Hi. My name is Kristen, and I love clearance bins.
On Tuesdays and Thursdays, I post a picture and just a few words.
I'm not a shopper by nature (let me stay home any day!), but I do have a fondness for clearance bins/shelves/racks.
While they're often filled with odd merchandise, you can sometimes find gems for a bargain price.
One of the locally owned grocery stores here has a cart filled with marked-down merchandise and I always rifle through it. Sometimes I walk away empty-handed, but the other day, I found a bunch of apricot preserves (the fancy kind, even, made with real sugar) for $0.50/jar.
So I bought seven.
And actually, I'm kind of kicking myself for not buying more, because jam keeps for a long, long time.
(I fear that more than seven jars would have brought on some eye-rolling from Mr. FG. Actually, he'd probably have rolled his eyes at my seven jars, except I don't know that he saw them. ;))
The local hardware store has a clearance rack right outside the front door. The last two times I've been in I've walked out with half-price paintbrushes. Good ones, too. It's only certain kinds of clearance bins that draw me. Decent quality products that I will actually use for a great deal? Yes!
Ooh, nice! A good paintbrush will last for a nice long time. And you won't have that annoying problem of bristles falling out like you do with junky brushes. It's so frustrating to try to pick bristles out of your fresh paint.
Clearance bins can be a dangerous sport! They are great if you are disciplined enough to only buy what you were already going to buy. ...but I get caught in the trap of being convinced I need to buy something because it's a great deal :/ Getting better about that though... 🙂
So true. It's only a good deal if you need it.
My kids do use jam on a regular basis and several of them LOVE apricot jam, so I knew we'd use this up with no problems. Yay!
I love getting clearance deals on food. I just scored some thick slice bacon marked down at Kroger. It's great when you can save money on something you need to buy anyway.
I would have been all over that bargain. That is usually an expensive jam. I love clearance too but haven't found much worth buying for a long time. Maybe the universe is telling me I don't need more.
Definitely should've bought ALL of them. Apricot jam is the best best best jam. We're in apricot season right now, and my MiL had made one batch so far for stirring into plain yogurt. I'm going to have to make a lot more, though, because apricot jam goes really fast around here.
Oh, and speaking of yogurt, I should tell you that I've been using your cooler method for making yogurt for about five years now. I've only had to get a new culture once in all that time, and that was only because it got so cold on our kitchen floor one winter that the yogurt wasn't keeping warm enough to firm up. Anyway, best yogurt, best method, love it and thank you.
I love it too! So foolproof and simple. I'm glad it's working out well for you too.
One of our local grocery stores does this also with produce. While almost done produce isn't always great if I'm going to use it that night it can be great. I also pick up 5+ lb bags of bananas for .99 and freeze for smoothies- saving produce and $!
My husband does roll his eyes at me when I come home with 5 or 6 bags and start peeling them:)
Ha. I dont even peel them. Just freeze them whole and defrost in the micro till just able to slip them out of the skins, 30 seconds or so.
Yes-all depends on how versatile the item is. If you can freeze it, then it's usually a fabulous deal.
My store sometimes sells a large box of "unsellable" bananas for $2. Last time I took advantage of this deal the box weighed 52 lbs!!! I find it easier to peel before freezing rather than after; also freeze individually on a plate, then bag up so you can easily take out just the number you want.
My grocery store just had shredded cheese on sale for $1/bag. On top of that, half the bags had 'Buy 2, get $1 off' coupons. $0.50 for a bag of shredded cheese? SCORE! I bought ten.
Niiice! And you can definitely freeze that.
Apricot jam makes a great glaze for roast pork or pork tenderloin too.
Woah, at 0.50$ each I would have got them all and put them in the freezer.
I can't walk past a clearance bin - but they can get me in trouble. With food my mantra is "It's not a bargain if you bin it" - sure it may be cheap, but am I REALLY going to eat all that? Saying that I bought two bags of organic, fair trade bananas at the supermarket today at more than 60%. They are going straight in my freezer for baking at a later date.
My fave find was telescoping marshmallow sticks in the dollar bin at Target. Lo these many years ago my friend had mentioned wanting some for her summer car camping trips, and finally I could get them for her.
Too bad the dollar bins at Target are now $1 *or* $3. You have to look closely to see if the thing is a bargain or not.
When I have too much bananas (no more room in freezer lor baking) I cut them in thick slices and feed the composter with them. Mix well with the stuff already there. Once a local store gave me a case of bananas. They all went in the composter.... it heats it up so much that I could feel the heat from the bin. Same process can done with other fruits or veggies providing there is no molds on them. It would kill the life of the composter. Cut the molds out.
Sometimes, a local small produce stores, accept a very small amount of money - sometimes give them away - for boxes of food they would throw away. (Monday mornings are good for this - or day before gargabe collection. It pays off to buy from small stores.... Their prices are on average lower than big box stores; Chinese/Vietnamese are my favourite.
BTW large stores often have a policy of not giving away food (health/safety/profit).
I recently found cereal for $1.49 a box...the FAMILY size of Cinnamon Toast Crunch! You bet I put six of this boxes in my cart! I would've taken more if I didn't think we'd be sick of it by box 12, lol! 😀
*those boxes
I really should proofread my comments, lol!