Meat Prices- I'm totally LOST!!

[abond0017]

abond - I am cringing!

Yup...I'm eating more eggs and chicken than I ever have because we just can't afford to do meat as often.

[cintinative]

I never have coupons or any type of special deals for meat and these are all assuming they are not marked down for being close to or past the "sell by" date.

... boneless, skinless chicken breasts $1.99/pound or less (which is rare).

Haven't bought a whole chicken in ages but have seen them for .77 pound in this week's ad. Probably not a great price though.

Boneless, skinless thighs would be a little less than breasts.

You will become more familiar with a good price, etc., over time but more importantly, where to get the consistently-best meats.

I'm in Ohio. I would generally agree with these prices.
For boneless/skinless chicken $1.99/lb is my stockup price. I sometimes see it for $1.77 or $1.88/lb.

Whole chicken here is normally $0.99/lb or $0.88/lb so $0.77/lb would be a "sale" here.

I would love some input on getting cheap beef brisket, pork butt and flank steak. Those are three cuts that are supposedly the "lesser" cuts and used to be cheaper but I consistently find are very expensive.

Also on stew meat--do you all just cut up a chuck roast? I think the price here on stew meat is outrageous (over $6/lb).

For pork chops, I usually do oven or crock pot and I do find the bone ins work better for that as far as staying tender. Otherwise, the boneless pork chops appear to be cheaper at Costco. For whatever reason though they always dry out on me when I cook them so I have switched to the bone-in ones.

I generally buy Ground chuck when it is on sale here (sometimes in the $1.90/lb range) and stock up. Other times I do buy the 90/10 meat at Costco to use as "ground sirloin" in recipes where I want the lesser fat meat. I have found it cheaper consistently than buying actual ground sirloin at the grocery store.

For Italian sausage, I wait until I can get the johnsonville for less than $2 a package after a coupon (preferably $1.00 or less). Otherwise, it can be cheaper to buy and portion/freeze from Costco.

I have not found a local butcher shop but you all are convincing me to make more of an effort. I also don't have much luck sometimes finding the markdown meats.

Keep the posts coming! This is something I am sure many of us are wondering about!

[Spanelli8706]

For fresh seafood, all of our weekly ads continue to say support local fisheries, support local people, blah, blah...but the prices have skyrocketed to support them. Other meat prices don't seem too high compared to everyone else's reportings... I just never knew what average/good prices were.

[3timesoccermom]

Yes, I always cut up a chuck roast when needing meat for chili, soup, stew, etc.

And just FYI, if you do need to cut up a roast or some other cut of meat, it's WAY easier if it's partially frozen and you can also trim all the fat off.

Briskets always go on sale for .99/lb around 4th of July and maybe Labor day too so stock up then if you can. Possibly for St. Pat's day too, not sure.

Spanelli - I do feel so badly for all those people there that are still trying to make some kind of living fishing/shrimping, etc. Wow have they ever been hit hard. Seems so unfair.

CSchunk - where on earth do you put 12 turkeys?????? Do you have 8 freezers or something? Wow, I'm envious of all that space.

[3timesoccermom]

Maybe you would want to take a look at one of my favorite store's online ads - it's HEB.

If so, go to HEB.com and click on the red at top where it says "weekly ads and coupons." Another page comes up, click on "view this week's ads" on the left. Enter the zip code 77573 (that is one of the nicer, larger stores that's close to where I live which is about 30 miles from Houston). A page with several HEB's in that area will come up - I would click on the Bay Colony one but any is fine, then scroll down and click on view ads.

I just did all this and I'm irked (again!) to see that this store has steaks on sale for $3.77. I have a very small HEB even closer to me but their ad is different and steak is not on sale this week at this store. It galls me that they would be different when they are probably only 5 miles apart. My point being, yes I can (and will) go to the store where the steaks are on sale but I wouldn't have known they were unless I'd had a reason to look at their ad. If that makes sense . . .

Anyway, you can also look at Walmart's ads online. Spanelli I know you said you don't go there much but it would give you another baseline to use for comparison.

Finally, you can also check prices for groceries and every thing else at Sam's Club or Costco online to help determine when something is a good deal or not. Not sure about BJ's as we don't have those here.

[cintinative]

3timesoccermom, true to your word, briskets are on sale next week at Meijer for $1.99/lb. Unfortunately it is only listed as the corned beef brisket. I only buy the regular (non-corned) variety. I will have to see if maybe I get lucky and they mark the other ones down too. The normal price is $4.50/lb or more.

Oh, and I am with you on the 12 turkeys. We have hardly enough room for one turkey in the freezer let alone 12! That's awesome!

[Spanelli8706]

Bump!

[CSchunk]

we just have one big freezer, my neighbor gave it to us. It's old but it works well.

the really hard part is fitting a full turkey in my tiny oven. we had to bend down the handles on a pan because they were all too big... its quite the ordeal.

[Spanelli8706]

We bought a standing freezer in 2009. My husband insisted on a bottom freezer/fridge combo when we moved here (house didn't include a fridge)... the ones with the freezer on the bottom have NO space inside. We learned that quickly & bought the freezer on a great sale & no sales tax weekend. Still not enough room for 12 turkeys tho!

Oh and I can relate on the small oven. Ours is soooo old! This size isn't even made anymore and we had a hard time finding cookie-sheet pans that would actually fit. We made 3 trips returning pans that were too big before finding ones that were larger than average AND fit in our oven.

[3timesoccermom]

Spanelli - I've got it! Maybe CSchunk has a big chest freezer. Otherwise, I'm still going 12?????? LOL

And on the freezer on the bottom fridge/freezer combos - that just seems like a huge enticement for little ones to be getting in there constantly!! I don't see what the appeal to those is at all!