Saving money on groceries means snatching up good deals on things you regularly buy. Keep an eye open for Christmas clearance groceries on sale at your local grocery store after a holiday. Many regular grocery items will be marked down to amazing prices, making it a great time for you to stock up.
Shopping the Christmas clearance is a great way to Stock Your Pantry on a Budget. You can find great deals on foods that you normally buy and either include them in your meal plan this month or freeze or store them for the weeks to come. Building your pantry with budget groceries is a key component of the Good Cheap Eats System, and one that will serve you well for months to come.
As I type, it’s 4 days until Christmas. In no way do I want to detract from Christmas itself, but, at the same time, I do want to alert you to the fact that the days after a holiday are great days for grocery shopping.
This is NOT because the regular sales will be great — in fact, they will pretty much suck — but the Christmas clearance racks will offer some stellar deals.
You may think that only Christmas-y items, like wrapping paper and decor, go half-price after Christmas, but you’d be wrong. All kinds of food and food-related items are packaged for the holidays or heavily pushed in the weeks before Thanksgiving and Christmas.
This means the store has a lot of it in anticipation of the holiday rush and then needs to unload it quickly — to make room for Valentine’s Day, which they will be stocking on the shelves next week, if not sooner.
Here’s the short list of things I have bought in the past on December 26th or 27th:
- butter: $1.24/pound
- fresh cranberries: $0.42/lb
- cranberry sauce: $0.42/can
- canned organic pumpkin: $0.50/can
- boxed stuffing mix: $0.50/box
- heavy duty aluminum foil (with snowmen on the box but not the foil): $1/roll
- holiday cake mixes: $0.30/box
- holiday frosting and decorations: $0.40/can
- Starbucks “Christmas” coffee blends: $2/bag
- paper plates: $0.25/package
Why Do This
You can save a lot of money! You can stock up on Christmas clearance groceries and other food-related items to use all year long. Often times, the food stuffs are marked at least half-off, sometimes more if they have a big supply and little time to sell it.
You can help avoid waste. Some grocery stores have programs to repurpose food nearing its sell-by date, but not all. If the store is marking it down, they want to move it, and you can benefit from the cost savings as well as divert something from a landfill.
Tips for Success
You will be pleasantly surprised at how you can build a frugal pantry by stocking up on food items during the Christmas clearance. Follow these tips for success:
- Do you have room in the budget? A sale isn’t really much help if you don’t have cash on hand to take advantage of it. No Christmas clearance groceries are not worth going into debt for.
- Do you have the storage space? After the holidays, many of us have pantries, fridges, and freezers full to the brim. Do you truly have room to bring home Christmas clearance groceries? If not, just pass the sale by.
- Check dates on all items. In my experience, I usually have a year to use many of the shelf-stable Christmas clearance groceries I purchase, but that is not always the case, especially with produce, dairy, and meat. Keep in mind that sell-by, use-by, and best-by dates all mean different things.
- Have a plan to use it. If the Christmas clearance groceries are regular, everyday items that you use, then great. If not, then you need to have a plan to use it if you’re going to bring it home. It does no good if it sits in a cupboard, never being used.
- If it’s not marked down yet, ask. Seriously. It seems awkward, but I verified with Robert the Meat Leader (really his title) in my local store’s meat department. It helps them to move things. Don’t be afraid to ask for a discount if something is close to its sell-by date. Someone just may have missed that item when they were making a sweep.
Where to find the deals
Produce
Items like fresh cranberries and veggie trays, as well as more gourmet items, get marked down this week, maybe even before Christmas. Look for convenience items like salad mixes and seasonal things like nuts in the shell or caramel apple fixings in addition to regular every day produce that needs to move.
I’ve found large organic trays of veggies for less than five bucks and cranberries as low as $0.42/bag! These are great prices and worthy of stocking up on.
There are lots of things that you can do with that veggie tray besides just dipping. Chop them up and add to soups and salads. Bags of cranberries can be tossed in the freezer as is. Use them when you’re ready.
You can Freeze Vegetables, Fruits, and Herbs that you find on sale to use another time.
Dairy
Whipping cream, butter, egg nog, cream cheese, eggs: these are all seasonally popular items that the store has probably been pushing for the last few weeks. They may have stocked more than they can normally sell and therefore will let you have them for a great price.
Depending on the sell by dates instituted by the manufacturer, the store may need to unload these quickly.
Meat and Deli
While meat and deli cuts are technically always in season, there is always something being clearanced due the to the fact that these items are highly perishable.
Christmas clearance in the meat department may include hams, turkeys, and gourmet seasonal items like prime rib, goose, or lamb that were too highly priced to move quickly. You may find yourself enjoying a really fancy dinner one night in January (on a budget!) because no one wanted it for Christmas. You can also slice, chop and freeze ham to use in recipes for weeks to come.
In the deli department, you’re likely to find party trays of meats and cheeses. You don’t have to serve them in a Charcuterie Board. Add them to pizza, pasta, sandwiches, and wraps.
Find packages of fancy cheese on markdown? You can freeze goat cheese as well as freeze cheese that’s already been shredded.
Bakery
In the bakery department, expect to find things like holiday desserts but also baked goods sold for entertaining, such as dinner rolls or large bread bowls. I’ve found packs of dinner rolls as low as a quarter and sourdough boules for less than a buck!
Check the dates and examine for freshness. Remember that you can freeze bread, so if you’ve got the room and the budget, load up and save it for another time.
Shelf-stable and Canned Goods
Many food brands offer holiday themed packaging. This means that the stores will want to move it asap. They will most likely start discounting it at 50% and then increase the discount as they diminish their supplies.
The shelf-stable and canned goods will include Christmas clearance items ranging from baking supplies to canned pumpkin and cranberry sauce to holiday flavored coffees and Christmas candy to even plastic bags and storage containers.
It doesn’t matter if your freezer burritos are stored in bags with snowmen on them, and you can repurpose red candies for Valentines and green for Saint Patrick.
Think outside the box and even decidedly Christmas items can be used in new and creative ways.
The last week of December is a great way for you to stretch your grocery dollar with Christmas clearance groceries!
This post was originally published on December 22, 2011. It has been updated for content and clarity.
Penny in LA
I stopped by my neighborhood Walmart neighborhood market last week and came upon Daily chef butter for .25 a pound ; Libby pumpkin for .25 a can and Bruce’s yams (lg can) for ..25 a can! I thought I won the lottery,!!!!
Christan
I purchased several brining bags for $0.50 each last year. I also got several cans of pumpkin that I used throughout the year on various things. I also purchased canned whole cranberry sauce and used it to make orange/cranberry pork loin. Yum!
Sheri
I have been buying the “holiday” cake mixes after every holiday throughout the year when I see them marked down to $0.50. On the box they appear to have holiday colored sprinkles mixed into a white cake mix, but most of the time the sprinkles are in a different packet. So I just leave them out and I have a cheap white cake that I can use for birthdays year round.
sharon
couple of years ago i picked up chocolate covered cherries for 20 cents/box. picked up about 50 boxes…resold half of them in my store for $2.00/box (in about a week) and froze/ate/gave away the rest. They made great valentine day gifts repacked in a different container 🙂
Have also picked up turkey oven bags for about 25 cents/2 bags in a box about a week after Thanksgiving. Was SO sad when those ran out!
sona
No such prices in our area in Michigan
Sarah in Alaska
I love this tip.
We had Halloween candy in our stockings…I bought the bag Dec 17th, I was agast when I recognized the packaging as “halloween” even though the only indication was that the peanut butter snickers wrappers were orange. I was pleased when it rang up 75% off.
My stores don’t usually mark things down more than 30% the first week after holidays. And shopping on Christmas Eve for perishables, the shelves were actually bare.
Jessica
@Sarah in Alaska, that’s great!
Ashley
Geez! No such deals exist at my local grocery store (Pick N Save!). Butter was back up to $3.50/lb for the store brand!
Jessica
@Ashley, well, this was unsalted. And they just had too much, so they had to move it. Keep your eyes open, though. I think these deals happen more often than we think.
Twila
I do this all year long. I never pay full price for meat. Has to be on clearance or sale for me to buy. Our budget is just too tight as for the butter I pay only 1.89 retail at Alde’s you can’t beat there real butter. I have been using it for years. I have my stores for certain products. If it is clearance and I don’t like the meat at that store then it is not a bargain. I want value for my money not just savings. Coupons and sales are an awesome combo. But I have changed the way we eat in our house so coupons are not used that much any longer. Fresh usually doesn’t have a coupon.
Jessica
@Twila, sounds like you’re a pro. Thanks for the tips!
Anne
Great idea! And you’d be surprised at the stores that have groceries on clearance… I found Ghirardelli baking bars and chocolate chips at Michaels today, half off. I grabbed as many as I could afford!
Jessica
@Anne, great tip. Thank you! I was there on the 26th, but didn’t think to look!
Amber @ Luv & Laughter
I bought 3 bags of Reese’s Cups and 2 bags of M&M’s at Wal Mart today for $1.24 each {I probably had a coupon if it didn’t expire, but I didn’t have them with me.}. These will be great for some baking in the next few weeks and we love M&M’s in our popcorn! I also got some treat bags really cheap today to use for cookie swaps next year. I’m hoping to make a trip to Target this week, as they usually have the best clearance stuff. I went right before closing on a Friday night and got eggs for 50 cents a dozen once.
Jessica
Target was slim pickings today. It was as if they had read my post. Ralphs (Kroger) was much better.
Michele
Can you freeze egg nog?
Erika
Yes, you can freeze Egg Nog, I do all the time. My kids go thru so much of it. You just have to shake it when it is thawed.
Karen Freeman
What grocery stores do you find these deals at?
Jessica
Last year I found these specifically at Target, CVS, and my Kroger affiliate.
Martha Artyomenko
We don’t have that many good clearance right away, but i have gotten some great deals after Christmas! Thanks for the reminder!
Amy
It’s a family tradition, we live in a rural area and after Christmas morning we head up to the city and stay the night at a hotel and hit all the after Christmas sales at as many stores as we can! We usually spend an entire day or two shopping! When we were teenagers my parents even cut way back on the presents and just gave us money to spend on sales. Lol This is when I get pretty much all my Christmas shopping done for the next year. I never really looked at food items/aluminum foil/etc much though, well aside from candy. This year I will be sure to!! 😀
Amy
@Amy, Oh, and another thing I always buy after holidays that’s on sale is underwear! Lol
Jessica
@Amy, Sounds very fun!
P Reis
Wow, I’ll have to add this to my list of deal hunts after Xmas! Thanks for the great tip! One question: can you freeze butter? Or do you just buy what you know what you can use?
Jessica
@P Reis, yes, you can freeze butter. 🙂 It has a very long shelf life in the freezer. And I didn’t even come close to clearing Target’s shelves. They had sooooooooo much of it.
P Reis
@Jessica, Yay, thank you!!
Stacy
I really love after Christmas clearance! I get so many great things for all year long. Most people shop BEFORE Christmas….I shop after. 🙂
Just don’t tell people you bought it last year – especially if it’s food – they get all weird. 😉
Shannon L
I love finding deals and stocking up my freezer but I always had trouble knowing how how long the item was good after it thawed. I use a marker to label how many days until the expiration date before I freeze it. For example, if I have a gallon milk on markdown. It expires Dec 25 but I put it in the freezer on Dec 20. I have five days to use it before it expires. So I mark 5 Days on the carton before I put it in the freezer. That way when I pull it out on Jan 1, my new “expiration date” is Jan 6.
Jessica
@Shannon L, great idea!
Laura
I’m always on the lookout but havent found deals like yours. organic pumpkin for $0.50 and butter for that prince? I’d probably let out a yell in the store I’d be so excited! 🙂 “Sale” price of butter these days is $2.50.
Jessica
@Laura, I’m sure I did! LOL
Jane
The last two weeks I’ve found 1 pound packages of sandwich meat for 99 cents! They were a week away from expiring…so I put them in the freezer when I got home. I’m now fully stocked on turkey and ham!
Beth in OH
@Jane, That’s something I’m always on the lookout for. I love finding clearanced food or other grocery items. Last year I bought a dozen single rolls of Halloween theme paper towels for 75% off the day after spooknight. Who cares what the paper towel looks like when you’re wiping up a spill, right?
Jessica
@Beth in OH, exactly.
Rebecca
Oh thanks I never really thought about this but I certainly will now. Last year after Christmas my local Aldi had ham not spiral but the regular any size for $5. I just got one because I didn’t have the room but a friend of mine got 8! Thanks for the heads up.
Jessica
@Rebecca, an idea if you have little pockets of space would be to carve the ham into diced and steaks prior to freezing. You might have more space that way.
Emily
@Jessica, many grocery stores have a meat counter person who can shave or cut meat for you. We can even request some in steaks, some shaved for sandwiches, and some in a roast here. 🙂 Then when I get home, it takes a few minutes to wrap & put the individual servings into zip-top bags and freeze. Makes using it later a lot easier! Good luck! 🙂
Jessica
@Emily, great tip. Thank you!