It’s Case Lot Sale time again! If you are lucky enough to have grocery stores in your state that do this, definitely take advantage of it because there are plenty of states who don’t do this and plenty of Freebies2Deals readers get REALLY jealous of us and our case lot sales. 😉
So if you are new to case lot sales or feel like you are a pro, I though I would share 8 Tips for Saving When it Comes to Shopping a Case Lot Sale! Some of them you might have not even thought of…. and they can save you a bunch of money. Here we go:
#1- Double check the math on your own. Sometimes stores will give you the case lot price and then divide it out to a “per item” price so you can figure out whether it really is a great deal or not. I cannot tell you how many times the math has been done wrong!! I’ve noticed a lot of a product not being purchased and thought to myself, “Wow, that number is pretty high.”… Sure enough, the number is totally wrong and a lot of people have missed out on the deal because the divided out price was incorrect.
#2- Watch the Ad Prices. You’ve gotta grab a copy of the ad when you enter the store. It is your reference– your cheat sheet. Many store shelves get marked incorrectly OR you might see that the per-can price is different than the “if you purchase a case” price.
#3- Do you HAVE to buy the whole case?? You’ve got to check the ad to see what category your item falls in to. If you MUST buy the case to get the case price, then it will say in the ad or in the fine print. If you don’t have to buy the whole case, you can buy per item to get the “case lot sale price”.
#4- If you don’t have to buy the whole case to get the case price, then guess what?? You can use a coupon, printable coupon or even an eCoupon if the store has those on their shopper’s card! It can help you save more and get a few of your items even cheaper than the case lot sale price.
#5- Is the individual price a stock up price? I think a lot of people get overwhelmed when they see a big price like $15.00 for a case… they aren’t really sure if that is a good price or not for 12 or 24 cans. Either do I! But I do have an idea of great prices per can, or per item. And you probably do too! So you just have to whip out your calculator on your phone and do a little math to find the “per item” price. Then you can have a better idea if the case lot sale price is good enough for you to buy, or if you should pass.
#6- Try to shop a case lot sale WITHOUT kids. I know, I know, you love your kids…. I love your kids too! 😉 But, there simply isn’t any room for them when you are putting cases of food into your cart. And if you are like me, once things start getting loud, kids are getting kranky, fighting, and I’m telling them to stop this and that, I lose focus and I just want to leave as quickly as possible. When that happens, I miss out on deals, mis-calculate and instead of being excited about the deals I scored, I just want to lie down and cry. Anyone else feel that way too??
Instead, try to go when your kids are sleeping so you have the entire cart to stock up. And if you are really going to stock up, take your husband along with you (even if the kids have to come) because you will then at least have two carts–maybe three AND you will have his big muscles to load it all in and out of the cart. 😉
#7- Take note of the expiration dates, use by dates or best-by dates…. never buy more than your family can use in 6 months to a year. Most case lot sales happen twice a year. So if you are stocking up just to last you until the next sale, you probably won’t have to watch expiration dates. But if you want to stock up for long-term food storage, check the expiration dates and figure out how many items you should buy off how many your family would eat in one sitting. Don’t know the difference between expiration dates, use-by dates, best-by dates or sell-by dates? I’ve broken it down for you guys over here on a post I did previously.
If you know you will eat canned corn once a week and your family eats two cans of corn for dinner, you can estimate that you will roughly need 52 cans of corn. And since corn is typically an item that requires you buy a case of 24, you will need two cases to hit 48–super close to your estimate of 52 cans. Make sense?
#8- Don’t have enough? Weekly ads will usually put a maximum limit on certain cases so everyone gets a fair shot buying the most popular case lot items. BUT- it doesn’t say anything about per person during the entire 2-3 week sale. So feel free to shop more than once to buy all of the case lot items that you need to stock up on. If there is an item you need more of, you can easily go back and hit the maximum limit a few times during the sales period.
Got a case lot sale tip you can share?? Leave a comment below and let us all know! The more helpful comments, the better! That way, we all save more. 🙂
***If you are new to shopping Case Lot sales and aren’t sure what a good price is, head over here to see this week’s Caselot Sales at Smith’s. Anything I’ve highlighted in RED is a stock-up price. It should give you a little guidance.
Chelsea R
I price match items that I don’t need too many of at walmart – like pineapple. I don’t need a case, but I could use 6 cans, so I’ll price match that. If I need a whole case it’s more polite to go to the store that is advertising the deal so you don’t clear any shelves. I know what we’re doing for date night! lol
Leslie
When I lived in Utah I used coupons with case lot sales at smiths I bought Ragu and something else but they let me use them I now live in Montana so we are having a case lot sale at Albertsons so I am going to try using them for the Yogart and see if it works
Teresa
If you check your canned goods and know that you will not use them up before they expire, get them over to you local food pantry! This always makes me feel better about stocking up.
Kerry
Canned/boxed goods often last years longer than the expiration date. Last night we had Hamburger Helper that had expired 24 months ago. My husband commented on how much he liked that variety. It didn’t taste the least bit old.