Anyone else cutting down meat expenses?
@3SnuggleBunnies (16374)
United States
April 5, 2009 10:37am CST
I've been trying to cut down our meat expenses. We are a family of 5 and with prices and the economy being what it is I definatly need to watch our money more than ever.
I find mark downs on meat at one of our local grocery stores and I stock up there but it's mostly chicken. My hubby for a while was complaining about all the chicken, then they had roasts buy one get one I told him to pick one out. He looked @ the price and cringed. Yeah $22 for a tip roast, when I'm feeding us for dinner usually for about $5 - $8 including sides.
I've also started on switching us over from hamburger to ground turkey. They usually sell them in rolls for about $1 / lb. Hamburger seems to be a "deal" @ $2/lb supposidly these days and even that seems to be awful much when it's trippled in price in the past 10yrs.
I've also tried incorporating some beans in some dishes as well.
How about you? what are your trick or ways you cut down on your meat expenses. Please share what you are doing. :)
3 people like this
14 responses
@ElusiveButterfly (45940)
• United States
6 Apr 09
I do the majority of the shopping. Our local supermarket will mark down meat and I try to be there when they do. This way I can buy enough meat to last a couple of weeks at half the cost! I also scan the flyers for the best sales. I also shop at discount stores that offer dented cans for a fraction of the price. Just have to watch the expiration dates on the packages.
1 person likes this
@3SnuggleBunnies (16374)
• United States
30 Apr 09
I love the store with the marked down meat, I have here. I stock up too when I have room in the fridge. Hubby was getting sick of chicken wich is what I usually find marked down, but once he saw the beef prices he was more than happy to eat chicken moreoften than beef *LOL*
@Niah1976 (739)
• Paranaque, Philippines
5 Apr 09
we are only 3 in the house. but of course,i try to save money. so what i do is i mix some tofu on my dishes as meat extender. its nutrious and healthy, too. sometimes when i do my barbeque i add some squid balls to the chicken. it just a matter of being creative and adventurous when you want to save money but want to serve a healthy food to your family. i do my hamburger at home and add some oats to it. i hope you find it helpful.
@3SnuggleBunnies (16374)
• United States
30 Apr 09
I never thought of using tofu as a meat extender, rather than just a substitute for meat.
@TessWhite (3146)
• United States
6 Apr 09
We have really cut back on meat here too. We use hamburger quite a bit and I can make it stretch a long way. I only use about half a small package in my spaghetti sauce. Then I can use the other half to make my mexican skillet rice. Or, I'll use it in chilli and use more beans. I also buy family packs of meat because its cheaper and then I divide it up and freeze it. Chicken here has recently gone down in price alot so we have bought more and froze it for later. Often I'll buy stew meat since its a cheap cut and I'll either make beef stew in the crock pot, or a big pot of veggie beef soup. Some people don't realize you can eat turkey more than once a year too. While a turkey may seem expensive, think about how many meals you can get from it. I use the leftovers in soups, or turkey and noodles and such. And any leftovers you don't wish to eat right away you can package and freeze for later. I still have some in the freezer from thanksgiving.
@3SnuggleBunnies (16374)
• United States
5 Jul 09
I have bought turkey when I find it on markdown. And it makes a for a great change of pace from the ground turkey, chicken, brats & the occasional cut of beef.
@iamsolucky (1241)
• Philippines
6 Apr 09
im not cutting down meat due to budget problems but i am cutting it because of my health issues. i am more on vegetables and fruits and fish now, but then i realized why its nice in the budget if there's is few meat in the menus everyday.
healthy tummy, healthy wallet too!
happy mylotting and smile always!
@3SnuggleBunnies (16374)
• United States
5 Jul 09
Unfortunatly we don't eat alot of fish other than an occasional can of tuna for tuna salad or a shimp stirfry.
I stretch it by using less as well.
@noquite0325 (473)
• China
6 Apr 09
For me and for my pity wallet ,i decided to eat meet less and increase the eggs.I recently made a plan for myself ,it about how many money i need to spend a week.Despite i almost cut a lot of other things ,the account seemed not very ideally.But i have other choice,the life must go on.So,i think a plan would be better than nothing!
@3SnuggleBunnies (16374)
• United States
5 Jul 09
We have increased our egg consumption as well. I hope things are better for you now.
@lmchavis (5)
• United States
6 Apr 09
i dont have a large family to feed,however i do understand where you are coming from. The cost of meat is outrageous especially considering the state that we are in as a whole for the economy. I live in Greensboro, NC and there is a store here called Save-a-Lot and they have a special where you can get 5 packs of meat for 19.99 as long as they have the special sticker on them. The packs of meat are actually a very good size. Other options I choose are visitng meat markets, the ones here have packages that are pretty reasonably priced.
@3SnuggleBunnies (16374)
• United States
5 Jul 09
We have save-a-lot here but it's out of my way by 45min. I used to shop there when we lived closer for things, but not recently.
@sudiptacallingu (10879)
• India
6 Apr 09
Well yes, I am cutting down on meat too. As it is meat for us is either mutton or chicken (we don’t take beef or pork) and of the two, mutton is really going thru the roof. Its always been a kind of Sunday special ritual to have mutton curry and rice for lunch and dinner but now it seems I can afford mutton only on alternate weekends. The other weekends I will have to manage either with chicken or many mince which is cheaper. Other than that fish is really our staple and its quite difficult to go without fish even for one day. However, even fish is becoming so expensive, I am switching over to eggs on some days (even that’s not cheap either)…
@ebsharer (5515)
• United States
30 Apr 09
Honestly I have been ordering from Angel food ministries every month and it has cut down my over all grocery bill by about 100 a month. It could cut down more if I ordered more. You should check it out. There are NO income restrictions. Any one can order. You order online and pay with debit, credit, or food stamps. Then you pick it up at the local Church that provides the service. You don't have to be part of the church to pick up from them.
My dad is a Meat Manager for Publix supermarkets and even he buys from Angel food. He says that the meat is great and also priced below what they sell for. Angel food is a non profit organization out there to help provide meals for a family of 4 for a week for only 30 dollars!!!
Check it out by going to angelfoodministries.com (NOT A REFFERAL LINK)
@scarlet_woman (23463)
• United States
1 May 09
i chop up what i buy and add it into vegetable mixes with pasta,cheese and campbell's cream soups.so,i use less meat than say cooking a whole piece of it.
to be honest,i don't mind cutting back a bit,price aside because my mom is starting to have heart problems,and she did need to cut back on the red meat.
once in awhile i'll splurge on a bigger cut of meat because that can make several meals for the price.
@mflower2053 (3223)
• United States
6 Apr 09
We eat mostly chicken and the price isn't too bad but I think they are starting to get a little cheap with the portions. I shop at winn dixie for most of my meat. Friday they had alot of buy 1 get 1 free which I like anyway. I got 14 pork chops for $13 and 6 steaks for $7 which isn't that bad. Yes its more then what they use to be but that will feed my family for a while. Hopefully until the next good sale comes along.
@CRSunrise (2981)
• United States
6 Apr 09
We buy meat at this place where we can get freshly ground meat for $1.99 a pound. This is a good deal when this type of meat would cost at least twice that. We only buy about 15-20 pounds at a time. Pretty much, it's just me and my husband are the ones that eat it since my kids don't really eat hamburger yet.
@worldbestwriter2008 (1633)
• Philippines
6 Apr 09
yeah., sometimes we do make the budgeting of buying meats..but my father do likes meat specially pork and my mother also craving for beef meat..she like's the soup of a beef meat..and we the kids love chicken..our ways and means here to cut expenses out of buying and having a regular meat vian my sister see to it that she'll bring home a fresh vegetables..and everybody at home love vegetables so our viand now is divided into two kinds meat with vegetables..
@3SnuggleBunnies (16374)
• United States
5 Jul 09
I usually serve veggies & a grain or starch of sorts with the meat. I really like doing veggies especially now that it is summer and veggies & fruit are much more reasonable this time of year.
@lologirl2021 (5542)
• United States
5 Apr 09
Every two weeks we have a local grocery store that has buy one get one free on a lot of meats. We stock up on that for two weeks and we do really good with saving on that. We buy are meat at one store while we might go to walmart for everything else as everything else is cheaper at walmart and we also are always trying to save money. We are always on the hunt for clearance items and looking to print coupons or cut them out from the Sunday newspaper flyers.
@3SnuggleBunnies (16374)
• United States
30 Apr 09
Buy one get one's are nice depending on the cut of meat. Usually they only have those deals in winter on roasts & sometimes on ribs in summer here.
@net101 (157)
• India
6 Apr 09
Practice vegetarianism is the best way. Those members in the family who have no much fancy for meat can stop eating it and instead, there are hundreds of other things which can substitute meat while giving full calorie value and taste. Other way out can be reduce the frequency of meat consumption. Eating less meat is good for health too and economical too.
@3SnuggleBunnies (16374)
• United States
5 Jul 09
We do go atleast one big meal a week w/o meat. But I'd like to do more w/ summer here finally.
