Meat is so expensive that we usually live without it unless we can find it at a super stock-up price. Zaycon chicken is about the only way I’ll purchase chicken anymore – at $1.69/lb, it’s a steal. But for other types of meat, we buy it and eat it only when we find in on sale, with an additional manager discount.
Last weekend I stopped into TOP Foods to buy an Advanced Edition of the Seattle Times (it was sold out everywhere I went!) – and I found some incredible markdowns in the meat department. I was able to get pork sirloin chops for as low as $1.19 a pound – thanks to $3 manager markdown stickers on an already super sale price. I also bought two pounds of ground turkey for $3.49 (which I used in a chili recipe, I’ll post Sunday!) and some breakfast sausages for $2.49 (reg. $4.49).
In my humble opinion – this is one of the best ways to buy meat. They still had three (3) full days before the sell/use by date (so they weren’t rotten) and I just take them home, freezer pack them and toss them into the freezer. As long as you handle them properly and either use or FREEZE by the sell date you should be fine.
IF I had coupons for the brand of meat – you can use those in addition to the manager discount of $2 or $3 off.
Here are a few tips for buying marked down meat:
- Find out what days/time the store marks down meat. Make friends with the butcher (meat him or her, ha!). Then ask them when they do mark downs. Most stores do mark downs fairly regularly. Or it can be something as random as an employee going on vacation, so they mark down all the meat before they leave that’s scheduled to expire before they return. You never know.
- Ask if they have any markdowns. Don’t see any discounts? It can’t hurt to ask politely, “I was wondering if you have any marked down meats in the back?” or “Are you marking anything down later today?” Or even ask, “What’s your best deal on meat today?”
- Do the math. Even at $3 or $4 off, if the meat was regular price before the discount you might not be getting that great of a bargain. I try to check the meats that I know are already on a decent sale, then you know that after the markdowns you’ll be getting an extra special price. And packages are deceiving – do the math per pound.
- Look for smaller packages. When all the meat has $2 or $3 stickers on it – the smaller packages are going to be a better deal, right? Figure out the price per pound to be certain.
- If you are buying marked down meat – you NEED to watch closely at checkout that the cashier deducts the extra discount. It can easily be missed during checkout, since it has to be entered manually. You can politely point it out if they don’t key in the additional discount.
- If you get it home and your not satisfied – you can always return it. If for whatever reason you’re concerned that the meat you bought is sub-par, don’t eat it. The biggest clue is SMELL – it shouldn’t smell bad. Or slime is generally not a good sign either. But with that said, I don’t think I’ve ever had issues with manager markdowns as long as I properly store it and freeze or use it by the buy/sell date.
- If you freeze it . . . remember when you thaw it out that you should use the meat within a day or two after it thaws, as the clock starts up again.
If you want to learn more about the buy or sell by dates, read more about product dating on the FDA Food Safety website.
Do you purchase marked down meat? What are your tips for finding the best meat markdowns?
Wendy says
Fresh meat starts with the meat being fresh because it is not old, has been kept at a very cool temperature, the person cutting it is committed to producing an attractive and wholesome product for the consumer. Next would be not cutting more than is really needed, and to cut numerous times throughout the day The difficulty in doing this rest primarily with the person ordering and making sure that all incoming product is rotated in the back room. This does not always happen for a variety of reasons, mostly dealing with laziness, a poor system in place, and the feeling corners need to be cut. Any meat cutter worth their salt
knows this. Unfortunately most store managers do not, and their only concern is to have a FULL shelf or red meat. They are willing to cut corners and allow a meat manager to do the kind of things that are really against corporate policy, just so they do not get caught. Kroger has one of the best systems in place. 3cuts a day, all of the next day markdowns to be done by 4PM of the previous day. Their policy is only as good as the management that adheres to it though. Too much faking of what ist cut, and not following their guidelines leads to meat being over produced and improper inventories for the 3 cuts that are supposed to be getting done. This is not Kroger’s fault, other than they have Dept. heads and store managers that know how to game the system. It catches up with these stores in the end though, lost sales, low overall customer satisfaction, especially areas where there is tough competition. Kroger also has a policy that all product that is dated for today be removed by 9 am, so they are committed to a high standard of freshness. If you see items on the shelf with the same days date after 9am, rest assured this is not what Kroger wants, and that it is a problem specific to that store. It is my belief that Kroger has too much at stake, and their standards are too high to condoning selling product that does not meet their corporate policies. Hard for them to control activities at store level without superior managers.
KORI says
A great find I realized earlier in the year is that my local meat store (butcher shop) offered 40lb boxes of chicken for the same price as or less expensive than Zaycon. Before the lastest chicken sale from Zaycon, I was offered 1.65/lb for boneless, skinless, fresh chicken breast in the same-looking 40lb box.
The benefits were:
Shopped local
less drive/less gasoline
had a larger window of time to pick-up chicken order
could order anytime
Hope this helps out another frugal Shopper!
Erica says
The best is to find meat markdowns that can combine with a coupon. Last week at Albertson’s I found Jimmy Dean’s sausage roll on sale for $3.50 with $3 markdown and I had a $0.55 coupon off any Jimmy Dean product. I got 2-froze 1 and rolled the other one into individual sausage links. 1 pkg. made 18-22 links which is much cheaper than buying a 10-count of links for the same price of $3.50.
Tracey says
I mostly buy marked down meat unless it’s on a great sale- I usually go to Safeway and Top and they almost always have meat markdowns. I buy it and freeze it right away. It’s a great way to get the all natural, organic meat which is mostly all we eat. Last week, I got almost 2 lbs of organic boneless thighs for just $3 after markdown.
Sarah says
I do not eat meat, but I buy it on markdown for my husband. He especially likes older steak which he learned from his Grandfather!
Sandra says
Have you tried Dollar Tree for the Advanced Sunday Times? Only $1 there! 🙂