The price of meat is a little terrifying right now. Before you respond with how much cheaper and healthier vegetarianism is, please don’t. We eat a ton of veggies, grains and beans, but we also like meat. For us, the never-ending question is how to save money on meat.
DF is particularly fond of bacon, eating it at two or three breakfasts a week if he can. The price of these pig mornings has cost a lot more lately; according to this article, bacon has gone up 17 percent in the past year. (Seems like more than that up here in the home of the Alaska Gouge.) Which is why I was delighted to be able to buy Oscar Mayer bacon for $3.62 per pound earlier this week.
That wasn’t the rack rate, of course. Some frugal hacks were required. In this article I’m detailing those hacks, for two reasons:
To remind readers that finding the best prices may take a bit of work – but not that much work, and
To encourage readers to look for better deals of their own, vs. feeling anxiety at the cost of meat (and everything else). Given how fast prices are rising, it behooves us all to do a bit of research rather than just buy without thinking and cry without ceasing.
One of this week’s deals at my preferred supermarket was bacon for $5.99 a pound – a price that still seemed high to me. But it looked downright reasonable at the checkout, when I saw that it was originally marked as $10.49 per package.
But as noted, I didn’t pay anything close to that. Here’s how I saved.
I downloaded a coupon.
The register receipt noted an automatic $2.50 discount on that $10.49 price, which brought it down to $7.99. Did they mark it up just to mark it back down, the way some clothiers do? Unknown. Certainly some people would be willing to pay $7.99, although I am not one of them.
The e-coupon I downloaded was good for another $2 off, bringing it to that $5.99 point. Still too much, because I am stuck in the past, but loads better than $10.49 or even $7.99.
Result: An extra $6 (three times $2) off.
I used a catalina.
A “catalina” is that strip of paper that prints out at the cash register when you buy certain items. It might be a coupon good for your next visit, or it might be a freebie of some sort.
In this case, it was a deal for Oscar Mayer meat products: Buy one and get $1.50 off your next shopping trip, or buy three and get $2.50 off. Normally we don’t buy Oscar Mayer bacon because the store brand is cheaper, which is why I almost threw the catalina away.
But something told me to hang on to it. This week’s sale made me glad that I did.
Result: An extra $2.50 off.
I spoke up.
That coupon good for $2.50 off my next shopping trip? It didn’t print out.
An assistant manager was standing nearby, so I asked her how the deal might be honored. She studied the receipt and pointed out the “$2.50 discount” as proof that I did get that money off. Politely, I noted the additional $2.50-off notations on the receipt, plus the fact that the deal was good for $2.50 off a future order.
She agreed, and came up with a solution: writing on the catalina that I should receive $2.50 off my next trip, and signing her name to that request. Problem solved.
Result: Not losing that extra $2.50 off.
I used two rewards apps.
I’m all about the rewards shopping programs. This trip netted me two additional discounts:
Ibotta was offering 50 cents cash-back on Oscar Mayer bacon. All I had to do was scan the receipt and the product URL.
Result: $1.50 off.
Fetch Rewards normally gives 25 points per scanned receipt. This time, it gave me 90 points because Oscar Mayer is one of its partners.
Result: Equivalent of 9 cents off
(Note: Fetch Rewards points aren’t worth as much as those in my favorite shopping app, Shopkick, but Fetch lets you redeem receipts from lots more places. See “Rewards programs FTW!” to learn more.)
I used a store cash-back offer.
This supermarket offers cash-back deals on certain items. Recently I bought some items that qualified for $1 apiece in cash-back. Before I headed off to bring home the bacon, I transferred those dollars to my store rewards card.
Result: Another $3 off.
Note: A separate deal for those products, through Ibotta, gave me another $1 off each item. Ultimately I paid $1.99 apiece, vs. $3.99. Rewards programs work if you work them.
(Can’t name the products, because they’re a gift for a friend who reads this site.)
The final math
Three packages of bacon at $10.49 (eek!) apiece = $31.47
Three automatic $2.50 markdowns = $23.97
Three $2 e-coupons = $17.97
$3 cash-back = $14.97
$2.50 off future shopping trip = $12.47
$1.50 Ibotta rebate = $10.97
9-cent Fetch Rewards rebate = $10.88
$10.88 divided by 3 = approximately $3.62
That’s still a lot of money for meat that cooks down so noticeably. But it’s $6.87 less than the “original” price, $4.37 less than the automatic store markdown price and $2.37 less than the $5.99-a-pound deal the supermarket was promoting.
Fact is, meat got expensive – but we still want to eat it sometimes.
The omnivore’s dilemma
Some people are just never going to be vegetarians, let alone vegans. We’re among them. But I generally think that author Michael Pollan’s advice is pretty sound:
“Eat food, not too much, mostly plants.”
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For health reasons, it’s best to avoid a diet based too heavily on meat. For budget reasons, it’s essential to find ways to save money on meat. Here are some possible workarounds:
Watch for “manager’s special” stickers or the “reduced” section of the meat department. Ask the manager whether this meat is put out once a day or more often. The savings can be considerable: Several times this summer we lucked into 99-cents-per-pound ground turkey, and on one stellar day we found dollar-a-pound ground beef. It made me glad we have a freezer.
Make meat a supporting player rather than a star. Serve smaller amounts, to be savored slowly; one pork chop instead of two, half a barbecued chicken breast rather than a whole.
Or make meat more of a flavoring than a staple. For example, a hambone and a bit of diced ham will season a mess of beans, or a modest amount of meat cut small can become a stir-fry, chile verde* or a pot of soup or stew.
Put meat bones into the boiling bag, to add a little extra flavor.
Save and chill the pan juices from cooked meat. Use the fat that floats to the top for sauteing vegetables. Freeze the rest of the liquid and add it to soups, stews or gravy.
Go for a Meatless Monday. Search for “easy Meatless Monday recipes” and you’ll get an eyeful. One of my favorite meatless meals lately has been scrambled eggs plus a couple of slices our stupid-simple rustic bread that’s been toasted and served with butter and homemade raspberry jam. Normally I don’t butter this bread when it’s toasted – it really is that good – but when it’s half of the meal I find the richness of even a thin gloss of butter helps the food seem much richer than it actually is.
Institute a “breakfast for dinner” meal at least once a week, too. (As long as your breakfasts don’t always include meat, that is.) Who’s gonna complain about Waffles Wednesday?
Other grocery-shopping tactics**
Check the manager’s special bins. Sometimes items are put there because they’re damaged, and sometimes it’s because they just didn’t sell or because they’re seasonal items that need to be cleared out. (Which is how I once bought cans of pumpkin puree for a quarter each.)
Keep an eye out for manager’s special stickers in the dairy department, too. We seek out half-price milk to use for my homemade yogurt. Sometimes we’ve found discounted cheese or sour cream this way. My favorite deal, though, is “re-pack” eggs: When an egg or two in a dozen gets cracked, the unbroken eggs are apportioned among new cartons and marked down to $1.49 (a steal in Alaska). Your store might do this, too.
Look for chances to stack deals. Sites like CouponMom.com and A Full Cup aggregate sale prices plus available local/national deals. A few minutes on these sites can save you big-time, on meat or anything else.
Save any catalinas that print out, if they’re for foods (not necessarily brands) that you like to eat. Since many shoppers leave these behind, get in the habit of checking out the discards. Earlier this year I found multiple $1-off coupons for Viennetta ice cream cake this way – and Fetch Rewards happened to be offering 100 percent in points. Thus I got paid to buy an ice cream treat for my niece’s kids. (Again, knowing the deals that are out there helps you score.)
Read, or at least skim, the supermarket circulars from cover to cover. You might find coupons inside.
Watch for coupon/rebate forms in the store itself. They’re a lot less prevalent than they once were, but they still exist. On that bacon shopping trip I used another stacking deal:
- A “best-customer bonus” download the previous week was for a free 20-ounce Coke Zero (good until mid-November).
- A coupon in the cold-drinks section offered a free Coca-Cola Energy drink with the purchase of a 20-ounce Coke Zero.
- “Buying” the Coke Zero made me eligible for the free energy drink, even though the store reimbursed me for the Coke Zero.
I set aside the Coke Zero for DF, who rarely drinks soda but was curious about this one, and tucked away the energy drink as part of a holiday gift for my great-nephew. It will join a handful of Coke with Coffee (ugh) drinks that I’ve also gotten for free through the Ibotta app in the past couple of months.
Soft drinks aren’t strictly necessary, and frankly the idea of Coke mixed with coffee makes me slightly nauseated. But they’ll be treats for two other people. Free treats. I’ve gotten a few other free things this way that will also go in Christmas stockings.
The bacon wasn’t free, or strictly necessary either when you get right down to it. But I enjoy seeing DF savor a couple of strips of cured pork in the morning. And I’d certainly rather pay $3.62 than $10.49 per pound for the privilege.
Readers: Are you eating less meat lately? How are you handling the price jumps?
Related reading:
- Extreme frugality: Be a frugalvore
- Need something? Buy Nothing
- Extreme frugality: Putting foods by
- Physics and frugality
- Extreme frugality: Waste nothing edition
*This year we had a ton of green tomatoes from outdoor plants; their texture and small size made us pretty sure they wouldn’t ripen properly/wouldn’t be worth the wait. We turned them into 12 quarts and one pint of green tomato salsa, which as you can see is perfectly lovely and which, more to the point, makes a marvelous chile verde with some black beans and a small amount of pork or chicken.
**I have turned the “Food, food, glorious food” chapter of my second book into a free Google doc. It’s full of savings tips. Feel free to share it with friends.
There are a couple of things we now do to make bacon go further. We always bought thick-sliced bacon before and we still prefer it, but alas, now we buy the regular. There are more slices in the package so it lasts longer. Also, we cut the slices in half so one slice equals two pieces, which fools the brain into thinking there is more on the plate. As we grow older, we find we really don’t want as much meat as we once did, especially Hubs, who was a dedicated carnivore. Nowadays one pork chop or half of a steak satisfies him. I am glad of that. I like to cook and it gives me pleasure to see him enjoy his food.
Bacon here is also 5.99 up on sale. Lately it has been half fat. Decent rump and top round roasts are the same per pound on sale. It is awful, between the groceries and the gas, but not like Alaska! When you said about putting the price up to then knock it down on sale, that really irks me. I even told Giant that I thought it is a little dishonest. All summer they go between strawberries. One week they offer them for 2.49. Then the next week it is bogo for 4.99. and they do that over and over, just to get you to buy an extra one. They do that with other things too. Every other week we also have breakfast for Dinner. We are trying to limit meat, but I don’t think we will ever give it up either. They don’t do that with the eggs here that I know of. Everyone opens them up and if there is a cracked one, they exchange it from another box. Wish someone could put an x on a cracked box and we could all fill it from there and then they would take it away. The stores I frequent are at least 24 miles away, so I never get there in time for the marked down meat. Once in awhile I am able to scarf up some discounted produce!
The store has a carton marked “Grade B” for those re-pack eggs. Then they hand-write the date on the ends of the box. DF is happy to get these.
As for the BOGO stuff, apparently this kind of marketing works. But if you want only one box of berries, you’re out of luck unless a friend wants to split the cost.
Here’s another favorite: “Buy one, get the second for 50% off.” Sounds like such a good deal — better than “get 25% off two items.”
Way, way back in the 60’s during my childhood and before my mom would slice a pound of bacon in half and wrap it up in wax paper. Every Saturday we had bacon and I had bacon and peanut butter sandwiches.
For my own family I would make spaghetti sauce with a 1/4 lb of ground beef.
There is a cute couple on You Tube under the name Freaking Frugal who dumpster dive at Aldi and get an amazing good free food.
DF makes bacon-peanut butter cookies. I think you two would get along.
You wrote this just to make me feel guilty! I had a very limited diet the last seven weeks due to some surgery but just yesterday I was cleared to eat whatever I want. After a lot of soup and fish and rice and other soft foods I am craving some meat! So I just got back from the store with what represents a real splurge for me. I did not want to test myself with a tough steak so I sprung for the best in the store, it cost me $14.87 for less than a pound of ribeye steak. But I don’t care, I’m having a carnivore party tonight! Most of the time we are buying meat when it is on sale and store brands on everything where it tastes the same as name brand, but sometimes you just gotta go for the best. Oh, and my wife is out of town so when the cats away?
Busted! 😉
Glad you’re feeling better.
Shaw’s had bone-in chicken thighs on sale this week for 97 cents a pound. My rule of thumb is, if it’s under $1 per pound, I’m buying it!
Me too. I don’t buy much, as hubby fishes. I will buy any meats we will eat under $1.00/lb.-East Coast, USA.
DF doesn’t fish (had enough of it in his childhood and teens), but people tend to give us fish. He freezes a little of it but prefers to pressure-can it for later use. I told him that any time anyone offers any protein we should definitely take it. In the past we’ve been given salmon, halibut, hooligan, duck, moose, ptarmigan, caribou and even a piece of whale.
Free protein is, by definition, good protein.
Miraculously, the same store that had the bacon had chicken thighs for 99 cents a pound. Our freezer is completely, utterly full right now so we couldn’t stock up. Instead, DF cooked a big package of them and somehow found room to squeeze two of the cooked pieces into the freezer above the fridge; they’ll be cut up later and used in one of our boiling-bag soups. We had some last night and the rest we’ll finish over the next couple of days.
Anything under $1 a pound is rare here and yes, I am buying it.
I stretch the meat I buy further by adding it to soups, stews, stir fries, American Chop Suey and the like. I find adding lots of vegetables fills me up way more than enough to feel sated. I’ve never been a big fan of meat starting as a child but I eat enough to help me with protein intake. DH on the other hand loves meat but is happy with a moderate amount added to dishes. Like others on this blog, I stock up when meat is under $1 and I keep my eyes open for good sales.
We have a LIDL. The night before meat “meets” its expiration date, they mark it down to $1.50 a pack. Not a pound, a pack. I once got three filets for $1.50. I get a whole chicken about once a month.
I feel like I am on a cooking show where they give you a basket of food to use. You can’t hold on the finds. My husband calls it “use it or lose it” food.
I will dice up cooked chicken for chicken salad, stir fry, pizza, chicken chili. Sometimes I add the diced chicken to inexpensive frozen meals which are often light on protein.
I used to try to show others the bargain meat, but often other shopper were afraid. Oh, well… I tried to share.
P.S. My other trick when I shop at a real grocery store is to have the butcher grind hamburger when sirloin is on sale. A roast might sell for $4.50 a pound when lean hamburger is $6.50. The butcher doesn’t charge and the hamburger is fresher.
DF calls this the “used meat” section.
Wish we had a LIDL near us, or even an Aldi. Instead, we make do with two supermarket chains and Walmart’s food section.
What drives me crazy is the trash cans at the end of each produce display. There are perfectly good produce pieces in there with a small blemish. This happens at one of my favorite shopping stores, as their special are really good specials. I wonder if I should say something?? Don’t know if it is even allowed, as far as taking it.
I hear you. And I bet they’re not allowed to let people have it due to liability issues, just as a food bank doesn’t accept food even a day past its sell-by date. We’re a litigious society, unfortunately, and they can’t take the risk.
Back in the day, produce managers used to give vegetable scraps to people who had rabbits or chickens. Wonder if they still do that? If so, I’m picturing the attack: “Hi, do you give veggie scraps to people with rabbits or chickens? You do? Great! Can I have some?” I mean, you’re not lying because you didn’t say you own rabbits or chickens….
Not at all a bad idea. I could have made an entire pot of soup out of what I saw in those cans last Friday.