To Save The Most Money On Groceries, Always Buy This On Sale

Grocery prices increased nearly 30% nationwide between early 2020 and late 2025. As a result, consumers are trying to stretch those dollars by building grocery lists around weekly flyers, which often hide the best deals. If you're looking to save the most money on any given food category at the grocery store, always buy meat when it's on sale; that's when your dollars go the furthest.

There are a few ways to hunt down meat sales. If you have a specific brand in mind, sometimes signing up for that brand's emails can result in coupons on your next purchase of that product. Weekly circulars, of course, are a good way to spot meat sales, and even following your favorite meat brands and your local grocery store on social media can clue you in to different sales. Certain stores might also mark down meats on certain days of the week, so if you don't mind shopping around, you could potentially find multiple deals throughout the week. Make sure to price compare with meat's regular prices, too, so you don't get fooled by red tag sales.

Have you ever visited the meat or seafood section only to find brightly colored tags on certain products labeled "manager's special?" It's a common phrase used to draw attention to heavily discounted meats; the low price is often due to the meat's sell-by date quickly approaching, or wanting to get rid of the meat to make room for new inventory. If the store wants to remove the meat as quickly as possible, it discounts it even further than a usual sale in order to draw a buyer's attention and get it off the shelf.

Manager's specials aren't usually advertised because they have more to do with the sell-by date than the type of meat or brand, but it's worth keeping an eye out for these bright tags while shopping. As long as you consume or freeze the meat within its sell-by date range, it's perfectly safe to buy. And yes, it's safe to consume meat after it's expired as long as it's been frozen. If you want the heads up on when the best manager's special deals are at your store, it's worth asking the butcher what time they put out these labels. Between weekly flyers, branded coupons, and manager's specials, it's actually pretty easy to buy discounted meat and save yourself quite a few bucks in the process.