I am a department manager of a large supermarket chain in Australia. From experience I know that all stores have mark down procedures and policies in place. By being observant you will be able to find out what days and roughly what times the markdowns occur. You will be able

to save hundreds of dollars by knowing and doing this one thing. I know that in our particular store mince is made fresh in the morning. Yet it is marked down that very same afternoon. And that afternoon the next lot is made and that next morning by 10am it is marked down. Depending how much is left on the shelf it might be reduced down as much as 60% off the original price. My department the Bakery does at least 2 markdown round each day. Again you can save up to 60% off the original price. Let me put it another way. Say Jane goes shopping in the morning and buys a 12 pack of bread rolls for the kids lunches and that cost her $4.99 regular price. Jane is not going to make the lunches until the next morning.

Lets now say Jill goes shopping on the same day. She also buys a 12 pack of rolls also for the kids lunches. Because Jill is shopping in the afternoon the bread rolls have been marked down. They're marked down the full 60% off so they only cost Jill $2.00. So that means Jill saved $2.99 of course round up that's 3.00 and over the course of a year it's $156. Wow that's a great savings. Poor Jane on the other hand who didn't know any better would have spent $156 more. And that's just on one packet of bread rolls. Of course you can't always guarantee the saving would be that high. But I will tell you their is definitely  mark downs in every supermarket because they would rather sell it for less money than bin it.

In Jane and Jill's case they got the same rolls and used them at the same time the next day, so both were as fresh as the other yet one paid so much more at the same supermarket for the same product, crazy isn't it. It's all about knowing the habits of your supermarket. The easiest way to find out is by talking with people you know who shop at the same supermarket. And just by taking note of what goes on around you. 

Added to that I must say if you did change the day you shop by doing something called revolving shopping and with knowing your mark down times you will save thousands and that's a fact. I do this and have done for many years. I almost never pay full price for any meat sort.

 On top of that I go to the supermarket 13 times less than most families do. Check out www.rsmshoptosave.com

I hope the info I have given you helps. Websites like this one where people share their knowledge is one tool. But I reckon the best one is talking with friends and neighbors. Other mum's at school. They say " Sharing is Caring", I couldn't agree more.