Frugal Fridays: The Early Bird Gets the Worm

Meat and cheese are SO EXPENSIVE - and I feed a crew that especially appreciates meat (cheese is nice, but really it's all about the meat). I used to always hope to find some meat marked down because of the expiration date however it seemed to not happen very often UNTIL I started shopping at 5:30 in the morning.

It happened by accident the first time. I was in need of something and not able to get it the day before so I decided to leave first thing in the morning. When I got to the store I saw the meat department guy marking down the soon-to-expire meat. I followed behind him and had first pick for the first time in my life. Now, much more often than not, if I show up at about 5:30 there is usually a good selection of marked-down meat. It was always there ... I was just too late.

Here are some examples of my recent early-morning shopping trip to two different stores.

There were a lot of sliced cheese packages about to go out of date. What was even better, there was a sale running too! These cheese slices were on sale and then they EACH had a $2 off coupon for the soon-to-expire date. I brought them home, opened them up, put pieces of waxed paper between each slice, put them back in their bags, and placed them in the freezer. The individual waxed paper sheets allow for me to take out as many slices as I need at any given time. These will probably be used for our breakfast sandwiches (fried egg, cheese and meat of some kind). They are just the right size for us: not so thick that they overpower the sandwich or cause a belly ache (some of us are a bit sensitive to dairy) yet not so thin that you cannot taste them.

Sirloin steak was marked down 30% - which brought it to the price of the cheaper cuts. Two of the steaks (partially shown on the back left) are marinating 24+ hours and will be grilled for supper. One of the steaks (the right) got diced up and is also marinating 24 or so hours ... I will portion it out for my lunches and store in the freezer till needed. The final pack in the middle was very thin sliced sirloin. I cut the sirloin in to sandwich-size slices, added a marinade and put it in the freezer till needed. This will be used for breakfast sandwiches or some kind of meal on the go.

In case you were wondering, the marinade was 1/3c evoo, 2T acv, 2T braggs, 2T worcestershire sauce, 1T dijon mustard and several crushed garlic cloves (about 2T). This is enough for a few larger steaks.

Not pictured was a 10lb bag of chicken leg quarters. I put those right into a large pot, covered them with water and set them on the wood cook stove to slow cook for several hours. When done, the meat was removed from the pot to cool and then separated from the bones and skin. The scraps were put back into the pot with the cooking water, a few whole carrots and onions, and several ribs of celery WITH the leaves. More water was added and it was simmered for 24 hours or so on the wood cook stove. I plan to can some of the stock and use the rest for chicken and dumplings. YUM. The meat was portioned out and placed in the freezer.

Because of the expiration dates you must deal with these items right when you get home, so make sure to allow time to do that!! Be creative!