Feb 12 2009
Saving Money Shopping for Food
Every morning I wake up listening to Rick Roberts telling me that we are all going to hell in a hen basket and the Obama is going to doom us all. Although I have as much right as anyone to grip about the stock market and food prices, I do have the resolve that we will all prove Roberts wrong. I think we will all come out of this a better nation.
With that, I am going to all tell you a little trick that I learned on saving money at the meat dept. of the grocery store. I believe that Smart and Final is a much better money saver than Costco. They still sell in bulk, but the bulk items make more sense to me. You can get a large size jar of mayonnaise, but it is not so large that it goes bad before you get to the bottom of it.
But, that is not all. Smart and Final has a meat section where they sell sides of beef. You can buy beef in 15+ pound sizes. I do this about once every 6 weeks. I buy a side of tri-tip roast and it cost about $50.00. When we get home, my husband will cut it up in sections. He’s got it down so well, that he can cut out 5-6 roasts and 6-8 steaks and we have no left-overs. I also buy chicken and pork in bulk and he separates that up in to individual meals. I say all total we spend about $100.00 on all the meat and we are set for the next 6 weeks. I figure we are saving around $150-$175.00 a month on meat.
When you first try it, it may be a little overwhelming. You want to look for the tri-tip with the least amount of fat. Sometimes the whole side will be fat and it’s a little tricky to see the meat. It may take you a couple of times before you are able to judge the best cut.
When you get home, you will need at least an hour and plenty of freezer bags to separate everything up when you get back from the store. My husband like to do it himself, but if you can partner up, and have one cut while the other bags, it can go a lot quicker.
Once you are all done and you see all the meat you have in your freezer you can see how much of a savings it is and it’s well worth the trouble.
To supplement the meat, I make up a big pot of 13 Bean Soup, that you can find the recipe for over at eHow.com. It is nutritious and gives the whole house a lovely home-cooked smell. You can serve it that night and then serve left overs for a week.
Also, at Smart and Final, buy up some packages of Bridgeford’s self-rising loaf bread that is in the freezer section. You set it on your counter to defrost and rise and then cook it in the oven and you have yourself a loaf of home made bread, that you can slather the butter and jam on.
Hope all these tricks will help you with your grocery savings this month.
