Today I want to share one my most frugal tips for menu planning and getting meat into your menu for super cheap! I always watch my local meat sales and stock up at rock bottom prices. Beyond that, I have a little trick that gets my family of 6 about 16 meals for just under $25 or$1.56 a meal! Add in I do a breakfast meal and meatless meal a night this is almost 3 weeks worth of dinners for us for $25!
Menu Planning and Stretching Your Budget – 16 Meals for $25
So what is this trick to save you money? Think outside the box when it comes to meat. Recently Our chicken sales cycles circled around and at my local store, I was able to get chicken Drumsticks for 59¢ a pound and chicken leg quarters for 49¢ a pound. Both had a 10-pound minimum to buy to get this price BUT we bought 20 pounds of each. this got us 9 meals of drumsticks and 7 meals from the leg quarters.
Now many people pass this deal over not sure what to do with the meat besides BBQ grilled drumsticks. A quick browse of Pinterest show some great drumstick recipes such as Oven Fried Drumsticks, Cheesy Ranch Chicken Drumsticks, Oven Fried Parmesan Drumsticks, and Crock Pot Root Beer BBQ Chicken Drumsticks. There are many more!
For the chicken leg quarters, I like to cook these in the crock pot in chicken broth until the meat falls off the bone, I then take the meat and shred it. This makes great BBQ sandwiches. The shredded meat is also great for mixing with beans and rice. There are also some great recipes like One Pot Check and Rice with Swiss Chard, Spice Roasted Chicken Leg Quarters, and Garlic Roasted Chicken Leg Quarters.
If you are looking for more ways to save on meat make sure to check out Zaycon for huge meat savings.
You can get some amazing tips to save on your grocery bill I highly recommend the book Cut Your Grocery Bill in Half with America's Cheapest Family
What frugal tips do you have for menu planning to stretch your budget and meals?
Looking for more ways to save money via your grocery budget and menu planning?
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Danielle, The Frugal Navy Wife
I am a mom to 5 kids, homeschool mom, blogger, social media junkie, Frugalista, Book Worm, and Closet Want-to-be Chef. We are a Roadschool family (homeschooling on the road while traveling fulltime).
I grew up learning ways to save from my mom and grandma. I started my own coupon journey when my first child was born in 2009 and started the blog on 2010 when baby #2 was born to share my tips with everyone who kept asking about how I was getting diapers for $1 a pack!
Click here to learn more about starting a blog.
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Thank for this great advice and recipes!
I need to use more of the drumstick recipes, they are always so cheap here and I always overlook them. Thank you for your great ideas. I am looking forward to trying some of these recipes.
There’s just my husband and I and we always buy a bag or 2 of leg quarters when we find them on sale. I roast a bag and take the meat off the bone and freeze it in 2 cup portions. That way if I’m cooking something that calls for already cooked chicken I have it. If I’m really feeling thrifty I will make broth from the bones and freeze that in 2 cup portions. If it’s not already frozen, I separate the other bag into 2 leg quarter bags. These I use to grill or other recipes that use uncooked chicken.