Money saving idea?

[Elennare]

I second putting the meat in salads and stir-fries and the like.  It's a great way to reduce the amount of meat you need without anyone really noticing.  Plus, you end up eating a lot more vegetables.

[Auryn]

This is a great thread.
As far as meat goes- pay attention to how you buy chicken.
For example if I buy chicken breast- the grocery store charges a ridiculous $4.25 a lb.
I can drive down the street to the Latin grocery store and at least once a month they have a sale for whole chickens at $0.99/lb.
I buy the whole chicken- spend 20 minutes butchering it at home and I get a whole lot more meat for a whole lot less money.

Plus I save all the bones and makes lots of home made chicken stock that I put into ice cube trays- freeze- throw the cubes in a big zip lock bag and I have ready to go chicken stock- no need to buy the store bought stuff that has crazy high sodium and preservatives.

I am a big fan of freezing- got myself a food saver vaccum thing a few years ago and its indispensable.
This past Christmas, I had a friend from Indiana whose neighbor works at a pork processing facility, bring me 30 lbs of bacon- cost me $1.99/lb vs the $5/ 12 ozs at the store.
I took 3 hours that saturday morning- portioned it all out- vaccum bagged it- now I have enough bacon for the whole year for 2 families. Plus my bacon is fresh and uncured aka- not full of chemicals and processes vs the store bought junk.

If you can make yourself a veggie garden- definitely do it. A bag of seeds is $1.50 for the good kind- you will spend some money maybe on dirt and supplies but after that its just time involved in tending your garden.
I have about 40 broccoli plantlings that I need to transfer over from the window sill to their boxes this weekend. Much cheaper than $3/bunch at the store

Pay lots more attention to the price per unit rather than the overall price- especially when buying in bulk.

And I agree that just because your family are big meat eaters doesnt mean you have to be spending money you don't have.
Everyone has to make sacrifices and eating more vegetables is good for you anyway. Like Ellennare said- chili, stir fry, pot pies etc are a great way to make meat go much further.

A slow cooker is also your friend. You can throw in a lot more veggies and broth

[Auryn]

Oh I forgot another thing
Learn when the different stores start/end their sales.
For example publix (our local grocery store) puts out the new circular on Thursday and the sale end on wed
Walgreens and Target both come out on Sunday.

Get used to regularly following the circular and plan your meals according to what is on sale that week. If zucchini and pork are on sale- well thats what we are having this week.

Also, don't neglect a place like walgreens for some of your essentials- for example about once every 2 months our local walgreens has 1dz eggs on sale for $.99- thats considerably less than the $2.59 at publix.
Milk on the other hand is better quality and about $0.40 cheaper at Target than it is at the grocery store.

Baking soda goes on sale at walgreens at 3/$1 about once every two months.-This week an 8roll pack of paper towels is $4- thats a whole lot less than any other store

[raevyncait]

I LOVE my slow cooker. I have a big 5 or 6 qt that I've had for several years, but for Christmas one of my friends gave me a 3 qt that is AWESOME for making stuff just for me. I just have to remember that it is smaller so the amount in it is smaller, and therefore cooks faster, I nearly burned my spaghetti sauce over the weekend because I left it on low for too long.

[Merlin the Elder]

Chicken breasts around here will go on sale periodically and be under $2/lb.  It makes Nim sick to cut up a chicken, but I'll frequently do that, especially if I'm working on a soup. I've got the process down pretty good. A cut here, and a cut there, couple of dislocations, a couple more cuts, and the chicken is quartered, with the back in the stock pot.  

Polly, I'm right in the middle of Tysonland. Chicken gets real cheap, if you watch for it. Boneless, skinless breasts will occasionally show up at $1.99/lb, whole chickens at $0.69/lb, and legs and thighs at $0.39/lb, but you have to buy 10# bags...like so what, eh?

Part of the savings comes if you like leftovers...which we do. I'll make a pot of chicken/rice soup boiling a whole chicken, some onions, celery, carrots, and rice, and spend less than $10.  Enough soup for 3 good meals for the two of us—at least—and the dark meat is held out (Nim doesn't like it), and I make sandwiches for me from that, getting another 2 or 3 more lunches. So that is 8 individual meals at no more than $1.25 each.

[DonaCatalina]

I missed talking about the whole Asian/Latin market thing. I can get Atlantic salmon for as little as $2.99 lb at the H-Mart. Frozen fish is poo-poo'd by a lot of chefs. But for the average consumer, flash frozen is safer than fish that is shipped fresh. The produce is not exactly picture perfect, but if you know how to pick out the good ones, you can save a bundle.
Arroz Amarillo, $1.39 at the market, $2.69 at Albertsons.
My husband jokes that even when the store is packed we can still see over everyone's heads to find stuff.

[Bob of the Lake]

Everyone's offering great advice here! Here are some of the things I do that have helped reduce costs:

- I eat less meat (especially beef which tends to be more expensive than pork or chicken). I always have a number of meatless meals each week.
- When I buy beef, I tend to buy large, less expensive cuts (like chuck roasts) and use them in stews or soups.
- I buy whole chickens and cut them up myself. If I'm not using all of it at once, I wrap and freeze the rest for later.
- I shop once a week with a list I make from the grocery store's weekly flyer. I always buy the items that are on sale without regard to brand.
- I plan my weekly menus based on what's on sale rather than what I feel like eating.
- If non-perishable items are on sale, I stock up.
- I no longer buy prepared foods (canned soups, frozen dinners, jarred sauces, etc.) but make simple meals from scratch.
- I grow some of my own veggies and all my herbs during the season. If you cook with herbs, you should try growing them yourself--it's easy and you save lots of $$.
- I use the freezer A LOT. It's always filled with cuts of meat that I bought on sale and frozen leftovers ready to be reheated. Every couple of months, I skip my weekly shopping and eat everything in the freezer instead. Helps keep things from getting too old in there!
- I'm careful about electricity and don't use unnecessary lights, unplug (from the wall!) all chargers or appliances that suck electricity even when off, and don't leave the TV on when I'm not watching (the TV is a huge power suck), etc.
- I keep the thermostat low in the winter and high in the summer.

These may seem like small things but they've made a big difference for me!

[mehan]

You guys are great.  This was reprinted in our newspaper a couple of days ago, and I thought it was pretty neat. 

http://www.inforum.com/event/article/id/345680/

[Merlin the Elder]

I work on a university campus, but work odd hours. I arrive at 5am. Every morning, though I'm pretty much the only person in the building, I find lots of lights on. On the way to my building, I pass this one that houses a large meeting room, and almost every morning all the lights are on in that room. I counted the wattage, and it was nearly 5 kilowatts. Figuring that the lights were on in an unoccupied room for 10 hours out of 24, 20 days out of the month, that's 1000 kwh per month being wasted in ONE ROOM on a campus with hundreds of rooms, albeit not that large.  Turn out the unused lights!!! I have to follow Nim around the house and turn off lights...she's bad about it. We do heavily rely on compact fluorescent lamps or dimmers in every room.

Looking at the Kroger flyer, split chicken breasts this week are $1.19/lb. Our preferred toilet paper is $1 off, plus there's an additional $1 coupon for the large pack, making it nearly 30% off. Stop tossing the weekly flyer away!  Pay attention to it!

[Lady Neysa]

Wow, so much good advice here!  I haven't fully sifted through it all yet (I'm sick and the thought processes aren't firing too well at the moment.)  When I feel a little better, I'll write more. 

[Merlin the Elder]

You need some of my chicken soup...good for what ails you!  Hope you feel better soon.

[mehan]

This whole conversation has made me wonder at the huge disparity between grocery prices across the country.  Here in SW VA (semi-rural) chicken breasts are .99/lb at Kroger this week, compared to 1.19 out Merlin's way at the same chain. 

So to add to the mix Neysa, one of the things I have to do is keep track of what the regular price of things is in order to know if the "sale" is truly that.

And don't get me started on just how screwed up "Extreme Couponing" has made the everyday couponer's life heII.   From the loss of double and triple coupons, as well as not being able to buy multiple items and use multiple coupons. 

[PollyPoPo]

How about we take a look this weekend and put down the cheapest costs we find at the store we normally shop at (whether it's regular price or sale).  Might be interesting to see differences throughout the country.

We could check costs on some commonly mentioned items here.  Anybody interested?

[mehan]

I certainly am.  Do we want to start a new thread?   I am thinking, chicken whole, chicken breasts, ground beef,  lets pick one common lesser expensive beef (London broil?) and perhaps pork loin (not tenderloin).

Then gal milk, doz large eggs, lettuce, broccoli, tomatoes.

[arbcoind]

Does your grocery store offer a "shoppers card"?  Here in SW PA we have a grocery chain (Giant Eagle) that offers what it calls an advantage card.  The card is free, but you much register to get it.  The card enables you to get in store specials that you would not otherwise receive if you did not use the card.

This card also awards you fuel perks (points) for a discount on gasoline at their Get Go gas stations.  I've gotten free gas this way.  Once you purchase gas, you build up points called food perks to be deducted from your next grocery bill.  You can accumulate these points for maximum savings.

Buy a Sunday paper for the coupons.  The savings from the coupons far outweighs the cost of the paper.  

Try store brands.  They truly are no different than the brand name items, and they do cost less.  

And yes, use a slow cooker.  You can buy cheaper cuts of meat to slow cook.  They turn out wonderfully.

Gina