Half price shopping

In case you’ve been living under a rock, or possibly you’re living in a different province or country, you might not know it’s been raining in Jo’burg. I love the rain. But it causes something I loathe – traffic. So, on the way home this evening, I took a detour when I noticed kilometres of cars lining up Witkoppen to cross over Beyers. I zipped into Northgate and did a little shopping. And this is what I discovered.

At the end of the day, probably an hour before closing Pick ‘n Pay marks down a whole bunch perishable goods that have reached their sell-by dates. Score! Or so I thought when I was picking out my dinner and, because everything was half price, lunch for tomorrow. Figuring I was looking at a good half hour drive home I thought some finger food would be a good idea and I could eat in the car. So I chose the mini chicken burgers for R14. And all I can say is I’m glad I didn’t pay full price. I can’t imagine they tasted any better at 09h00 this morning, or even yesterday. The onion bhajai (sp) I warmed up in the oven were no better. My hopes for the butter chicken I planned for lunch tomorrow aren’t particularly high. But I’ve often consumed the strawberry jelly (jelly only comes in one legitimate flavour in my house) and custard so I know that was three bucks well spent.

Checkers also does an end of day price cut. I was there last week and was pleasantly surprized at the quality of their produce. Their prices aren’t always as much as half price, but they’re low enough to have me planning three veg for dinner.

The only question that remains unanswered is this: will this newly discovered shopping technique save me money or will groceries end up costing me more? I suspect the latter – I have an annoying tendency buy more things than I planned or need when faced with a shop full of things for sale.

Quick update: the Butter Chicken wasn't nearly as good as Woolies, but it was ediable. And worth R14, but I don't think I would part with R30 for it. The jelly and custard was worth every cent, though.