Food Deals and Sales

[Violentvixen]

Kind of weird we don't have a food deals thread? I've seen stuff before that was interesting and gave up after being confused about where to post so just making one. I miss the Not Worth It's Own Thread for food, bah.

Anyway, I just found out Hickory Farms is having a kind of ridiculous clearance sale, assumedly to get rid of all the boxes people didn't buy over the holidays. It's Hickory Farms so it's nothing spectacular or healthy but a lot of party snacks for cheap. Getting six of these cheese boxes for $60 or two of these boxes for $45 is kind of crazy. I know they're preservative heavy but can't imagine I'd get through six boxes before these expire. Still crazy though and if you have a Superbowl party or something planned these would be cheap appetizers for you.

Edit: Shipping is free too which is nice.

 

[ThornGhost]

I checked these out and considered the cheese boxes but they were already sold out by the time I checked. Good idea for a thread, though!

 

[Ixo]

This hole thread was made for me.

I browse r/32dollars frequently enough to pick up on new grocery budget reducing tips n tricks, and get some perspective on what things cost in other parts of the world. (I've lived in such a cheap Cost of Living area for way too long, so my baseline of how expensive things are is pretty incorrect.) Not everything that gets talked about is available where I am, but maybe some of it will be for some of you?

- Flashfood: Grocery store will round up items that are hitting their best buy date and discount them by quite a bit. Browse through what's available and make the purchase via the app and then go pick it up. Looks like mostly produce from what I can tell; this isn't available in my neck of the woods, so I haven't had the chance to try it out personally.

- Ibotta: Rebates and digital coupons, basically. You pick out what you want to buy, then upload a photo of your receipt showing you bought the stuff off your list, and they'll credit you the savings. Once you hit $20, you can send the money to either a bank account or Paypal. This one takes some strategy and a little bit of restraint to not impulse purchase in the name of hitting whatever offers are available. On top of the "Get $X back on Item", they'll offer bonus incentives. Stuff like redeeming a certain number of items within a specified time frame for additional money, or buying enough stuff from a certain brand. It's easy enough to get caught up in trying to hit these goals without stopping to consider how much you're actually spending to get an extra dollar or two back. Look for the BOGO or straight up free offers, and combine them with the Any [Thing] offers during a timed bonus period to get the most return out of it. It takes some study, and probably isn't for everyone, but it's an option if you like the idea of Min-Maxing your trips to the grocery store.

- Imperfect Foods / Misfits Market: This food looks weird, so it's cheaper. Alright sure why not. These are both delivery services set up to drop stuff off to you weekly. There's more of a greater emphasis on reducing food waste than the discounts, but you can't really complain about that.

- Retailmenot: More of an always good to check kinda thing. It's a general purpose coupon / discount code site, but with grocery delivery like Instacart available, it might be worth it to see if there's some overlap in sale items and/or other discount options.

- Coupons.com is still around too but it kinda sucks and I'm not even gonna bother linking it.

- Don't forget to look into local CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) options for good deals and ways to support your local farmers.

I can prattle on a bit about general kitchen budgeting, leftover combining, etc too if anyone wants that, but I'm not sure how far off track that would get the general scope of this thread.

 

[Violentvixen]

- Imperfect Foods / Misfits Market: This food looks weird, so it's cheaper. Alright sure why not. These are both delivery services set up to drop stuff off to you weekly. There's more of a greater emphasis on reducing food waste than the discounts, but you can't really complain about that.

I've been hearing about this for a really long time but don't know anyone who has tried it, do you like it? I'm definitely curious about it.

 

[Violentvixen]

- Flashfood: Grocery store will round up items that are hitting their best buy date and discount them by quite a bit. Browse through what's available and make the purchase via the app and then go pick it up. Looks like mostly produce from what I can tell; this isn't available in my neck of the woods, so I haven't had the chance to try it out personally.

I read an article about this today and remember you mentioned it, it sounds really interesting. Seems like it's mainly in Canada with some presence in the NE US too. I hope it comes to the west coast since I do a LOT of my shopping off the Manager's Special sections at Safeway and Food 4 Less.

Grocery Outlet is worth mentioning too, they sell the overstock from other stores/brands. Their selection is so inconsistent though since they really do just seem to get whatever there is too much of that week. It's fun to see Trader Joe's branded stuff in another store though, and you can get really killer deals. Just don't plan on doing all your shopping there.

 

[Violentvixen]

The local government's newsletter highlighted an app called Too Good To Go. They're using it to highlight reducing food waste, but it looks like this is in a lot of areas in the US and pretty popular? Has it's own Reddit.

Only one grocery store here appears to use it but we're signed up now and I'm curious what might show up.