How Do You Afford It?

Skiddymarker · January 8

Maybe I have more time than some, but I watch the sales. Other than brisket, everything comes on sale maybe two or three time a year, stock up.

Recently, Safeway had standing rib, bone in, AAA (Choice for Americans I think) for $5.99 per pound with a limit of 4. (this one is 4.820 Kg, or about 10.6 pounds)

The packaged roasts were typically four pounders, I asked the butcher for a four or five rib roast, take the bones off, tie back on for me. Picked up two more before SWMBO said "that's enough, the freezer is full".

bodski · January 8

For us, it’s a bit of a balancing act. For certain meals and occasions, we buy higher end meats, like beef tenderloins, rib roasts, porterhouse, etc. But one of the things we really love about the egg is its ability to make “normal” food taste so much better. The majority of the time we buy much lesser expensive meats or take advantage of specials and stock up. For example, I can usually find whole chickens and turkeys pretty cheap. Whether spatchcocked, beer butt or roasted, everybody loves them on the Egg. The last several months, we’ve been able to find pork loins for $1.50-2.00/lb., and they’re awesome on the Egg. After seeing one of Doc’s famous drumstick posts, I bought one of those wing/egg racks, and now my wife even loves drumsticks (after 37 years!). And, as several have mentioned already, there’s something special about a pizza on the Egg. We’ve now found ourselves spending more time on weekends wondering what to cook on the Egg than which restaurant to go to, although we still go to plenty. All in all, our food budget has probably gone down, but our food quality has improved. And we’re just newbies - every day I get more ideas from this forum. Now, the beer and whiskey budget, that’s another thing...

Griffin · January 8

There are some really good tips here in this thread. I'll say what works for us (even though it is repeating some stuff)

I NEVER eat out for lunch. One - because its too expensive and B - I work in the middle of nowhere so it would take 15 minutes to get to the nearest fast food joint and 15 minutes back. That's time off the clock. If I stay in the lab and eat what I bring, I don't have to clock out. I'd rather get off early than waste time driving somewhere. And 3 - it helps us get rid of all our leftovers so we aren't wasting money on food being thrown away.

Buy in bulk. Its always cheaper. Get yourself a vac sealer, come home from the grocery store and break down the packages into manageable meals for your family. We'll buy the large flats of chicken breasts or legs or thighs (or beef or pork cuts) and generally break them down into 3 or 4 adult portions. We eat it one night, and we take the rest for lunch. Also works great for primals at Sams and other box stores. If you are doing a butt or chuck roast (for pulled beef), vac seal the leftovers and you have meat for quick meals like nachos or pizza.

Those big thick steaks sure do look nice, don't they? But take into account portion control. Do you really need that much beef in one meal? We might buy a thick steak, but we usually end up splitting it and most of the time still don't finish it. So lets say that steak was $15 just for fun, pulled that number out of thin air. Two people eat on it and then leftovers the next day say on top of a salad. It just became $5 a portion. Not to bad if you look at it that way.

Sales. I'm not afraid to admit it. We clip coupons, we shop sales, we look at flyers and compare. Every time I go into the store, I swing by the meat section. See what's marked down or on sale. If you get in the habit of that, you start to know what things normally cost and can spot when something is a deal. Don't be so proud to not look at the quick sale section. I know our store has a section for meat that needs to be sold in a few days or tossed. Nothing wrong with picking up some meat there (if it doesn't have a funky color) and freezing it for later. Those beef fajitas I did Sunday night? they were marked down 50%! And still had 3 days till the must be sold date. Perfectly fine and skirt steak at $2 a lb? How can you pass that up? I took all 3 packages they had, cooked one and froze the other two.

Holidays - this one most people miss out on. Think of what meat is associated with every holiday. Go in the day after to a coupla days later and what do you think happens to the price of all that meat that they overstocked? It drops. Turkeys after Thanksgiving, prime rib after Christmas, corned beef after St. Patty's day, ham after whatever. And after Memorial Day, Fourth of July and Labor Day? You got it...brisket, ribs, butts, hot dogs, hamburger meat. Great way to stock up.

No need to touch on going out to eat. That's been covered.

Finally, look at your vices. Do you go to Starbucks (or somewhere for coffee) every day? How much would you save if you made coffee at home. We are super excited about how much we are going to save by quitting smoking this year. That's going to add up. (Day 2 by the way without one). Liquor....oh who am I kidding? We aren't cutting back there. A life with no vices is no kinda life I want to lead.

Its all manageable, cut where you can and splurge every once in awhile. And I think somebody already said it here, but you might see somebody post a fancy expensive cook, but you might not have seen what they ate the day before or after. It could have been something cheap like a grilled cheese sandwich or a pb&j for all you know.

jlsm · January 8

Thanks, everyone. I don't usually shop at a full-service grocery store, so I don't stumble on specials. I should make a habit of stopping in or at least reading the fliers. Shopping habits are a bit different in urban areas than in the suburbs.

SamFerrise · January 9

jlsm said:

Thanks, everyone. I don't usually shop at a full-service grocery store, so I don't stumble on specials. I should make a habit of stopping in or at least reading the fliers. Shopping habits are a bit different in urban areas than in the suburbs.

I don't have a lot of shopping choices where I live in SE North Carolina. The closest outlet where I can purchase decent meats is more than 35 miles away. I only go there when I need to and plan my trips accordingly. Unless I have something in my freezer I cannot have any spur of the moment cooks unless its chicken. The local grocery stores here have a lousy selection of junk cuts and pre-packed garbage that is way over priced. Every now and then WalMart will have some full untrimmed briskets that go about 14-15 lbs, however, they are not that good in quality and the price was somewhat high. The meat manager told me they sell most of their meat below 9% cost. I find that hard to believe because WalMart is so huge. Sometimes the pork selections of butts and shoulders is lousy quality as well. I never paid more than $1.49 for butts anywhere. Here they are $2.79 - $2.99 and will go on sale sometimes for $1.99. I found a Piggly Wiggly 40 miles away that will sell me 100 lbs of butts at $1.29. They have some decent meat in that store. We just don't have the population to support a good store around here.

bboulier · January 9

Don't eat beef that often. I buy the chicken and the big pork tenderloins at BJ's. The pork is cut down to cook-sized portions and vacuum sealed.

Little Steven · January 9

Don't know if this has been said but after getting my rig for Christmas, Sous Vide is going to produce amazing for leftovers. I'm hoping to have some tonight for the first time.

rustypotts · January 9

I think my wife and I have saved a ton since we got the egg. We don't eat out nearly as much as we did. I'll admit that sometimes we would eat out 6 meals a week or more so you see where we could save big on eating out. We both have a huge sushi addiction that we still have to satisfy. I always head to the "cutout" meat section when I hit kroger. I hardly ever buy meat at the counter. I'll get a couple of packages and throw them in the fridge. If I don't eat it in a couple of days I just toss it in the freezer in it's original packaging. I swear you can't tell the difference if you don't leave it in there too long. When my dad moved I pulled some pecans out of his freezer that were 15 years old. We proceeded to eat them over the next year!

One of the main ways to save on food is to eat what you buy. I've tried to get into the habit of freezing leftovers and not letting them just sit in the fridge and turn into a science project.

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