How to Lower Your Out of Pocket Cost on Meat

We don't tend to see many meat coupons come our way when couponing.

Every once in a while we'll see internet printable coupons for fresh chicken or pork but beef coupons are very rare

However, there are a few ways you can lower your out of pocket cost on meat. 

Below is a list of local grocery stores with corresponding ways to lower your OOP cost on meats

• Albertson's 

1. frequently offers meat specials in their sales ad like "buy one, get two free"
2. Offers senior citizen, military and first responders percentage discounts (various times, see store for details)
3. Offers 10% off discount for wearing your Cardinals jersey on game day & Sundays during NFL season

•  Bashas

1. frequently features ground beef and chicken sales in their weekly ad
2. Doubles coupons (except DND & store coupons); Coupon magic promotion (All coupons $1)
3. Occasionally offers store coupons in their ad

• Food City

1. Accepts manufacturer coupons (except internet printables)
2. Features one day meat sales in their weekly ad (Thursday)
3. Text alert specials for various grocery items when you sign up (text SPECIALS to 269411)

• Fresh & Easy

1. Frequently advertises ground beef and boneless skinless chicken sales in their weekly ad
2. Offers a rewards program, Friends Rewards (register here). You receive 250 points for joining. When you accumulate 500 points through purchases (1 point per $1 spent), you can convert your points to cash rewards (500 points=$5). You will also receive weekly emails with store coupons you can print and digital coupon offers you can load to your Friends card. Occasionally the digital coupons will be for "X" amount of bonus points when you purchase select meats. This is an easy way to accumulate those rewards points quickly.
3. Includes store coupon for "X" amount of dollars off "X" amount purchase in their weekly ad. It's a good idea to utilize these coupons when purchasing meats that are featured on sale that week. For example: Featured in the ad is a $4 off $20 purchase coupon and ground beef is on sale for $2.49/lb in a 2lb pack. Purchase (4) packs = $19.92, add a banana to your cart (sold individually for ~ 25¢) = $20.17. Scan your friends card and use the $4/$20 coupon. New total = $16.17 for 8 lb of ground beef. That lowered your cost per pound to $2.02 and you received 16 points for your purchase.

• Fry's

1. Mails store and manufacturer coupons to registered customers based on their shopping habits. May include meat, dairy, bread and organic grocery coupons. Register your Fry's V.I.P card here and be sure to fill out all your account information i.e. complete mailing address w/zip code and phone number. If the information on file is incomplete, you may miss out on receiving Fry's mailers which contain these coupons. Contact Fry's via email:  frys.vip.department@frysfood.com  or phone: (623) 936-2100 if you have a registered account online and do not receive these mailers or would like to.
2. Accepts 1 store and 1 manufacturer coupon per item
3. Doubles manufacturer coupons up to $1 (or the price of the item), including DND manufacturer coupons
4. Offers digital coupons you can load onto your card online
5. Allows you to apply coupon overage to other items in your cart (per their coupon policy). This is a great time to apply that overage towards items that you may not have coupons for like meat.
6. Regularly features "mega events" in their weekly ad which may yield catalinas that you can use to pay for future purchased items like meat
7. Offers weekly digital store coupons on Wednesdays. Occasionally these coupons will be for "X" amount of dollars off your total purchase. This is a good time to purchase meat and use manufacturer coupons to lower your OOP cost on non-meat items so that "X" amount of dollars you get taken off with that digital coupon can apply towards the meat.
8. Regularly discounts their meats i.e. manager's specials. Unfortunately this usually happens early in the morning so those shopping in the evening may not get to see much of these special priced meats.

• Safeway

1. Offers digital coupons you can load onto your card online when you register your card and sign up for JustforU offers. JustforU offers are personalized offers based on your shopping habits. If you tend to purchase meat items there, you may receive a digital coupon offer for Rancher's Reserve Beef (excludes ground). This offer is usually $5/$25 Rancher's Reserve Beef purchase and is great to use with a Rancher's Reserve beef sale.
2. Doubles manufacturer coupons up to $1 (or the price of the item), except DND coupons
3. Occasionally offers a catalina for "X" amount purchased. You can then use the catalina on your next trip to lower your OOP cost on meat.
4. Some registered customers may receive mailers based on their shopping habits. I'm not sure if they include both MFR & store coupons since I've never personally received them. But I do believe they include store coupons which may help lower your cart total. 
5. Affiliated with Recyclebank, a program that promotes green living and motivates/educates others to care about their communities and the environment. When you register with Recyclebank, you can earn points by completing green actions (i.e. quizzes/viewing educational videos) which can them be redeemed for rewards. A featured reward on Recyclebank is a Safeway store coupon for $5 off $50 purchase. You can use this coupon with manufacturer coupons to lower your cart total.

• Sprouts

1. Frequently advertises ground beef (including organic/grass fed) and boneless skinless chicken on sale in their weekly ad
2. Coupon booklets featuring store and MFR coupons can be found in some stores (usually at the cash register & at the front entrance) which can help lower your cart total
3. Occasionally offer store coupons off your total purchase on Recyclebank as well

• Target

1. Some Target Stores sell groceries. Meat prices tend to be pretty high at Target but occasionally you'll find peelies attached to meat products like chicken and ground beef. Some Targets carry Gold 'n Plump chicken. Gold'n Plump does offer printable coupons for their products to registered members . Just yesterday I received a coupon from them in my inbox for $1.50 off their fresh/frozen chicken.
2. Target frequently offers gift cards wyb "X" amount of product. This is a great time to combine MFR coupons and Target coupons to lower the OOP cost of the product(s) and then use the gift card to purchase meat.
3. Target is a Shopkick participating store. Shopkick offers it's members "kicks" for walking into various stores and scanning select products. These kicks can then be redeemed for gifts i.e. Target gift card. Gift card redemption for Target begins at 500 kicks for a $2 gift card. This is a super easy way to lower your OOP cost when purchasing meat at Target. I can usually accumulate enough points for a $2 Target gc in 1-2 trips.

• Walmart

1. Price matches other store's prices (see pm policy here) 
2. Allows coupon overage to be applied towards other items in your cart or given back in cash (see coupon policy here)

These are just a few ways that you can save money on meat purchases

Please feel free to leave a comment on ways you save money on meats or any other items that coupons aren't usually offered for