May 22, 2020

Best Items To Buy From The Reduced Shelf

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What do you buy from the reduced shelf? When there are loads of yellow stickers on offer it can be tempting to grab them all and hope for the best. However, it is worth making sure you pick up items that you will genuinely use before they become inedible.

In this post, I’ll be talking about the things I always try and grab when I see them yellow stickered as I think they save us the most money and I know will end up using them.

Best Items To Buy From The Reduced Shelf (Best Yellow Sticker Items)

Buying from the reduced section saves us an absolute fortune. But when presented with an absolute mountain of yellow sticker food, it can sometimes be tricky to figure out which foods to focus on, which will save the most money and which will actually get eaten rather than sitting in the bottom of the freezer for months.

1. Yellow Sticker Bread

There is so much that be done with bread aside from sandwiches and toast! It can be made into croutons for salad or soup, Melba toasts for pate, breadcrumbs for dishes like chicken Kiev or pasta bake, various puddings, stuffing and it freezes really well too.

It is also great for bulking up meals by serving as a side, such as garlic bread or as a starter with oil and balsamic vinegar.

Buying Bread From the Reduced Shelf: Will it stay fresh?

I find bread from the reduced section does stay fresh for a few days, particularly normal sliced loaves. Rolls and crusty bread don’t last as long, but I find they usually have a shorter shelf life whether or not I buy them reduced.

The best thing to do if you don’t think you’ll use bread within a day or two of buying it is to pop it in the freezer or use it up by making breadcrumbs or another dish such as bread and butter pudding

Bread Recipes For Using Up Yellow Sticker Bread

7 Things To Do With A Yellow Sticker Loaf of Bread

2. Yellow Sticker Shelf Meat & Fish

I pick up the majority of the meat we use from the reduced section and it saves us a fortune.

As meat is usually the most expensive part of a meal this reduces the cost per person of each meal I cook.

A great example of this is the curry I made using reduced braising steak that came in at 47p per person for Beef Curry, Rice and Naan Bread.

Some of my best-reduced section meat bargains include:

10p Sliced roasted beef
26p Ribeye Steak
16p Lamb Chops
49p Gammon Joint
18p Braising steak
65p Gammon steaks
£1.50 whole chicken

In this post, I'll be talking about the things I always try and grab when I see them yellow stickered as I think they save us the most money and I know will end up using them.

I find meat bought from the reduced section usually lasts for a couple of days in the fridge before needing to be used up.

However, if you prefer to be stricter about use by dates you could freeze the meat on the day of purchase or cook it and then either store in the fridge for a few days or freeze.

I also find lots of more unusual ingredients in the reduced section, such as venison, which is great if you’re an adventurous cook but can’t afford to buy some of the higher-end ingredients.

I would advise against buying anything you’re unsure about, often you’ll end up being too nervous to cook it or it’ll end up in the freezer for months and months. I

‘m a fairly experienced cook but I’ve still ben guilty of buying things from the reduced section which I’ve not ended up using!

If you’re concerned about yellow stickers and use by and best before dates, this post explains what you need to look out for.

My favourite place to get reduced section ready meals is M&S. I find their ready meals to be overall of better quality than most other supermarkets and they have a fantastic range too.

I’ll usually pop to M&S about once a month to see what I can find and stock the freezer up with a few ready meals.

3. Cheap Fruit & Vegetables

Fruit and Vegetables will usually keep for a little while even if they are yellow stickered, however, it is worth taking a good look at them before buying as sometimes to ones that end up in the reduced section can be bruised or starting to go a bit manky.

I try to avoid buying ready-cut fruit pots unless I’m 100% sure we’ll eat them that day or the next as they do deteriorate very quickly.

Vegetables can be blanched and then frozen or cooked and made into soup or other dishes. Fruit, which often deteriorates quicker can also be frozen or used up in smoothies.

4. Ready Meals

While it is much cheaper to cook everything from scratch, there are just some days I don’t have the time or energy. I find having a few ready meals in the freezer I can use on days like this helps me avoid the lure of the takeaway and if I can get them super cheap in the first place then all the better.

In this post, I'll be talking about the things I always try and grab when I see them yellow stickered as I think they save us the most money and I know will end up using them.

Some Final Reduced Shelf Tips For Getting The Best Yellow Sticker Items:

Only buy what you know you’ll use – don’t go mad on items just because they’re cheap and try to leave some for others too.
Get to know your local supermarkets and the times they make the biggest reductions
Always check the yellow sticker sections no matter what time of day you shop
Look out for yellow stickers on non-perishables as sometimes these will have a long shelf life and are discounted due to being the end of line or a change in packaging.
Combine yellow stickers with offers on the supermarket apps for super cheap meals.
If you’re buying lots make sure you have enough room in your fridge and freezer to store everything.

In this post, I'll be talking about the things I always try and grab when I see them yellow stickered as I think they save us the most money and I know will end up using them.