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I get asked a lot if my family buys meat. I guess it is assumed to have a budget of $70 per week for all expenses that we must vegetarians. We are not! Though you will rarely find coupons for meat there are ways to cut your costs. Since most of these tips are about stocking up, most meats can be stored frozen for 3-4 months (longer than that starts to distorts taste and texture).
7 Tips for Saving on Meat
1. The best tip to save on meat is following our guidelines for groceries.
Wait for sales and stock up. Once you are stocked, continue to watch sales and break up your meat purchases so that you are buying chicken one week, beef another week etc.. You don’t want to ruin your budget with a week of just meat purchases.
Look near you to see if you have a restaurant supply store like the US Foods Chef Store. Most stores will let anyone shop there (not just restaurant owners) and they sell bulk fresh meat at crazy good prices! Like these this week:
2. Find when your store does meat markdowns.
The meat is still fine to eat or freeze, it just needs to be stored that day. The Kroger in my area does this every Monday morning, Bi-Lo tends to be on Tuesday. This is when I buy steaks. I can usually get 50-75% off high dollar cuts of steak. If it is a good markdown then stock up on as many as they have or as many as you need.
3. Buy a Cow.
Not kidding. Go in with 4 or more other friends and contact a local farm to see if they sell cows to individual groups. You will pay a per pound rate for the cow and will pay a butchering cost. Tell the butcher exactly what you are wanting, mostly ground beef, ground beef and steaks, roasts etc. Then split it all up. You will end up with probably around 80-90 pounds of beef per family. The savings ads up when you realize that for expensive cuts you paid the same per pound rate as your ground beef. A group at our church does this every year. Last year we paid $2.66 per pound and that included roasts, ground beef, and steaks.
4. Be your own butcher (not for #3).
If you are willing to spend a little time with your meat you can save $2 per pound or more.
- Buy a pork tenderloin and make your own boneless pork chops. A tenderloin sale price is $1.99, boneless pork chops sale price is $3.99. (Most grocers will do this for you for free if you ask.)
- Remove the breast bone yourself from split chicken breasts. Boneless chicken breasts on sale are $1.99 lb, split breasts are 99¢ lb.
- If you are cooking steak for a few people, buy a London Broil and then cut it into thinly sliced strips. You will feed twice as many people than serving individual steaks.
5. Go for cheaper cuts of meat.
If you are making casseroles or other meals with cut up meat use the cheapest form of that meat. No one will know you used chicken leg meat in your chicken casserole, or that you cut up a cube steak to make fajitas or stir fry.
6. Use leftover meat to make another meal.
If you grill steaks but don’t eat all of it, or have a big ham from a holiday meal, there are so many things you can do with it rather than throwing it away after it lives in the fridge for a few days. Make a casserole with it, put it in soup, chop it up for fajitas later in the week… there are so many possibilities!
7. Get a Vacuum Sealer.
Grabbing a great deal on meat and buying bulk doesn’t save you anything if you don’t store it correctly. My rule is that Ziploc Freezer bags are only good for item you want to use within 6 weeks. For anything you want to store longer than 6 weeks you need to be vacuum sealing it! We do see regular deals on sealers and even coupons. So just wait a few weeks and we’ll get you a deal!
For more tips read other Extreme Couponer 101 Column posts.
