How To Save Money On Meat | Mindfully Frugal Mom

Welcome 13 Wham CW Viewers — Easy Ways to Start Saving Money on Organics

February 1, 2013 By Sarah 4 Comments

organic save money

How do you afford to eat organic? It’s so expensive! I could never do that!

I hear these laments over and over from friends and family about eating organic. And no, I don’t eat 100% organic ALL of the time either. But there ARE strategies and tips you can use to eat more organic food without spending more money!

But first — USE COUPONS. If you have a favorite organic brand, search the Coupon Database for it to see if there is a coupon. You can see how to use the Coupon Database to find Organic coupons here.

Case in point. I have three 16 oz bags of baby carrots:

Organic (store brand) from Trader Joe’s – $1.69
Organic (Earthbound farms brand) from Tops – $1.99
Conventional from Tops — $1.79

Which one would you buy? The Organic ones from Trader Joe’s right? Nope. When you use this $1.00/2 Earthbound farm organic product coupon on the EB Farms carrots, it takes the price down to $1.49/lb. The organic carrots turn out to be the cheapest option. Even without coupons, though, the TJ’s organic carrots are still cheaper than the conventional ones.
carrots, baby.jpg

Here are more extensive and specific strategies to save money on organics:

How to Save on Organic Meat

Organic meat usually stumps people from a money-saving perspective. Because if you’re perusing the meat section of your grocery store, you’re probably thinking, “I can’t afford organic meat” at a minimum of $5.49 per pound. And you know what? I can’t either. That’s why I nearly never purchase meat at the grocery store. And yet, my family eats meat at about 5 dinners per week. We buy in bulk from a local farmer. We know where our meat comes from, and we get a sizable discount for buying large quantities (sometimes 50 lbs at a time). Check out Eat wild.com for a thorough listing of meat farmers in your area.

If you don’t have room to store that much, there are local farms that have weekly delivery spots – much like a CSA — and you can order only what you need for the week. Overall, I spend an average of $4.00 per pouund for my organic meat.

In addition, I have written several posts showing how to save money on meat.

How to Save on Organic Produce

Know what’s on the Top 10 worst conventional produce list and buy organic for just those. Some of the worst fruits and vegetables for pesticides are:

Apples
Celery
Sweet Bell Peppers
Spinach
Grapes

Buy these organic, if possible.

In addition, certain fruits and vegetables cost the nearly the SAME in both their conventional and organic versions. See the baby carrots example above. Celery is another product that is similarly priced.

Buy whole organic fruits and vegetables. You’ll automatically pay more for the convenience of having the store pre-chop and package them for you.

Check out warehouse stores like BJ’s or Sam’s. They are carrying more and more organics, and in many cases, the prices are better than grocery stores.

Join a CSA. CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture. You pay a fee upfront, then get weekly or biweekly deliveries of fresh produce to an agreed-upon pickup location. We have some wonderful organic CSAs in upstate NY. In fact, I’m SUCH a fan of CSA’s, I did a whole series on local CSA options last year. You can read my extensive review of several local CSA’s with additional information here.

Shop your local farmer’s markets. Talk with the farmers about how they grow their crops. Many use organic methods, but just haven’t paid to be certified organic. Make the decision as to whether or not to patronize those smaller farmers (I do, gladly). You can find local farmers at localharvest.org.

How to Save on Organic Dry Goods

Amazon Subscribe & Save is a GREAT resource for organic canned goods and snacks. For example, Amazon has Eden Organic dried black beans for only $0.17/oz when you choose subscribe & save.

How to Save on Organic Dairy

Dairy products are some of the most important items on your grocery list to choose organic. Yet organic dairy can be very expensive, especially organic milk. There are a few strategies I use to get around this:

Buy alternative organic milks.You can get Organic Soy Milk for $2.79 for 64 oz. 64 oz of Organic Dairy milk costs $3.49 (both store brands).

In addition, many organic brands come out with coupons. Stonyfield and Organic Valley are two brands who offer coupons on organic yogurt, cheese, and half and half. Mambo Sprouts is a great place to start looking for organic coupons. You can also look in my Coupon Database to find coupons for Applegate, Stonyfield, and more.

Finally, skip the processed, box, pre-prepared foods. Organic or not, you’re paying dearly for the “convenience” of having your food preserved and frozen. Prepare meals and snacks at home, using whole, nourishing ingredients, and you are on your way!

As always, make sure you subscribe to email updates or Facebook updates so you don’t miss a post on how to save money on organic and healthy food.

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Pink Slime Lawsuit: Does ABC Owe $1.2 Billion??

September 13, 2012 By Sarah Leave a Comment

Roughly a year ago I wrote about the nebulous nature of supermarket ground beef. In March, the story went national with ABC news leading the investigation into what, exactly, was in the ground beef packages we buy at the supermarket. The answer? It wasn’t pretty.

An unnaturally pink, ammonia treated mush using scrapings from the slaughterhouse floor is what passes for “meat” in many instances. It’s called Pink Slime.

We know this. We read the report. But now Beef Products Inc is suing ABC for $1.2 Billion for defamation and loss of profits.

Do you think this lawsuit has any merit? For the record, ABC isn’t sweating it.

You can read more about how I save money on meat and where I get my ground beef here. No slime allowed!

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The Mother Lode: 40 pounds of Local, Organic, Grass-Fed, Free-Range Beef

February 15, 2012 By Sarah 10 Comments

It makes me really happy to open up my freezer and see this:

40 pounds of organic Black Angus beef, butchered to my specifications.

A friend recently introduced me to a local beef farmer who was, quite literally, in my backyard (well, my parents’ backyard), the whole time.

This farmer, who I happened to go to high school with, is running a very small, environmentally conscious, humane farm from his family’s home in Victor, NY.

When I got an email from my friend, saying she was putting in an order, and would I like to as well, I jumped at the chance. Since we were ordering so much, we even got a deal: $3.65 for ground beef, $4.15 for stew beef.

What’s so awesome about this arrangement is that there is complete transparancy in every link of this food chain: I know what these cows have eaten, I know where they were slaughtered, and I know what the butcher’s name is. That’s not something I can say about grocery store meat.

If you’d like to learn more about saving money on meat and stretching the meat you have, you can look at all my posts in the How to Save Money On Meat series.

Want to find local purveyers of meat, produce, and other goods? Check out LocalHarvest.org to find a farm near you.

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Slow-Cooker Chicken Chili

February 1, 2012 By Sarah 4 Comments

Slow Cooker Chicken CHili

Everyone ready for the big game? No matter who you’re rooting for, whip up a big batch of my family’s favorite chili and everyone will be a fan!

Slow Cooker Chicken Chili
(serves 4)

1/2-1 lb shredded, cooked chicken
1 tbsp olive oil
1 small onion, diced finely
1 bell pepper, diced finely
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 14 oz cans diced tomatoes (or 6 fresh tomatoes, diced) OR 1 28 oz can crushed tomatoes
4 oz tomato paste
1 can corn
2 cans pinto beans or kidney beans, or a combination of whatever beans you happen to have
1 small can chopped green chilis (optional)
1 recipe Homemade Taco Seasoning
1 tsp cayenne pepper (optional)
1/4 cup corn flour (or Masa — Bob’s Red Mill is one brand)

1. Add all ingredients except the corn flour and chicken to a large slow cooker. Cook on low for 6 hours

2. Add the chicken , then slowly add in the corn flour. Mix gently. Cook 1 more hour on low.

3. Serve and enjoy! This recipe is great with toppings. I love cheddar cheese, sour cream, diced red onions, and crushed up corn chips.

(Make sure to check out Healthy Child Healthy World for more great recipes!)

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Frugal Friday: One Chicken, 24 Hours, 5 Meals

December 16, 2011 By Sarah Leave a Comment

When I wrote earlier this week about how to make chicken broth from a whole chicken, I promised I would include some recipes for how to use the actual chicken meat to last several meals.

To recap, I purchased one organic chicken for $3.49/lb. It cost me $12.56 (I had a $1 off Wegmans Organic Chicken coupon that I used). I already made 2 large canning jars worth of broth, so I had to come up with ways to make that $12 chicken last as long as possible. Here’s what I did.

After I separated the meat from the bones and organs (which I used to make the broth), I set all the meat aside to cool. When it was cool, I sorted it out into 4 ten oz servings, and stuck 3 of them in the freezer. The fourth I reserved, and tossed in a separate pot (because my broth was still cooking), and left out to make chicken soup with. So here are my meals:

1. Chicken Soup (2 big jars): Fresh homemade broth, chicken, and 1 bag of frozen mirepoix (what can I say, I was too tired to chop veggies by the time my broth had been simmering for almost 20 hours). I’ll add some egg noodles when I reheat.

2. Chicken Quesadillas: In between 2 flour tortillas, spread shredded cheese, corn from the freezer, and 1 bag of chicken. We were able to make 5 quesadillas with this chicken, which was enough for our family of four.

3. Pasta with Chicken & Peas: I make a sauce using milk, butter, flour, and parmesan cheese (like a roux), and pour it on pasta. Mix in a bag of frozen peas and 1 bag of chicken.

4. Chicken Taco Soup

So let’s sum up: from one chicken that cost $12.56, I ended up with 2 meals of chicken noodle soup, 2 16oz jars of broth, 1 meal of chicken quesadillas, one meal of pasta with chicken and peas, and one meal of chicken taco soup. 5 meals, 32 oz of broth. That comes to under $2 per meal for fresh, organic meat. Not too shabby!

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Make it Yourself: Homemade Chicken Broth from a Whole Chicken

December 12, 2011 By Sarah 25 Comments

Last week I bought a whole organic chicken for the first time. It has taken me a while to get up the gumption to do it, because I’ll be honest, I don’t want to be touching chicken offal. I also have no desire to do anything resembling butchering. I understand that to get food on the table, someone has to cut up the chicken parts. Here’s the thing, though — the privilege of having someone else butcher meat costs money. Organic whole chickens are priced at my grocery store for $3.49/lb, which is considerably less than organic boneless, skinless chicken breasts, which are $7.99/lb.

Since watching Food, Inc., my husband and I have made it a priority to buy organic meat whenever possible. We don’t do it 100% of the time, but when I find strategies like this one to make it more affordable, the little bit of extra work is worth it.

Thankfully, I finally found a way to prepare a whole chicken to maximize the meat yield, while decreasing my exposure to anything resembling guts. I was inspired by Heavenly Homemakers, which describes how to make one chicken stretch for 6 meals. I ended up with enough meat for three “stretch meals (where chicken is the supporting player rather than the star), 3 jars of chicken soup, and 2 jars of broth from that one chicken.

Today I’m going to describe how I made the broth. It literally could not be easier. In a future post, I’ll tell you what to do with all that delicious chicken meat

Homemade Chicken Broth
1 whole organic chicken
Lots of Water (I didn’t measure)
Carrots, Onions, Garlic, and Celery, roughly chopped
1/4 cup kosher salt (use less if you want low-sodium broth)

First, unwrap the chicken, and place it in a large, tall stockpot. Fill with water until the water is just covering the chicken. Dump all the veggies and the salt in, and give it a little stir.

Turn the burner on to medium-high until the water is boiling. Then turn it down to low and simmer for 4-6 hours.

You know it’s done when the meat is falling off the bone and chicken parts are floating around your pot. Lift the chicken out, and place on a large tray. Separate the good chicken meat from the bones and the organs. This is the only slightly icky part, and trust me, it wasn’t that bad. The chicken was cooked so well, all the meat came off the bone easily and I didn’t have to touch organs or anything.

Set the meat aside (I put it into 3 freezer bags for future meals), and throw the bones, guts, etc, back into your stock pot. Add another 4-8 cups of water and simmer on low another 6 hours.

When you’re done, place a large strainer inside a larger bowl, and dump in the whole she-bang. The bones and yucky stuff will stay in the strainer, and you’ll have several servings worth of savory, delicious broth — 100% organic and free from preservatives and additives. Place in mason jars, let cool, and freeze for up to 6 months. There will be a layer of fat on the top of the broth when cool, and you could easily skim it off. I like to leave it on, though, especially when using the broth to make soup, because it gives the broth a rich, hearty flavor that my family (well, my husband) loves.

NOTE: You could easily do this from start to finish in a crock pot. The only reason I didn’t is because I have 2 small crockpots, and neither would fit my chicken. If you have cooked a whole chicken in a slow cooker before, I’d love to hear about it!