Am I the only one that trolls the supermarket for discounted meats?

[venture]

Nice score, Dave.

I was at the store the other day to pick up some lamb shanks on sale.  By looking around I stumbled on some lamb shoulder chops marked down to 2.99/LB.  Can't buy lamb any cheaper here and they will make a great stew. Now I get shanks and stew both.  Need to make some room in the freezer! 

Good luck and good smoking.

 

[sprky]

LMAO heck no I do it all the time as well. We have a grocery store 5 blocks from the house I am always in there checking for mark downs. The  meat manager knows me and he'll even mark stuff further down if I buy the lot. I have never gotten a deal like the $700.00 for $150, that's 1 sweet deal there. My latest deal was certified Angus ground sirloin patty's, normal price is $5.98 a pound I picked up 10 packages for $20.00 every one of the packages are over 1 pound each, a couple are close to 2 pounds.

 

[redclaymud]

Nope, you're not the only one.  I went to Wally World today with the intent of checking out their meat counter.  Found some St. Louis ribs reasonable, but injected and enhanced.  Baby backs were the same.  I don't inject my meat and I sure don't want some manufacturer injecting it for me, since the ingredient list fails my basic comprehension of sugar and spice and everything nice.  Show me that on a food label and I would buy it..

I did find a beautiful uninjected brisket though.  Over 12 pounds, for $8.79 a pound, which made it well over $100..  If I had the time, I would go there every day and watch the markdown, but the starting price was way too high for that kind of meat.  Nicely trimmed prime rib steaks were just a quarter cheaper per pound and much more worth the price.  I didn't purchase either.

The days of my paying over $8 per portion of meat are long over.  Meat prices are out of sight.  We just lost the best meat competing store in our area and all the surviving stores, including Walmart, are gloating in their increased prices.

Good luck on your trolling.  I've found some stores, even if the same chain, mark down differently.  The one in my town throws food away rather than mark it down a nickle.  Find yourself a less popular store in the chain and you might get a few bargains.

 

[venture]

I have had luck shopping the day AFTER a sale ends.  If they had overstocked for the sale, the markdowns can be really good.

Good luck and good smoking.

 

[spec]

Ya,

I miss the ma & pa stores from back home

Little fresh from the garden Goody swapping for a winters worth of not their best produce...Kept the chickens, and my dehydrators full all winter

It's kind of a sad situation in the U.S. today...Most stores/food vendors are sooo afraid of getting sued that they will toss the perfectly good food in a locked up dumpster...before selling it at a discount to someone who would safely take care of it...and give to the food shelves...

I saw a show on food channel a couple of weeks ago that made me really sad...TONS OF PERFECTLY GOOD FOOD TOSSED OUT...

Well folks...the stores don't just absorb the losses...THEY PASS IT ON TO YOU

 

[venture]

Yes.  I live in what is probably the largest AG region in the US in terms of production.

Lots of food goes to waste.  Only the perfect looking fruits go to the supermarket.  A perfectly good fruit or vege might end up at a roadside stand because it is not perfect in appearance.  But many of those stands also sell imported stuff from Mexico or Chile while pretending to sell local produce.

A slightly blemished orange, for example, goes for juicers.  Then the farmer gets paid way less for raising it.  Perfectly good orange, but not up to supermarket standards?  Consumers pay more for their ignorance!

Lots of crops lay in the field to be disked under because of the high labor cost to retrieve it with the cost to do a second harvest!  Fortunately, some of our farmers let the "Gleanors" come in after the farmer is done paying for the picking.  This food usually goes to senior centers or to charity.  We waste a lot of perfectly good food!  A high price to pay for very  little fertilizer for the next crop.

Before we lay all this waste at the feet of our farmers?  Go behind your local high end restaurant?  As well trained as they should be in cross utilization of product,  I bet you see homeless people feeding themselves out of what is thrown away?

Good luck and good smoking.

 

[moikel]

Nice score, Dave.

I was at the store the other day to pick up some lamb shanks on sale.  By looking around I stumbled on some lamb shoulder chops marked down to 2.99/LB.  Can't buy lamb any cheaper here and they will make a great stew. Now I get shanks and stew both.  Need to make some room in the freezer! 

Good luck and good smoking.

Love those lamb shoulders whole,pot roasted, stock, wine, carrots celery,onion,herbs a couple of anchovies yes anchovies,then fresh peas cooked in the stock at the end.

Back to topic,yes I do it .My late father hated waste( dob 1929 )that generation that went from the depression to WW2 food rationing. Like father like son.I scout the IGA in my suburb but have to beat the Calabrian & Sicilian  gran ma's(nonna"s) to the pick.Man they are tough

& they get up early.They are always after veal chuck,neck,shoulder for old school ragu I beat one to a fore quarter of baby goat(capretto) once I swear she said something in dialect that roughly translated to "you fat stupid oaf " when I  said something back in bad Italian to the effect of "What are you so mad about & I aint stupid just faster than you" she then accused me of being "a shifty,sly Roman " & walked off. Tough crowd

Food wastage is a really big topic,we have exactly the same issues that you guys do.A lot of good people from the food industry trying to get food to charities,soup kitchens,shelters & a lot of spoilt uneducated consumers buying the BS about the perfect looking product as opposed to the product that has integrity,taste & the odd blemish.

 

[moikel]

Shoneyboy I have baby goat on the list to do.Pretty popular here because there s a lot of dairy goat outfits within 2-3 hours that always have 50% of their kids going to butchers. I cook it a lot when I  can get it.Hope to do it soon.

 

[shoneyboy]

Maybe I’m frugal (wife and kids calls me cheap), but I just can’t see wasting something, food especially. I have repurposed many things over the years and will continue. I just love to put something to use if I can (weather it’s pretty or not). In this time of throw it away and buy a new one. It just drives me crazy to see the things that we are filling our landfill with. Living in Louisiana, has allowed me to grow different types of tropical fruit over the years. I have 6 citrus trees and an apple tree growing on my property so far (Navel Oranges, Horton Oranges, Meyer Lemons, Tangerines, Kumquats, Satsuma’s) and have plans for more. Every year I plant a 20 x 40 garden that I usually try to help supplement my family’s diet with fresh vegetables when I can. It was brought up in an earlier post, about wasting food. Last year my citrus trees made so many oranges that I couldn’t give them all away. So in my infinite wisdom, I figured I would juice them, easier said than done. At the time I didn’t too much about it and just started juicing them by hand, with one of them darn twisty juicers…..you talk about some work……it took me almost a week and a half, working on it part time, But I was able to put up 5 gallons of some of the best OJ I have ever had…. I was so much into it, that I can tell you it takes a 5 gallon bucket of oranges to make 1 gallon of juice…. Well this year, my wife and kids bought me a citrus press for Christmas (guess they liked fresh/Frozen OJ). So this year after giving away as much as I could, I still put up 5 gallons of juice again, but it only took me ¼ of the time with this press then recycled the peels for composting…..The older I get the more I value what my mom once told me. When I die, I don’t want to leave anything here, but a memory……

 

[smokin pigskins]

My wife will be happy to know that her husband is not the only one responsible for driving their spouse crazy by doing this, I'll be sure to let her know.  Personally I think it's one of the biggest perks of my job.  The pharmacy I work at is located in a grocery store so I make at least one or two trips to the meat markdown bin daily.  Plus I've gotten in pretty good with the butchers in the meat dept so they'll often give me first chance at a lot of stuff.  If only my wife would see this in the same light, I always leave her at least a little extra room in the freezer!

 

[jrod62]

all the time. always walk up and down the meat department and see if they got any good sales going on.

 

[rocor98]

Nabbed 4 full racks of pork ribs for $2.99 a pound on Friday ... Trimmed and vac packed this weekend ...

.. Still to much snow to build my MES shelter .. ( blew out the driveway three times on the weekend .. Love that Honda snow blower )... So no MES action yet!

Oven cooked the riblets for a Sunday family feed .. Saved the meat trimmings for making Boubin sausage today .. Wish I could smoke them also ....

$2.99 a pound is a great price for my area

Thanks to the posters who have contributed .. Made the trimming easy and solidified my reasoning to go with out the liver in the boudin .. I see lots of smoked boudin of all types in my future .. But no liver .. Just not in the blood :-)


I actually thought of getting some bibs from ny dentist so I could catch all the drool dripping from my lips as I am forced to read this form and wait till I get to smoking later in March ...

Freezer is getting full of projects. Storage room is getting full of smoker accessories .. Hobby account is getting empty of funds ...... :-). Going to have to get somkin in a snow bank .... or stop trolling for discounted meats. ....

Ross. :sausage:

 

[roller]

I do it ALL the time but I have never found a Brisket on sale or marked down...

 

[bbqcanuck]

Rocor98 - Glad to see a fellow maritimer bye.  I have been out here for two years living on the Annapolis Basin in Nova Scotia (heaven) to semi retire. Out west I found I was to busy working and just picked up whatever I needed for food - I didn't much care checking for prices.  Now, I cannot believe the sales they have on the meats here at the local Save Easy's and Foodland.  I ended up buying another freezer so I can cryovac and load up.  When you get the prime ribs roasts here for $4.89 a pound and back ribs for 1.99 I get enough to last a year.  Not to mention when the local fishermen bring in their haddock for 2.99 lb. and even get a huge sack of lobsters from the neighbour.  My hubby is also trained to hunt for the meat specials and mark downs.  It just seems plain silly to pass up these deals.  I have never eaten better for so much cheaper.  The less populated areas seem to get the best mark downs on meats. 

 

[redclaymud]

I used to hate going grocery shopping with my wife.  Hated pushing the cart up and down the isles and all the combat shopping for sale items. 

I started smoking for my family about a year ago and now I do all the shopping.  Those 15 isles they have in the store?  Who cares?  Give me produce, meat, dairy and I'm heading for the checkout line.  Why buy canned or frozen when you can eat fresh.

My biggest thrill of anticipation is as I approach the meat department, starting with the cold cuts.  I look for sales all the time.  Hardly ever buy anything not on discount . . . starting with bacon, sausage, salmon, pork . . . . usually bypassing the steaks and pre-injected loins . . . and then looking real hard at the smoking meats.  To me, heading to Sam's Club once a month is a trip to heaven.  I first need to be sure I have room in the freezer or that the meat has a sell by date I can live with in the refridge.

Just bought a Nesco Food Slicer.  Opened the box just minutes ago.  New doors are opening because of it.  Now I need a bigger freezer.

all the time. always walk up and down the meat department and see if they got any good sales going on.

 

[jdboes]

I am right there with you. I scored some lamb shanks the other day for 50% of while not huge the price was right. Now trolling for how to smoke them. I check the discounted section every time I am in the store.

 

[viper1]

Oh yeah you guys are sick and addicted but not me. I started this as a hobby. Then I found I could save big cash by doing my own process and curing of meats. Of coarse then I found out I could save even more buying in quantity's. Now I find buying hogs and butchering is cheapest of all. Oh yes I do cruse the stores for cheap meat still and the smoker sections in stores for things to make it easier and better. But this is strictly so i can take care of my wife better.And she loves the fact I shop more with her. Also I do spend more time browsing new meat formulas to give her and my family new things. cdon't seem like there is much time left in the day. Me sick ???? Well maybe just a smidgen:yahoo:!

 

[thoseguys26]

I just got back from the store, they announce a one day sale for beef shoulder roast for $1.99/lb. I thought of this post when I heard it.

 

[jalan43]

I check the ads on Tuesday and check every other day for day old!

 

[thoseguys26]

I think it's safe to say that majority people on this website are meat deal seeker junkies!