Meat price help/stocking

[lh150107]

My husband used to do most of the cooking, but since I have started couponing I am planning more of our meals. And one thing I have NO skill in is the meat department (insert dirty joke here). :anim_64:

I literally try to skip that area in the store if I can, I feel like the prices in Arizona are ridiculous and I also don't have much knowledge of what meat to buy besides hamburger. Does anyone have tips or ideas? Has anyone bought a cow before? We've talked about it but never did it. We recently bought a chest freezer so I have plenty of room to store things besides waffles and fries haha

Thank you!

[Tara]

Our neighbors brought half a cow and seemed happy with the price. They thought the meat tasted better.
My current stock price for boneless chicken breast is $1.99 lb. Sometimes the stores will have a frozen 3lb bag for $4.97, but I'd rather pay a little more for fresh.

I just saw an ad for chicken sausage where it was 2 lb for $9.49, definitely not a good price imo.

I'm not good on steaks either. One thing I have done if there was a BOGO on the cheap beef roast, use one for a roast and cut the other into beef stew tips.

I think meat products can be hard to get a good deal on.

[Rasha]

This is something, I am horrible at too. I seem to never get meats cheap, unless I get really lucky. :(

[AshPriest]

I think stockpiling meat will depend on your preference of what you eat. Just because you find a good deal on some kind of meat doesn't mean you should buy it. If you spend money on things you won't consume, then that money would've been better spent elsewhere IMO. I currently stockpile chicken when it goes on sale for $1.68/lb here. It's fresh and that's what I prefer to the frozen. One trick I learned was to go to the butcher counter just before they close up and ask if they're going to mark things down. Usually here they will be marking the hamburger meat down to $1/lb the next morning so they're willing to do it just before closing too. Then I'll buy it. I also stock up on turkey meat when it goes on sale 10/$10 here. That's a great price! And if the store is all out, I price match at Walmart. I usually stock chicken breast, ground turkey, hamburger and tilapia in my freezer because that's what we eat mostly.