Home Saving money on groceries

Buying meat and poultry in bulk

Did you realize you can save an astronomical amount of money by buying meat and poultry in bulk instead of in individual meal-sized packages?

When you go to your local warehouse style grocery store, check out their bulk meat section. You can buy packages of ground beef in ten pound packages (and often even larger) and the savings are enormous when you compare it to buying it in individual one pound packages. Or you can afford to upgrade to the extra lean ground beef as opposed to the regular ground beef you usually buy.

Same goes for chicken breasts, something that many families are unable to afford. When you purchase a lot of 30 or more chicken breasts, the price difference between the chicken breasts and buying chicken thighs in one pound packages becomes almost non-existant.

Now that you have this huge package of ground beef or chicken breasts, you must deal with it right when you get home. Once you freeze meat, you must cook it once it unthaws, which means you have actually wasted money if you have to cook up ten pounds of ground beef at once.

Right when you get home, unwrap the meat or poultry and split it into individual portions - 1 lb or 1-1/2 lb is a good size for ground beef. You can then wrap it in plastic, or place into freezer bags. Be sure to mark it with what it is and the date.

With chicken breasts, you can lay them flat on a cookie sheet layered with wax paper, and freeze them (make sure the chicken breasts are not touching each other). Once they are frozen, you can pop them into a large freezer bag or even a box, making it quick and easy to grab precisely the number of chicken breasts you need for dinner.