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We have talked about meal planning before; today we will introduce bulk buying. We do our best to purchase our proteins and staple items in large quantities to save money and have plenty of food on hand at home. Now, I am not talking about the chaotic hoarding that we saw during the height of covid, but if you eat a lot of chicken and it is on sale stock up!
Here at Tin Box we use a variety of sources to purchase our proteins. I am always on the lookout for a great deal on quality meats and seafood. My favorite source for red meat is our local butcher. Their meats are from local farms and the prices are amazing. They rival the grocery store prices and far exceed the quality and availability of cuts. I usually purchase the meat that I need for the upcoming week, but double it to have a backup for a later meal. When looking for a local butcher I definitely recommend asking where the meat come from, if cuts are made fresh or from frozen and even what they charge for part of a cow. My favorite thing to see when I enter the shop is the hanging hind quarter being broken down into specific cuts. Beyond fresh when you see where it is coming from.
Chicken is another story for us. We raise chickens for eggs and occasionally butcher for ourselves and our dog’s meals. We eat A LOT of chicken, but our yard is not large enough to contain the amount of chickens we would need to raise to sustain us so we buy. We do choose breasts on occasion, but we eat chicken thighs at least once a week. We are very lucky to see thighs on sale at our grocery store for ninety-nine cents a pound at least once a month. I purchase enough value packs to last the month when they go on sale so that we always have the option of chicken thighs for a meal. We love chicken thighs in the oven to get crispy skin, in the crock pot because they do a better job of not drying out and so much more. My favorite way to eat chicken thighs is when Jorge makes chicken noodle soup. His soup is just fantastic and he enjoys making it. We often freeze small portions for lunches during the week and if he is in the mood to make a big batch, I will call it for later in the year.
Seafood is a much different story for us. We go fishing quite a bit and keep what we catch. We clean our catch, vacuum seal in portions and freeze until we are ready to eat or use it. We do love salmon though and do not get regular opportunities to fish for it. I use a service called Butcher Box several times a year that delivers high quality cuts of meat and seafood to our home directly! Their salmon comes delivered in portioned vacuumed sealed bags and we are just regularly impressed by the quality and amazing taste of the products available through butcher box.
Want to get in on this amazing delivery box? Click this link and sign up to see why Butcher Box is so great: http://rwrd.io/siibiwj?c Right now they are offering free chicken for a year with membership!
Have I mentioned that we have a deep freezer with a second one high on our list? It definitely makes life easier and overall much cheaper. Being able to store our dog food in the freezer frees up time, money and some (not all, of course) of my sanity. While I am not quite to prepper status, I do feel better about having a solid amount of food and supplies ready to go for the weeks ahead.
As you can see, we definitely think about what we are, and will be, eating. I take time to plan out meals (See previous post about meal planning) and really do my best to work with sales, personal gathering and fishing and more money saving opportunities. We use a deep freezer to hold most of our (and our dog’s) proteins and meals to make sure we are fully stocked and ready for meals ahead of time. Buying our proteins in bulk allow us to save time and money while reducing stress and one more thing being added to our daily to do list!
As always, thank you for reading our latest blog post. We are so happy to have you on this journey with us and we look forward to hearing your thoughts, advice and feedback. Simply, Beth