It Soooooooo pays to ask! Tee Hee!

Today was my monthly main grocery trip.  It was an excursion to Kroger (Ralphs for those in that area), Aldi, and Sams.  My plan for Kroger was to pick up some bone-in chicken breast which was on sale for .99 lb.  They were out mainly because two ladies came in and cleaned them out of what they had out.  I shrugged it off thinking I would check meat prices at Sams to find an alternative.  Well as luck would have it (In other words, I was blessed), I happened upon 7 whole Tyson chickens with an expiration date of today.  They weren't marked down, so I asked the meat dept lady how much they were planning on marking them down.  I made sure she understood I would buy them all if (and I do mean if) she gave me a good deal on them.  I got those 7 whole chickens for .49lb!  Now some of you may turn your nose up at mark downs, but they are a staple of my grocery buying.  They are what allows me to keep my grocery budget under $400 a month (including pet food, toiletries, cleaning) and still keep a well stocked pantry.  The only concern you need to have when buying markdown meat is that you either use or freeze it that day.  Well I do that anyway.  I buy meats on sale and in large quantity, and freeze them.  I also look for breads marked down as well as dairy.  You can freeze milk, cheese, yogurt, etc.  Cream cheese doesn't do as well frozen, but you can still use it to cook with.  Many items like milk, yogurt, etc are good refrigerated after their sell buy date.  I used to scout out markdowns in the dairy dept at Kroger so much, that I met the manager, Robert.  He is no longer in that dept.  He is in produce now, but he still throws up his  hand to say hey and notices when I haven't been around.  Oh, and I do scout out markdowns in the produce dept as well. Things I can either use quickly or can.  So I guess I have typed all of this to say, it pays to search out mark downs.  Although if all of you realize the treasure trove of savings when buying markdows; you will start buying them all and there will be nothing left for me.......hmmm.  Okay!  Change of plans!  Forget everything I just wrote!   Uh  I was....Kidding.  Yea that's it!  Nothin to see here, move along, move along.