Do you ever wonder is it worth my time to check the clearance items? Will I save enough to make it worth it? I never find anything good you may say. Well, let me tell you, I feel this way sometimes too.

Yesterday my husband and I went to the grocery store for a few items. Now I really just wanted to go in grab what we needed and rush on out, however I can’t go by the meats without checking for clearance. Meat prices are just to high for me to ignore a clearance price.

First my husband found his favorite bacon on sale (not clearance, but still it better than full price). Then we checked out the pork, only 10% off still leaving the prices way higher than I would even consider paying. Chicken was on sale, but we just bought chicken for .20 less a pound last week. Steaks, roasts no go …. but wait what did we see next? Cube steaks were on clearance for $2.00 less than “normal” prices so we picked up enough for our family to make homemade steak sandwiches.

The cube steaks were a great find however I have saved the BEST for last. I couldn’t believe it, I still can’t. We found 80/20 ground chuck for $1.62 a pound!!! The normal price for this meat is $6.49 a pound. We were able to get 5 packages of about 3 pounds each equaling $24.43.

You may ask what are you going to do with all that meat, but for our family it doesn’t take long to go through it. As soon as we got home I went to work processing the meat. I made 2 meat loafs that we put in the freezer for later. I have the old fashion Tupperware burger molds (but here’s a link for some if you’re interested) that I filled (16 large burgers and 8 medium burgers). We also decided to have burgers (12 burgers) for dinner last night and lunch today. That’s 8-10 meals for our entire family for $24.43, that’s $2.44-$3.05 per meal; $.41-$.50 per serving. Did I figure that out right?

On a side note can someone explain to me the difference between ground beef, ground chuck and ground burger? I just don’t know what is supposed to be the best to buy. We buy what we can afford but it’d be nice to know what is the best choice if price doesn’t matter.

So to answer the question is it worth it to take a look at the clearance items? YES, it may not be great all the time but some times you get lucky. I will continue to look at clearance to save as much money for our family. Not only food items, but clothes, toys, personal items. . . it can really add up when you pay attention. Don’t just buy to buy it, but buy what you NEED and what you can use before it goes bad.