Y’all, I’m not kidding when I say that we eat very cheaply, and I’m also not kidding when I say that you can too.
I’m going to start there, because despite the kickback I get, and the sneering “you must have gotten those prices from 1965” comments when I post thrifty menus on Facebook, it’s true.
Here’s the thing: in order to save money on your groceries, just like everything else, you have to do something different.
If you do the same thing you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten.
It’s that simple.
So yesterday, my husband walked in the front door carrying several cartons of $0.59 per pound chicken.
Oh I agree, that’s super cheap!
It’s not something you usually see at Kroger, Walmart, or even Aldi.
but it is out there, and this is how you get it:
How To Get The Best Meat Prices Ever
Keep track of meat prices in your area.
Start with the stores you normally shop at, and then branch out to the stores you don’t normally go into, and write down the meat prices.
You want to do this to establish a baseline price for your meat purchases.
This way, when you do need to buy meat that isn’t on sale, you know where to go.
I find that I can either get chicken legs for $0.99/lb at Aldi, or order boneless skinless chicken breast from Zaycon Fresh at $.169/lb on a regular basis. (Tip: Sign up for a Zaycon Fresh account so you can keep an eye on their sales emails. I just ordered 97% lean ground beef for $2.12/lb because they had a one day coupon!) Zaycon Fresh recently suspended operations this week, so it’s unfortunately, no longer an option.
That’s my baseline for chicken.
My baseline for ham is $1.39/lb, and the list goes on.
Check your sales flyers every week
Most stores advertise their sales in their weekly circular with you can usually find online if it doesn’t come in the mail.
Probably the best deal I ever found in a sales flyer was ground turkey for $1/lb. I promise you, we stocked up in a big way on that sale (ground turkey makes the best homemade sausage ever!), and my only regret was not buying more.
Do regular walk-throughs of your small stores
This may sound a little time consuming, but for us, it pays off in spades.
You see, a lot of the very best sales are unadvertised and won’t be in your weekly sales flyers. I’ve had to laugh many times when I walk up to the checkout with my meat packages to see the surprise on the cashier’s face, and the exclamations of “I didn’t know that was on sale! I’m gonna have to get me some when I get off!”
The reason I don’t suggest doing regular walk-throughs of your larger stores is because you probably visit them on a regular basis anyway, and more importantly, because they don’t have the amazing sales that smaller stores tend to have.
The thing about small stores is they have a lower profit margin as a whole. So when they have chicken, they have to sell it – they can’t afford to throw it away like a big chain can.
So when that chicken gets close to its expiration date, it goes on sale down at Lowe’s Food Store.
I can pretty much count on fifty-nine cent-per-pound chicken every month there, and occasionally, we even see twenty-nine cents-per-pound – briefly.
And that’s how you will get the best meat prices ever.
There are other techniques of course – stocking up during holidays when ham for instance in down at $0.69/lb
But on a regular basis, you local stores are hard to beat.
Tactics like this is just the tip of the iceberg of what we teach in the total Grocery Budget Solution.
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JR says
Hello Elise. Sorry, didn’t realize you already found this same trick, and has blogged about it. (Meat marked down in the morning.)
Noticed though, that ppl make snearing comments, which is bizarre. You live in the States, and as we all know, most places down there are waaaayyy cheaper than Canada and we don’t have Aldis. (Sadness!) So of course it is cheaper, and I am I big girl and can figure that out. I wish other readers could figure that out too, that each region and country will have different prices,,,,BUT that doesn’t mean your tips for helping reduce the budget are any less useful.
However, for anybody that feels compelled to berate or send in nasty comments, they really really are not forced to even peruse your website, or waste their time being rude.
I love your suggestions, they are a real help and I am much older than you and ought to have known all this stuff long ago. We used to be dirt poor too, when first married and I think I got sidetracked over the years as money became easier to come by. And then,,,,,as your very good point makes,,,,,why waste both money and food?
When you could eat simply and save that money for important things.
Thank you AGAIN, Elise.