Red Bag Produce

Here's another money saving tip.

My family and I TRY to eat healthy. We always have a ton of fruits and vegetables in our home at all time. 

This can be really expensive. Before this tip I would spend about 50% of my food budget just in produce. 

But now I have cut that cost I half.

My secret:

Smith's (Kroger) stores sell marked down produce! And each bag is 99cents!!

At most my locations near me there are shelves or carts filled with red netted bags with the produce the store wants to get rid of. 

Talking to my produce guy he tells me that the fruit comes from when displays get changed and there's no room for those items. 

This week Smiths has a sale for Taste of Spain so all the peppers, tomatoes, etc have to be displayed leaving out those yummy $4 mini seedless watermelons that my kids love. So they get red bagged.

He also says items get red bagged when the original packaging gets damaged like the bag of organic apples that cost $6 each. The bag got a year in the netting so it has to be red bagged. 

So every couple of days I'll swing by my Smiths and grab whatever red bags they have. 

There are some items I don't care for like those potatoes. I can get a 5lb bag at walmart for $1. But other than this I will grab everything. 

What my family doesn't eat my bunnies will.

Most of the produce will get eaten with 48 hours. My family loves fruit. But the items I know they won't touch as fast I cut up into cubes.

Freeze in a pie plate. And once it's frozen it put the fruit in a freeze bag to use later for smoothies.(fastest way to get our daily recommended consummation)

So about 2 days a month I do this process. But when my husband is craving a milkshake he'll grab these bags of fruit instead and whip up something yummy for everyone. 

Plus I like the fact that every in our smoothies is fresh and organic since I'm the one who cut it. 

So look around the produce section and see if you can find those red netted bags.