How to tell what's the best deal?

[jennythe_reader]

Buying the groceries, and doing most of the cooking, is my major contribution to the household

Comments

[tx_cronopio]

Ugh. You're right, it's difficult. I generally work off the sales -- see what your grocery store has on special, and work a menu around that. For example, I never pay $1.69/lb for chicken -- I wait till it's on sale for around $1/lb and then I stock up. The freezer is your friend!

Also, we do at least one veggie night a week -- pretty easy to do a pasta or quiche where you don't miss the meat. We do it for health, and out of general orneriness, but it's also kind to your budget.

I still worry that I spend too much. Alas, Engineer is harder to appease than Papacito -- he likes real food, and has no tolerance for crap like Hamburger Helper. While this is good (as I don't, either), it does make it hard to be economical.

[jennythe_reader]

I build my menu around what's in the freezer and then re-fill the freezer with what's on sale. I'm just trying to figure out how to decide when I'm getting the most food for my dollar (as opposed to the most pounds for my dollar.)

I'm trying to do meatless nights, but I have a hard time finding satisfying meals that don't have any meat at all. I do cut the amount of meat drastically when I think I can get away with it. For example, I make stir-fry that could probably feed 6 people with only one chicken breast.

[chamisa]

I am far from an expert so take my opinion with a grain of salt. I think that in general, the more meat has been processed by the butcher, the more it costs. So, boneless breasts cost more than bone-in. Chicken strips even more because they've been cut into strips for you. Legs & thighs generally seem to cost less, but I could get two meals out of some breasts if I made it stretch right. I think if you truly want to save money, buy a whole chicken and cut it up and debone it yourself--or buy one of those family packs of already cut up pieces and use those. Invest in a high quality deboning knife, it will repay itself many times over. As for beef and pork, I don't really know what to suggest, sorry.

[jennythe_reader]

The pre-cut family packs might be a good compromise between whole chickens and the more processed ones. I'll look into them.

I guess the question I'm really asking is "How do I get the most food for my dollar?"

[jennythe_reader]

I've been trying to do the tracking thing, but I have a hard time remembering what things cost from visit to visit, and it's a pain to take notes while I'm at the store.

I'm also trying to roast chickens from time to time, but I only seem to manage it if I have a weekend day completely free. I don't like to dump keeping an eye on it on Tom or Kailey. So it only happens once a month or so. It might happen more as I get better at menu planning.

[siderea]

it's a pain to take notes while I'm at the store

Yeah, but if you don't, you won't know, right? If you want the data, you have to collect it.

[jennythe_reader]

True enough.

[siderea]

I use the rule of thumb that a quarter of a chicken is the meat for one person for one meal. I.e., I get (the meat of) four meals from a whole chicken, or I can feed four people from one chicken

[jennythe_reader]

I use the rule of thumb that a quarter of a chicken is the meat for one person for one meal. I.e., I get (the meat of) four meals from a whole chicken, or I can feed four people from one chicken.

That is a clever way to think about it. I'll have to come up with a similar formula for other types of meat.

Thanks!

[stonetimber]

Ok. When it comes to roasts and large cuts of meat, most caterers and such figure from a 1/2lb to 1lb/person. I think the amount required per day is between 6-9 oz per day of lean.. So, if you figure at a meal you need say 1/2 of that, or 3-4.5oz/person to as much as 8oz/person, you have then only how many per meal x pounds meat=meals per cut. Roast whatever can also be used for other meals after first meal with a little creativity. Oh, when faced with bone-in, consider the bone to be between 1/3-1/2 total weight, and go from there. Bones can be removed at home before cooking or after, either way it is good for soup stock. For bones you remove before cooking, they are easily frozen and kept until you have enough to make stock. Also, buying in bulk and breaking it down yourself when per lb price is cheap is another way to stretch meat dollars. Also, consider a meat farm share, if you have one near you. Learning a little butchery for yourself will save you money in the long run. Hunting also helps, but that is another

[jennythe_reader]

I'm looking into meat farm shares. Most of the ones I find seem more than I want to spend, but I'm not giving up.

I'd like to learn more about butchery, but it seems to be one of those skills I can't learn from a book. Like knitting, I think I'll need a hands on demo or three.

I'll keep my eyes open for a grinder and/or a slicer. That's a good idea that hadn't occured to me.

Next time you & stefka go to an auction, tag sale, or flea market, could I tag along? The main reason I don't shop them a lot more is that I'm not sure what I should be looking for and how to tell the pyrite from the gold.

[stefka]

We'd be delighted to have you along on such a trip!

And I'd hazard a guess that Patrick could show you a great deal of what you'd need for in-home butchery.

Ground beef purchases need also to account for the amount of fat in the grind, which is the number on the right of the slash: a package of 85/15 is visibly leaner than the (usually very cheap indeed) package of 73/27. How much fat content you want will be determined by how you plan to use the meat, and you'll want leaner or fatter for different uses. Personally, though, I skip the 73/27 unless I have a really good reason. There's a point when cheap is just silly.

Not sure where you shop, but at Price Chopper, one end of the meat case usually has bulk savings packages, some of them listing the theoretical number of meals you can expect to get out of them (at a guess, they're assuming a 4-person household; I can usually get more).

Wouldn't mind a meat csa ourselves, if we could swing it, though.

I do all the grocery shopping. He does most of the cooking. We eat just fine. And would be

[jennythe_reader]

Yay! Maybe sometime this spring?

I have a whole bunch of stores that I rotate between. Price Chopper seems to have the best meat and produce, so I get most of that stuff there. I have to remember to take a look at the bulk packs next time.