We try to be frugal and thrifty when we can. We aren’t as hardcore as I guess we could be but we do make an effort. To this end earlier in the year we bought a freezer and a Food-Saver sealer. So do I think it has made a difference? Yes I do actually. We don’t have any kids but my dad does live with us so there are 3 of us using the freezer. At first I felt stupid buying 20 packages of frozen corn when they were on sale for cheap. (I only buy in quantity when the price is amazing, not just good but amazing)
But here’s the thing it hasn’t gone on sale for that low again and now that it’s heading into fall I’m ready to start making some corn casseroles to freeze. With food prices seeming to go higher while the packages get smaller I hate having to pay a higher price when I need something. Another thing we loaded up on was Pasta in the beginning of the year. It seems like once a year one grocery store runs an amazing dry pasta sale. I think it was 25 cents for a package of different kinds of pasta. So we stocked up on all kinds of dry pastas. We use them all the time and still have enough to get us through the rest of the year. The price now for the same pasta even on sale is double what we paid for it.
This week it was Filet Mignon which was on sale for what the price of hamburger is when it’s not on sale. We bought 3 packages and had the butcher cut it up into 2″ thick steaks(My husband loves his steak!) We averaged it out to about $3.00 per steak for a big thick piece. We used the Food-Saver to seal them up into two person portions and stuck them in the freezer.
Another trick we have been doing relatively recently is with Top Round London Broil. It’s on sale for cheap this week $1.29 a pound. We get a big piece and have the butcher grind it up into hamburger for us. I don’t know exactly how lean it works out to be but I would guess around 90% lean. We can never get 90% lean hamburger for that low. We also portion that up in the Food-Saver and stick it in the freezer.
What we did tonight was take 6 pounds of the ground up London Broil and mix it up for meatloaf. Then we portioned part of that into two good sized meat loafs that went into the freezer. With the remaining meatloaf mix I added Italian seasonings and made it into meatball mix and put that into the freezer. The two meat loafs are big enough to feed all 3 of us and the meatballs are enough for two of us. So I got at least 8 serving out of $7.74 worth of meat. Probably more as the meat loafs are big enough for there to be leftovers.
We weren’t aiming to make the cheapest meals possible.We were aiming to be able to eat meals that we love less expensively and trying to make making them more convenient so we aren’t tempted to eat out as much. What also works for us is that we bought an upright freezer and not a chest model. This way I can see very easily what we have. I think that between the food savings and not eating out as much that the freezer and food saver have definitely paid for themselves. We also got the most energy efficient freezer we could find so the cost to out electric bill has been insignificant.
