Saturday, February 18, 2012

Can you really? Part III

See Can you really Part I here and Part II here!

Do you have a friend or family member that hunts or likes to fish? If so, see if they will be willing to hunt for you.  I offered to pay the processing on a deer if my Dad would shoot one for me while he was out hunting.  Since he loves to hunt and doesn't need a ridiculous amount of meat, this works out well for him.  He can continue to look for a trophy buck, meanwhile I get a freezer full of meat for under $3/lb.   On a side note, this is yet another thing I love about my Dad- he won't shoot it if he won't eat it, or doesn't have an outlet for the meat.  We both win!  

Barter:  If you have a ton of garden produce (because, you know, you're growing your own to save money), look in to barter opportunities! How great would it be to trade a basket of your excess tomatoes for a basket of peppers or some farm fresh eggs?  Folks are always looking to trade.

Skimp on the Meat: Maybe Meatless Meals aren't your cup of tea.  Rather than using a pound of meat in your spaghetti sauce, use three quarters of a pound or even a half pound.  I have also found making smaller meatballs, meat patties, etc encourages you to eat less, meaning either you can have leftovers or stretch less meat farther.

Creative Cutting: When you get large chicken breasts, try butterflying them.  We recently got three very good sized pieces of chicken out of one single large chicken breast!  It was enough for both of us to have more than enough for chicken parmesan for lunch, with one leftover to take to work the next day for lunch.  Since we also bought the package of chicken on markdown, it stretched our dollars even farther.

Eat your leftovers: Honestly, this one is so simple I almost didn't put it on the list.  Riddle me this- which is cheaper, buying a $3 Lean Cuisine for Lunch or taking your leftover spaghetti from the night before?  Right- the leftovers!

Limit Soft Drinks:  Tim was drinking a 2-liter of Coke daily. Well, he wasn't drinking it all. Quite a bit got tossed out when the ice melted and it became watery and "gross".  At $1.25 a 2-liter on sale, that got to be quite an expensive habit- to the tune of almost $40 a month.  Remember, that's when I could find it on sale!  Rather than drinking soft drinks all the time, try to limit it to only one meal a day.  It's just healthier for you.  Otherwise try to really stock up on it during sales and drink out of smaller glasses to minimize how much is wasted.

Check the price per ounce:  Generic doesn't always mean it's cheaper!  Be sure to utilize the price per ounce/pound/etc tags on shelves to make sure you are really getting the best deal.  This one saves pennies, not dollars- but pennies become dollars!

Eat cheaper cuts of meat:  This one I generally can not do.  I only eat chicken breasts, even though often chicken thighs are much cheaper.  I do prefer sirloins though, which thankfully tend to be the cheaper steak.  If your family doesn't care one way or the other, why not purchase the cheaper meat?

Keep an eye out for Part IV! 

-Kristen

2 comments:

  1. If you still want to drink soda, my family has switched to the off brands at Walmart which are sometimes as cheap as $.65/2 liter. I get the Sprite equivalent and while not identical it's still good.

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  2. Yup, once you get past the initial shock of it being "different", the off brands are definitely the way to go. In college I drank a LOT of Sam's Cola since it was literally half the price of Coke.

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