When I was a kid, my parents' friends were Armenian and we always ate a lamb mix- kind of like meatloaf- formed around a skewer (or stick) and grilled on the bbq. It is some what like a gyro flavor. I bought a roast and some ground lamb around the holidays, too. I am saving it for a special dinner.

[frugalmomof1]

My store has a day old bakery shelf, but I don't usually buy anything from it. I can make cakes and muffins cheaper, even with the discount.

They also have a rack with damaged and discontinued goods. I check that out every time I go there and always get amazing deals.

They must have changed their meat policy because I could always go and get really good deals on meats that were about to expire, but I haven't found any there in a looooong time.

[Judi Dial]

Gee, doesn't everyone do this? I know where all the salvage stuff goes: produce, deli ends, cheese, bread, etc. I look at the markdowns in the market FIRST. Then I go back and get whatever I still need on my list.

About 1 out of 3 times, I get something on my list for salvage price. Also, it's the only way I get some of our favorite luxury foods, we don't buy them otherwise.

Judi

[zakity]

Yep, I always check them. I don't buy them often though. Usually, I don't need the stuff or I can make it for cheaper.

[mom-from-missouri]

I always take my coupons with me, because sometimes I can get the marked down for free when combined with a coupon.

[belic3000]

I did. Unfortunately, Piggly Wiggly has closed in my town. Milk that expired that week were hot tabbed. Store coupons were placed on the milk. I bough gallons of milk at a time for $.39. Same thing with eggs and yogurt. Actually, I would come out ahead with yogurt as I had my own coupons for it. So in essence, I was being paid to buy yogurt. They also discounted meats 9hamburger and steaks0, bacon and sausage.

[Coleroo]

I do this with meat....our local grocer has awesome deals on *almost expired* meat. After stocking up, I bring it home, divvy it up into freezer bags, label it, then freeze.

[cptacek]

A friend of mine used to go to the HEB in Austin at midnight and look for things that had just expired. They had a policy that if you found something expired you could get a not-expired one for free.

[kork13]

Not fully related, but a funny story nonetheless.... Background: Any donuts that Krispie Kreme doesn't sell during the day are thrown away. So a friend of mine knew about this, and when he saw the guy throw a big bag of them all into the dumpster, he went right in and snitched them. lol

I'm sure this disgusts many (others maybe not), but hey... he got a few days' worth of perfectly good donuts for the best price of all: FREE!