When pork loin roasts are on sale I buy the whole (or several) loins. I cut butterfly pork chops off the large end and save the narrow end for roasts.

I buy boneless roasts (i prefer outside round or surloin). I save some for roasts and some I cut up into stewing beef. It's much better than the stewing beef you buy.

By the way you will get a nice tender roast if you cook it frozen @325. Don't add liquid until all the juices have evaporated. The outside thaws and browns while the inside is still frozen so it keeps all it's juices. I add an extra 10 minutes per pound for small roasts and 5 for large ones

I buy round steak and cut some in strips for stirfry or sukiaki and some I save in pieces for stuffed steak or swiss steak.

I buy chickens on sale and cut them up into breasts, thighs and drumsticks and put the rest and skin in a pot and boil them. I pick out the meat and strain the broth and discard bones and skin. I put the meat with some broth in small dollar store plastic containers. This is great for hot chicken sandwiches or stews or soups

After I've done the cutting up I wrap each big piece of meat separately in tin foil or freezer paper and then put them in freezer bags--these can be washed in soap and water, rinsed, dried and reused. Then they are frozen. This way I can take out however many pieces I want.

The stewing beef and sliced round steak go into plastic bags with enough for a meal.

I hope someone can use some of this. It has helped me save money for many years

Anytime you can "cut out the middle-man" you are going to save money. You can also make your own bulk sausage if you have a grinder. There are lots of recipes on the Internet and you can make it a lot leaner for the same money or less.

I don't buy bacon very often, but when I do, I buy the "ends and pieces" in the ten pound box. I'll take each strip of bacon and roll it into a little roll, set a bunch of them on a cookie sheet and freeze them, then pour them into a ziplock bag so I can take out as few as I want.

Thanks again for responding to my query.

Thanks for the infor.

Got to look or sodium content in meat. They pump it up high to make it weigh more. High sodium = High BP for many, so be careful with the tricks they play,

We watched a thing on the Discovery channel where they showed the activities in a packing plant and they were doing it right in the plant "to make the meat more tender". Bull hockey!

I've bought cuts of beef that were so full of water that they cooked down to half their size (and they still werent very tender)

DD has to watch her salt content and she says she can't buy pork cutlets at WMT because they're so salty she can't eat them.

Homeland has a sign over their meat counter that says "We don't add water to our meat!" I guess that's true since they do it at the packing plant.

More and more, I'm thinking vegetarians have been 'way ahead of their time. I'm so sick of these producers thinking up different ways to cheat us.

That must be an American thing. It isn't done in Canada, at least I've never bought any that has water added. I would notice the difference because I roast everything without adding any liquid. I still have the same amount of juices drip into the pan.

In fact we have laws in Canada that limits the amount of water in meats. Maybe you should lobby your politicians

About the only thing that adding water to meat will do is to add to the weight of the meat, so you are paying more for the meat.

It used to be, you bought chicken in a bag and yes, the bag would leak so you'd have to be careful with it. If the chicken was already frozen and you could get it home before it thawed, so much the better. Now, all I see IS the solid-frozen chicken, they've started packaging them in the heat-sealed heavier plastic so that it doesn't leak in transit, but and after it thaws there's a lot more liquid that leaks out than there used to be. Then of course there's ham and we've all just taken for granted there's water added to it, though for the life of me I don't understand why, other than to make it weigh more and make us pay more. They do now state "water added" on the package but that's stupid because you can press the package with your thumb and see the water move around.

I do understand that if they didn't play these little tricks on us they'd have to charge more but you know I'd rather have them do that than to insult our intelligence this way. At least the playing field would be levelled and you wouldn't have to wonder whether the reason Store A was selling meat cheaper than Store B was because they were adding more water.

I also buy meat at a small local butcher who charges a very competitive price on all of his meat. He does a wonderful job and the meat is top quality. I can buy a pound of burger there and even though I get the fat, I get no excess water when I cook it. He also has the best quality steaks and they are much lower in price than the local chainstore grocery. He will also offer a discount if you buy a large amount to freeze. I will keep buying there because he buys from our local farmers and his low prices and stellar quality are great for the local economy and competition.

Great eating all!
peanutmom