Cheaper Cold Cuts

I had not shopped all week until today. We keep a dry erase board on the side of our fridge and Hubby had added the following to it:

Head and Shoulders Shampoo
Szechuan Sauce
8 oz. container of whipped cream cheese(Hubby loves adding cinnamon & brown sugar to make his own spread for bagels)

Since it was a nice day, I planned an efficient trip to the drug store to pick up a prescription, to Walmart, and to Top’s. Top’s carries the sauce and Walmart doesn’t. However the sauce and cream cheese are cheaper at Walmart. Tops and Walmart are almost next door to each other so the cost of gas isn’t an issue.

Just before I went to go out the door, I asked Hubby if there was anything else he wanted. He said turkey and ham cold cuts. My heart sank because cold cuts are $ 6.99 – $ 10.99 in my area on sale. And sometimes the better brands are even more. Hubby also has a habit of wanting them and then only eating them for lunch a day or two and then ignoring them and they go to waste. So I have not been buying them.

I usually cut our own from a ham or turkey that I cook. But it has been so hot since May that we have not used our oven.

Many times I purchase a chub of ham, turkey ham, or turkey and slice it on our slicer that you see pictured. I can usually get that chub for a few dollars less per pound than what is sells for at the deli. If you don’t have a slicer, you can take it to the deli and they most likely will slice it for you. Before I had my slicer not one market ever turned me down.

So I decided that I would get a chub of turkey and of ham. Knowing what the deli prices were at Top’s for them and for the chubs, I went to Walmart first where I was surprised at what they have. They had a few different brands to pick from. Both stores carry Smithfield ham but Walmart’s price was $1.27 cheaper per pound at $ 3.72 than Top’s price. The Kentucky Legend Oven Roasted Turkey Brand was $ 5.22 a lb. Top’s does not carry turkey chubs. We have had the Kentucky brand before and it is delicious.

Can you look at the picture of the chubs and see something that even surprised me? They are already sliced! So I had to buy them to show those of you who don’t have electric slicers.


Right now the cheapest turkey is $6.99 at my deli and the ham is $ 6.99. Since I purchased 2.57 lbs. of ham and 1.78lbs. of turkey, I saved $ 11.55 by not purchasing it at the deli. 

Obviously Hubby and I could not eat all of this at once. So the ham is good in the shrink wrap until October 21st  and the turkey until October 13th. 

So I put a third of the turkey in my fridge and we will work on eating that. Then I used my food saver to package up 2/3’s of it into two different packages to freeze. Once we open the ham we will do the same thing but put it into more food saver packages for the freezer. Whenever we need cold cuts, I will take a frozen package out and put a paper towel under the meat to soak up the liquid as it thaws. Then I will replace it with a new dry paper towel. This will keep bacteria at bay while we eat it.

We also use these cold cuts to put in Chef’s salads  which we love. And the ham can be diced to put in ham and cheese omelets for breakfast.

For lunch today we had turkey and lettuce sandwiches on croissants that I picked up on the marked down rack at Walmart for $ 1.99 for 4 large ones. I haven’t figured out how to make nice buttery croissants yet. But I will!

No matter what you purchase at the grocery store, think hard about how you can do it cheaper. Better to keep your money in your pocket than give it to a business. Businesses watch their bottom line like a hawk and you should be too.

I will be back with another post tomorrow.