Grocery Shopping..... HELP!

[csharpwv]

I'm looking for help on what are considered GOOD prices on meat...
Chicken (whole, frozen, boneless breasts), Beef (Steak, roast, stew meat, ground beef), Pork (roast, chops)

We are starting to be more budget conscience in terms of the stuff we HAVE to buy - so we want to be a little more 'armed' with sound guidelines of knowing when to just buy what we need vs stocking the freezer.

What are good prices, what are GREAT prices, budget boarders?!

 

[momto3gr8boys]

It's hard to answer this question without knowing where you live. Grocery prices fluctuate by area. Also, do you want to buy in bulk? Does buying organic matter to you? etc.

The best way to figure out what are good prices on all groceries in your area is to make a price book. Write down a list of the most often used groceries in your home (or just start with meat). Then as you go shopping, note the prices for each week in your notebook. Look at flyers of other stores and note those too. You will see a 3-6 week sale cycle begin to emerge, and then you will be able to anticipate when the products you use most will go on sale at the stores in your area.

This is definitely a lot of work to get started, but after putting in a good month or two of effort, you will probably almost never pay full price for groceries again, and that is a huge money saver.

 

[csharpwv]

We live about 1.5 hours south of Pittsburgh for what it is worth

That's a great idea - we definitely need to start paying more attention to our local sales and taking notes to see where price trends tend to follow.

We can definitely buy in bulk - we have an upright freezer just waiting to be stocked!

We don't want to become 'extreme coupon' folks - we have no need for 1,000 tubes of toothpaste LOL

We just want to be more cost conscience shoppers/consumers!

 

[DisneyCrazyX5]

If you live in a farming area, you may be able to find someone who sales freezer beef by the half or quarter. We raise steers to sale and it is much cheaper than the grocery store, but you have to pay for it all at once.

 

[momto3gr8boys]

If you live in a farming area, you may be able to find someone who sales freezer beef by the half or quarter. We raise steers to sale and it is much cheaper than the grocery store, but you have to pay for it all at once.

I wish we had something like that near us, but cattle farming and NYC don't go hand in hand

OP - if you get to know your local prices and when your stores start their sale week, you won't need to be clipping coupons. Hopefully someone in your area sees this and knows of a good local source for you.

 

[java]

What store do you shop in? Generally most stores run sales in cycles. One week it's Perdue chicken, the next pork, the next beef the Tyson chicken, ect... My store is very predictable.

So I stock up based on what is on sale. After a month you should have a wide variety of choices( so you are not eating chicken 5 days in a row)

Also I follow a blog, actually 2, that tracks the sales and matches them up with coupons, simplifying the whole process for me.

 

[momof3ds]

Check out prices in stores and then google and see if there are any farms or places near you where you can buy 1/2 or 1/4 cow. The prices might be comparable and they do the butchering and packaging for you.

We did it a few years ago (got a 1/4) and it lasted us about 8 months. Looking to do it again soon. I think the place we used raised prices so we didn't go back to them but the meat was great!

 

[worm761]

When you make your price book remember to make it by the cut of meat too.

Another thing to save money on meat is to learn to butcher bigger pieces yourself. One of the grocery stores here will often have large cuts of meat on sale. A few weeks ago we got pork with the ribs for 1.49/lb. It had pork loin, ribs, and the tenderloin in there. DH is getting pretty good a cutting up the meat and we are saving a lot doing it.

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

I prefer to buy bulk meats at Sams club. For example this week I need stew meat for my stroganoff. My grocery store sells is for $5.00 for one pound. At Sams I got 5 lbs for $13.00.

Buy in bullk and put it into ziplock bags is the best way to go.

 

[TinkTock]

Is there any trick to finding reasonably-priced 1/4 or 1/2 cows? I'm just searching on the Internet, and everything in my area of Virginia seems to be on the order of $6/lb, which is more than I usually pay for grocery meat.

 

[queenofthehive]

Start watching the sales flyers. Stock up with what is on sale. If you don't feel like shopping at numerous stores for the deals, take your sales ad to Wal-Mart and they will price match the meat prices for you. I believe Target does this too but I have not personally tried it.

 

[njmom47]

I know where I shop, they usually have "family packs" that are cheaper (ex 3+ lbs of boneless chicken breast goes on sale for 1.99/lb). You could always buy that and pound the breasts down or slice them for thin cutlets. If it's ground beef, I pre-portion them before I put them in the freezer (or make patties for burgers, etc).
Also if pork roasts go on sale, and I usually buy a pretty big one, knowing that we won't eat it all in one meal. I will freeze it, and at another time, into the crockpot with bbq sauce it goes for pulled pork it will go for a 2nd meal.
I 2nd the sales cycle as well.

 

[robinb]

I'm looking for help on what are considered GOOD prices on meat...
Chicken (whole, frozen, boneless breasts), Beef (Steak, roast, stew meat, ground beef), Pork (roast, chops)

We are starting to be more budget conscience in terms of the stuff we HAVE to buy - so we want to be a little more 'armed' with sound guidelines of knowing when to just buy what we need vs stocking the freezer.

What are good prices, what are GREAT prices, budget boarders?!

It all depends on your location. What is a good price for meat in the south may not be a good price for meat in the midwest. It also depends on the time of year. I recall that meat was really cheap in the fall because farmers did not want to feed their livestock over the winter and sent them to be butchered and sold instead. Pork was particularly cheap around here.

I would recommend that you get your local newspaper on the day when the grocery store ads come out. Around here it used to be Sunday, but recently changed to Wednesday. I will go through the ads and circle the things that I find interesting and then compare which store has the best prices for the "loss leaders" I want. You can do the same with meat and maybe keep a list of stores and prices for the types of meat your family eats. That way you will know when a price is good and you can stock up.

 

[denise5374]

Is there any trick to finding reasonably-priced 1/4 or 1/2 cows? I'm just searching on the Internet, and everything in my area of Virginia seems to be on the order of $6/lb, which is more than I usually pay for grocery meat.

Check out eatwild.com or ask around. I live in PA and I travel about 2 hours to near the Lancaster area. We buy a whole cow and get 3 other families to go in with us. Last year we paid about $4.25 a pound, this year we found another farmer, he is selling for $2.75 pound. However the second farmer, has no website, him we found by word of mouth.