Worth Its Weight in Gold
Last week I went to
a local market to stock up on meat for the month. I have been really disappointed in the quality of the meat at our supermarkets in town so I decided to go to another town to stock up on meat there based on some great recommendations from
my mom's group. I ended up getting some really excellent deals for my money and the meat was a much better quality too.
I brought home ten pounds of chicken, ten pounds of ground beef, and two whole chickens. I broke out
my FoodSaver, purchased from the thrift store, and one of my favorite kitchen tools...my postal scale.
I got
my postal scale off of eBay and I use it often for shipping purposes. It has saved me a lot of time and hassle at the post office, but it also has been such a useful tool for me to weigh ingredients when cooking in bulk.
I divide my meat into one pound portions because that is the amount we typically use in a meal and it also thaws a lot quicker when it is in these smaller portions. Each one pound portion was vacuum-sealed and labeled for
the freezer.
The whole chickens were rubbed with my
Sticky Chicken dry rub and are all ready to go for a yummy meal one night. The chicken breasts were cleaned and trimmed, and then cubed for the various dishes I will be using them for.
With the grocery prices rising, this is one easy way that I can save my family money during the month.
Sound Off: Do you buy your meat in bulk or do you have store that you usually find good meat sales at? What would be a good price on meat in your area?
Labels: Budget, Frugal, Grocery Shopping, Homemaking
16Comments:
TwoMuths
"I have found that by checking at the full service meat counter at our local Meijer, I can often get better quality ground beef for less money than the prepackaged section of that store. We usually save money by cutting down the meat portion (from a whole pound to half) in our recipes rather than buying a cheaper cut. I'm happy when I pay less than $2 a pound for natural ground round or sirloin. I rarely pay more than that for ANY kind of meat."
CP
"We totally buy our meat in bulk and use our food saver so we can freeze and just pull it out when we need it!"
The Good Doctor
"Hooray for Sheltons! I love going up there and stocking up. Be sure to ask the meat counter guys about upcoming specials, too, since sometimes there will be a deal so good it's worth a special trip.
If you're really willing to drive, there's an excellent butcher in Three Oaks (Drier's). We like to stop by on day trips to the lake shore and when we do, we stock up. Everything is of very high quality. Unfortunately, they're closed between New Years and Easter, so it'll be a while before I get a fix!"
Cocoa
"Our town is small so we don't have any choice but to buy meat from the grocery store. We do have several choices of stores and one store's quality is far better than the rest. Ground beef is typically $2.99/lb but there is usually a sale going on some type of roast for $1.49 - $1.99/lb. I usually have the meat man ground a few roasts to use as ground beef. The result is excellent! Hamburgers that taste like steak or roasts! I also save on our lunch meat by buying a half ham (the exact same kind they slice at the deli) and having the butcher slice it. Most grocery stores will cut the meat any way you want it for free. So I get thinly sliced ham for $3.99/lb instead of $7.99 (on sale!) from the deli."
Amy
"These are all such excellent tips! Thank you everyone and please keep them coming!!"
Mrs. Mordecai
"Ground beef is usually very expensive here, but a few weeks ago I got 10 pounds at $0.28 / pound. Pretty good, eh?"
"I usually shop the meat mark downs and loss leaders for the best prices. this week my superfresh is having a special on ground meat (5lb family pack) for .99/lb. I also picked up a prok roast on special for 1.49/lb with an additional $1 off since the sell by date was the next day."
SB
"My FoodSaver is about 3 years old, bought it brand spanking new and never regretted it. It's one of the few kitchen tools that I would re-buy if it broke.
My most recent killer-macho food bargain was boneless chicken breasts for $0.99 per pound. It was supposed to be $1.79 but they dropped the "1" off of the sign and I bought several packs and asked for a raincheck. I bought 40# of boneless chicken for pennies!!
:)"
kthilly
"Amy, would you be willing to share where you shopped with another Michiana Mom? Thanks! Kerri"
kthilly
"I got it! I just missed it, just proves you should not be multitasking and commenting at the same time. Thanks! Kerri"
Mandy
"I stock up on my meat whenever it is on sale - one of the many things my mom taught me is to pick out my own chuck roast when they are on sale and ask the butcher to grind it for me. An added bonus is that I never have to worry about my ground beef being part of a recall. If I want leaner beef, then I get a bottom round on sale. It's nice because I know exactly what I am getting. And thanks, Amy, for the chicken rub recipe - I read through your article on the AC unit and totally had to laugh because we replaced the original 25-year-old unit on our house last March, and it cost $6500. When the house was originally built, they didn't do the ducts right and used Duct Tape to "fix" it. Well, after 25 Arizona Summers where the attic easily gets to 130 degrees or more the duct tape wore out, and so we were cooling the attic instead of the house, and had to have them all redone."
"Do you shop Shelton's for specific sales? Or, do you find their meat prices to be generally lower and their quality better than that at supermarkets?"
Amy
"Kim- This was my first time shopping at Shelton Farms. We used to have on in Elkhart, but I wasn't at the age where I had to do the shopping to check it out.
I thought the chicken prices were really good- $1.59 per pound for boneless, skinless chicken. Sometimes Martin's Supermarket runs comparable prices on the family packs of chicken, but I liked buying it fresh from the meat counter and being able to make the choice on the quantity. Only a couple of times have I seen it dip to $1.29 and that is usually with the bone-in.
I have heard that they run excellent sales and I am going to start paying more attention in the paper now.
Meijer is a great deal too on the frozen chicken- buy one get one free on the bags. I like the portion sizes of the breasts as opposed to the giant 2# breasts at Sheltons or Martin's Supermarket. Unfortunately, they shrink a lot after cooking, but I still think those are a great deal and I prefer the ease of the frozen stuff :)
I hope that explains everything :)"
"I typically grind my own pork and chicken. I have an attachment that fits my KitchenAid mixer and it works great! I bought the attachment on sale and it has been worth every penny! Ground chicken runs about $3.00/pound where I live, but I can get boneless/skinless chicken breasts for $1.69 - $1.99/pound at our meat market (depending on the promotion), so it has been a HUGE savings! Plus, I like being able to buy whole meat and then customize it to my liking whenever I want!"
"I do the same thing, buy in bulk and then divide and package into smaller portions. I think my best deal was .99lb split chicken breasts that I deboned myself then cooked the little remaining meat on the bones for wonderful broth and the little bit of meat leftover was great in chicken and noodles for dinner that night!!"
Mimi
"If you like chicken, order the extra chicken box from angel food. it's the best deal you'll ever get on chicken and it's all great top quality. Of course you do have to order a regular box. Check it out at angelfood.com. We haven't had hamburger meat at our house or a restaurant for about 8 months now, just ground turkey. I'm still afraid that my kids will get sick from it,or even worse, too many recalls. Kroger 7 Ralph's have great sales at least 2 x a month on Jennie O ground turkey and we love it. My freezer is always stocked. I don't use a food saver, though, just the heavy duty freezer ziploc bags which can be reused."
Last week I went to a local market to stock up on meat for the month. I have been really disappointed in the quality of the meat at our supermarkets in town so I decided to go to another town to stock up on meat there based on some great recommendations from my mom's group. I ended up getting some really excellent deals for my money and the meat was a much better quality too.
