Making the most of manager's markdowns

Find your manager's markdown section and start your shopping there.

Recently, I found 1 lb. boxes of "stuffing mix" - diced onion, celery, parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme - marked down to a quarter apiece. I bought 12 for $3.00.

Since I couldn't use them all before they would go bad, I sauteed 9 packages of them (making my kitchen smell like Thanksgiving!) and froze in meal-sized portions of 1 cup each. Cooking them helped them take less space in the freezer and saves me time when I'm getting ready to cook them into winter soups and casseroles. I got 10 baggies out of 9 of the containers. The other 3 mixes were used while still fresh.

Awhile back, I was buying bananas while the produce manager was restocking and pulling the slightly-too-brown bananas. I asked what they do with the (perfect to my taste) spotted bananas and he offered to sell me the entire box for $2. I snapped that up and froze the bananas for months of smoothies and banana bread.

Ask your store's butcher when markdowns are put out and if possible, shop around that time. I routinely find meat at or close to its sell-by date but still perfectly fine, marked down by at least 50%. I buy it even if we can't eat it that night, because it can be frozen for months after the sell-by date.

Frequently found on a shelf at the back of the store, I often find scratch-and-dent products that are perfectly edible but have less-than-perfect packaging. You can even use coupons on these products if you have them!

What has been your best mark-down find?