I promote stockpiling and buying items when they are on super sale to avoid paying full price. By purchasing items ahead of time you avoid running to the store last minute to buy full-priced groceries, and you save yourself those expensive “stop in to pick up dinner” shopping trips. BUT. . .there is one exception, when shopping last minute actually pays off, and that is with dairy, meat and produce markdowns.
A couple weeks ago I went to QFC, my favorite place for manager markdowns. I was sooo excited to find organic basil marked down for only $1.79 a container. The basil, oh the sweet basil, how I love you so. . . but you usually aren’t in my budget. Well I took that home and made pesto! Have you made pesto before? It’s sooo easy, and delicious, and versatile. I made up a bunch of pesto and froze it for future meals.
- Basil
- Parmesan
- Pine nuts
- Olive oil
- Fresh garlic
- Throw all the ingredients into the food processor.
- That's it!
I vacuum sealed the pesto into meal size portions using my trusty Food Saver. A little bit goes a long way.
Pine nuts are super expensive (I didn’t realize just how much until I got home and looked at my receipt), I recommend substituting another variety of nuts. I have seen recipes that call for walnuts, brazil nuts, cashews – just Google a pesto recipe with whatever nuts you might have around the house. I had fresh garlic and olive oil on hand. (Here’s another basic pesto recipe.)
So if you are going to shop for last minute dinner items, I recommend checking for manager markdowns first. Think creatively – if there is someway you can cook up veggies, or use the ingredients to make a meal you’ll be saving yourself from paying full price!
What’s your favorite manager markdown that you’ve found?
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