Have you ever heard the saying: “A dish is incomplete if it doesn’t have meat”? Well, I grew up in a
house where this expression was part of our daily vocabulary. My father repeated this saying almost daily. My poor mother had to make certain that there
was always enough meat in my dad’s plate, otherwise he was not a happy guy. I also grew up eating different types of meat
from both the land and sea. The one good
thing is that at home we were not too picky with the type of meat per se, and we would eat almost
everything, including internal organs such as the heart, kidney, liver and stomach. Although I would not always like what my
parents put on my plate, I have to admit that I got used to eat meat and
consider myself as a meat-eater.
The problem, however, is that meat is very expensive. In April 2014, Statistics Canada announced
that retail prices for grilling steaks and ground beef were up between 11-12%
in the past 12 months. This was more
than 6-times the 2% increase seen in Canada’s overall inflation rate for the
same period (http://tinyurl.com/p75tfje).
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In my effort to reduce food waste and the money that we
spend in food, I have been trying to simple tips to save money on meat. Of course, I know that the first way to do this is by buying only the
meat that is on sale. This may works
sometimes, but we cannot eat chicken (or fish) every day of the week. I need other tips. So, are there other simple or practical ways
to save money on meat?
After searching a little bit in the internet, I found a very
useful post that included 7 simple tips to
save money on meat. Here are these
tips:
- Eat less meat – Obvious, but not always easy. In our case, we are trying to implement 2 meatless meals per week and replacing the meat with beans. It doesn’t always work well, but we figure that if we keep trying, it will eventually work.
- Know your price per pound – Keep a grocery price book and write down the price per pound after every purchase. Pretty soon, you will start seeing a trend, and won’t need to reference your price book as often. Knowing how much are you paying for the meat will make you more aware of how much you spend on meat.
3.
Freeze as
much as possible – Obvious, but we don’t always think about it. Don’t leave meat in the fridge for more than a
few days because meat (particularly bovine meat) tends to spoil fast. Establish a rule that unless you will be using
the meat that day, it goes straight into the freezer.
4.
Don’t buy
speciality meat – Buy only basic meat; but, always make certain that you
know how much are you paying. Only buy
speciality meat when is on sale and even then, verify the price per pound.
5.
Stretch
the life of meat – Here the idea is to use the meat efficiently. e.g., when preparing a recipe, we may want to
reduce the portions requested by the recipe.
When you buy a whole chicken, make certain that you really use the
entire chicken. Freeze the extras for
use in casseroles, and boil the bones for broth.
6.
Buy a
portion of a cow, pig, lamb, etc – This is a great idea, particularly if
you live in a farming area. We followed
this suggestion and bought half of lamb last week. We have figured that we are saving ½ of the
regular price per pound by doing this.
7.
Shop unconventional
grocery stores – If available in your area, visit small international stores,
sometimes they may offer lower prices for certain types of meat.
I recommend
you visit http://www.livingwellspendingless.com/2014/01/17/save-meat-guest-post/
if you want to have more information about this topic and other related ones. It’s a great blog.
1 comment:
Hi! This is my first comment here so I just wanted to give a quick shout out and say I genuinely enjoy reading your blog posts. Can you recommend any other Soul Healing blogs that go over the same topics? Thanks a ton!
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