[LeonardoDaBenz]

I've been thinking more and more about cooking on a budget lately because of the high price of food and it's time to go back to some of my old tricks. When I first started out it was expensive, but now that I've got a vacuum sealer and plenty of rolls of bag makings it'll be cheaper.

Spend the money on a Sam's, Costco or BJ's membership. If you can afford it, bump it up from a basic to a mid-range membership. I do that to get special pricing and deals. It'll pay for itself in a fairly shortly depending on what you buy, how often you make use of it and how much you buy each trip.

Buy meats in "family" or extra large packages then break them down into individual meal sizes and toss it in the freezer. If you know you're going to make a family favorite, thaw 2 packages and double the recipe; hopefully you'll have enough for leftovers. When it was just my husband and I, I'd buy the biggest pack of chicken breasts, fresh ground beef, roasts, pork loins, etc. that I could find in the case, bring them home and split everything into family size packages. I'd end up with 4-5 packs of each meat and a full freezer.

Learn basic meat cutting so you can buy giant pieces of meat and cut it up correctly. Chicken breasts are $3.19 lb, breast tenders are $3.49. Why pay an extra $0.30 a lb for someone else to do something so easy? I buy 8-10 lb boneless chuck roasts for almost $6.00 lb. and cut them into 1 thick steak, 1 nice size roast and depending on the amount left over, 1-2 lbs of stew beef. A 6-8 lb pork loin gets me 3 packs of loin chops and a roast.

And if you can get a WHOLE loin, you get: back ribs (have the meat man cut the rib from the chine with their meat bandsaw (about 1" into the bone), boneless chops (after the ribs are off which you do at home) AND tenderloin, all from the cheap price of the whole loin itself.

We used to have one of the original no-frills type of store (sold meats WITH A REAL BUTCHER, not what they have today--take it out of box and bag it) as well as other stuff. They lasted about 30 yr but eventually sold out to a housing developer .

 

[KitchenWench]

Cutting up a whole chicken is so easy more people should know how to do it. Excellent point.

And to think we learned long before YouTube existed. Or at least I did. I've tried to teach others but they get so spooked by the idea of cutting between bones, pulling and twisting as needed and forget using a cleaver! I start whacking the bird apart with it and they freak right out...lol

I buy boneless whole loins because I can't cut it off the bone anymore.

 

[Colbyt]

Cutting up a whole chicken is so easy more people should know how to do it. Excellent point.

And for sandwiches or the way I make fried chicken thighs the thigh is the easiest part of the chicken to debone.

One more comment regarding chicken. Split breasts, bone in, skin on have to be 50% (break-even) or less before boneless skinless at twice the price are not the better deal. I actually did 2 large package one time and the scales reveal this.

 

[LeonardoDaBenz]

Same as buying big (half loin) vs small--cut chops.

Weight the fat you have to cut off a half/whole loin then compare the real price per pound vs what you paid. Unless you can repurpose that fat..........

right @Wooleybooger 😉

 

[Wooleybooger]

Same as buying big (half loin) vs small--cut chops.

Weight the fat you have to cut off a half/whole loin then compare the real price per pound vs what you paid. Unless you can repurpose that fat..........

right @Wooleybooger 😉

Right. Put the fat in a slow cooker with some water and turn it on. End up with lard and cracklin's if you're lucky.

 

[Steve-o]

and forget using a cleaver!

That's the fun part. Breastbone aside, if you know what you're doing, all you really need is a paring knife.

 

[KitchenWench]

That's the fun part. Breastbone aside, if you know what you're doing, all you really need is a paring knife.

Oh I know, it's just fun to freak them out...lol

I don't buy whole chickens unless I intend to roast them. My family doesn't eat enough dark meat to make it worth the food waste. If I knew someone locally that could make use of the legs and thighs who was struggling to make ends meet, I'd do it, but I don't, I can't donate them to the local food bank and we don't have a soup kitchen that could make use of them either.

So I buy bone in, skin on breasts and break them down as needed. I really wish I could buy a whole chicken breast like you can a turkey breast; I'd make my garlic roasted chicken more often... sigh...

 

[Wooleybooger]

I remember dark meat chicken. The chickens or pieces we get now here are factory birds. The thighs and legs may be a little darker than white meat but definitely more tender. I was going to say not as dry as breast meat but properly cooked breast meat isn't dry.

 

[KitchenWench]

Do you grow the San Marzano's from seed? We also grow Cherokee purple.

I'm so sorry... I just saw your post!

I start almost all of my plants including my San Marzanos from seed. In general it's considered safe to plant seeds in the garden after April 15th, so I start my seeds inside around March 20th except for most of my root veg and corn. That way by later in April when the weather is more stable they're ready to go in the ground. It also gives me almost 2 months to prep the beds, including removing rocks. Each and every year. If there's one thing I'm guaranteed to have a bumper crop of it's rocks.

 

[Shane R]

including removing rocks. Each and every year. If there's one thing I'm guaranteed to have a bumper crop of it's rocks.

My grandfather used to say the same thing. One time he told me: I've been planting this same ground for 30 years, you'd think I would have got all the rocks out by now.

 

[LeonardoDaBenz]

How Rocks Appear In Your Garden

Are rocks magically appearing in your garden? Find out where they're coming from on this Moment of Science.

indianapublicmedia.org

 

[KitchenWench]

How Rocks Appear In Your Garden

Are rocks magically appearing in your garden? Find out where they're coming from on this Moment of Science.

indianapublicmedia.org

Or crazy old southern ladies who farm them

 

[miteigenenhaenden]

She wanted to talk about "Cooking on a Budget".
In order to save, it is important to cook everything from scratch and not to waste leftovers.
I also buy whole chickens and cut them up myself. I get 6-8 meals out of one chicken because I use all the leftovers too.
If you have leftover fresh vegetables, you can use them to cook a very good vegetable stock with very little energy and use it for soups.

 

[Wooleybooger]

She wanted to talk about "Cooking on a Budget".
In order to save, it is important to cook everything from scratch and not to waste leftovers.
I also buy whole chickens and cut them up myself. I get 6-8 meals out of one chicken because I use all the leftovers too.
If you have leftover fresh vegetables, you can use them to cook a very good vegetable stock with very little energy and use it for soups.

I think you are getting tripped up by a 2 hour delay in your posts showing up here @miteigenenhaenden. I was on 30 minutes ago and this post wasn't here and the time stamp on this post is showing you posted 2 hours ago. Maybe someone can figure out what is going on.

 

[Colbyt]

I meant to mention this the other day but forgot. In case you guys don't know you can view all your local grocery ads ( and store ads) online, for free, in one place at flipp.com

The have apps for Android & Apple but I prefer the larger screen size of my computer.

 

[Wooleybooger]

Yeah but are they accurate? I haven't found them to be so at our stores.

 

[Colbyt]

With my correct zip code I've found them to be 100% accurate with the exception of Sav-a-lot where the stores in town are owned by one group and all the surrounding towns are not.

 

[Wooleybooger]

Here zip code doesn't seem to matter and selecting a preferred store location doesn't help either. Then often when you do find an advertised item the shelf price and checkout price are higher than advertised and some balk at selling for the lower advertised price. Complaining to the corp office doesn't help either.

 

[Shane R]

With my correct zip code I've found them to be 100% accurate with the exception of Sav-a-lot where the stores in town are owned by one group and all the surrounding towns are not.

My local Sav-a-Lot has a Facebook page. The right ad goes up on there. The corporate site doesn't even show an ad for the local store most of the time. Those stores are really a franchise network sort of like IGA.

They have an interesting franchising model. The town has to be under a certain size and average household income for the prospective franchisee to be considered. They seem to have determined that their clientele probably fits into a fairly narrow band of the larger community.

 

[Colbyt]

Here zip code doesn't seem to matter and selecting a preferred store location doesn't help either. Then often when you do find an advertised item the shelf price and checkout price are higher than advertised and some balk at selling for the lower advertised price. Complaining to the corp office doesn't help either.

We don't have many local stores. Here the grocery market is dominated by Kroger, Meijer, and Walmart with Aldi coming in at the end. Walmart and Aldi don't do a lot of advertising. Kroger and Meijer are chains and they honor their ads. Both have some digital coupon offer, only revealed in the fine print, and all you need to collect is their "card' and a phone number. I only go once to a store who fails to honor and advertised price.