Tips For Finding Meat on Clearance

  For the longest time I would never even walk by the meat section at Publix. I had this mental thought that Publix meat although high quality was just too expensive. Even some of their sale prices just did not entice me.

Then one day I was thinking about how I always found clearance meat at Walmart because I always make it a part of my trip to browse the meat dept. and look for those
bright yellow tags that scream "I'm on clearance!"

This made me decide to begin browsing the meat at Publix and learn how they put their meat on clearance. 

So this is what I have learned, and I hope it helps you to spot meat on clearance and hopefully save your family some money!

 Know some price points for meat.
This way when you do find meat on clearance you know if it is a good deal or not.
I try not to pay any more than $.99 per pound for bone-in chicken whether it is drumsticks or whole chickens. So I know when I am browsing the meat and I come across a package of chicken for less than $.99 that means if I have money in my budget leftover I am buying as many as I can.
I purchased an online class last year from Grocery University that has a 'rock bottom price list' that I utilized a lot until I figured out what the lowest prices are for my area. I find that the lowest price for bone-in chicken is $.79/lb in my area.


 Once you know your price points learn how to spot the clearance tags.

I look for two stickers. The easiest one to spot is the red 'Special Today' sticker.
Publix uses a ton of red stickers that say various things so you really have to pay attention.
The other one is the 'on sale' sticker.

Next I look to see if there is a price tag of top of a previous price tag.

I know that sounds weird. But its what I do. :) Can you see in the above picture on the left hand side some residue from a previous tag? This means that they had to mark it down because the use/freeze by date is soon. They mark it down so they can move it out instead of throwing it out (or whatever they do with it) and losing more money. The next picture is easier to tell that its on its second price tag.

Here is an example of Ground Turkey that I found on clearance.

Once I find meat on clearance I then look it over carefully to make sure it looks good just like you would do if it wasn't on clearance. I have found that because Publix is held to a higher standard that I never find anything wrong with the meat. The same is not always true at Walmart, last week I saw the nastiest ground beef on clearance. So just make sure you check it over like you normally would.

Another thought is to make a mental note of the use/freeze by date on the other meat. This will give you a good idea of when to check back to see if it is on clearance.

I've not done this but another idea is to chat it up with the meat department employees and ask them for any tips on finding their meat on clearance. Then come and tell us all what they say!! :)

These ideas may not work too well if your Publix is a high traffic store, but I find that it works well at my Publix. Even if your store is high traffic remember it never hurts to walk by and check.  You never know what you might be able to score!

If you have any other tips that you've learned about how to save money on meat please feel free to comment and share with everyone else. I hope these ideas help your family like they have helped mine!

My name is Joy, and I am a clearance tag shopper!