Grocery prices have really been on the rise lately, and it’s just getting worse. It’s easier to find coupons and deals for packaged items, but for produce and meat, Flash food is definitely the way to go.
You sign up for an account, and you can search by store in your area – it’s for superstores no frills wholesale club etc.
They list products that are on their way out, short dated meat and dairy, big boxes of produce for $5, and even sometimes things like toothpaste or cereal that have long dates but they probably just ordered too much of it. Can even be deli items, like fresh salads or sandwiches, fruit and cheese platters – it’s very random.
You just head into the store and by the help center there is a big Flash food sign and a fridge, and they will help you find your items. Simple process. If you’re picking up a few boxes just remember to grab a cart before.
We had stopped using it for a while because it was hard to get in and out of the stores, but just went back to using it and are finding so many great deals. I like buying the produce boxes when I know I’ll have the time to go through it all, I wait to find a store that has many that I want, and then I can spend the day processing them. Making applesauce, freezing veggies, making spaghetti sauce. So many ways to use it up. There’s always a few things that have gone bad in the boxes, but everything I bought pictured in these, we just had a very minimal amount of waste that’s not pictured.
Picture above was four boxes, I always make sure that I’ll be seeing family members so that we can share the stuff that needs to be eaten quickly. Always things that don’t make it into the picture, like bananas or things that got eaten quickly. This was $20 – mangoes, a bunch of peppers, lots of apples, oranges etc too.
This one was eight boxes, so $40. Huge piles of peppers and cucumbers, probably had our value just in that. Pears, tomatoes, chayotes, potatoes etc.
If you’re a smaller family, or you don’t plan on sharing or splitting it amongst a group, a one or two boxes is enough produce for a week or two easily. Can just get creative with the ingredients.
If you like to cook the same day, you can definitely pick up some short dated meat at the same time and create some big meals.
They also have a promotion right now that if you use a promo code when you download the app and sign up, like mine – NADITJA6 – you get $5 after your first $10 purchase, and so do I! 🙂 Win Win!
If you don’t have a garden and you want to plan for winter with a lot of frozen meat or produce, this is definitely the way to go. Can be a great idea to share with a friend or family member too and pick up several boxes and share and split them together.
I just quickly wash everything in the sink, and then we sort things out, like apples that are good for eating or apples that are good for sauce or freezing.
Let me know if you guys have tried it and what you thought of it, and what your tips are for using it also.