Savings Tip: Shop When Its Slow

[james.hendrickson]

All - here is a good savings tip. Shop during the off hours. Sales & customer service people are less stressed out and are more likely to help you.

I was just in my local Kroger this evening. It was an hour before closing, and the check out line was totally clear.

I had a coupon for 6 dollars off 60 worth of groceries. But my total only rang to like $58. The cashier gave me the coupon anyways.

[kork13]

Related, particularly with grocery stores -- figure out when they mark down fresh foods. Bakery, meat, deli, and sometimes other sections in a supermarket will typically mark down "old" items (normally 1-2 days after being placed out) at a certain time of day. At my local store, it's all done within 2-ish hours before closing. So if you get there right before closing, they will have just marked down a bunch of items by 25-50% because it's "old". Other stores do it first thing in the morning, before they set out the new stuff for the day.

This is almost always how I buy meat, as well as french bread loaves (for french toast). They mark it down once at the end of the day, then sometimes they even mark meats down again when they put it in the freezer. I've gotten incredibly cheap meat that way -- typically 20-30% off. As we speak, I'm cooking a 3lb pork roast that I got for $1.80/lb that was marked down after being frozen the day after they cut/packaged it. In this case, it was actually almost 50% off normal prices. Could an expert detect a difference in it having been frozen for a few days? Possibly. My family & I certainly can't.

[andy-stockfit]

I like doing that, too!
The one thing that made the biggest difference for me is to never go shopping when I'm hungry
This has saved by far the most.

[bjl584]

My GF does most of the shopping, so I only go out for things that you find at Home Depot or the automotive store.
The self check out lanes have been a god send though. I can get in and out of any store in 10 minutes or less.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

I bought halloween cookies the day after for free

[bjl584]

I bought halloween cookies the day after for free

Our local Walmart was selling off their remaining pumpkins for $1 each.
We bought a bunch to do some fall decorating and to hopefully get some seeds to bake and plant next year.

[QuarterMillionMan]

The day after thanksgiving my store sold turkeys for .25 cents/lb. I just bought a Butterball for $1.99/lb and I was debating waiting until Nov 24 to buy it but I said to myself just buy it now because the store may not mark it down like last year.

[kork13]

I've got a few friends/co-workers who are all starting to offset their celebration of holidays to better suit their budgets & schedules.

One guy's family celebrates Christmas in early-/mid-December, because travel is way cheaper & easier to get the time off. Another guy's family (my boss, actually) is celebrating Thanksgiving on Saturday to attend other events on Thursday & because as stated, everything goes on fire sale after the holiday.

I love their style... I'll need to try convincing my wife to give that a go.

[myrdale]

I do my Christmas shopping early. My goal every year is to have everything wrapped before Thanksgiving.

[QuarterMillionMan]

Talking about early Kork, today Nov 15, 2023 my turkey is done.

[QuarterMillionMan]

Stuffing w/gravy, turkey, ocra & broccoli.

[james.hendrickson]

Stuffing w/gravy, turkey, ocra & broccoli.

That looks pretty good QMM.