Filling that Freezer with Food

Filling that Freezer with Food

By this segment you should have set up your Household Management System, created a budget, planned out your meals for a few weeks, or the entire month, and made your grocery list. Now let's think about filling that freezer and pantry with real food.

When considering your bulk food shopping of meats and perishable items, you must consider the size of your freezer. If you're only using the one in your fridge, then you'll have to scale down to allocate room for ice cube trays, leftovers and real food. However, if you have a full size freezer you'll be able to buy more and spend less. 

As most of you know, every week your grocery store runs a sale in their meat department, but they also rotate their meats based on sale date. At the end of every meat display there should be a reduced sale section, always check there first. Be very careful in buying certain items like fish, chicken or sausage. I've personally had trouble with all three, and have since stopped buying those items. Aged beef is always a good buy, so look for those items. Usually you can get them for 30-50% discount off sticker price. Once you've hit that section, then venture over to the large meat section.

Many of you will balk at the idea of spending a large amount on one piece of meat, usually $20-35. Before you run away, let me give you an example of why I recommend buying in bulk.

Steaks - $15-18.00 per package for 4 pieces of meat

Stew Beef - 1 lb $7-9.00 per package

Beef Strips for Stir-Fry - 1-2 lbs. $7-9 per package

Roast - $18-24 1-1/2 lbs to 2 1/2 lb roast.

Just with these three items you're already at $60.00.  Now let me show you what you get when you buy a large piece of meat as shown here.  

As you can see, this picture of a beautiful marbleized piece of beef weighs 7 lbs and cost $32.05. Once you get it home, pull out your ziploc bags and set them aside. Then pick up your butchers knife and carve it into the same items above.  

By the time you're done, you should have 6 beautiful steaks ready for the Barbeque, one Roast, stir-fry meat and Stew Beef for a stew or skewers. All at half the cost of buying packaged meat at the grocery store.

You can do the same thing with Pork. 

Wait until it goes on sale then snatch it up quickly. 

Do your own butchering and save tons of money in the long run.  When I see Pork go on sale, I buy two of these for the price of one. Stretching that dollar is the name of the game, afterall. 

By buying in bulk I've just saved $23.46 as shown above, but when you calculate the cost of a Pork Roast, 12 half-inch Chops, plus skewer meat, which at the end of the day will cost you well over $60 alone, I've actually saved $83.46. Are you getting the idea now? I knew you would. 

Next: Take the Chemical Challenge vs. Homemade