How do you save money?

[mrgrumpy]

I always shop the meat aisle for mark downs. Why pay full price????

I also have found place to buy my spices in large (14oz) bottles with fixed s&h no matter how many bottles you buy. So far, I have been well pleased with what they offer.

When I smoke, I fill the smoker and get my monies worth out of the wood that I burn. No sense letting all the money for lump go up in smoke

I too buy my plastic wrap and aluminum foil at Sam's. As well as their butter, laundry detergent, and a few other items. Some of the other stuff we buy, I can get at our WM cheaper.... what gives there????

I found a gas station today when I went to buy my meat, that was $0.12 a gallon cheaper than the place I normally buy it, and they are the cheapest I had found.....

Now that I found some cheap gas, I will burn it up going to Norfolk to the competition tomorrow and have to buy more.....

Bill

 

[gunslinger]

My feathers are laid down perfectly. I just think we take some of this stuff way to seriously. I have seen things that would make you vomit on the spot when I was hauling food products over the road.
That's what I'm talking about. My wife saves butter bowls too. It drives me nuts when I get into the fridge and have to go through 20 identical butter bowls to find what I want.

Yep, that's the chickens.

That's what I do when I smoke.
I really would like to see Debi weigh in here. I bet she has some good tips.

 

[smokincowboy]

We hit yard sales in the summer and thrift stores year around . I work on a farm and dont care if I get used cloths greasey or snagged crawling under equipment . and you can find things like dehydrater for a couple of bucks spice racks ect I love theese places

 

[dacdots]

Ive tried to sell my children several times but alas no takers.Im thinking about trying to just rent them out when I can.It wont be long and they will be gone from the house,Im sure that will save me loads of money.Ill be crying so much I wont have time to spend money,I really love them and dread the day they will leave the nest.

 

[deejaydebi]

Sorry I'm late Tom - Had a big project to get done at work last night and didn't make here last night. We're dredging the river and I have whip out a quick drawing and estimate for a meeting today. New Job!

As far as meat goes, I try to find stuff on sale and get the best pieces I can find and freeze it. I know some people think it ruins the meat but it never makes it more than a fews weeks. If I got it I just gotta smoke it or make sausage out of it. I can't help myself!

My spices that I use everyday like garlic, onion, chilli, coreander, basil, bay leaves, , Cumin, Veg-e-Sal, Juniper berries, fennel, anice, mustard, celrey, black pepper, white pepper, red peper, Ruby Red Pakrika, Tomatoe powders I buy by the half gallon online from Con Yeager Spice. The most I ever payed for shipping was $7.95 and that was for a $106 spice order. I'd almost pay that in sales tax here. Even those little cheap 99 cent spices can't compete with the price I get online and I can't even find butcher grade pepper or juniper berries locally.

For example garlic powder is $13.95 for a half gallon = 40 ounces that's $40 plus tax at the dollar store! How much do you use for just one Weekends rub mix? $3 or $4 worth from the dollar store bottles? That's one spice! Yikes! I place an order about every 2 weeks.

I figure every half gallon of spice saves me enough to buy almost two briskets, maybe 4 pork butts?

AND these are fresh form the manufacturer! Three days to my kitchen door - can't beat that!

http://www.conyeagerspice.com/conyea...aultstore.html

Another thing I do is buy 12 packs of 100% apple juice in juice boxes so I open it and use it the same day. At WalMart the juice boxes are cheaper than a Gallon bottles half of which goes to waste in my house.

I buy tin foil in reseraunt size same with plastic wrap. They sit on my table so I got some nice contact paper to match my kitchen theme and covered the boxes. When they get empty I just put a new supply of wrap in the old box. My family calls it my designer wrap.

Oh sometimes they sell sides of meat - like side of beef or sides of pork for pennies on the dollar. When I run into those deals I'll buy another el cheapo freezer if I have too!

That's about all I can think of.

 

[larry maddock]

on mon-thur-and sat mornings the local supermarkets butchers mark down the meat that been on display ...

beef more on thurs---
pork more on sat---

when im ready for a k.c. strip or a delmonico im there at 8 am

 

[gunslinger]

I love my kids too, but I can't wait to get rid of them. I keep trying to give my daughters away to Amish boys, but they just don't seem to be interested.

 

[bigal]

My parents have you all beat. They bought me an $800 smoker(traeger), and I keep them happy

. They don't have to smoke, buy the meat, buy spices, or even slice it! They are smarter than I give them credit! I even do steaks, burgers and brats for them too.

As for me, I'm take'n it in the shorts! .....But I don't mind at all.

Great thread Gun!

P.S. I raise wheat, milo, and corn.......and we(dad & I + employees) finish hogs for a big company.

 

[monty]

Here's a few other things I do:

I live fifteen miles outside of the town my work place is located in. So I very carefully plan shopping and supplies. No extra trips.

When I order something online I either have it sent to my PO Box, which is on the way home, or to my workplace. I live alone (nobody to sign and they don't want to climb my driveway anyway!) and this prevents me from having to travel to the nearest pick up terminal of UPS or FEDEX. They are both quite a distance.

I save coffee cans and all manner of reusable containers and use them for everything from painting to gawd knows what. I make feeders for chicks and birds out of some of them. And if I get an oversupply a local art teacher will take all I can give to her.

I reload for all my centerfire firearms. The guys at work and many of my friends enjoy my good work also and are always willing to trade a bit of firewood or labor or whatever for the service. I buy my rimfire ammo in bulk. Vermont is a great state for all of this.

Local market marks down meat for quick sale every Monday morning. Everything from porterhouse steaks to burger to all pork and poultry and lamb. I have two freezers and an Excalibur 9 tray dehydrator and a top of the line Foodsaver vac packer. Then of course I make sausage and so on.

Unwearable denim jeans are carefully washed and stored. A coworkers wife turns them into patchwork quilts, patchwork lined vests and other goodies. We find things to trade and swap as we both are into chickens and other good things.

So, thats about all I can think of for the moment. Got to get busy doing stuff!

Cheers!

 

[deejaydebi]

Monty -

We don't even want to go into stuff I don't throw away! One of my other hobbies is rebuilding and repairing antique record players, Jukeboxes, pillball machines ans shuffle bowlers. I am designing a 1/5 scale model duck pin bowler.

 

[teacup13]

now reading everybody's posts.... i do some of the same stuff but didnt think about it..lol

Our local Meijer has discount meats everyday, you just have to be there about 6am because it is gone by 7am...

they also have quite often great sales, got some sausage the other day...buy one get two free

with old jeans, we make garden aprons and cook aprons out of them(our flea market item), will post a pic at a later date

 

[deejaydebi]

Monty -

I never have to sign for packages - haven't for years. UPS just leaves stuff by my back kitchen door. USPS they leave it at the front door which is only about 30 feet from the street.

 

[goat]

I am not into saving money as much as I am into getting a quality product. I buy my spices from a local wholesale company. I have never compared prices, but they are fresh, they always have what I want, when I want it. I buy my meat at Sams or at a wholesaler. If I go to Sams, it is early in the morning, (I have a business membership). If there is any meat marked down that I want, I get it. I but whole chuck by the case and cut my own chuck roasts and grind my own hamburger. I will but a whole rib eye roll and cut my steaks from that 1 1/4" thick. I vac seal what I buy in bulk for freshness. I butcher 15 to 20 deer a year and make sausage, jerky, and cutlets. I usually shoot 50 to 60 wild hogs each year and if they are fat, I take the hams and loin from them. We have a small garden. I will go to the farmers market or our local grocery has very good produce.

When I was a kid, we had a huge garden and my mom spent the summer canning fresh vegetables. I know it is good, but with the fresh produce that is available at the grocery store I cannot make myself do much more than some tomatoes and pepper plants.

It doesn't take as much now as in the past. I now have my son out of grad school and gainfully employed at Cryovac, and just me and the little old lady at home.

When I cater, I buy the best meat, name brand canned goods, and fresh fruits and vegetables. I do not want to be known as the cheapest caterer,
just the best.

 

[gunslinger]

This is good guys.
I use plastic concrete test cylinders and lids for dry goods storage. They're cheap, seal very well and they match. They're great for stuff like flour, sugar, beans, rice, whatever. You can get them at any concrete plant. They hold about 10 lbs of flour or sugar. You can wrap them with wall paper border or have the kids paint them. They last for a very long time too.

 

[deejaydebi]

I use the empty plastic Folgers Coffee cans we use at work for flour, sugar, rice and that sort of thing - and they're free.

Personally I like Chock full of Nuts better but I don't run the coffee mess. I use the tin cans for mixing paints, vanishes, stains, nuts and bolts etc.

5 gallon size food buckets I get from the local 99 steak house I use to store brewing grains, 30 pound bags of rice, emergency supplies, like blankets, candles, crank lights and radios ponchos etc., water before empending storms ... Ice melt, sand - a lot of stuff!

 

[teacup13]

hey thanks for the idea of food grade plastic buckets Debi... got a steakhouse about 1/2 block away from my house...

i am getting some brewing stuff together for a first time brew in the next week or so

 

[teacup13]

here was my first attempt at a recycled denim apron

was done on the spur of the moment, just to see if it would actually work out

 

[deejaydebi]

Alright Teacup! You know those gallon buckets make great fermenters too. What are you brewing? I have a small 84 page brewing manual on my site also.

If the bucket had pickles in it (most do) put newspaper in it for awhile and the pickle smell will go away.

Chinese grocery stores are a god source too but they usually charge for the buckets.

 

[linescum]

"We raise chickens too. We're out of the poultry meat business now though. It's just too much. Now if we want chicken, I go get a young one from the flock and that's dinner. My wife sells the eggs. She has brown, white and a new addition, green. Pretty cool."

do you have green hogs for some green ham for those eggs....LOL

 

[linescum]

looks like redneck fashion to me