So, yesterday afternoon, I ran into Kroger to quickly see what Back to School Deals they might have available (see all the Back to School Deals I found here). While I was there, I figured it wouldn’t hurt to walk the perimeter of the store to see if I could find any markdowns.
For those of you who don’t have a Kroger or Kroger affiliate store, Kroger is a large retail grocery store chain that is well-known for offering great weekly in-store sales and clearance prices.
Every store is different, but most stores are pretty generous in how they will mark down soon-to-be expiring dairy products, produce, bakery products, and meat. You never know what you will find and it often feels like a Treasure Hunt… going throughout the store looking for the yellow clearance tags!
It’s often hit or miss on what you will find and yesterday was most definitely a HIT day! In fact, had I had more time, I probably could have found quite a few more deals. (Watch my video here yesterday where I shared all about these deals and my excitement in getting them and more details on how I plan to use some of these items!)
I first spotted the meat and bread deals and was so excited about that. I plan to use the meat in crockpot meals or as a stovetop hash (we’ll likely add potatoes or sweet potatoes, onions, and maybe carrots and then cook in the crockpot or on the stovetop) and I’ll freeze the bread to use as buns for sandwiches and as bread to accompany dinner. Yum!
Then, I saw flowers for $1!!!!! I’ve never seen flowers marked down that much EVER. And I may have done a happy dance right there in Kroger! 😉
I was scanning the dairy section to see if I saw any yellow stickers… and I saw one yogurt marked down and then saw another and another… and I just kept finding them marked down!!
My kids absolutely LOVE Greek yogurt and we go through so much of it that I was thrilled to find all of these — all marked down to $0.19 to $0.49 each. A few of them were a little interesting flavors, so I just bought a few of those (but I had one of the Cherry Beet yogurts today and it was actually really good!)
I usually have to sort of put limits on how many yogurts they can eat a day, but since I bought 40 yogurts that need to be eaten up in the next week, I’m raising all the limits on yogurt eating for a week! And the kids were SO excited about that!!
The only item I bought that was not marked down was half & half. Because we were out and I use it every day in my coffee… so it was kind of a necessity! 😉
All the groceries pictured were just $31.38 total! I was stoked… and it inspired me to be more intentional about taking a little time to run into stores regularly and check for markdowns. Because it kind of feels like you won the lottery or something! Getting great deals on items that you love and that are in your budget = pure thrill!
Have you gotten any great deals recently? Tell us about them in the comments!
I shop at Ralph’s several times a week- hubby and I LOVE their carbmaster low calorie high protein yogurts, always .50 cents- way better and far less costly than over sugared Greek yogurt. We have eaten it literally up to 4 months passed it’s expiration, without freezing, just refrigerated and it’s still fine. Not sure why people freak out about that so much- it’s sealed, and cold. Texture and flavor remained the same.
Newbie question here….if you purchase meat or bread that is almost at its expiration date, how long can you freeze it? Does freezing it stop the clock, in essence?
Yes, it does. 🙂 I usually freeze bread for up to 4 weeks and meat for up to 2-3 months.
what a blessing you found all that yogurt. ive had great success with freezing the yogurts and pulling them out a little at a time over the month.
Thanks so much for that suggestion! I’m definitely going to freeze them if they don’t get eaten a few days before they are going to expire.
I bought the lemon cucumber yogurt (I think that was the flavor) on markdown, it was good!
I found marked down Stonyfield Farms Organic Greek Yogurts at my Kroger last week for $.49. I stocked up too! My husband thinks I’m crazy when I get SO excited about deals like this. Haha.
I found whole wheat bread at Aldi today for .49 a loaf!
Kroger is my go to place for flower bouquets. Whenever we have a child in a play, recital, school dance, etc. I can go there and find a gorgeous bouquet for 2.50 or less. No more $20+ flowers from the florist. Aldi has great fresh flower deals too.
I love getting mushrooms at the Woohoo! price. Once I got pasture raised eggs for $1.25. At our store, eggs are marked down 9 days out from the sell-by date.
Do you know what day Kroger typically does their markdowns? We’ve just moved to a Kroger area & are currently on a tight budget.
I have found that our Ralph’s/kroger has excellent markdowns the morning of the new sale week. For example, our circular goes Wednesday through Tuesday. Wednesday mornings are great, especially for meats that were on sale the previous week. A lot of it has to do with expiration dates too- you can always call and ask your local store
I love Kroger’s markdowns, but lately my Aldi has been having even better markdowns. Last Saturday at Aldi I stocked up on whole wheat sandwich bread for $.25 a loaf, as well as wide pan bread and whole wheat hamburger and hotdog buns for $.50 each. I pretty much filled my cart. 🙂 And about a week before that I got center cut, boneless pork chops for $1/pack (about 1.5 lbs per pack).
FYI: You can freeze yogurt. I do it all the time for smoothies & recipes. It’s not supposed to kill the live cultures like cooking with it.
I was going to say the same thing. The frozen makes even creamier smoothies!
I have frozen yogurt before also.
I’m in So Cal so we have Ralphs (owned by Kroger). The Ralphs near my house also has excellent markdown deals. We’ve found the best time to go is in the morning, preferably on weekdays. We’ve gotten boxes of Special K cereal for $1.49 – and of course, I had coupons too to make that price even lower! I’ve gotten loaves of bread for as low as $0.69 and hamburger or hot dog buns for as low as $0.39. I always check the clearance bins at my local Ralphs – you never know what you might find! I never thought to check the floral section though; I’ll have to try that next time.
Another reason to love shopping at Kroger. From the Kroger facebook page:
With a Kroger Kids Fruit Card, your little one can get a free piece of fresh fruit every month when you shop together! Head to your local Kroger to get a free card.
At ours you don’t even need a card, they have a kiosk of fruit in the produce section.