Grocery prices are painful enough without paying full price for foods that seem to go on sale every other week. While nobody should skip something they actually need just to wait for a discount, knowing which grocery items on sale are worth waiting for can help stretch your budget.
Weekly ads, digital coupons, loyalty discounts, BOGO offers, and seasonal promotions routinely knock down prices on everything from cereal and soda to meat and frozen foods. Better yet, many of these items can sit in the pantry or freezer until you need them, making it easy to stock up when the price is right. If you’re trying to stretch your grocery budget, here are 15 foods that are usually worth waiting to buy on sale.
Breakfast Cereal
Cereal may be a breakfast staple, but its regular shelf price doesn’t have to be. Major brands routinely show up in weekly ads, digital coupons, and multibuy promotions, and Target even has a Breakfast & Cereal section within its grocery deals. Since unopened boxes can last for months, consider grabbing two or three when your favorite hits a good price. Just check the unit price first: Different box sizes can make that seemingly great family-size deal less impressive than it looks.
Potato Chips and Tortilla Chips
If you’re paying full price every time you buy a bag of chips, you’re probably missing out. Chips are constantly featured in multibuy promotions, especially around parties, holidays, and major sporting events. Target, for example, has recently promoted deals on brands including Doritos, Ruffles, and PopCorners. Wait for a two-for or three-for deal, then compare the price per ounce with store brands and larger bags. And check the fine print — some stores don’t actually require you to buy the advertised quantity to get the discounted per-item price.
Soda
Few grocery prices seem to bounce around quite as dramatically as soda. A 12-pack can look painfully expensive one week and be part of an aggressive multibuy promotion the next. Target has recently offered deals including three 12-packs for $20, and discounts tend to become particularly common around holiday weekends, summer gatherings, and football season. If soda is a regular purchase in your household, stocking up during a good promotion can save you from having to pay that inflated everyday price later.
Frozen Pizza
Your emergency frozen pizza doesn’t need to be an emergency purchase. Frozen pizzas frequently appear in weekly promotions and multibuy deals, and their long freezer life makes them particularly easy to stock up on. Instead of waiting until there’s nothing for dinner and paying whatever the shelf says, keep one or two pizzas in the freezer and replace them when your preferred brand goes on sale. It’s still likely to be a lot cheaper than solving the same dinner emergency with takeout.
Ice Cream
Premium ice cream pints have gotten expensive enough that paying full price can feel like an actual splurge. Fortunately, ice cream is a heavily promoted category, particularly during spring and summer, when BOGO deals, loyalty discounts, and multibuy offers become common. Wait for your favorite brand to go on sale and buy an extra pint if you have the freezer space. Just compare prices by ounce, since containers aren’t always the same size — even when they look suspiciously similar on the shelf.
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Coffee
Regular coffee drinkers know how quickly a bag of beans or box of pods can eat into the grocery budget. But packaged coffee rotates through sales frequently enough that it’s worth watching for a deal. Target even maintains a dedicated Coffee Deals section within its grocery promotions. When your favorite brand drops 20% or 30%, consider buying an extra unopened bag. Just don’t get carried away with bulk coffee if it’ll sit open for months losing freshness before you can drink it.
Bacon
Bacon has two things going for budget-minded shoppers: It frequently goes on sale, and it freezes beautifully. Whole Foods, for example, currently shows discounts that take one branded bacon from $9.29 to $7.74, with an even lower $6.97 price for Prime members. Rather than paying the highest price whenever a weekend breakfast craving strikes, freeze an extra package when you find a good deal. Compare prices per pound, though, since package weights and cuts can vary considerably.
Ground Beef
Ground beef is expensive enough that even a relatively small sale can make a noticeable difference at checkout. It’s also commonly featured in supermarket weekly ads and freezes well, making it ideal for stock-up shopping. Whole Foods currently includes a recurring Tuesday deal offering buy one, get one 50% off 365-brand 80% lean ground beef. When your supermarket runs a similar promotion, divide larger packages into meal-size portions before freezing so you can pull out exactly what you need later.
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Chicken Breasts and Thighs
Instead of deciding you’re having chicken and then buying it at whatever price the store happens to charge, try reversing the process: See what’s on sale and plan dinner from there. Chicken frequently appears as a weekly supermarket loss leader, and larger family packs can easily be divided and frozen. Don’t overlook thighs and drumsticks, either. They can offer better everyday value than boneless breasts, and a good weekly promotion can make the price difference even bigger.
Shrimp
Shrimp is another freezer-friendly food where waiting for a promotion can pay off. Whole Foods currently shows colossal easy-peel shrimp marked down from $15.99 per pound to $14.21, or $12.79 for Prime members. And because much of the shrimp sold at supermarket seafood counters was previously frozen anyway, buying a frozen bag on sale can make plenty of sense. When comparing deals, look at the count — such as 21/25 or 31/40 — rather than vague labels like “large” or “jumbo.”
Berries
Strawberries and blueberries may be healthy, but their regular prices aren’t always particularly friendly to your wallet. Berry prices fluctuate significantly with season and availability, and stores frequently discount them to move highly perishable inventory. Target currently has a BOGO 20% off promotion on raspberries and blackberries, for example. Buy fresh berries when they’re abundant and cheap, and consider freezing extras for smoothies or baking. When prices soar, frozen berries can also be a much better deal.
Deli Meat
A few slices of turkey shouldn’t make a homemade sandwich feel like restaurant takeout, yet premium deli meat prices can get surprisingly high. Fortunately, packaged lunch meats regularly appear in weekly and loyalty promotions; Target currently lists select Applegate lunch meat at $5.49 on sale. Before grabbing your usual package, compare its price per pound with the deli counter and store-brand alternatives. The cheapest sandwich filling may be sitting only a few feet away.
Yogurt
Yogurt is another grocery category where sales, digital coupons, and multibuy offers seem nearly constant. Target currently offers 10% off select Stonyfield kids’ yogurt pouches, and national brands frequently rotate through similar promotions. Compare the price per ounce between individual cups, multipacks, pouches, and larger tubs rather than assuming one format is cheaper. If your household eats enough yogurt to finish it before it spoils, a large tub can often stretch your dollar further.
Granola and Snack Bars
Snack bars have a long shelf life, which means there’s little reason to panic-buy a full-price box. Nutrition, granola, and cereal bars frequently appear in bundled promotions, including Target’s current buy one, get one 25% off deal on select nutrition bars and drinks. Warehouse clubs can also offer much lower prices per bar in large multipacks. The catch? Buying 40 of a flavor everyone gets sick of after six bars isn’t much of a bargain.
Prepared Grocery-Store Meals
Prepared foods might not seem like an obvious category to wait for, but some supermarkets offer predictable weekly discounts. Whole Foods currently runs buy one, get one 50% off individual prepared meals on Tuesdays for Prime members, along with other recurring Tuesday and Friday food specials. Check whether your own supermarket has similar discount days. If you know Thursday is usually your “I don’t want to cook” night, buying that convenience meal during Wednesday’s promotion could make it considerably cheaper than grabbing the same thing at full price.
The Best Grocery Deal Might Be Next Week
Saving money on groceries doesn’t always require clipping dozens of coupons or visiting five different stores. Sometimes, it simply means recognizing which products routinely go on sale and refusing to buy them at their highest price when you can afford to wait.
Keep a rough idea of what you normally pay, check the unit price instead of getting distracted by flashy sale signs, and stock up reasonably when a genuinely good deal appears. For pantry and freezer staples in particular, waiting a week or two could be all it takes to avoid paying full price.
