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How to Save Money When Buying Meat

Food Lion has London Broil on sale this week for $1.88 per pound so I thought I’d share with all of you how we save money on a variety of different cuts of meat by cutting and wrapping our own.

The last time London Broil was on sale we bought nine roasts over the course of three shopping trips.  The roasts from the first two trips were cut up as follows:

Some were divided into steaks.

Dividing a roast into steaks
Dividing a roast into steaks

Some was sliced into stew meat.

First the meat was cut into strips approximately 1 inch thick (as pictured below):

Slicing strips for stew meat
Slicing strips for stew meat

Then the strips were cut into cubes.

Cutting stew meat into cubes
Cutting stew meat into cubes

These were then weighed, wrapped in freezer paper and labeled.

Wrap meat in freezer paper
Wrap meat in freezer paper (<-affiliate link)

The rest was sliced thinly for stir fry.

Slicing meat into strips for stir fry
Slicing meat into strips for stir fry

On the third trip, I asked the butcher if he would be willing to grind the roasts for me.  He kindly agreed and packaged it into two family size containers.  There was no charge for this.

Ground london broil
Ground London Broil

When I got home, all I had to do was weigh out 1.5 lbs per package and wrap and label it.

Wrapped ground beef
Wrapped ground beef

From that last sale we ended up with 4 packages of  stewing meat, 8 packages of stir fry and 4 package of steaks and with a little help from the Food Lion butcher; 6 packages of very lean ground beef, plus 6 hamburger patties for that night’s meal.

For comparison, I checked the prices to buy these pre-cut and packaged from the meat department.  Stewing beef and stir fry beef were priced at $3.49/lb.  Ground beef was priced $2.99/lb and upwards, none of which was as lean as the ground london broil.  And as far as the steaks go, depending on cut; $5.49/lb and up.  London broil when it’s not on sale goes for $7.99/lb.

The following week, when sirloin roasts were on sale, we bought three of those and sliced them into steaks and smaller roasts.   This can easily be done with various cuts of pork as well.

To get started you’ll need are a good sharp knife, a cutting board, a food scale, freezer paper, tape and a marker. (<-affiliate links)

By shopping the sales and doing your own cutting and wrapping you’ll be able to save anywhere between 40% to 50% (or more) on meat.

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13 Comments

  • amanda
    June 10, 2008 7:44 pm

    great ideas!

  • Tracy Lambert
    June 4, 2008 9:15 am

    Thanks for the comment over at my site. I’ve been trying to use masking tape- perhaps the packing tape will work better.

    As for onion ring breading, we use any crumbs we have saved from previous baking. For the rings pictured on my site, we used leftover cornbread- it was YUMMY! : )

    Tracy

  • supermom
    May 31, 2008 9:51 pm

    How wonderful to log in and read everyone’s responses. Thank you all for taking the time to comment.

    And Tracy (Lines from the Vine), we just use regular clear packing tape on our packages.

  • jamez2789
    May 31, 2008 12:29 am

    thx for the tips.

    i’ve tried it…:D

  • Niki
    May 30, 2008 4:09 pm

    Good tip!

    I’ve done this with pork loin, but never beef.

    🙂

  • sarah mae
    May 30, 2008 1:49 pm

    I have learned to buy meat ONLY when it is on sale. Just this past week I got boneless, skinless chicken breast for 1.59 lb.! I also don’t buy ground beef unless it’s $1.89 or less.

    I never used to worry about this stuff, but now that I’m on a limited budget, I’ve really learned how to be frugal!

  • Lines From The Vine
    May 30, 2008 12:53 pm

    I love to use freezer paper, but I can’t ever get my tape to stay and keep my packages closed. What kind of tape do you use?

    Tracy

  • Suzanne
    May 30, 2008 12:28 pm

    This is a good tip! London Broil is on sale here,too, so I think I’m going to see if they’ll grind it up for me. Thanks for this!

  • JC
    May 30, 2008 11:25 am

    What a wonderful tip. Thanks for the idea. Loved the photos and I’m trying to figure out why I stopped using freezer paper; thanks for the reminder.

  • BarbaraLee Malikowski
    May 30, 2008 11:26 am

    I think I need to lean the cuts of my meat. I never realized that. Last good deal I got on meat was at sam’s club. A case of hamburger was for $1.89 a lb. It was an 80lb case.

  • FishMama
    May 30, 2008 10:13 am

    Great ideas! Thanks for sharing them.

  • Lori
    May 30, 2008 10:51 am

    Wow! Thats so great! Thanks for the information – love the pictures, too. So helpful in understanding the process. Now I’ll be on the lookout for sales on roasts. Thanks!

    Lori

  • Donielle
    May 30, 2008 10:19 am

    I never thought to ask them to grind up a roast! Thanks for the tip!

Comments are closed.