5 Tips for Shopping a Case lot Sale

Its Smith's Case Lot sale time. The case lot sale began Wednesday and is running through the next two sales weeks.  Here are some tips for shopping a case lot sale:

1) Don't forget to be PICKY ABOUT PRICE! Just because a product is part of a case lot sale does not mean its a great price. My price point for canned items such as vegetables, fruits, and beans is $.50 or less. Decide your price point and use the star ratings in Smith's list to help you decide which deals are worth it to you.

2) ONLY BUY WHAT YOU WILL USE! If you don't normally buy or eat canned kidney beans I don't care how cheap they are unless they are free, don't buy them!! Also there is not point in buying a 2 year supply of a product if its all going to expire in 4 months. Buy in quantities that you will USE BY THE EXPIRATION date printed on the can.

3) Contrary to some rumors, items are not, I repeat NOT, put in the case lot sale for the store to get rid of products that are about to expire. The case lot sale is not a clearance sale! (Trust me a clearance sale would have better prices!)

4) YOU DON'T HAVE TO BUY A WHOLE CASE! While it is called the case lot sale and whole cases are placed at the front of the store if you go back to where the items are normally shelved you can buy them in singles for the same price per item as the case. The benefit to buying in singles is that if you have coupons for the items you can use more of them. You can also better control your quantities.

5) DON'T FORGET YOUR MONTHLY BUDGET! Yes the case lot sale only comes around twice a year but that's still no excuse to completely forget your families budget.

Case Lot Savings

Our trip from my five year olds perspective

Total Saved: $57.48 Total Spent: $58.02 Savings Percentage:50%

Advanced Tip: the items with a red dot by them are e-coupons I matched up from e-saver and shortcuts to extend my savings even more on items I needed.

Last night after the Smith's list was posted my girls and I headed out to hit the case lot sale. We did pretty well and got stocked up on our canned vegetables (something I have been waiting to see a sale on for quite a while now!) Smith's still had almost everything on my list and FYI: There are no rain checks on Case Lot prices BUT the sale is a two week add so you have two weeks to snag up the case lot deals you want.

Case Lot Sale

Tomorrow is the start of Smith's Case Lot Sale. A couple tips for shopping the case lot sale:

* You don't have to buy a whole case. If you go to where the item normally is in the store buy the items individually for the same price per item as in the case. Also doing this will let you use coupons when applicable.

* Libby's canned vegetables are part of the case lot sale for $.50 a can which is a good price BUT if you cut and saved the $1/3 Any Libby's canned vegetables coupons from the 8/23 Parade (that comes in the Sunday Paper) that I posted about here you can buy them for only $.17 a can!!!!

* Make sure that you buy items in quantities that you will use before they expire

* The cream of chicken seems to be one of the items that goes fastest so if you need that plan to head out to the sale ASAP.

* Always check the star ratings to make sure it is a good deal using the Smith's Grocery Smarts lists here

I just looked on pinching your pennies and it looks like the Smith's list will be delayed a little due to the holiday weekend. The list new list will be posted as soon as possible.

Dinner from the case lot sale: Part II

Here is cooking from the case lot part II and what we had for dinner last night. I got the recipe from Amy S. in the recipe exchange group I was in two years ago as well.

Beans 'N Wiener Biscuit Casserole

1/2 lb wieners, sliced (that's 4 hot dogs)
2 oz cans pork and beans, undrained
1/2 cup onion (optional)
1/2 cup ketchup
3 tbsp brown sugar
1 can refrigerated buttermilk biscuits
1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 400. In medium saucepan, combine wieners, pork and beans, onion, ketchup, and brown sugar; mix well. Bring to boil. Reduce heat; simmer 5 min. Spoon hot bean mixture into ungreased 8 inch baking dish. Separate dough into individual biscuits (when working with the really big pillsbury biscuits I only use half the can, or four biscuits) Arrange biscuits over hot bean mixture. Sprinkle with cheese. Bake for 10-15 min. or until bisuits are golden brown.

(Last night we had a friend sleeping over so I put in an extra biscuit so everyone could have one. The biscuits are on sale this week at Albertsons for $.80 I bought the beans at Smith's case lot sale for $.33 a can and the hot dogs at Smith's last week for $.88 for a lb pack, cheese was on sale last week at Smith's too for I think $7.99 for a 4 or 5 lb bag making a cup come in just under a dollar. Counting the biscuits, beans, 1/2 pack hot dogs and cheese it cost around $2.90 to make this and it feed 5 people with 1 serving of left overs for lunch today. I also used 1 can green beens purchased last week at Albertsons for $.40. Not bad, I feed 3 kids and 2 adults for $3.30 last night!)

Smith's Case Lot Sales

As a heads up...twice a year Smith's does a case lot sales. Usually these are in April and October. The case lot sales are a great way to boost your food storage and stock up your pantry. Make sure before you go to the case lot sale that you check the grocery smarts Smith's list for that week to insure you are getting a rock bottom price on the case items you are buying. (some case lot items put on sale are not for "stock up" prices)

Tip: you know your family, what you will and will not eat and how frequently you use items. DO NOT BUY THINGS that your family will not consume by the time the product expires. If you do, you will be wasting your money and that's not what shopping smart is all about : )