Previously, I shared one of the key strategies I use to save money buying meat. But there are two more keys strategies I use to keep our meat grocery costs low: 1) how much I buy and 2) when I do the prep work.
Using these strategies, I not only save money on groceries, but also in eating out, and in time it takes to prepare meals.
Basically, when meat, especially boneless, skinless chicken breasts or ground meat, is on sale at my buy price, it usually is in large quantities (sometimes called family-size or bulk packs). So I buy as much as I can afford or that meets the purchase limit.
For example, this week, boneless, skinless chicken breasts were on sale for $1.47/lb – definitely below my buy price, but with a purchase limit of two. So I purchased the two. Sometimes I’ll go back on another day and buy the limit again.
So right now there are two trays of chicken breasts in my refrigerator. Now I what I do, is within a day or two of buying the meat, I’ll take 15-20 minutes and prepare it all into meal size packages and freeze it.
My husband and I discovered this tactic when it was just the two of us; and we’ve been doing it for the last 15 years – with chicken, with ground turkey, and with ground beef (our staple meats). Granted the size of our “meal-size” package has changed over the years as we grew from us the two of us to six of us; but the process is exactly the same and the savings both in time and money is significant.
For ground beef or turkey, I simply break the bulk or family size pack into meal size chunks, and put each chunk into a quart-size, Freezer Ziploc bag. I press it flat to save space in the freezer. Then, we squeeze out the air out of each bag and seal them. And finally, we nealy stack them in the freezer, in an area I’ve designated for that type of meat.
meal-sized packages of ground beef, stacked in the freezer ready to go
When I need meat, then I just pull a package from the freezer and put it directly into the pan. And, it’s the exact amount that I need with no other prep work involved.
Next in this series, I’ll show how I process boneless, skinless chicken breasts. It takes a little more work than ground meat, but makes cooking with chicken very fast and very simple!
Meat. It’s a centerpiece of most American meals, including ours. While at one time I was a vegetarian and now only eat small amounts of poultry, my husband is a meat eater. Every meal needs to have meat. But being on a budget, sometimes a very tight one, I’ve had to learn some strategies to keep our meat costs down.
First off, we have our staple meats:
- Whole chicken
- boneless, skinless chicken breasts or tenders
- lean ground turkey
- lean ground beef
And then we have our splurge meats:
- beef roast
- beef tenderloin (filet mignon)
Now others I have talked to about this think I’m slightly crazy to buy the lean ground meat and the boneless, skinless chicken, but I have found that by strategic shopping and buying the meat on sale or from the grocery store that offers the best price, I get more actual meat (vs fat & bone) from which I can make a wide variety of dishes; My family is eating healthier; and I can still make my budget.
For chicken, both whole and boneless, skinless, I watch the sales. Grocery stores (in the U.S. anyway) have their sales on about a 12 week cycle. And I know that there’s a surplus of chicken in the Spring and the Fall, so prices are consistently low for a few weeks during that time.
I also know what my “buy price” is per pound. A buy price is the price that I know is low enough for me to buy it. For example, if I know that the stores around here usually carry boneless skinless chicken breasts for $2.99/lb or more. But when it goes on sale, the price is usually $1.99/lb or less. So when I see boneless, skinless chicken breasts for $1.99/lb or less then I know it’s time to stock up.
Now, each area is different and each item (and family) has a different buy price. But by paying attention to what we are buying and paying, we’ve been able to strategically lower our food bill, especially for meat.
In my next post, I’ll share how I prep meat for the freezer so that when it’s time to cook, I don’t have hardly any prep time.
As I write this, my kitchen is torn apart, there’s hot water leaking from the second floor through to my main floor kitchen (unrelated to the kitchen being torn apart), and my husband is in the hospital. In previous years, just the financial stress of this would have me overwhelmed. But this year is different.
First, we planned for the medical emergency and put the money away in a FSA account. So our deductible and co-insurance for the hospital stay is covered. And the good news is that I think this will meet our out of pocket maximum too. Though it will probably deter some dental work I was hoping to have done. Oh well.
Second, God, in his infinite wisdom, provided us with some extra work a couple months ago. And we, finally, have learned (the hard way) to save a little for the unexpected.
It’s been a hard lesson in coming. Fifteen years of marriage, and we’ve maybe, finally learned that we need to be prepared for the unexpected – just as Noah prepared for the flood and Joseph prepared for the drought. We know, now, without a shadow of a doubt, that something unexpected will happen.
Just in the last three years, we’ve had
- My brother-in-law die of cancer
- My husband have surgery (when we didn’t have insurance, another story)
- Reduced income for 3 months from the surgery recovery.
- Two households for 3 months (due to a work move)
- A move half-way across the US (due to work)
- Nine months of two house payments (due to a tenant illness and then turn-over)
- A hurricane (Ike)
- And last week, $1000 worth of repairs needed on one of our mini-vans.
The list could go on…
But this isn’t a complaint, for God has seen us through each of these, and provided for our needs. Often in ways we did not anticipate. But they have lessons in preparing for the unexpected.
Whether it be a natural disaster, a fire (which we’ve also had in our past), a job loss (again have had two of those too), a medical emergency, car repairs, whatever, I’ve finally learned that they are going to happen. But we can control how devastating these emergencies are, by 1) trusting in the Lord and his perfect timing and provision and 2) in being prepared mentally and financially to the best of our ability.
Today as I look around my house, with the kitchen spread out across three rooms, water dripping from the ceiling, and my husband away in the hospital, part of me feels a little overwhelmed. But, I can also see all the blessings. My kitchen will be put back together. The plumber will fix the water leak. And my husband will heal. The children are healthy and life is good otherwise. It will all work out, it always does.
An additional note:
Whereever you are, and whatever you may be going through, or about to go through, know that a little preparation (mental and financial) and a lot of prayer will see you through. This I’ve learned to be fact. It’s not always fun; but God’s timing and plan is perfect. He always provides for our needs, not always in our preferred timing or the way we expect, but in his perfect plan. Hang in there, keep in prayer, and know it will work out.
In a recent discussion with another homeschool mom, I realized that she and I had opposite approaches to spending our homeschool dollars. She spends the majority of her homeschool budget on curriculum and I spend the majority of ours on classes, activities, and sports. So that led me to wondering about how different families spend their homeschooling dollars and the pros and cons of different approaches.
Our homeschool budget is loosely made up of the following categories. We use outside classes and activities to teach things I’m not strong in – languages, art, music, etc. So, over 70% of our homeschool budget goes towards those categories. I spend about $500/yr on curriculum, books, and supplies for four kids – trading the time and energy needed for using used, low-cost, or self-developed curriculum for cost savings, so I can spend our dollars in these other areas.
Where do you spend the majority of your Homeschool dollars?
Homeschool Budget Categories
Supplies
Curriculum/Books
Art Supplies (for lapbooks and craft projects)
Paper and Office supplies
Science experiment/project supplies
Auto (Gas & Toll fees for classes, activities, and field trips)
Memberships
HSLDA
Support Group
Museums
Academic Classes
Registration Fees
Latin
Spanish
Sign Language
Other Classes
Sewing
Lessons
Supplies
Art
Lessons
Supplies
Music
Instrument rental/purchase
Music Lessons
Recital fees/uniform
“Essy, I have a quarter left over, do you want to put it in the red bucket when we go in the store?” asked Kate today as we piled out of the van to go into Walmart. In this short interchange, Kate mentioned that her favorite part of the Holiday season is putting money in the Salvation Army buckets and giving gifts for others.
I knew she loved to cook up ideas with her siblings on what to give whom, and she is known for making sure that everyone is taken care of for their birthdays and such. But I didn’t realize that our tradition of giving gifts to children in need during the holiday season was important to her. It is a tradition we started 9 years ago, when it was only Kate, and kept up even during the lean times. As it was important for us that our kids understood that despite the fact they didn’t get everything they wanted, they were always provided for and they always had something to give to others who may not have as much.
Today, we chose to not do the toy gift giving, but instead “adopt” two familes of children who didn’t have winter clothes. While we were planning on prune out the kids’ overly abundant wardrobes for the various ages/sizes involved, the kids decided that it would be good to take the money we usually use for the toy giving programs and use it instead to buy one item of new clothing for each child.
And boy, they had fun. I gave them criteria – warm clothes, no more than $xx, and sizes, and they were off. Within 15 minutes, they had found what they wanted within the price range I gave. On the way home, they talked about how they lucky they were to have so many clothes when others had none or few. Now, my kids are mostly clothed in hand-me-downs, Freecycle finds, and the odd piece of clearance clothing; but God has always provided them with an abundance of clothing whenever they had a need.
It did my heart good, to know that this tradition, of them doing the shopping, being hands-on, and participating in the decisions, has worked. Thank you Lord.
Do you have a tradition of giving during the Holidays, or any other time of the year? If so, please share it.
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