Saving money on meat

Buying meat to fix for dinner every single night of the week can break a tightwad’s budget in a matter of a second. It also does not help, when your husband is a meat lover. So when we started the journey of living frugal, I began to look at alternatives to save money on meat. I have tried to put less meat than the recipe calls for and add more veggies instead. However, as soon as we would finish eating dinner, my husband would kindly ask me to add more meat next time.

Because adding less meat to a dish did not work for us, I began to purchase meat that was reduced for quick sales. If I see that our grocery store is selling ground turkey for $1.99 a pack because the expiration date is due in a few days, I stock up. If I see a whole chicken reduced for quick sale, I stock up. Honestly, we haven’t had any problem with buying reduced for quick sale meat and we have been eating this way now for a good long while.
If I can’t use meat right away, I freeze it.

Since our freezer is pretty stocked up, I don’t have to buy meat every single week. Once we start running low on meat, I am back on the mission of stocking up our freezer. I found that I can also e-mail companies directly asking for coupons. Tyson was pretty generous in sending coupons, which allowed me to purchase a whole chicken for $2+ after the sale and coupons. Chef’s Requested has sent us previously coupons and my husband is now hooked on their hand trimmed marinated steaks.

Because Chef’s Requested steaks taste so unbelievable good and my husband can eat the whole package, which is 3 steaks (a size of my palm), in one setting, I decided to find a way to stretch his meat eating pleasure and the dollar. When my mom was visiting us during the summer, she had a brilliant idea of cutting the steaks lengthwise and make 3 steaks turn into 6. She would then use meat tenderizing tool to make the beef tender. After dipping the steaks in eggs and then cover in flour, she would pan fry the steak until they are golden brown. Trust me the steak would come out so wonderfully tasty.



Since Daniel was in a military camp, when my mom multiplied the meat by cutting it lengthwise, I decided to try the trick with Daniel. I actually cut the steak lengthwise 3 times, thus making two packages of 6 steaks turn into 18 thinly cut steaks. The result? Our tummies did not know the difference if we were eating two ten ounce steaks or three 4 ounce steaks. By having two steaks thinly sliced, instead of two steaks full size, I found my self just as full and satisfied. In the same way, Daniel felt just as satisfied eating 4 thinly sliced steaks instead of eating 3 full size steaks (which makes 9 thinly sliced steaks). This trick allowed us to stretch a dollar without much sacrificing.

How do you save money on meat?