Everyone knows how expensive meat has gotten. Protein is important to your health. It should have been on top of the Food Pyramid for years. This is about how I keep my meat purchases lower.
First and I know that you have heard it before. Eat the proper portions of meat. That is 4-5 ounces each. No one needs any more than that.
Buy ONLY when it is on rock bottom loss leader. You have to track those prices so that you know when things are a great sale. I keep a price book written in pencil so that when prices change which they do often, I can erase and put my new prices points in. Everyone’s prices are different so you have to do this yourself. We have some of the highest prices here in NY. Your prices may be higher or lower. So you can’t go by what someone else is paying unless that someone is in your grocery shopping area.
Beef has gotten so expensive that I really have to wait for what I feel is a great loss leader. I will not pay exorbitant prices. We will just go without. I will not pay $7.-$10. per pound for ground beef. If I can’t find it for $3.99 a pound for regular or $ 5.87 for organic, we just don’t buy it. If I find roasts or even cheaper steaks on sale at a rock bottom price, I will purchase them. Then I cut them up and grind them into ground beef. The price I paid years ago for the grinder attachment for my Kitchen Aid mixer was worth every penny! Substitute other meats for ground beef. My Hubby hates ground turkey so I don’t buy that but I will buy loss leader sausage. I use it in casseroles and pasta dishes. I save what ground beef I do have to make chili or meatloaf. I do buy Bubba burgers only on a loss leader for our hamburgers because we love them. I am low on ground beef so I will be keeping my eye out for a good sale in February.
Find other places to get your beef besides grocery stores. We have many butcher shops within our driving area. This one in particular will be where I shop when my meat is almost gone. Their prices rarely can be beat in my area:
We also have https://www.niagaraproduce.com/weekly-specials and https://gfsstore.com/en-us/ . Research your area and you may find many places that carry better quality meat at great prices. I know many of you have Grocery Outlet. Unfortunately the one we had 2 hours from us has closed. They had the best prices on Bubba Burgers.
Many of these are a distance away but the prices when I buy in bulk are worth the extra gasoline. Yes, buy in bulk. We are empty nesters and we still buy in bulk. Single people can buy in bulk. If you have a stand alone freezer, this is a must. But even when we lived in a rented apartment and in our first home where we did not, we were able to fit more than one package in our fridge freezer especially if I flattened the meat into a Ziploc bag so the ground meat stacked well. You can cut up those huge chicken breasts into chunks and flatten the packages out and stack them. Get rid of that styrofoam packaging.. It takes up space. I have one stand alone chest freezer and 2 freezer drawers in our refrigerator. I don’t need any more space than these.
When chicken or pork goes on loss leader, buy enough packages to get you through until you feel there will be another great sale in your area. I know it is a guessing game but you get a feel for your sales after you have been shopping for a while. I know that I can get chicken breasts for $1.99 or under a pound a few times a year. I can get a whole pork loin for the same price. When I see these prices, I will buy at least 10 or 20 pounds at a time if I have the freezer space at that moment. Also do not let limits stop you, you can always ask the cashier if you can do two orders. They almost always say yes. If not, put your one order in the car and go back in the store for another. Or if you are going by that store every day, stop in just for the limited loss leader. If you have a membership for B.J.’s, Costco, or Sam’s Club, pick up their loss leader roasted chickens for $4.99 each. I can’t buy fresh and roast it for that price. I usually pick up one or two especially if I am down that way for a doctor’s appt. I just walk in and, get them, pay, and walk out even when I need nothing else.
When turkeys or hams are on sale during the holidays, stock up. I ended up buying 5 turkeys this year at under $1.00 a pound. We made one for Thanksgiving and we are roasting another one today. That is the cheapest meat you can buy. I usually buy more than one ham but this year our hams were $1.49 a pound so I only purchased one. Perhaps they will have a better deal for Easter.
I never buy deli meat unless I have company and I have none that I cut up in the freezer. That is a rare occurrence. The deli prices for a pound of sliced meat are ridiculous. Here most are $10. to $16. a pound. That is more than most pounds of meat cost today. Heck, I just purchased two whole tenderloins from Australia in December that were grass fed and grass finished for $12.99 a pound. I would rather have one of those on a sandwich than buy deli meat. Not worth it to me for them to do the work either. We will slice up turkey, roast beef, corned beef and ham on our meat slicer and freeze it in portions. That is what we use for an occasional sandwich. You would be better off to just make a chicken, turkey, or ham salad sandwich than spending that kind of money per pound if you don’t have a meat slicer.
I will be buying at least three corned beefs in March if the price is right. We love our reuben sandwiches a few times a year.
Breakfast sausages, bacon, and, ground sausage, and Italian sausages I also buy on loss leader. We always have about 10 pounds of bacon in the freezer. We eat a lot of eggs with meat for most brunches and especially for our Sunday breakfasts with our son and grandson. Eggs are a great source of protein and are cheaper than meat. Peanut butter is another great source. So you don’t have to eat meat all the time for that protein.
The one meat that I have not been able to find recently is lamb. We love lamb and Hubby is craving the leg of lamb recipe that I make. I have not seen a sale in probably 9 months or so nor have I even seen a leg of lamb. I am hoping they will have them for Easter on a loss leader sale. If they do, I will buy two or three.
Well, I think I have rambled enough. I hope this helps someone!
BTW, it has been snowing here all night and is still snowing. We are expecting at least 10 inches of snow. Needless to say I am not going anywhere today. It is a beautiful wonderland out here today though!