Cheap meat, it’s what’s for dinner.  The smell of meat cooking on the grill is heaven – are you with me? Spiced just right or marinated in your favorite sauce – you can’t beat that smell. The trouble with meat is that it can be expensive – particularly beef.

It is great if you are able to raise your own animals or can strike a deal with a local farmer. Also great if you have time and a good place to go hunting for your own.  I believe that for many people, though – even those who are working toward self-sufficiency – the need to know how to buy cheap meat at a grocery store is almost inevitable.

How do you buy meat and not break the bank on your grocery bill? This is an important topic, especially if you are working toward being more self-sufficient. Finding good, cheap meat at the grocery store takes a little knowledge and some extra freezer space. All the pennies count and fortunately, I’m here to help!

You Need a Freezer

If you really want to save money on meat, you will be buying in bulk and need a place to store it. The freezer attached to your fridge, unless you are only buying meat for yourself, is not enough space to adequately store meat along with other items you need to store there.

If you are providing meat for a family of two or three, a smaller chest freezer would probably work just fine.  These freezers open from the top. For a larger family, I would suggest an upright freezer. These freezers open like your fridge and have shelves.

There is a major advantage to an upright freezer. You can easily organize the meat onto shelves and can locate what you want with relative ease.  In contrast, a chest freezer is deep and you will likely find yourself digging to get what you want.

There really is no need to spend a lot of money on a freezer! These are regularly available at auctions, on websites like Craigslist and the marketplace on facebook, and anywhere else people list things they are selling. You shouldn’t need to spend more than $100 or so if you do some digging.

What to Watch for in Grocery Store Ads

Grocery store ads are best source I have found for buying meat at reduced prices, but you need to be careful – more on that later. Always look at what is on sale at your local grocery store and be aware of what a regular price for the meat is in your area. However, chances are if you need a coupon from the ad and there is a limit on the amount you can buy, you’ve got a good cheap meat deal going.

Even if there is a coupon, though, you still need to pay attention. For example, in this week’s ad at my favorite store there is a coupon for seasoned ribeye pork chops, bone-in – 10 for $10. Sounds great, right? These seasoned, bone-in chops are 5 oz. each. Elsewhere in the ad, I see all natural, boneless pork chops – 8 oz. each, 5 for $5. Do I want to pay $1 for a seasoned 5 oz. chop with a bone that can’t be eaten, or $1 for an 8 oz. boneless chop and season it myself? You know the answer.

Here is an example of a great coupon. For our family, I use 85/15 (85% meat, 15% fat) ground beef almost exclusively for our hamburger needs. I find that any higher fat content is too greasy and it shrinks quite a lot when cooked. Any less fat content and it is leaner, but drier.

The regular price for a pound of 85/15 ground beef in my area is about $3.99 per pound. Every 6-8 weeks one of our local grocery stores has an excellent sale if you buy it in bulk. Just this past week, I stocked up on ground beef for the freezer at $2.49 per pound. Occasionally, I can even get it for $1.99 per pound, which is half the regular price! You can only get it at this price if you have a coupon from the ad and buy a 10 pound tube. They limit the purchase to 20 pounds.

Use Caution with Ads

Now on to being careful. Just because an item is listed in a weekly grocery store ad, does not mean it is on sale at a really great price. Stores do advertise their regular prices. I have found that even though a store might be advertising 8-10 different meats, only one and occasionally two of those are really good deals. That is why it is so important to be aware of regular prices in your area.

Hold out for the really great deal! Sometimes a store will reduce the price in their ad by just a smidge to get you to buy.  Then you will notice a few weeks later that it is quite a bit cheaper on a bulk meat sale.

In the ground beef scenario above, the same store advertised 93/7 ground beef for $2.99 per pound two weeks prior and even though it was a good price for 93/7, it wasn’t my usual.  We had been out of ground beef for about two weeks and I knew I needed to stock up, so I almost went for it. But because I had a freezer full of other cheap meat, I waited. I’m glad I did!

Buy “Untrimmed” Meat

Untrimmed meat is meat that hasn’t been trimmed of all the fat and some of the gristle. All you have to do is trim it yourself.

At the meat counter in one of my local stores, trimmed chicken breast is $2.99 per pound. This amounts to them having split apart the two breast halves and cut a small amount of middle cartilage off as well as a minimal amount of fat.  In their meat sale rotation, they have untrimmed chicken breasts. When it was on sale a month or so ago, I was able to get chicken breasts for $1.49 per pound. I bought in bulk and spent 20 minutes or so trimming the meat as I was getting it packaged up for the freezer. Not bad for half the price!

Find the Case with the Almost Expired Meat

Most stores have a case or an end cap where they put meat that is a day or two away from being expired. If you can freeze it, do you really care that it is a couple days away from expiration? I don’t. You can find some good cheap meat deals this way.  This is particularly good for the pricier cuts of meat like steak.

The strategy for getting the best selection in the almost expired is knowing when the store marks it down. There is usually a day of the week that they spend going through and marking down almost expired meat. Don’t be afraid to ask them – they have no problem letting you know what day they mark down meat.

Consider Alternates and Mixing Your Meat

Ground pork can be just as tasty as ground beef and is generally leaner. Currently, pork is also quite a bit less expensive than beef.  There are times when I can get a good cheap meat deal on pork roasts or ground pork for as little as $1.29 per pound. To me, a pork roast in the crock pot is just as flavorful as a beef roast! I have also used ground pork in a half and half mix with ground beef for things like taco meat, sloppy joes, and casseroles. It tastes just as yummy and the more expensive ground beef goes quite a bit farther.

Tips for Packaging Bulk Ground Meat

Lastly, I’d like to share a couple little tips with you for taking that 10 pound tube of meat and packaging it into more manageable sizes. You shouldn’t need to make a mess or weigh meat to make 1 or 2 pound freezer bags.

Label your freezer bags ahead of time – it’s a lot easier than trying to write on the bag after you have meat in it.

If you are making 1 pound freezer bags, grab a sharp knife, eyeball the middle of the 10 pound tube and slice through – plastic and all. Then eyeball 4 more slices in each half to make your 1 pound pieces. From there it’s easy to put each piece in a bag.

You’ll also want to squeeze excess air out of the bag as you are sealing it. It saves space and also helps prevent ice crystals on your meat.

Cheap meat in the freezer has so many advantages. Once you are bulked up on your family’s most popular meats, there are many times that your weekly grocery shopping list won’t have a speck of meat on it. It’s really nice to grocery shop with less in your cart and a smaller bill.

It’s also easier for meal planning – you know what meats you have to work with instead of always trying to come up with a menu plan. And, if your freezer is big enough and you have an ample pantry, you can also bulk up on other items and your weekly shopping list will be easy peasy.

After cashing in on some bulk ground beef, why not try this recipe for Savory Meat Loaf. It is excellent!

Do you have a tip on saving money on meat at the grocery store? I’d love to see it! Please leave me a comment below.