The boneless/skinless chicken breasts featured at the supermarket entrance made me feel a little queasy today. Not because they looked bad; on the contrary, they looked fresh and appetizing. It was the $8.49-per-pound price tag that made me want to lie down with a cold cloth on my eyes. After all, it was Senior Tuesday and I’d hoped for some low prices to go with the extra 10% off store brands.
Good deals – really good deals – were about to be discovered, in two batches. That led DF and me to a new rule for bargain hunting, which I’ll explain below.
The total bill was $77.83 for a shopping trip that included 51 pounds of fresh meat, 23 cans of corned beef hash (more on that in a minute), salsa, sour cream, three pounds of bacon and a big bottle of creamer.
It was the meat that made us happiest, however. DF was so tickled by the markdowns that he added up the weights and noted the original prices vs. what we paid. Here’s how it all shook down:
- Five pork roasts, ranging from 3¾ to 4½ pounds, for $1.06 each (96 cents after the senior discount)
- Five whole chickens, two of them organic, averaging five pounds each, for 96 to 98 cents apiece (86 to 88 cents with discount)
- Two packages of organic boneless/skinless chicken breasts, totaling 5.65 pounds, for $1.95 each ($1.69 with discount)
- Five one-pound packages of Angus beef burgers with barbecue seasoning for 98 cents each (88 cents with discount)
- Three pounds of bacon, which would normally total $18.87, for $12.02 thanks to store coupons
The 51 pounds of meat (excluding the bacon) would have originally cost $233.72. After the senior discount, we paid $17.97 for 51 pounds of animal protein.
We already had a fair amount of meat stashed. But because my avocation is a personal grocery shopper, we bought this stuff, too.
While in the store I texted my niece and my neighbor to see if they could use any meat. My neighbor texted back, “Yes!!!” (yep, she used three exclamation points) and my niece said she’d take the organic chicken breasts and any burgers we wanted to share.
The new meat-shopping rule
Initially we hadn’t seen any good manager’s special deals in the meat department. DF did pick up one of those pork roasts, which at that point was marked down to $6.26, because it was very lean and lends itself to several favorite dishes.
This Saturday is the U.S. Postal Service’s “Stamp Out Hunger” food drive, so we planned to buy items to donate. Macaroni and cheese was an obvious choice, but we wanted to give away some meat-based stuff, too. DF noticed that Kroger brand corned beef hash was being remaindered at $2.09 per can ($1.88 after the Senior Tuesday discount).
He’s a big fan, so he bought 23 cans of the stuff. Some will go to the food drive, along with three boxes of mac ’n’ cheese plus a few other things from our cupboards. The rest will go to our low-maintenance prepper stash.
We bought a few more items and were ready to leave when I saw a meat department employee looking busy. “Let’s see if he put out any new items,” I suggested.
Are we ever glad we did. Again: $17.97 for 51 pounds of meat and poultry!
New rule: Any time we shop, we will make one more trip through the meat department before we leave the store.
My neighbor flipped when she came over to pick up the meat. “The chickens are 98 cents each?!?” Apparently she’d misunderstood my text to mean, “98 cents per pound.”
She also was delighted with the roasts, since her family loves pulled pork. Filling up a toddler, a pre-adolescent and a teenager (plus herself and her husband) has gotten scary lately, especially since “my kids are carnivores.”
New rule: Any time we shop, we will make one more trip through the meat department before we leave the store.
Senior Tuesday for all ages
But I wasn’t quite done deal-hunting. After seeing “The Fall Guy” this afternoon, I swung by a bakery outlet that offers a free bread product with any purchase. In my case, a 25-cent piece of candy allowed me to walk out with an eight-pack of seeded hamburger rolls to go with those 88-cent burgers.
That deal is limit one per customer. However, I have errands to run in that part of town tomorrow – which happens to be Senior Discount Day at the bakery outlet, meaning I’ll pay 22 cents for the candy and get another bag of rolls for my niece.
As I noted in that personal grocery shopper post, sharing is caring. New parents, shut-ins, the car-less and those on tight budgets can really benefit if you’re willing to buy a few extra items. Far too often the cost of living isn’t keeping up with post-tax income.
A few months back, I found milk for 15 cents per gallon. (Yes, that number is correct.) Once I got home and had given it all away on Buy Nothing, I was kicking myself for not having bought more. The half-dozen I did buy were gone in a twinkling, and comments kept coming in: Is there any more milk? We sure could use it.
Next time you find a great deal, I urge you to buy extras if you can. It feels great to help someone’s budget, whether they’re carnivores or not.
Okay, readers: Care to brag about any great deals you’ve found lately?
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How very, very cool and I love that you share your bargain purchases to those that are interested.
That has to be one of the best deals EVER! So wonderful you share too.
We believe in spreading the meaty wealth around.
Amazing finds, especially in Alaska! Very kind of you to share. I am hitting the local Acme grocery today to get 79 cent mangoes, 1.99 sliced and shredded cheese, and whatever generic or store brand pie crust that I can find. We have frozen ham in the freezer so it’s time to make a ham and Swiss quiche. We have a pretty large stash of bargains in the freezer so this month’s mission is to eat down our stores, as the saying goes..
We are in the same boat with regard to clearing out the freezer. The other night we ate meat that had been on ice for a year; fortunately, not a hint of freezer burn.
It’s essential to make more room before the raspberries, apples and rhubarb ripen and need to be stashed. If summer ever comes, that is; it was 29 degrees when DF got up yesterday. Gah.
WOW. Awesome deals on the meat!!! Well done!
And just in time for National Hamburger Month, too! Even though my niece is taking those particular burgers (and reimbursing me), DF and I have a lot of ground meat in the freezer. That includes marked-down ground turkey mixed with marked-down hot country sausage.
As ever, you and DF are the Queen and King of Senior Tuesday and the meat markdowns!
I can’t boast of any deals that impressive myself. But, as I have probably mentioned in earlier comments, I take my next-door neighbor who no longer drives to her preferred grocery store once a week. I don’t have a Tops card myself, but she lets me pick up loss leaders with her card, for which I then reimburse her. This gives us both good feelings, and I save a little more money.
And I’ve also started keeping an eye peeled for Tops meat markdowns, which can also only be obtained with the Tops card, and some of which are pretty impressive. Not quite as impressive as those chickens for under $1 each, but not bad either.
Way back when, during my prolonged divorce, the Tops store in Seattle had baked beans on sale and a rebate that printed out at the register. So I immediately bought more beans, got more rebates, etc. Ultimately I wound up with 60 cans of baked beans for free. Wrote about that for the Smart Spending blog.
Good on you for driving your neighbor to the store. That’s very kind.
Nobody can top you for finding food bargains Donna!!! My only great find recently was at Aldi, a place all ready known for great prices. I found 1/2 gallons of crabapple juice for 25 cents,not close to exp. date
I was so sure it was an error (usually $2.50) that I took one up to the cashier first to check the price!!! Sure enough that was the right price. Got 2 for myself and 8 for the food pantry.
Oops should have said cranapple not crabapple above
I got really excited over some highly discounted Persil at Walgreens. I found 3 bottles at $2.49 each(when they’re on sale it’s normally for $5.99) and Ibotta had $1.50 back on each plus I had $3 left on a gift card. Getting them for the cost of the sales tax essentially and having a little gift I can give to my friend who can’t use anything except Persil(she breaks into hives no matter which other brand unless she uses plain washing soda). I also got really excited when I found the super bags on M&M minis for $1 so now I have nearly 3 pounds of M&M’s as a treat through summer for my daughter and I.
Now that was a deal — and a kind thing to do for your friend.
I believe that Fetch Rewards has an M&Ms deal right now. If you aren’t already a member, feel free to use my referral code! It’s E6CK1.
You got me thinking about senior deals, now that I am “at that age.” None of our grocery stores do that but I did check for retailers that do, so thanks for the timely reminder!
What AMAZING FINDS, Donna! You and DF are quite the money-saving team. I also applaud your generosity and thoughtfulness.
I love it! Multiple meat deals to share.
SCORE!!! We have blessing boxes in several area parks so any of my couponing finds that we won’t use typically go there. For perishable items, I donate those to a “Funkytown Fridge” program that has a fridge/freezer placed in certain areas around town.
To think I was excited when they mislabeled chicken breasts, thigh meat!