Get a bigger bang for your buck when you shop the grocery sales and clearance. Not sure how? I’ve got you covered for tips and tricks to stretch your grocery dollar and avoid waste.
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You would think that grocery shopping was a simple thing. Grab a cart, choose your food, pay.
But, no, it gets tricky with customer loyalty cards, sales, markdowns, manager specials. Every item seems to have twelve tags and prices. How do you make sense of it all?
More importantly, how do you shop the grocery sales and save?
I currently grocery shop for a large family, 7 adults, on a budget. One of the biggest shifts I made in my grocery shopping was to start shopping the sales and clearance. While the coupon craze came and went and cash back apps come and go, I’m a forever fan of the sales and clearance.
Every generation has understood the value of grocery sales and clearance, so you should, too. It’s an incredible way to save money on food costs and a big player in the how to eat cheap without sacrificing taste.
Why Shop Sales and Clearance?
You can get more for your money. It’s obvious, right? If the $8 ground turkey goes on sale for $3.99 every few weeks, you can buy twice as much when you buy it on sale.
You can enjoy more grocery variety. Along the same lines, if you don’t want to buy extra ground turkey, you can spend the $4 saved on something else you’d like.
You can grab specialty items you might not otherwise afford. Watching sales and clearance allows you to enjoy special, splurge-like items without the extra cost. This is how we’ve enjoyed more gourmet meals and organic ingredients on a budget.
Tips for Shopping Sales and Clearance
Create a grocery budget.
Shopping sales and clearance can save you money on food, but only if you have parameters to stick to.
A grocery budget can help you give a boundary to your spending. If you haven’t already, do a grocery spending audit to help you assess where you’re at.
It’s not a sale if you don’t have the money to buy it. Never go into debt for grocery sales and clearance.
Keep track of your grocery spending so that you can stay under budget. That’s the whole point.
Identify your grocery staples.
Do you know what you normally use in the kitchen to prep regular weeknight meals?
Be aware of what ingredients you regularly use, taking note of changing patterns in the household’s eating patterns. Creating a list of your regular grocery staples will help you shop more efficiently so you’re not recreating the wheel all the time.
You’ll also be able to identify which things to buy on sale. You don’t want to just buy whatever looks good; you’ll waste both money and food.
Avoid buying a lot of an ingredient, no matter how good the price, unless you know it’s something your household loves to eat. You don’t want to be stuck with too much of something no one wants to eat.
Know the prices of groceries you buy.
It’s important to nerd out just a bit here, especially if you want to save money on food.
You need to know the prices you’ve been paying for your basic groceries. That way you can tell when you see a genuine sale price.
You can use a price book to track grocery prices, download an app that helps you do this, or simply keep some rough estimates in your head. Also, tracking your favorite budget proteins will help you focus on the best priced options.
Just because the store calls it “a sale,” that doesn’t mean it’s actually a good price.
Here’s an example: I love to drink Nutpods in my coffee. The regular price can be in the $5 to 6 range which I avoid paying.
Instead I watch for sales or when holiday flavors are slashed to rock-bottom prices. Since Nutpods last many months in the fridge, I buy several cartons when I see a good price.
Plan to save money.
Avoid paying full regular price on groceries whenever possible. Focus on buying as much on sale as you can.
This means thinking ahead to the coming weeks and months. Are there special meals that you’ll need to shop for? If so, keep those ingredients top of mind so you’ll notice a sale when it comes around.
As often as you’re able, buy a few extra regular grocery staples when you find them at a good price. This is how to stock the pantry on a budget.
Meal plan based on the sales and clearance.
Consult the grocery ads each week to see what’s going to be well priced. Take some time to build your meal plans around these sale prices.
If you don’t have a stash of proteins already in the freezer, then see what’s on sale in the meat department this week. Plan a couple meals around the lower priced items.
Already in the store with a meal plan in mind but find the featured protein too pricey? Be open and flexible to switching to something that’s on sale.
Buy extra as the budget allows.
Once you’ve shopped for your immediate needs, then work to stock the pantry with sale and clearance finds, focusing on those grocery staples we already talked about.
Ask yourself these questions before you stockpile:
- Do you have the money in the budget?
- Is it a good price? How does it compare to current prices?
- What’s the best-by date? While these are not actual “expiration” dates, it’s good to keep in mind how long you have to use it for best quality.
- Do you have the storage space?
- Is it damaged in any way?
These are tried-and-true strategies to help you shop the grocery sales and clearance so you can meal plan on a budget.
Save More Money on Food
What do you think?
Let’s chat in the comments!
Cheri A
I’m at a stage where simplicity is best for us. I do clip the digital coupons when I find them, but we really don’t buy many coupon items here anymore. I focus on stocking up when something I do buy is on sale or has a fuel perk on it.
Weird as it sounds for a household of two now, we are buying more at Costco these days. They have the same or better prices on the fruit we eat in bigger quantities, and we have found other things as well. It’s really nice to have frozen veg like green beans or Normandy veg handy all the time. We even found that they now carry the glyphosate-free orange juice that hubby likes now at $3 less than the grocery store.
Jessica Fisher
Nice!