Hit $500 saved on groceries in 4 months

Started meal planning around store sales flyers. Not coupons, just buying what's on markdown that week. Saved $500 in 4 months without eating rice and beans every night. Anyone else do the flyer method?

2 comments

2 Comments

markm271mo ago

That's a fair point @margaretk89 makes about the difference between flyers and clearance items. But I'd argue the real game changer nobody has talked about is checking which day your store actually marks things down. Most grocery chains have a set schedule for when they hit the meat, bakery, and deli departments with those yellow stickers. If you miss that window, the stuff is gone or still full price. I asked the meat manager at my local store one morning and he told me they mark down around 10am on Tuesdays. Now I plan my week around that time slot and grab things for a quarter of the cost. Works way better than any flyer because you're catching the price drops before anyone else. Knowing that schedule is what really pushed my savings into a different category altogether.

margaretk891mo ago

Hold up, just a small thing but it matters. Meal planning around sales flyers is great, but calling it "the flyer method" kind of misses the point. Flyers are just ads, they show you what the store wants you to buy. The real trick is building your meals around what's actually on markdown or clearance, not just what's on sale in the flyer. That stuff is usually on the markdown rack or in the meat section with a yellow sticker. Trust me, I've saved way more than $500 by checking those clearance bins instead of just following the flyer. Everything else you said is spot on, just wanted to tweak that one detail.