I’ve mentioned before that my local Albertson’s has what I have come to call “remaindered meat”. It’s when the meat is on its last day of “Use By” and the store has to sell it or dumpster it. Since half a (meat)loaf is better than none, they mark it down to either 30% or 50% off to try and blow it out the door. I’ve mentioned this before here , here, and here.
You have to remember, these little sales are, for the most part, completely unpredictable. I could go a week or two without finding something worth buying or I may wind up picking up forty pounds of meat in one week. It’s unpredictable. As a result, when the end of the month rolls around the freezer in my refrigerator might be more than a little full.
A few months back I instituted a policy where all the remaindered meat I pick up goes into the freezer in the refrigerator. At the end of the month, whatever meat is left in the freezer, half of it goes into the big freezer as ‘food insurance’. I’m finding that this little program is working very well for me. When the new month starts I usually have a huge amount of meat still left in the freezer, and my ‘just in case’ supply in the deep freezer keeps improving. As the month progresses, a few more remaindered meat sales wind up in the fridge freezer and at the end of the month half of whats left gets put back.
Today’s score? Bacon wrapped seasoned boneless pork chops, two per tray, in oven-safe foil trays….just remove the plastic and slide ’em into the oven…$5 each marked down 50%, so $2.50. Bought ’em all.
The nice thing is that since it’s all ‘remaindered’ meat, I’m not paying full price for anything. Even if there are no interesting sales for a week or two, there’s still at least that much worth of ‘remaindered’ meat in fridge freezer. As a result, I never have to pay $4.99/# for beef. This frees up money for other stuff, which is part of what survivalism is all about: efficient resource management. I know what you’re thinking “There’s nothing survival related about this! This is a post more fit for a mommy blog about coupon clipping!” No, not really. My point is that you have to eat. Now, you can eat as cheaply as possible by living on a diet of, literally, beans and rice which is exactly what many Third World denizens do. But you are not a Third Worlder. We are meat-eating, gun-toting, flag-waving, moon-landing, Japan-nuking, culture-dominating citizens of the premier First World country. Why live like a Third Worlder if you don’t have to? If you can procure $500 a month worth of food for $250, that frees up $250 to spend on ammo, gear, guns, books, radios, fuel, storage food, knives, gold, silver, etc. And that is most definitely survival-related.
Nice idea
We freeze ours fist then a day or two later take it back our frozen and vacuum seal
Will last longer that way with less freezer burn
Our local mart won’t allow haggling over “old” meat, darnit. Is there a spot in your big freezer for vacuum-packed whole coffee beans? All that protein need some good java to wash it down.
Coffee beans (whole or ground) and liquor are my two go-to’s for long term storage and barter. In a post-collapse scenario, there will still be plenty of people jonesing for a fix of caffeine and alcohol–especially given the stress of the situation.
I just wish tobacco stored better.
I probably ought to write a blogpost about this…
I bought a pressure canner, and when I find remaindered meat, I can it. I cook it in the skillet first, jar it up, and can it. The pressure canner is necessary to prevent botulism spores from killing you.
It appears we’re like minded…
You can pressure can it raw – tastes the same. Some years ago we did an experiment of canning half the beef chunks raw, & the other half fried. No difference in taste or texture, but less work. Doesn’t work for ground meat – that has to be cooked first.
Raw pack doesn’t need liquid added, but you can if you want to. The processing time is the same as for cooked meat.
I call it the “cut outs bin”, in memory of the old record store practice.
At our grocery store they are known as “Woohoo’s” (I didn’t name them). I have started practicing what you’ve been preaching for so long. It does save more dineros for the fun stuff, and if you only buy the stuff you would actually eat, you get a benefit of good eats too.
as a result of reading Commander Zero for quite a while now, we procured a vacuum sealer from Costco. Will now start rotating the meat.
Does adding the old style freezer paper protect from freezer burn better than just plastic wrap? Seems like it does so I usually put a couple sheets of newspaper around it just to feel better.
Have you ever gotten ill from eating any remaindered meat? I’m guessing freezing would take care of any surface-dwelling critters on the meat–a quick freeze is how they prepare the raw fish at a sushi bar. Still, I’ve bought meat from the butcher that sat in my fridge for a couple days, and when unwrapped it definitely smelled a few degrees south of fresh.
The thought of dealing with food-borne illness in a SHTF scenario would make me think twice about relying on post-fresh meat for my storage staple. That’s just me, though.
I have been living exclusively off ‘remaindered meat’ for several years. Our local chain market has a bin with ‘managers specials’ which I cruise through a couple of times a week. Price reduction is typically 30% or 50%. Unless I want a particular cut, I stick with the 50% items.
Over the years I have had only one item that was ‘bad’, some boneless pork chops. they had a bad smell upon defrosting so they went into the trash.
I cycle through the meat I store and discard it after a year. Usually this seldom happens, as we use items that approaching that date.
The best remainders are beef; roasts, steaks, chopped steaks. I seldom buy processed items like kabobs or pre-seasoned patties.
Best buys in pork is loins, roasts and bone-in chops.
I’m not kidding when i say you are an inspiration, Commander Zero.