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Wondering how to stock up on meat, and stay within a budget? We just found a great deal on bulk meat and I wanted to show you what we found, how much we paid, and how we stored it all.
Thinking about stocking up on meat? We like to have a lot of meat on hand in the freezer to make freezer meals, and to be prepared for the unexpected.
This year has had it’s uncertainties, and when we saw the grocery stores near empty a few months back, we realized we didn’t have as much food stocked up as we would like.
We found a great deal on a lot of meat, and now we are stocked up for a long time!
Stocking Up On Meat: How We Got 150 Lbs of Meat for $300
Since we have been married the past 6 years, I have always tried to buy food ahead and stock up. I enjoy shopping sales and markdowns, and try to buy things I know we will eat, especially when I find a great stock up price.
We were getting a little low on meat, and I wanted to find a way to get a large amount of quality meat, and at a really great stock up price.
How did we find a stock up deal on meat?
We considered buying a portion of a cow from a local farmer, or trying the farmer’s markets, but I wasn’t sure the best route to go.
I asked in our local community’s Facebook group for recommendations on where to buy meat in bulk for a great price. There were suggestions for local farmer’s that sell 1/4, 1/2, or a whole cow. Some suggestions the local farmer’s market.
And then someone suggested a local butcher shop. I started following the butcher shop’s Facebook page to see when they posted new deals.
And one day, they posted a Deep Freezer Box deal offering a 7 cubic foot chest freezer and 150 pounds of meat to fill it up for $559.
We thought it was the perfect deal for us! We needed another small freezer, and the meat selection was a great variety and things we will eat. And of course, it was a great price!
What did we get in this deal?
- Ground Beef: 20 lbs
- Sausage: 20 lbs
- Boneless Chicken Breast: 10 lbs
- Boneless Chicken Tenders: 10 lbs
- Pork Roast: 10 lbs
- Country Ham: 5 lbs
- Sirloin Steak: 5 lbs
- Pork Chops: 10 lbs
- Drumsticks: 5 lbs
- Country Style Ribs: 10 lbs
- Chicken Thighs: 10 lbs
- Beef Chuck Roast: 2.5 lbs
- Frozen French Fries: 10 lbs
- and a 7 cubic foot chest freezer!
I knew it was going to be a lot of food, but it seemed like even more when we got home and unpacked it all!
How many servings of meat did we get?
I went ahead and repacked everything into portion sizes that will work for the two of us. That way, I can easily grab what I need for each dinner and we don’t waste any or have too many leftovers.
I packaged everything into two person portions in freezer bags. The ground beef and sausage were already frozen and packaged into 1 lb portions, so I left those. And the pork roast, I froze whole as I will most likely cook those in the crockpot to make BBQ that we can freeze.
Once I had everything repackaged, I counted the bags and servings we had of each meat.
Here’s the servings I counted and guessed:
- Ground Beef: 40 meals for the 2 of us (usually use 1/2 lb at each meal)
- Sausage: 40-80 meals or more for the 2 of us (I usually get 8 sausage patties out of 1 lb of sausage, which would be 160 sausage patties if we use it all for patties.)
- Chicken Breast: 14 servings for the 2 of us
- Chicken Tenders: 14 servings for the 2 of us
- Pork Roast: 30-40 servings for the 2 of us (We got 2 huge pork roasts, that I will most likely cook in the crockpot and will make 30-40 BBQ sandwiches total.)
- Country Ham: 12 servings for the 2 of us (I cut this into small portions to make ham biscuits, or serve with scrambled eggs. The bone portions I put in a freezer bag to season soups, baked beans, or green beans.)
- Sirloin Steak: 8 servings for the 2 of us (We got 8 large steaks, and we usually split a large steak and have multiple sides to keep this more frugal.)
- Pork Chops: 16 servings for the 2 of us (1 pork chop each)
- Drumsticks: 5 servings for the 2 of us (2 drumsticks each)
- Country Style Ribs: 9 servings for the 2 of us (about 2-4 large ribs each)
- Chicken Thighs: 11 servings for the 2 of us (1 large thigh each – not sure how I will serve or cook these yet.)
- Beef Chuck Roast: 3 servings for the 2 of us (We got one large roast, and I divided it into 3 portions for crockpot roast or stew.)
- and 10 lbs of french fries to serve alongside some meals (We have a lot of frozen garden vegetables, so we should be set on most sides, too!)
So, all in all, we got about 215 servings for the 2 of us, or 430 individual servings of meat!
The whole deal was $559, and they were selling the meat only for $299. So, rounding up to $300, and dividing that by the 215 meals we will get from this meat, that comes out to $1.40 per serving of meat for the 2 of us. Or, 70 cents an individual serving of meat!
If we can keep our sides under $2 for each meal, we will enjoy many meals under $3.50! And if we use the fries we got with the deal, or the vegetables from our garden, our meals will be under $1.50! For the 2 of us!
Pretty awesome, right?! I get excited when I do the math and breakdown the cost to see how frugal this is.
How did we store all this meat in the freezer?
I put each kind of meat in a separate reusable grocery bag in the chest freezer. For an upright freezer, you can use bins or just stack the meat.
But in a chest freezer, meat can easily get lost in the bottom of the freezer and never eaten. With the reusable grocery bags, I have everything organized by meat type and I can easily lift each bag out to find what I need.
Here’s a look inside our chest freezer with the reusable bags full of each type of meat:
And this is our upright freezer with freezer meals, extra bread, sides, and our garden vegetables:
Where can you find a stock up deal on meat?
Well, if you happen to be in the Middle Tennessee area, check out The Butcher Shopp in Pulaski, TN where we got this deal.
And if not, I suggest asking in local community FB groups for recommendations. You may find a farmer who is selling 1/4, 1/2, or a whole cow or pig. Or check out local farmer’s markets and talk to the farmers about a bulk order.
If you aren’t ready to buy such a large amount, always be on the lookout for meat sales at grocery stores and markdown meat that is close to expiring. You can check multiple grocery store chains in your area to see what each store offers. Look at the sales ad each week for meat deals, and always pay close attention to the sales on the front page of the ad – those are usually the very best deals.
I hope this was fun to see how we stocked up on meat at a really great price! Hopefully you can find a deal to stock up on meat and fill your freezer, too.
I love having extra food on hand to make freezer meals, and just in case we weren’t able to buy food for some reason, I know we would be able to eat well.
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