in a lot of stores, there's a section of meat that has a sell-by date that's today. they mark those down to almost nothing, because they can't sell them tomorrow. however, you can buy them and freeze them today, just as you can buy them and cook them tomorrow. i've gotten good buys that way. ask at your supermarket. there's a store near me that sold shell steak for $2.99 not long ago. i bought 6 and froze them in ziplocs. i buy the big ones and we share one. guess what we're having tonight. if we were bigger red-meat-eaters i would have invested in more. i'm very careful about dating everything.