The price of meat has gone through the roof, in case you didn’t notice. I’m going to tell you what you can do about it, so you can still have money for important things in your grocery budget (like ice cream and chocolate).
Of course, the surefire way to save money on meat is the same as the key to saving money on fur coats or Ferraris. Don’t buy any!
But in case you like meat (which I do), I will let you in on a secret that really keeps the meat portion of our grocery budget down. This is one of the reasons we are able to feed our family of 6 on $300 per month.
Before I tell you my key for keeping meat prices down, I must assure you that this is in no way related to my April Fools Day post this year. I had a fun time making that post as ridiculous as possible, I know that it probably didn’t agree with everyone’s stomachs.
While those tips might work great for some folks, we don’t do any of them. At all. Promise. (But it’s okay if you do. We can still be friends…. just don’t invite me over for dinner.)
My big tip for saving money on meat is simple:
Don’t make meat your main dish!
It’s that simple. You can include meat in your meals without making meat the main event.
Make it a side dish. Make it a part of the main dish. You could even have it for dessert if you like!
Ground beef or chicken will go a long way when it’s in something as opposed to being the star of the show.
I never buy steak or ribs or any of those “stand alone” cuts of meat. Honestly, though I love to eat steak, I don’t know the first thing about buying (or cooking) it. Though, now that I’m thinking about it, maybe I should learn so that we can buy and make steak for our upcoming debt-free celebratory meal.
Instead of eating meat solo, I usually incorporate meat into a soup, sauce, casserole or other clever disguise like a burrito.
Let me show you what I mean
If we were eating grilled chicken breast for dinner, each person would eat at least one chicken breast, likely more if they’re small. However, if I’m making a crock pot of chicken curry, a couple of chicken breasts will feed our whole family and we’ll have leftovers for lunch.
We still got meat in our meal, but it cost a fraction of what it would have cost if meat were the main course.
Need some more ideas?
Here are some of our go-to meals that include meat, but don’t make it the star of the show:
Even when we have burritos (which is a broad term in our family which means anything wrapped up in a tortilla), we always have beans, rice, and other fixin’s in addition to some ground beef with taco seasoning. With beans to accompany the meat in the burrito, we get plenty of protein without paying an arm and a leg!
Speaking of stretching meat
I have another sneaky tactic I use to make meat, ground beef in particular, go further. What’s even better is that it gets us to eat more veggies without even realizing it. I use pureed veggies to stretch ground beef when I brown it. It’s a pretty neat trick!
If this sounds hard for you…
I’m sure demoting meat from main dish to regular ingredient won’t go over well with everyone. Meat to some is like coffee to others (or ice cream to me). While this tip will save you money, it will be a sacrifice.
Whether it’s worth it or not is up to you. If you’re skeptical or just not up for a big change like this, try it for a limited time. What about just while you’re working toward a certain financial goal? Or you could challenge yourself to see how long you could go without having meat be the main dish. I bet your grocery budget will look better than ever!
What do you do?
- What are you favorite ways to use meat without making it the main dish?
- What other ways do you stretch your meat?
My husband is the same…he has to eat meat with every meal. And his favourite is steak but I rarely get it because it’s so expensive. I definitely try and incorporate it with other things, like you said. We mainly have things like curries, cottage pie etc.
We try to make meat stretch further in our house, too. One of my favorite ways to do this is to cut chicken breasts in half crosswise, and then bread and fry them. I know, it isn’t the healthiest, but it is incredibly filling and we always have more than enough to eat, even when we only use two chicken breasts.
That sounds good Nicole! 🙂
I mix grated carrots and courgettes with ground beef for things like lasagne or bolognese, it almost doubles the quantity and tastes lovely. I have a really good cookbook that was released here in the uk a few years ago called Economy Gastronomy where they make an initial meal and then use the leftovers for at least 2 additional meals most of which are freezable. Because it’s just the 2 of us and most meals serve 4 we end up with a little stockpile in the freezer. I love being able to stretch our food and have some wholesome ‘ready meals’ in the freezer.
Having healthy homemade meals in the freezer is wonderful! 🙂
Great article! We buy 1/2 cow every fall from a local farmer. It’s Black Angus that was fed well and treated well. It’s a good feeling to know the hamburger your eating has come from just one cow (not many mixed together). Plus, we end up paying about $4 per pound for all cuts from burger to filet mignon!
That’s great! My inlaws have thought about getting a couple of cows for their property for that reason. I think we would need a couple more freezers though!
You also need very good fences with cows! My husband grew up on a dairy farm and a determined cow can walk through any fence. Cows can also have quite the personality. Our neighbours used to have a gorgeous but highly destructive cow. There’s no way I could’ve eaten her, even though she destroyed all of their fences, and all of ours, because she was such a lovely girl. Pigs are even worse – my husband had a pet pig as a kid, and he says it’s the one animal he will never let us have, because he’d grow too attached and it’d ruin bacon for him forever. We raise sheep for food. It’s pretty hard to get attached to sheep; they don’t have as much personality.
Another good way is to go to famer’s markets and things like that. My dad bought filet mignon for $8 a pound compared to $18 at the store. He had to cut the slab into separate steaks himself, but i think the fifteen minutes he spends doing that is worth the savings!
That’s great! Obviously I’ve never shopped for filet mignon because even the less-than-half-price price sounds crazy to me! 😉
The Tightwad Gazette books did a comparison of grams of protein to determine the cost per gram.
Mary at Owl Haven blog describes using meat as a flavor enhancer/accent to a meal rather than the star of the show.
Also consider how strong the flavor of the meat is – veal is not as strong as bacon or ham for example. The stronger the flavor, the less is needed.
Good point Libby!
Just wanted to say I love learning new stuff from you all, thanks!
Love this topic! I think most people are trying to reduce the amount of meat in their diet for health and frugal reasons. I, like you, use small amounts of meat in each dish. If I am making tacos, I usually put a small portion of meat then I add other things to it to stretch it like beans, corn, onions, peppers and then add taco seasoning mix to all that. Stuff taco with a seasoned meat mixture instead of just seasoned meat. Then we add fresh topping to that like lettuce,tomato, onions, cheese, and taco sauce or fresh lime juice. When I buy chicken breast I immediately open the container and slice them in half or even more pieces and freeze them in meal sized portions. I know pretty much know how much my family will eat and the chicken breast often times are huge. If I have a small amount of chicken sometime I pound then out really thin into a sort of chicken paillard, bread them, then oven fry them(I don’t fry much at my house) and that make them seems like a lot bigger piece of chicken when dredged and breaded. This also decreases the cooking time! Pork chops can be done this way too.When I make spaghetti I use just a small amount of meat then add in a lot of peppers, mushrooms, and onions. Nobody complains because it feels like there is a lot of meat in there. My favorite meatloaf is usually a couple handfuls of reduced ground turkey meat with shredded carrots,finely chopped spinach, celery, onions, egg, spices, and bread crumbs. Meatballs can be made the same way. My family has never noticed they are on a meat restricted diet. If I find a great price of meat on sale I stock up and use one cut for several meals. I get roast, cook in the crock pot, and use it for several meals. I keep meal sized packages of homemade BBQ pork or beef in the freezer for quick easy meals and they are great for camping trips or vacation. BBQ sandwiches don’t take much meat per sandwich then serve with a healthy veggie on the side. BBQ nachos or BBQ on top of a salad are also quick prep meals. There are also ways to make a good grilled hamburger on the cheap. They can be done exactly like meatloaf. Put bread crumbs, finely chopped onions, and peppers, an egg, and spices in them. That is the best grilled burger ever, even if you use turkey! We have lots of spare bread ends, buns, potato chips, crackers.etc that lots of people would throw away. I just throw together in my blender with some spices and make bread crumbs to stretch meat farther. I guess it’s comes down to just learning creative ways to put things together, adding in healthy veggies to balance everything out, and a little early preparation but it’s worth it.
We have been eating a lot of “roast beef” from the crock pot meals lately as roasts have been a cheaper cut of meat (with some good sales + further reductions) for us. (Plus super easy for working-mom to get going.) I love the first round of a traditional meat/potato/veg meal but then get stuck on what to do with the leftovers (esp. so the husband doesn’t realize he is having leftovers.) We do “steak” salads sometimes and just used it on sandwiches. But I am looking for inspiration for what to do with leftover pre-cooked roast beef.
As a child, my mother used to feed us “gravy bites” which was just however much leftover meat there was with a can of Campbell’s mushroom soup stretched on broken up pieces of toast. It was one of my favorite meals but the husband doesn’t like it.
One of the things we do with left over roast beef is to make hash. I chop it up and pan fry along with potatoes, onions, green peppers or anything else I have to go in there. You can eat it by itself along with a salad, serve it as a side dish with some eggs, or if there’s left over gravy it’s great over rice.
I don’t remember eating it but my mom talked about my grandmother’s hash. I may try this myself. Because I’m still learning to cook for 3 rather than 6 I often have leftovers too. Sometimes we chop up leftover roast and make a sandwich, adding onions, peppers and Provolone cheese.
We are a family of five, four of whom are teenagers with large appetites. We often cook a large roast and then make 3-4 meals from it. The first night is just roast and veg. Then, I might dice some meat and veg, add a little gravy or thickened broth, and top with pie crust or biscuit dough. Another night, I might dice the meat and veg, add broth, rice or barley, mushrooms, and some herbs and make soup. Sometimes, I shred part of the meat and add bbq sauce for pulled bbq sandwiches or I might shred it and add chipotles in adobo (or milder Mexican seasoning) and make enchiladas or carnitas. We also use shredded roast for quesadillas. Other times, I have used the left over roast and veg to make individual pot pies. These are similar to Cornish pasties, and are great to take for lunches. The meat is also tasty shredded and stuffed into an omelet.
I typically use the meat only every other day, freezing in between as needed. This way, the family usually doesn’t recognize that they are having a reincarnation of a previous meal. If they do, they don’t seem to mind. I make a Mexican casserole with this type of meat, that two of my kids look forward to. When I make a roast, they often put in requests for how we use the remainder of the meat. I work a crazy schedule, homeschool, and we run a small farm. I see this type of “evolutionary cooking” as a way to effectively budget my time as well as my money!
Great ideas! Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for sharing all these great ideas!
We do stretch our taco meat with beans, or make tostada meat by cooking roast beef in the crock pot, shredding it, and mixing it with refried beans and other seasonings, but I also don’t mind spending money on affordable cuts of meat because I think you get a lot of bang protein-wise for what you buy. We (my family) do not do very well without a decent amount of protein in our diets, and I just feel better when I eat meat, but we like beans too.
I did an analysis awhile ago on the cost per gram of protein, and chicken breast was just slightly more expensive than peanut butter. But I do agree that you can use less of it because it has so much protein.
That’s an interesting comparison. I hadn’t thought of comparing the price per gram of protein. We go through a lot of peanut butter around here! 🙂
I swear I married a carnivore. I’d feed our family of 6 (4 sons with hearty appetites) with 1-1 1/2 lbs. ground beef the same way you mentioned – by stretching in casseroles, etc. I would also pound out chicken breasts then cut them in half before cooking. (The piece of meat would expand but be thinner – they never clued in). Another favorite was to grill a couple of chicken breasts then cut into strips to top off chef salad. My all-time and still favorite is to catch our own fish. Delicious!
I am the daughter of a carnivore. If it didn’t have meat, it wasn’t a meal. Chicken strips on salad sounds delicious! Catching your own fish is definitely the frugal way to go! 🙂
I’m obsessed with burritos. We have burritos at least once a week (with refried beans as a filler). I never thought of it as stretching the meat, so I guess we now have an excuse to make it even more often.
Awesome! We do burritos a lot too! My 8-year-old would eat them every night if she had her way!