As a couponer we often tend to have lots of grocery items that compliment a main course well, but we are lacking in meat. Coupons for fresh meat are simply not around very often. Therefore in order to save money on meat what we like to do is buy in larger quantities. Doing so at our small meat store means we get a lower price per pound, thus saving us money.
We did a little research first, and we found that if we travel just 15 minutes to a neighboring town’s meat shop we can save quite a bit of money, sometimes $1 a pound or more! It’s worth the drive, indeed. Most of the time we try and time it with another errand in that direction and since the meat shop is right off a main road that we travel often, that isn’t hard. Apparently many people have figured this out because this teeny tiny meat shop is always very busy!
Our supply of ground beef and chicken had dwindled down so yesterday Kelli hopped in the car and headed to the meat shop. (She also teamed that with a stop at Family Dollar to score some freebies with coupons – so it was a dual duty trip!).
Buying in bulk doesn’t mean that you have to buy 50 pounds of chicken to save a few bucks. At this store they give you a price break at 10 pounds, so that is what we buy.
They offer the same deals on their ground beef too. Ground chuck was running $2.99 a pound, or just $2.59 if you bought 10 pounds or more. Yep, we went with 10!
Once Kelli arrived back home she splits the meat into dinner size servings and wraps those portions individually in aluminum foil, marks them & puts them in the freezer. On this trip she spent just about $40, and after dividing up the portions she had 12 meals worth of meat! That is just $3.33 a meal! Obviously if you have a larger family you won’t be able to get as many meals out of the purchase as we can, but this is just a simple example of what can be done to cut costs for your fresh meat purchases.
It’s such a nice convenience to have meat in the freezer, ready to be used. It is also a huge money saver; before we embraced using coupons we would stop at the store and buy whatever we were going to eat that night for dinner. We all know this is not the thrifty way to buy!
Our advice is to look around your area and check their pricing. In our experience the privately owned meat shops offer the lowest prices and also are the ones with the price breaks for bulk purchases. We rarely buy meat at the big box grocery stores because it is simply more expensive, unless we encounter a store sale.
I see what store you are shopping at. : ) Another way to save is to check the freezer by the end of the meat cooler where the cheese cooler is, and they have some real good deals.
You are correct Pamela, we’ve spotted nice bargains in that area as well. Love that store!