We all know by now that buying a meat (protein) on sale is a good thing to do. Buying a bulk quantity of that meat is a better thing. Buying enough for the family to eat that particular meat for a predisposed amount of meals saves a lot of money when you purchase enough to cover you for four to six weeks.
Case in point: Pork loin was .99 a lb this week at our Kroger. (QFC and Fred Meyers) . Normally, you could easily spend 2.00 a pound. I bought two 1/2 loins for a total of 8.5 pounds. I cut pork chops from most of it. (20) or enough for 10 of our dinners. I also ground the scraps to provide 1.1/4 pounds of ground pork that was a bit more fatty. The upshot of that was enough for a stirfry. Bottom line, I got 11 dinners and enough ground pork to add fat back into two meals of meatballs or meatloaf from 5 percent fat hamburger. 11 meals divided by 8.50 is .77 a meal or 1.54 for 4 people. Buying pork chops at 3.50 a lb would cost 29.75– twenty dollars more. They are both from the same cut of meat.
Boneless skinless chicken breast is as much as 8.00 a lb at the deli and you dont know where it came from. Breasts can be as low as 1.77 a lb and you can buy local chickens. The last split chicken breast I purchased was about 1.50 a lb. It takes a little work, but you get chicken broth and some more small pieces of chicken for soup, or enchaladas , tacos, or casseroles. Debone the rib portion and cook it in the slow cooker overnight. Add scraps of veggies—celery, carrot, onion.....pull the meat off the bones and freeze . Freeze the chicken stock unless you ar going to eat it soon.
The difference between buying a couple of breasts at a everyday low price of 3.49 and paying 1.77 is 1.72 a lb. times 10 pounds is 17.20. For a family of four, that is ten dinners for 17.70 or 1.77 a meal.
Hamburger: The lowest fat is the best quality. Our price for 10 percent fat hamburger is about four dollars a pound. I just bought sirloin roasts for 2.40 a pound at safeways with a basket coupon . By grinding it myself in the food processer, I spent about 1 minute per batch using the pulse button and saved 1.60 a pound. Ten pounds makes at least ten meals, sometimes more for soup or tacos, or less for meatloaf or hamburgers. That is 2.40 cents a meal instead of 4.00. Or 16.00 savings.
Consider 2 meals a week for 5 weeks, your total protein would be 50.40 or 1.68 a meal. That leaves you 5 meals to fill in with perhaps a vegetarian meal of breakfast for dinner or pizza or mac and cheese.
Snap guidelines, I just read, are 1.40 per meal, or 5.60 a meal for 4 people. My meals are based on: four people, one meal, five bucks. 1.68 leaves you 3.32 for a starch and a vegetable. Bulk rice is .03 a serving, and vegetable should be less than a dollar a pound.
