Update: The dollar store cashier in Reno showed me how to double my food for $10 a week
I was at a Dollar Tree on Virginia Street in Reno last month, just grabbing some cheap pasta and cans of beans like I always do. The cashier, a woman in her 50s, rang up my stuff and then quietly asked if I knew about the markdown schedule. I said no, and she explained that every Tuesday morning around 8am, they mark down all the bread and produce that's about to expire to 50 cents or a quarter. She said most people never ask, so it just sits there. I went back the next Tuesday and walked out with two loaves of bread, a bag of apples, and three heads of lettuce for $2.75 total. That haul would've cost me $12 or more at a regular store. I've been going every Tuesday for four weeks now and my grocery bill dropped from about $60 a week to $25. The trick is to go early before the regulars clear it out, and to check the back aisle near the freezer section where they stack the marked down stuff. Has anyone else figured out a specific store's markdown day like this? I'm wondering if other chains do it on different days so I can hit more than one.