I usually don’t do grocery hauls but I thought I would address our beef/pork/chicken/turkey hauls. I personally stay away from all red meats but occasionally I will indulge in a chicken or turkey meal. Over the summer we bought a freezer and started storing any meat or poultry that went on sale. Over the last few months I’ve stopped buying beef and poultry and we’ve been eating out of our freezer. Today, some of those freezer shelves are bare so it’s time to re-stock up again.

I have only two requirements when it comes to beef, pork, chicken or turkey. #1 It has to be top quality. #2 It can not be over $2.00 a pound. I understand that sticking to #2 is getting to be more and more difficult. But if you look for sales, it can be done.

For example, you will NEVER see me buying something like this:

I will NEVER EVER buy anything this expensive!

I do most of my grocery shopping at Aldi. Although Aldi’s meat pricing is fair and just, they don’t always have the best quality. Especially in their chicken. Instead, we buy our chicken from a local grocer who sells only locally, farm raised chicken at $2.49 a pound (for cut up chicken). Occasionally they will have a sale and that is when we stock up on this specific chicken. The meat is delicious! We can get a whole chicken for $1.89 a pound. We can get the same chicken, cut up in 8ths for $1.99 a pound. We usually buy the latter.

Lately, however, we’ve been buying whole chickens and hubby’s been cutting them up into quarters. I do buy boneless chicken breasts from Aldi though. When on sale, the $1.69 per pound for boneless breasts is a price that can’t be beat plus the cutlets work out very well in our recipes. To be fair, Aldi does have great pork products as they come from Smithfield, which is available just about anywhere. We never, however, buy beef from Aldi. It’s just not worth it. The quality isn’t there.

Here’s today’s haul. Waiting to be placed into freezer bags, labeled, dated and stored inside our extra freezer
First up, I keep a running list of what is stored inside our extra freezer. Old list on the left. New list on the right after our current meat haul. We’re short on pre-made turkey burgers and pulled pork. Waiting for a sale on those two items and then our freezer will be properly stocked up.

Today’s haul included one cut up chicken at $1.99 a pound. This item is not pictured because hubby cooked it up as soon as we got home. We missed our chicken dinners. I didn’t realize hubby would cook it up so fast, so I went back and bought one more package and it is now in the freezer. We also bought a whole chicken this time, at $1.89 a pound as a means of possibly saving more money. Hubby’s not too keen on cutting up chicken but we’re going to give it a try. The butcher always separates the chicken’s backbone. We store those in a separate freezer bag in our freezer. We use them specifically to make chicken broth. Right now, we’ve got around 6 chicken backs to make broth.

Center cut pork chops were on sale at $1.79 a pound. I bought two packages of those, with each pack containing 4 beautiful pork chops! Chicken thighs, with the skin on were on sale at $1.29 a pound. I bought a double pack of those (8 per pack) and separated and froze two bags with 4 thighs per freezer bag. Hubby loves chicken thighs. I do not. The skin we can throw in the broth for flavor but skim the fat off after cooking.

As I’ve stated, beef prices are out of this world right now. I already have two packages of chopped meat in the freezer, plus two eye round roasts. I’ve been hankering for beef stew this winter and that meat was on sale at $3.59 a pound. I bought a smallish package which will be enough for a basic stew recipe. The last thing I purchased was their home made turkey and/or chicken sausages. You can’t get this anywhere. The store’s butchers make these up special. At $3.49 a pond (marked down from $3.99 a pound) I bought a small package of each (hot and sweet). They’re perfect to put into recipes (sausage & peppers with onions or as a seasoning in an Italian pasta dish).

Everything has all been neatly repackaged, labeled, dated and stored inside our extra freezer. My new list has been upgraded. Today’s price for current meat and poultry haul (including extra package of cut-up chicken) was $49.51.