So I may not coupon, but I can still get deals..........

[crazymama30]

I just had to share, or brag. lol.

I just finished repackaging 20lbs of chicken hindquarters for .64/lb. Had to cut the drumsticks off the thighs and trim the fat, but for that price? It was worth it.


Got Boneless skinless chicken breasts for $1.48/lb. Cut them in half and put each half in a sandwich bag and then put them in a gallon freezer bag.

And pork sirloin roast for $1.48/lb. Cut 2 of them into strips, they are now ribs. shhh, don't tell anyone.

Had to buy 10lbs or more to get the price, but I think I have meat for a month!


I feel like I could get a second job as a butcher!!!

 

[HaoZi]

Way To Go! I remember my Dad used to buy the huge packs and wrap them in the amount he would use to cook for a meal and put the date bought on them.

 

[tiredmommy]

Have you heard of Angel Food Ministries? It's a low cost grocery minstry with sites across the country. The host sites are usually in churches, but there are no religious or income qualifications. I think they may even take food stamps/EBT.

http://www.angelfoodministries.com/hosts.asp

 

[DammitJanet]

I once felt like won the lotto win I found hamburger on sale for 79 cents a pound and I bought 150 pounds of it....lol. I spent an entire weekend repackaging it. About a two/thirds of it I actually pre-cooked and packaged in single meal sized packs. Stuff like taco meat, spaghetti meat, hamburger helper, etc. The rest I did some meat balls, some hamburger patties, some meatloafs.

 

[crazymama30]

TM, no angel food ministries around here. I looked.

 

[tiredmommy]

Keep checking back, they're adding something like 200 host sites a month.

 

[crazymama30]

I have all kinds of plans. My mom is scheduled for a knee replacement on Tuesday and I am off for 2 weeks to help her. I will have time to cook. I have always wanted to make chicken cordon bleu, and now I will have time! I think it will actually be a nice break.

 

[tiredmommy]

I checked your state and there are three sites so far. That's good news because they will probably spread into the rest of the state over the next several months or more. My understanding is that they build out a delivery route, piggybacking new sites onto existing sites to keep prices lower.

 

[crazymama30]

That is impressive, 200 new sites a month! Wow, way to go. For now, I will shop sales and visit food pantries. it works.

 

[Hound dog]

AF is nice to use for many many people. It comes right to our fair grounds. And yes, they accept Food Stamps.

I stopped ordering from them because i was finding better bargains elsewhere.........but I still have the site bookmarked so if I need them again I can.

CM I used to buy leg quarters that way and cut them up all the time because it was consistently a better price than buying the pre-cut pieces, and when there was a sale on them.....wow. But I've not seen them in a long long while. And shoot if it's cheap enough, sure thing I'll play the butcher role. lol

This week I did really good with the drug stores, so I saved nearly all the money I had left for meat. I have a bad feeling meat prices are going to climb up. (phht a feeling? they're already on the way) So I spent 90.00 on mainly meat alone.......plus 3 5lbs bags of flour and 2 5lb bags of sugar as kroger had them both on sale cheap. I was as careful as I could be with the meat prices.....and noticed it looks like we'll be eating more pork as it's cheaper than the beef. No terrific deals on chicken, so I did get 2 cheap pork tenderloin roasts, a manager special on pork steaks, a family pack of chops that will last us forever the way I freeze it, and 2 5lb chubs of hamburger, and a huge beef roast. And now that I write it out it sure doesn't seem like a lot for that price. lol But we needed meat. I'm filling up the deep freeze.

Another thing I like about angelfood ministries? They introduced me to shelf stable milk. Most awesome thing in the world. It can last for at least a year right on your pantry shelf. You don't refrigerate until you open it. Tastes just like milk you get normally. It can be a tad expensive, but to me it's worth it. I keep it stockpiled in case of bad weather and I can't get to the store. I picked up two of those when I bought the meat too.

This week......I'll be watching meat sales again. Fresh produce sales too because easy child and I are going to start canning. I nearly died last week at kroger because I used only one coupon......a 2.00 off my order coupon. They didn't have anything else on sale I had room for or needed at the moment.

A good deal is a good deal whether you have a coupon or not. You should be proud of yourself! Awesome!

 

[AnnieO]

I love the huge packages. I got 10-lbs of chicken leg quarters a week or so ago for $5. Repackaged them - and they actually taste better than the more expensive ones. Go figure.

A couple things to consider: Save-A-Lot, if you have them. Wal-Mart SuperCenters sometimes have good stuff, but not usually meat.

AngelFood absolutely ROCKS. I've used them twice - they do take food stamps, AND there is no income limit. Last fall I got 2 HUGE boxes of their "meals", 2 boxes of fruit & veggies, and one of meat - and did a mix & match - and gave 2 boxes to H & E while H was out of work. The mix & match was because some things I knew they would not eat and I would...

Food pantries are good. I'll be honest, I've never been to one - but I have reaped the benefits - H went last fall, they had a 9-lb bucket of feta cheese - no one wanted it, so she accepted it and shared.

I hope AFM gets to you soon. You have to plan in advance, but it's worth it.

 

[Hound dog]

LOL food pantries near the dayton mall are awesome............

Dominos and pizza hut donate all the pizzas that don't sell.......the pantry freezes them and hands them out with the other food........at 350 degrees for 10 min they tastes fresh.

The year we used them the kids thought we struck the lottery.

They'd give us as much as our freezer would hold.

 

[crazymama30]

One of the last food boxes I got had 2 packs of premade pizza dough in it. I froze it and used it to make chicken bacon ranch pizza. difficult child loved it, he thought he would hate it. It was even herb garlic pizz dough, good thing he never knew or saw it ahead of time, it was green! He would have had a cow. It was so good I went to the store it came from and it was only $1.29 for a bag of dough! I have never been too fond of boboli, and don't always have time to make my own, so I bought 4 of them and froze them.

I don't like getting food boxes, but you know I qualify income wise, and it helps let me use my money for bills, so I guess it is ok. At least the ones around here are really good about not making you feel guilty or less of a person for needing help. That is really nice.

 

[Hound dog]

CM

Let them help you. At some point in the future you just pay it forward, either by donating to them or helping someone you know is in need.

Until husband became unemployed again.......I paid that year we used them back probably ten fold if not more. It feels good when you get to the point where you can do that, even if it takes a while to get there.

The year we used them was the last year we were in the dayton area. I was working full time at Meijer, husband was unemployed. Now min wage doesn't cut it in that area.........not when rent alone was 600.00 a month utilities not included. The kids actually had no real clue how desperate things were. My check went on rent and bills, the pantry covered the food.......we ate a LOT of pizza.....and school free lunch covered lunches. There were no extras, ever. Xmas played out ok because I worked the toy dept......and I did the price changes, so I knew what was going to be clearanced when and how much so I'd wait until then to buy. I knew when the sales would hit, what items they'd be, and again the price. They managed to have a nice xmas and it wasn't necessary to use Toys for Tots......AND we managed to still give our 3 toy donation we do every single year.

But I had a real tough time swallowing that pride the first time and using them. Good for us was they were the sweetest people on earth and they did their utter best not to make you feel bad for needing help......they'd get conversations going and we'd have a hard time leaving. lol All that pizza to kids who very rarely ever got fast food.......they swore we were suddenly rich. lmao

 

[DammitJanet]

You are lucky about that Lisa. Here, we have an idiotic place. You would think the folks running it were giving the food from their own kitchens away. No matter the size of your family, you get one small bag with I think a loaf of bread, a couple of canned goods, a box of mac and cheese, no meat ever that I have ever seen, one box of cereal, and if you will take it...some beets or other odd canned veggies that no one likes. They will also give you one dessert item if they actually have any. Then you cant come back for another 6 months. And they keep track of everyone in the house!

It used to be that there was a truck that came through into one of the smaller towns here and would give out produce to anyone who wanted it...no questions asked. That was great. It was going to go to waste anyway so might as well give it away.

 

[Hound dog]

Six months?? omg That wouldn't last one person 6 months!

I can't recall exactly how often we could use the one there but I know it was more often than once a month.

You're sounds sort of like the one here. I used it once, swore I'd starve to death before I ever went back.....and I've never went back. Rude, snarky, treated people like so much dirt under their shoe.....got waaaaaaay too personal over the info you were to give them, and walked out with a bag full of basically useless food that wouldn't last 3 days. This was after waiting 4 hrs to get it. Which is one of the reasons I took the grandkids food. They did that to us before the economy around here tanked, and I know now they're empty.

Everyone has tough times in their lives. And while yes we have people in the area that have never worked in generations of entire families.......that milk the system for all it's worth........most people are just good people down on their luck and don't deserve to be treated the way the one here treats them.

When my dad used to do his "garden", several acres I'm not sure still classifies as a garden, he'd give to mom first, extended family next, sell as much as the grocery stores could use, then give the rest away because mom would NOT can a thing and it would go to waste.

 

[DammitJanet]

Yeah, there is a second harvest in Fayetteville which is the next county up from me but folks from my county arent allowed to go there even though that is a national food bank. I tried one time and was told I could only go there if I was from that county. I thought that stunk when that county is much more prosperous considering they have both the army base and the air force base and its a smaller county...plus with all the bases, the economy is better.