Groceries...

blondie42107 · February 2014

Where do you purchase your meats and poultry?

We try to eat as clean as possible but organic isn't always in our budget. We have a large deep freezer so we have room for storing.

We are set on ground beef since we have connections with beef/dairy farmer. Mostly looking for chicken and pork.

I should add that we're a family of four and we currently spend about $400 a month on food/household items.

eilatan&nhoj88 · February 2014

I buy perdue at kroger. It's supposed to be antibiotic free and stuff and there are usually good sales on it every few weeks.

CuriousKiddosMama · February 2014

look into Zaycon foods- I believe they have some organic/antibiotic free or whatever stuff. Their prices are pretty decent too because you buy in bulk and they don't have store fronts so they have a low overhead.

hoffse · February 2014

I am a Costco nut. I literally fantasize about the day we own a house so I can buy a freezer and go Costco-ing to my heart's content in the frozen food section.

Costco actually sells a surprising amount of organic food. I love their Costco brand (Kirkland) chicken breasts because you can buy a big bag and each is individually sealed. No freezer burn. And they are BIG. Their turkey burgers are also great. I actually eat them so often that I now prefer them to beef burgers. Those come in packs of 12. And the pork... costco sells really great pork loins in packs of 4. They're the perfect size for a meal for 4 adults. We serve them a lot when company comes over. Again, individually sealed so you don't get freezer burn. I can't recall the exact prices off the top of my head, but they are all very reasonable and much cheaper than buying similar items at a regular grocery store.

You didn't ask about this, but their frozen tortellini is my other favorite thing. $10 will buy me two huge packs of it. Two packs will feed me for about 6 weeks eating it a few times a week. I keep my open tortellini bag in a gallon-sized Ziplock freezer bag (it just barely fits), and I just throw them into boiling water while still frozen. They cook in about 90 second, and they're great.

My H's favorite thing about costco is their OTC medications, vitamins, and cleaning products. They are all dirt cheap if you buy Costco (Kirkland) brand. Actually, what we save on those per year more than pays for our annual membership.

Costco also has monthly coupons that rotate. I've gotten the hang of the coupon cycle, so usually 1/3-1/2 of my cart is discounted when I go there. They do coupons on both name brand and in-house brand items.

I should be a spokesperson for costco. It's probably my favorite store of all time.

sillypuddy143 · February 2014

Haha I totally agree with you! I love costco more than any other store, we are only a family of two but we seriously buy 75% of our groceries at costco every month. I'm pretty sure what we buy in gas more then pays for our executive membership.. LOVE IT!

Xstatic3333 · February 2014

We have a similar style to you-local and organic most of the time, but sometimes we need to compromise. On our best weeks, we get our meat from a local farm that raises beef, pork, and chicken. It's expensive but very high quality! More typically, we stock up on chicken breasts at WF when they are on sale. On weeks when we need to skimp, we get pre-cooked chicken breasts from Trader Joe's. H is the only meat eater in the house, so he can easily heat one of those up to add to whatever veggie dish I made.

We don't compromise on organic with milk and eggs-unless it's from a local farm that may not be technically organic, but we know how the animals were raised. Then again, we don't use very much milk because we don't have kids yet, so we'll so how that goes in the future. I highly recommend trying to dig up a local egg connection; honestly, the tastiest eggs we have access to are from my coworker's backyard hens. She shares the extra the weeks her hens are too overenthusiastic and they are amazingly good! I'm hoping to get some hens of our own once we buy our own house.

And hoffse, I am with you on frozen ravioli! I could eat it every day. Unfortunately BJ's switched to a brand that isn't very good, so now I usually get mine from Trader Joe's and it is not quite the same value.

blondie42107 · February 2014

We have a Sam's Club nearby and recently got a free one year pass. I'll have to check out my options there. We kind of forget we have the membership.

We use Mrs. Meyers all purpose cleaner for 90% of our cleaning. Just dilute with water and keep in a spray bottle. Or mix in a bucket to scrub my floors. I get my laundry detergent from Sam's. $14/bottle for Ecos (210 HE loads). Also Newmans organic K-Cups. I'm a coffee addict and although we spend $40 for a box of 80 K-Cups, it's cheaper than buying it on my way to the office, etc.

We go through about 2 to 3 gallons of milk each week. :-\ Ds1 drinks skim with us, while Ds2 drinks whole. Milk, coffee and some juice for the kiddos is about it. We don't buy soda, sports drinks, etc.

brij2006 · February 2014

Search for a local pig and chicken farmer. If you already get your beef from one, then ask them if they know someone who sells the other 2.

We get our chickens whole from the processor, and you can break them down into the cuts yourself (youtube it for good tutorials). We've also found a different processor that will break them down and package them by the cuts for us, but I'm cheap and don't pay for them to do it.

We love getting our pork locally, because then we can ask to get thicker bacon cuts and get ground pork to use in recipes instead of a bunch of ground sausage.

Most of the farmers will be open with you about what they feed their animals, vaccinate for, etc. That seems to be the best way to get more whole foods for a reasonable price.

jessica490 · February 2014

We buy bulk meat at bj's club

Wulfgar · February 2014

When I have the money, I got to a local butcher shop in the country that gets clean animals that they know the farmers personally. It helps that they are about 30 minutes away. When I don't have the money, I just buy the natural selections at Giant Eagle.

bingbongsmama · February 2014

I get everything from Wegmans.

Xstatic3333 · February 2014

bingbongsmama said:
I get everything from Wegmans.

I totally forgot about Wegmans! That's a great place to get good meat and seafood cheap. They're ranked very highly for sustainable seafood practices. It's a very regional chain, but steadily expanding.

emily1004 · February 2014

I second Costco. Great meat selection.

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