Those of you familiar with any of the Loblaws related grocery store chains will be familiar with the joys of the “pink sticker.” Pink stickers are 30% off or 50% off stickers put on items in order to clear them out. Usually, they go on products that just won’t move, or on things which have a sell-by or expiry-date of today or tomorrow. Most of my protein sources come from pink sticker sales. They get picked up and whisked straight into my freezer at home.
Where does most of my fancy cheese come from? Pink stickers. I walk a pattern in the grocery store that very deliberately goes by the fancy cheese section, just so I can pick up any delicious looking pink sticker cheese that might be available. This girl loves cheese, what can I say.
My grocery store also has a few different racks throughout the store, which display pink sticker items. Right now, one is full of red pens and baby bottle tops. So there I was the other night, quickly scoping out the clearance rack, in all its pink sticker glory.
I was disappointed. I always hope that I’m going to find some super-amazing score.
I know, grocery shopping is a roller coaster of emotions, that I ride at least once per week.
Down at the bottom of the metal rack, on the very bottom shelf, I spotted packages of gluten free brown rice pasta. There are a lot of random dietary restrictions in my household, but thankfully gluten is not one of them. Gluten free pasta is crazy expensive to start with, that much I know. If it was cheaper, I probably would have bought it for myself, but it’s not.
So what do I do? I start texting some friends who have celiac’s disease. “Hey, the clearance rack has GF pasta on it.”
I start sending texts to my friends about sweet deals on food they can eat.
Later that week, I was at a difference grocery store and glass bottom, lock top containers were $6 off. I took a picture and posted it to a local food Facebook page. Now I was getting on a roll!
Funnily enough, that roll continued the next day, when I was yet again at the grocery store (I know, I know, way too many times in a week and a half). There were boxes of cheddar massively on sale. I put a photo of the price sticker right on my Facebook wall, along with directions to this treasure trove of cheese.
It was in the cake cooler. Who puts cheese in the cake cooler?
Doing that got a lot of likes from friends who live here!
Wouldn’t you like to know if something was a smoking good deal and available to you? Especially if it was something pricey that was a regular part of your diet. (I think we’ve sufficiently touched on how much I love cheese.)
Do you hoard your frugal knowledge or do you share it? It might seem a bit odd, at first, but I know that there are friends out there who will very much appreciate it. Count me in as one of them!
I love to share my hard earned knowledge as I helped acquire it by others doing the same! I am always happy to help out when I can (if people want to hear it), mostly because of the sense of peace that having your finances squared away brings.
Brian @ Debtless in Texas recently posted…Preparing for a Baby Without Breaking the Bank
I not only share my frugal knowledge, I think I brag about it. Lol. I texted my sister I got Kashi, yes Kashi cereal for 50 cents a box @ Loblaws!!! It was a huge random clearance sale, so I scooped up three boxes. Success!
Karen recently posted…How to Save Money on Your Next Holiday
Fifty cents?! That’s a TOTALLY brag worthy score!
I like it 🙂
You’re a Pink Sticker fairy! I’m a Coupon fairy ~ I like leaving coupons all over the store next to the corresponding items. I may need to get Facebook again just to do what you’re doing. No Loblaws around here. It sounds like a place that would sell lobsters. Legally. 😉 We used to live near a Piggly Wiggly. I don’t even want to think about how that sounds! 😛
kay ~ lifestylevoices.com recently posted…Hey, What’s That Bucket For Anyway ?!! 😛
R and I sometimes purposely go to the grocery store later at night so that we can score some “pink sticker” deals. We ALWAYS look at the clearance racks/sections, and score a lot of great deals that way. We usually mention these deals to his parents (who are foodies) but there aren’t many other people to share this info with 🙂
Amanda @ My Life, I Guess recently posted…My Health is More Important Than $40
Omg, I’m so glad that you did this post! I too have a strategic “path” that I do when I go to our local grocery store… right to all the discount locations! Love it! Personally, I’m a fan of when the store scatters the discounts through out the store. I feel it’s my personal advantage because I know directly where to go. Grouping all clearance takes the fun out of it! My favorite section is the discount bakery cart. God knows why they place it in some obscure corner, near the meat counter of all places! I alway hit gold on that bakery cart, all the discount treats, semi-fresh rolls and perfectly fine flatbreads for the taking. If only I could beat the seniors there by waking up even earlier.
Naomi @RisingNetWorth recently posted…3 Tips to Staying Focused & Productive
This is very cool of you to do. We haven’t, though it seems we totally could. Usually if we see something we know someone will like and the price is reasonable, we’ll buy it for them. People reciprocate, too. We can’t tell you how many times a surprise is at our door when we get home.
I’m not sure if it’s our older age or our busy life, but we’ve been using Facebook and Twitter less and less for social reasons. Maybe we’ll adopt your practice and reengage.
John Schneider recently posted…25 Gifts for Under $25 (No Gift Cards Included)
I share any frugal deals with friends, but I must admit sometimes when it comes to entering contests at the end where they say “share with friends (on Twitter or FB,” unless I get an additional entry I don’t. lol! I don’t want to decrease MY chances of winning! 🙂
Tonya@Budget and the Beach recently posted…Learning a Musical Instrument: A Good Investment?
I love to share frugal ideas or sales and our neighbors do the same. We’ll commonly get a text from a neighbor saying they found a great deal at a certain store – and ask if they could pick one up for us. then we’ll reimburse them when they deliver the item. The only thing better than saving money is helping someone else save money!
Brock @CleverDude recently posted…How I’m Using Jeans To Teach My Son About Finances
Those are really awesome neighbours to have, I love it!
I share the knowledge as I hope everyone is frugal with their money. I buy big items with a credit card for a couple reasons: to get the reward points (cash back), extended warranty and also purchase protection – this means if the price goes down after I buy I can get refunded the difference. So I can sometimes save money after I buy the item
Dan @ Our Big Fat Wallet recently posted…Budgeting With An Unstable Income
I LOVE pink stickers at Loblaws stores! I intentionally go early in the morning so that there’s good selection of pink sticker stuff. My favourite treat bread (cheesy “real” bread) was sitting there on the Monday before Remembrance Day. It said it was best by the next day, but the store would be closed. So I kindly asked the bakery clerk and she said “hold on a sec” and came back with a pink sticker. So I got my favourite treat and it was 50% for the fresh stuff.
It’s not that I hoard it, but most of my friends don’t live in the same town as me so there’s no point in sharing. That said, I always am on the lookout for them. I’ll buy meats (right in freezer like you), yogurt, pretty much anything. Unless it looks manky… that’s where I draw the line 🙂
Alicia recently posted…My Financial Education Has Been a Slow Burn
Well played you!!! Now I’m dreaming of cheesy bread. I know the kind you mean, it is SO GOOD.
Sharing is really an action of humility. Share the news so that everyone can benefit from it and spend less. Be selfless. 😀
Jayson @ Monster Piggy Bank recently posted…Measuring Expenses as a Percentage of Your Income
Cool! I’d love to have a facebook friend who shares this kind of stuff! 🙂
How To Save Money recently posted…Things you can DIY when Building a House to Save
Well since I have a blog I’m gonna vote that I share, but only from a blogging platform. Due to me living overseas I don’t have the leisure to shop at many stores, but if I lived in the U.S. and near you….I think it would be great to be your facebook friend.
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