What tips/advice do you have that can you share with others about the Commissary?

Is there a special day of the week or week of the month you go shopping for the best deals?

When do they have their Case SALES? What do you usually buy during these sales?

You can go to Commissaries.com and search by your base location. Once you link to your specific commissary, you can pull up a looooooong list of what their sale items are and for what dates. I always print it off before i go and highlight what i plan to purchase. it's about 28 pages long.

Also, it has a link to search for the case lot calendar, which will tell you when they will have one.

I usually shop on tuesday mornings. Ours is closed on Monday and usually well stocked after the weekend. I make my list aisle by aisle.

Honestly - what I try to do is take my coupons. If I can save enough to beat the 6 percent surcharge on groceries - I have a deal. I will also swing by the commissary and pick up flyers and coupons a few days before I shop.

I also comparison shop with other local stores to see who has the best deal. For example - Albertsons was offering a 10 percent military discount. With coupons and 10 percent - prices were equal to the commissary.

I also hit the scratch and dent isle.

My husband was making an ID card for a commissary worker and she told him that Tuesdays (here in VA) the meat usually goes on sale. Never heard of this before, but it's worth checking out!

There are a couple of sites that post the sales for the month and post a copy of the sales fliers.

Occasionally I come across some good deals while browsing the aisles so I keep my coupons handy. One time they must have had an overstock of Land O Lakes spreadable butter because it was on the shelf for .80 cents. I had some .20 off coupons so I must have bought about 10 and threw them in the freezer. Now I have a stockpile for about 6 months.

I was searching for commissary tips and found this site & thread. Lo and behold I even found someone close to me.

Anyway, I had read somewhere before that regular (civilian) groceries are fully stocked Wednesdays when the new ads are out and that sometimes Tuesdays and a good day to get clean off the shelf deals. I was trying to figure out commissary cycles. I thought I remembered hearing that prices are cheapest about 3-4 days before pay day and then raise a little the day before pay and for a few days after. Again, I can't remember where I read/heard this so I was looking for some confirmation or clarification.

Welcome to the board. Glad you found us.