How to stretch your pantry/fridge

[EastTNHunter]

Been using chicken thighs in some recipes instead of chicken breast. Smoking and grilling larger portions and making leftovers or recipes from the pulled pork. We also eat about 6 deer per year as a family, and I butcher over half of my own deer

 

[Addicting]

and I butcher over half of my own deer

What do you do with the other less than half? Or which half do you butcher?

Lol, sorry I couldn’t help it.

 

[EastTNHunter]

What do you do with the other less than half? Or which half do you butcher?

Lol, sorry I couldn’t help it.

Touche’… life gets busy, and/or I want to get back into the woods for my limited hunting time, so I take some of my deer to a local USDA certified meat shop. Not to be confused with a deer processor. I still have to skin the deer and take head and hooves off, I have that down to a science that only takes a few momentos

 

[Sask hunter]

Manage a grocery store so you can know the sales ahead of time lol. That helps me a lot almost everything I buy is on sale. We are trying gardening this year it’s not going well but eventually we will learn. I already process all my own meat. Cut and wrap here is .85-1$ a pound plus sausage on top of it. An elk will dress 300-500 poubds so the cut and wrap alone saves a lot plus being able to do sausage and whatever grinding you need. Watch for blow out on close dated meat or cheap produce that’s a little banged up

 

[mtmuley]

Another thing I like to add to my breakfast to mix it up is pork Chorizo. It's cheap to begin with, and it only takes about two ounces to add a ton of flavor to anything you cook in a skillet.

I throw a couple ounces of chorizo in a pan and cook for @ two minutes until it just starts to brown and releases it's fat. Toss in half a diced green pepper and some cubed (already baked) potato, coating in that lovely orange grease. Cover for a couple minutes untouched. Stir and push to the edge of the pan to let it finish. In the center fry a couple of eggs to your preference. If you're a rich MF and have sour cream and chives toss some on top. haha

Yes! Me too. mtmuley

 

[Potsie]

Venison chorizo is just as good.

 

[Stocker]

We kill a steer every year for the freezer and have neighbors with hogs we buy as well. We’re pretty blessed on the meat front of things.

Looking through this tread kind of made me reconsider some thoughts I’ve had about Nebraska deer tags. Legally my wife and I could kill 2 bucks each along with 4 does each. We don’t kill does for 2 reasons. The population is way down right now and we are fortunate enough not to need to. I’ve been against the doe tag thing for years, $8 for a river antlerless as a resident, and I think it’s $16 for a unit. But now there’s a pretty decent chance that it could fill someone’s freezer to keep meat on their family’s table year round. It’s just too bad it’s been so overused in the past that now we don’t have the population to utilize the resource to its fullest.

Boomerang effect is in full swing just like it always has been. 1950’s everyone gardens, 1980’s, TV dinners are easier, 2010’s everyone thinks they’ve reinvented how to eat with their “local produce”. Everyone did that 60-70 years ago, we’re just figuring out that in order for a reliable source we have to again. No different than hunting, it goes in waves. It’s the new fad to harvest “organic sustainable meat”. It’ll go away in a decade or so when people decide they wanna eat meat made from a lab, then they’ll be protesting hunters and fur again as murder. History repeats itself and anyone who says otherwise is a fool.

 

[220yotekiller]

My wife is awesome about canning. She makes all of our own bread, She buys fresh fruit and veggies and then she cans everything. Pay attenton to the radio as they will often have sale advertsments from local stores. Farmers markets are great to. She usually has a big garden but she got a bad batch of soil and her garden isn't so hot this year. She has a friend who lives out on a ranch and they went into a partnership to grow potatoes. We shoot probably 95% of the meat that we eat. I load almost all of our ammo and that saves quite a a bit. She also boils all of the leg bones to make her own stock, we havn't bought stock in 2 years. She makes a lot of the boy's shirts as well. We buy beans, rice, and pasta in bulk and keep them in mouse proof containers. My old pastor grew up in the depression and he had a saying, "Get all you can, can all you get, then sit on the lid. But don't for get to share."

 

[Rainer]

What I do with some of my left over herbs, peppers or garlic is to make compound butters with them. I roll them up with parchment paper and keep them in the freezer. I then cut some off for a steak or mix some in with some pasta.

 

[Nick87]

Just trying to cook most of your meals at home is huge, I think a lot of us on here do it, but I'm shocked how many people I know eat out for 5+ meals a week.

Seriously! I've thought the same with people who make the exact same I do like how do you afford that? Dining out is ridiculously expensive. Other than pizza or McDonald's for the kids out of convenience. The wife and I might go out 3 to 5 times a year to eat.

 

[Nick87]

Buy a half of steer for the freezer every year and raise our own pigs. Comes out cheaper than meat from a store and is better. Also a couple deer sized game usually in there as well. Wife does almost all our grocery shopping on line from like 3 main stores so she price checks everything and sort of has it dialed in what staples to get from each place. She says it saves a lot. Also doing it online and sticking to the list helps from any impulse purchases. She hates when I go to the store because I'm not near as thrifty as her. I'll go out to get a case of beer and come back with 2 bags of $100 worth of snacks and be like "I got the good shit that mom never buys!" To the kids. Good thread btw.

 

[Potsie]

Seriously! I've thought the same with people who make the exact same I do like how do you afford that? Dining out is ridiculously expensive. Other than pizza or McDonald's for the kids out of convenience. The wife and I might go out 3 to 5 times a year to eat.

Does a Papa Murphy’s for Friday night pizza and a movie count as “going out?”

 

[Nick87]

Does a Papa Murphy’s for Friday night pizza and a movie count as “going out?”

Yup.

 

[Nick87]

We usually try to designate one night a week to leftover night.

 

[IDFireLass]

What about your flour, sugar and rice in bulk? Anyone doing that? 5 gallon buckets with gama lids are a good deal. But! If doing that you need to add one stick (has to be) double mint gum left in the wrapper in your dry goods to keep the weevil out. You can also use bay leaves to stop weevil too. Also any boxed items cake mixes, pasta if holding for a long time just cut a slit in the box and add the double mint gum then tape up the slit.

 

[Lilhowie83]

What about your flour, sugar and rice in bulk? Anyone doing that? 5 gallon buckets with gama lids are a good deal. But! If doing that you need to add one stick (has to be) double mint gum left in the wrapper in your dry goods to keep the weevil out. You can also use bay leaves to stop weevil too. Also any boxed items cake mixes, pasta if holding for a long time just cut a slit in the box and add the double mint gum then tape up the slit.

We do all the above. We also do a big assortment of dry beans and wheat. I've never heard of the double mint gum trick I'll have to try it. On all of our beans and wheat we use Diatomaceous Earth to keep the weevil out.

 

[TOGIE]

here's a fun tangent, what is the cheapest way to eat out?

back in my single days in denver i did several like 2-3 months stints of unemployment. some of the best days of my life. what i would give to be single and unemployed again. it only worked cause i was a great saver tho and living in a house with three other dudes with great rent.

anyway, i had started keeping a spreadsheet of the best calorie per dollar restaurants during those times. while 90% of what i ate was costco chicken nugggets, costco frozen veggies, and costco chicken breasts i still liked to eat out like once a week.

so i kept tabs on where my dollar went furthest in restaurants. i don't have that spreadsheet anymore, but i believe Little Caesars $5 hot and ready pepperoni pizza took home the gold on best calories per dollar.

well, nutrients per dollar? bad. calories per dollar? really damn good.

 

[longbow51]

Seriously! I've thought the same with people who make the exact same I do like how do you afford that? Dining out is ridiculously expensive. Other than pizza or McDonald's for the kids out of convenience. The wife and I might go out 3 to 5 times a year to eat.

I know folks, and I'll bet @mtmuley knows tons more who build $40,000 kitchens and cook twice a year.

 

[mtmuley]

I know folks, and I'll bet @mtmuley knows tons more who build $40,000 kitchens and cook twice a year.

I know of a kitchen with a range that was 80K. mtmuley

 

[Kaitum]

here's a fun tangent, what is the cheapest way to eat out?

Two places I frequented in college: one place had $0.10 wings every Tuesday, the other offered free pizza during happy hour (beers were $1). Haven't come close to those cost savings since.

One cost savings we've done is to buy the family pack of pork chops at Costco and then repackage them into vacuum sealed packets for 2 when we get home. The price per pound usually works out well.