In the event you take a look at your grocery expenditures over the course of a month or two, you’ll possible discover that you just spend a good portion of your grocery funds on meat. I usually hear from individuals who say, “We need to minimize our grocery invoice, however we like and eat plenty of meat!”
Listed here are some solutions and concepts on methods you’ll be able to nonetheless take pleasure in meat — with out breaking your funds! A few of these concepts have been ones submitted on my Fb Web page.
1. Purchase in Bulk
When you have the freezer house, shopping for meat in bulk will often considerably cut back the price. Seek for native farms close by that promote in bulk to the general public (you’ll be able to usually discover nice connections at your native farmer’s market). You can even name close by butcher outlets to ask in the event that they promote in bulk.
Not solely will the meat be inexpensive, however it would possible be increased high quality and also you’ll be supporting native farms!
Tip: Don’t have the freezer house to purchase a giant bulk order? Ask your folks if anybody could be keen to go in with you and cut up the prices to economize.
2. Store the Markdowns
In the event you observe my grocery buying journeys right here, that buying the markdowns is my favourite approach to economize on meat. Many shops — like Kroger, Kroger associates, Goal, Aldi, and extra — will low cost meat that has a promote by date within the subsequent few days. It’s usually 50% off the common worth!
I purchase what we are going to use and may afford in our funds, after which I freeze it as quickly as get house. By buying the meat markdowns and shopping for a number of kilos or extra every week, we often have 20-30 kilos of various kinds of meat in our freezer to work with to make our menu plan from every week!
Leah says: “My native Aldi and Kroger are likely to put recent meats out on Mondays or Wednesdays. I can often discover markdowns on the day earlier than or day of the meat going old-fashioned. I can often discover all types of recent meat for $2 off or 50% off. Then I cook dinner it up and freeze it in meal parts. We often have 5 kilos of cooked floor turkey and 2-3 kilos of shredded rooster within the freezer at any given time.”
3. Pay Consideration to Weekly Gross sales
That is additionally one other tip I make use of to economize on meat. I watch the weekly gross sales and weekly digital coupon offers at Kroger and top off anytime there’s a nice deal on meat we use usually.
4. Serve Meat as a Condiment
I wrote about this technique in a publish again in 2020:
When Jesse and I have been first married, we dedicated to remain out of debt whereas he went by means of legislation faculty. We knew this was going to require a lot of sacrifices on our half and we determined staying out of debt and beginning our marriage with a powerful monetary basis was definitely worth the sacrifices.
One space I knew we might save some huge cash on was our grocery funds. I began in search of all of the artistic methods I might provide you with to maximise the mileage of our cash when it got here to purchasing meals.
Not solely did I store the gross sales, use coupons, and plan a menu, however we additionally determined to serve meat extra a condiment. We had it sprinkled on pizza, sprinkled in casseroles, and sprinkled in soups. We often solely purchased one bag of rooster to final two weeks after which we supplemented this with the occasional actually good markdown/coupon particular on pepperoni or ham. We not often ever had beef as a result of it simply wasn’t within the funds.
Along with serving meat as a condiment, we regularly had meatless meals. We made lasagna casserole and I simply unnoticed the meat. We had corn chowder with out meat. We’d have pancakes and eggs or cheese pizza or bean soup and even rice and beans.
I beloved getting artistic and utilizing what we had available, what was on sale, and what I discovered marked right down to put collectively filling and yummy meals. Positive, we didn’t eat something remotely connoisseur, however we all the time had lots to eat and the gross sales and markdowns fairly a little bit of selection.
Plus, being very intentional and strategic in how I shopped and cooked ended up saving us hundreds of {dollars} in our first few years of marriage alone — and was a technique we have been in a position to keep out of debt.
5. Add Beans to Your Meat
Stretching your meat with legumes is an effective way to economize on meat. Mexican dishes, bean soups, and chili are recipes that you could fairly simply add in further beans to interchange a number of the meat with out most individuals realizing it.
Lentils disguise particularly properly in taco meat, too. Simply add in cooked lentils to your floor beef alongside along with your traditional seasonings and there’s an excellent likelihood your loved ones received’t even discover!
6. Use Much less
I usually use much less meat than a recipe requires — particularly in issues like soups and casseroles. Karen shared this tip on Fb: “Once I package deal hamburger for the freezer, I pack roughly 3/4 pound moderately than a full pound. Meaning in the event you purchase 3 kilos, you get 4 meals as a substitute of three.”
7. Combine Meats Collectively
I usually discover nice offers on floor turkey. Our household isn’t an enormous fan of floor turkey in most issues, but when I combine a pound of floor turkey with a pound of floor beef, it tastes higher and my household doesn’t even discover! You are able to do this in recipes that decision for browned floor beef or it really works very well for making dishes like meatballs and meatloaf lots inexpensive.
8. Hunt
Nicole says: “We hunt deer, geese, geese, turkeys. We course of our personal harvest. Not solely does this assist to inventory our freezers, however we get high quality household trip of it as properly. You’ll be able to eat fairly properly in the event you’re keen to place the work in.”
9. Stretch a Rotisserie Hen
I usually discover nice offers on rotisserie chickens or complete chickens. You will get artistic and stretch these for fairly a protracted methods!
Ruth Ann: “I used to be decided to see what number of meals I might make from one rotisserie rooster. Right here’s what I made: sliced breast with veggies and potatoes for a meal, sliced thighs for 3 nice sandwiches, cooked the carcass and made large pot of rooster broth, made two soups from the broth plus my canine bought a supreme meal of cartilage and pores and skin combined with dry meals. Was a fairly good $5 spent!”
Deonna: “I used to be as soon as going by means of a nasty spot with hardly any cash and a brand new child. I had a complete rooster and some extras at house. I made that rooster stretch till my husband bought paid. I boiled it right down to a broth. I had some bullion cubes, inexperienced onions, 4 eggs, a packet of egg drop soup combine and crunchy Chinese language noodles. I made egg drop soup. The subsequent night time I made rooster salad with half the rooster. The third night time I nonetheless had the bones and the rooster. Made rooster soup with two carrots a stalk of celery and half and onion and a bunch of combined noodles. On the fourth night time I had made pancakes no syrup. Simply jelly. I couldn’t consider we made it!”
10. Go Meatless As soon as a Week
Take into account being intentional about skipping meat one night time per week. Whereas it may be a little bit of a sacrifice, in the event you determine as a household to go meatless for a trigger, it turns into a lot simpler to do.
Possibly you go meatless with the intention to lower your expenses towards a household trip. Otherwise you go meatless to assist pay down debt. Even in the event you don’t actually need the additional financial savings for paying down debt or one other financial savings objective, I’d nonetheless encourage you to think about going meatless with the intention to give the cash saved to somebody in want.
Making this sacrifice as a household can present an awesome springboard for conversations on how richly blessed we’re with abundance. It may be eye-opening and life-impacting to your complete household.
Plus, meatless doesn’t must imply tasteless. Strive making Bean & Cheese Burritos, breakfast for dinner, and even meatless lasagna. Want extra concepts? Try this record of 52 Meatless Meals that I posted earlier right now. You can even learn my publish on The way to Reside on Beans & Rice for a Week.
What are your greatest suggestions for saving cash on meat?