Do you start your grocery shop by looking for the reduced to clear items at the supermarket? If you are shopping at Woolworths you will train your eye to look for the orange sticker, at Aldi it is a red sticker and at Coles it is a quick sale sticker.
You can save a considerable amount of money by buying the reduced to clear items, especially the meat. You can find items that are 25% – 50% off and still have one or days before their expiry date, which is fantastic for the grocery budget.
The best time to find these bargains are early in the morning around 9-10am and late in the evening before they close. Sometimes a store will have a dedicated section, alternatively they will be scattered through in the section you would normally buy the meat from.
There are some tips to buying reduced to clear meats that I have picked up over the years that will ensure you don’t actually end up wasting what you buy and to also ensure what you purchase is still safe to eat.
8 Tips to buying reduced to clear meat
- Only buy items you know your family will eat. In saying that, it is also a good time to try something you wouldn’t normally buy.
- Make sure it is till within the use by date.
- Avoid buying chicken on the day of its expiry. I have a thing with chicken and food poisoning. It is one of the meats that spoil quickly and can lead to the worst case of food poisoning.
- When buying reduced to clear chicken that has been cyrovac make sure that the seal is intake (that is, it is still tight), if not I don’t recommend buying it.
- Avoid buying the fresh minced meat (the one that is minced on site in the supermarket (it is cling wrapped on a black tray) that is expiring that day. Fresh minced meat will only last up to three days so it is already on its last legs.
- Avoid buying pre-packaged mince that the cling film on top has swollen (puffed up) up, the quality is already starting to be compromised.
- Choose to cook the reduced to clear meat first, alternatively;
- Freeze your purchases on the day you buy it.
This tells you how long meat can be frozen for and still taste good:
Beef/lamb roasts 4-6 months
Ground beef mince 2-3 months
Sausages 1-2 months
Beef Steaks 3-4 months
Beef/Lamb Casserole 2-3 months
Lamb chops 2-3 months
Offal 1 month
Whole chicken 4-6 months
Chicken portions 3 months
Lean fish (eg. Whiting) 4 months
Oily fish (eg. Mackerel) 3 months
(Source: Meat and Livestock Australia Food Safety Campaign Group: Food Safety in the Home)
Here is a link to a great resource for defrosting meat safely as well.
These tips and tricks will help you grab a bargain but also feed your family safely.
Tell me what’s the biggest discount you have found on meat?
Got a chicken reduced to clear still sealed tight a few days before actuall date daughter refuses to eat it as it’s reduced tobuse before date she reckons because it’s reduced it’s already off I. Cooked it straight away the day I got it me and hubby ate it was perfect taste beautiful I just want to know how to get around this as she’s got it in her thick head that it was off when it wasn’t
Hi Harriet, is there anyway that you can remove the reduced to clear sticker before she see’s it?
I would also avoid buying reduced to clear meat with any kind of marinade or coating. I actually avoid these anyway (if they are done in store) if I’m buying from a supermarket. You don’t know what that marinade or coating is hiding!
I like to buy reduced meats, cook them up the day I buy them. Sometimes reduced chicken necks and giblets are very cheap and I buy them for my dog. they are so much cheaper and better quality than dog meat – I never quite know what’s in the dog meat packets anyway.