How to save Money on Buying Meat
Every day I hear more and more people complaining about the price of groceries. The average American spends about 20% of their grocery budget on meat, and the prices of meat are steadily going up.
The best way to save money on your groceries and specifically meat products is to shop around. If you consistently always buy your meat at the same store every week, odds are good you are paying higher prices than at other places. In order to really see how different meat prices can be, we compared the prices at independent grocery stores, large chain supermarkets, butcher shops, warehouse clubs, and discount stores to see what typical meat prices look like right now.
I checked the prices of all meats on the same day and tried to use comparable options. So, you will notice that we tried to “shop” the exact same products at all stores. I have included screen shots of every store, so you can see that these are not estimates of prices, these were the prices for the week of May 5, 2022.
Is it cheaper to buy meat from a butcher or supermarket?
The 2 most common meats that families are buying in the US is going to be boneless chicken breasts and ground beef. Let’s compare prices from a couple grocery stores and a butcher shop to see who actually sells these items the cheapest.
First let’s start with boneless chicken breasts:
| Store | Price for Boneless Chicken Breasts | Verdict |
| Independent Grocery Store | $3.49 a pound | cheapest for smaller packages |
| Major Chain Supermarket | $2.99 a pound (but have to buy an almost 5lb package for $14.14) | cheapest per pound |
| Butcher Shop | $3.99 a pound (but have to buy a 10 lb bag for $39.99) | highest per pound and per package |
By comparing these three options, the butcher shop is definitely not the cheapest option. Depending on your budget you may be able to afford $14+ dollars for a package of chicken breasts or you may want to go with a smaller amount for a slightly higher per pound price. I have personally had chicken from all 3 locations, and they are all comparable in quality and taste.
Next up, let’s check out ground beef:
| Store | Price for ground beef | Verdict |
| Major Chain 73% ground beef | 1lb fresh: $4.79 a pound 5lb roll: $3.29 a pound ($16.49) | fresh was way more expensive, and even the bigger size roll was more expensive per pound |
| Butcher Shop 73% ground beef | 10lb roll: $2.90 a pound ($29.00) | much cheaper but bigger package |
| Major Chain 80% ground beef | 1lb fresh: $5.49 a pound 5lb roll: $4.39 a pound ($21.99) | fresh was way more expensive, and even the bigger size roll was more expensive per pound |
| Butcher Shop 80% ground beef | 10lb roll: $3.90 a pound ($39.00) | much cheaper but bigger package |
My smaller independent grocery store did not have any sales running on ground beef this week, so we are comparing fresh ground beef, bulk rolls of ground beef, and the rolls found at the butcher shop. Overall, the butcher shop ground beef in both types of 73/23 and 80/20 was much cheaper than at the major chain grocery store.
So far this price comparison of grocery store vs butcher shop is a tie. This may mean that you will need to keep an eye on both places and shop multiple places in order to get the best deal. Prices change all the time, so just because one is cheaper this week, does not mean they will be cheaper next week.
Now overall, a butcher may offer cheaper prices on cuts of meat that aren’t regularly available in your average grocery store. Butcher shops will usually offer higher quality meats like dry aged steaks, but for this article we are focusing on basic meat choices and not high-end meats.
Is meat cheaper at a warehouse store like Costco or Sam’s?
What about warehouse stores like Costco or Sam’s? They have to be cheaper and you buy in bulk so you have to save money right? Well let’s take a look at both stores and see how they compare to the grocery store and the butcher shop.
Boneless Chicken Breasts:
| Warehouse Store | Price for Boneless Chicken breasts | Verdict |
| Sam’s | $2.78 a pound (sold in 8lb packs) | Fantastic price but currently out of stock in store and for delivery |
| Costco | $11.81 a pound (sold in cases of 11lbs for $129.99) | WHAT?!?!?!? I had to triple check the math on this. |
Well at first, I thought I had found the absolute most awesome price for chicken breasts only to find out that Sam’s can’t keep their chicken in stock. Their website even says “Due to high demand,
This item may be unavailable from time to time.” So, while Sam’s appears to have the best price on boneless chicken breasts, you may not be able to buy them when you want them.
Let’s mention here that I was absolutely shocked that Costco only had two options for fresh chicken breasts and that was regular or organic. The price for regular chicken breasts is absolutely crazy and their price for organic wasn’t much better at $149.99 for a 10lb box.
Ok, let’s move on to ground beef prices and hope this works out better:
| Warehouse Store | Ground Beef Prices | Verdict |
| Sam’s 90/10 ground beef | $3.78 a pound (12lb roll for $45.36) | butcher shop was better priced |
| Sam’s 80/20 ground beef | $3.54 a pound (12lb roll $42.48) | best 80/20 ground beef price |
| Costco 85/15 ground beef | $8.33 a pound (12-1lb packages in a box) | seriously?!?!?!?! |
When it came down to prices for ground beef in any percentage, the prices at the warehouse stores were not better than the grocery store. In fact, I am starting to question why people say they save so much money at these warehouse places.
Keep in mind that even if you could find the chicken at Sam’s club to buy, you still have to buy a membership to the store every year. The average cost of a Sam’s club membership is $45 a year for a basic club plan.
I am actually very shocked by the prices at Costco. Not only is a basic membership $120 a year, but their prices are honestly just laughable. I see so many people say they exclusively buy their groceries at Costco, and I am questioning why anyone would do this based on these prices alone.
Is meat cheaper at Aldis or Walmart?
So, after looking at the price comparisons of grocery stores, butcher shop, and warehouse stores, I’m thinking that the discount stores must be a cheaper price, right? Let’s check out our meat prices at Aldi’s and Walmart to see if we can find some good deals.
Boneless Chicken Breasts:
| Discount Store | Chicken Breast Prices | Verdict |
| Walmart | $2.97 a pound (sold in packages containing about 4.7-6.25lbs $15.18) | cheaper than the most |
| Aldi | $1.99 a pound (sold in packages containing approx. 5lbs for $9.99) | We have a hands down winner!!! |
We finally have a winner in the chicken breast category, and it is Aldi’s! The price of $1.99 a pound is a great deal. This is by far much cheaper than anywhere else and this is not a “sale” price, this is a pretty normal price for them.
Let’s see how the discounted stores do for ground beef:
| Discount Stores | Ground Beef Prices | Verdict |
| Walmart 73/27 ground beef | $3.31 a pound (sold in 10lb roll for $33.12) | decent price but butcher shop still wins in lowest price per pound |
| Walmart 80/20 ground beef | $3.87 a pound (sold in 5lb roll for $19.34) | Sam’s had a better price |
| Aldi 73% ground beef | $3.29 a pound (sold in around 5lb packs for $17.70) | decent price but butcher shop still wins in lowest price per pound |
| Aldi 80% ground beef | $4.19 a pound (sold in about 2lb packs for $8.38) | Sam’s had a better price |
I had high hopes for the ground beef prices but was sad to find out neither Walmart or Aldi could beat the butcher shop and Sam’s club prices. The butcher shop price for 73/27 ground beef was just so much better at $2.90 a pound. The Sam’s club price for 80/20 was also much better at $3.54 a pound assuming you already paid for your membership fee.
Loss Leaders
Now you may be wondering why the butcher shop was able to price their 73/27 ground beef at such a lower price than everyone else. This sales strategy is typically referred to as a “loss leader”.
Basically, the butcher shop is offering the 10lb roll of 73/27 ground beef at such a super low price in order to entice the buyer to come into their shop. The butcher shop knows that once you get a buyer in the door, you have a much better chance of buying something in addition to the ground beef.
When was the last time you went into a store and only bought 1 item? It probably does not happen very often. Some people may go to this shop and only buy one item, but more than likely people will buy something else in the store with a higher profit margin while they are there.
How to Save Money on Meat
The trick to saving money is to have enough discipline to go into a store offering a really good deal, and only buy the good deal. If you were to buy the 73/27 ground beef and the chicken breasts from the butcher shop, you would actually end up spending $2.99 a pound for 20lbs of meat ($59.99/20lbs). Versus if you went to Aldi, you would have spent $2.76 a pound for 10lbs of meat ($27.69/10lbs).
It is in our nature to try to get everything at one store, so it makes sense to go ahead and buy from one place rather than stop at multiple stores. If you live in an area where all the different stores are relatively close together, than shopping at multiple stores may not be that big of deal.
If you live more rural like I do, then getting ground beef at the butcher shop 30 miles west of me, and then driving 40 miles south to get the chicken, will probably end up eating all of my savings with gas usage.
The most important take away from this experiment is that you need to be price checking at different stores regularly to really know if a sale or deal is worth it. Meat is a very expensive part of our grocery budget, so we need to try to save as much money when we can.
12 Tips to Save Money on Meat
Here is a quick rundown of my top tips to save money on meat. The prices are going up and up every week, so these are the things that I do to make sure I am not overspending on meat.
- Keep a running list of meat prices – I like to keep all my receipts for groceries and compare them to see if I think prices are going up or if they really are much higher than last month. I have a simple spreadsheet that lists about 50 foods that we buy regularly and the price I paid for them. After you do this for a few months, it will be much easier to spot a good deal.
- Know your sales flyers – the best place to find loss leaders and amazing deals on meat is check the ads for each store. In our area the sales start on Wednesday and ends the following Tuesday. So, every Wednesday, I pull up all my local stores and see what is on sale this week and I use this to help do my meal planning for the week and also for what to stock up on.
- Stock up on Super Good Deals – Now if I was already heading out to the area of town that the butcher shop was at, I would probably stop in and buy two 10lbs rolls of the 73/27 beef. The price of $2.90 a pound is a really great deal right now and 20 lbs of ground beef would probably last us 25-30 meals. So even if we ate ground beef twice a week, those 20lbs would last us about 3 months. Then I know that I don’t have to buy ground beef for the next 3 months!
- Break it down to smaller portions – So how did I get 25-30 meals out of 20lbs of meat? You might be wondering how that math works out. Most of us buy ground meat in about 1lb containers and then we cook it up all at once to make tacos or spaghetti and that is how we portion. I noticed that no one could really tell when I swapped out using a whole pound of ground beef with only using 3/4 of a pound. So now instead of breaking down the 20lb of meat into 20 one-pound portions, I am going to break it up into about 27 portions of about 3/4 of a pound each.
- Invest in a Vacuum Sealer – One of the best investments I have made to save money on groceries is to use a vacuum sealer. We bought a Food Saver brand one a couple of years ago on sale for about $70 and it still works great. We buy off brand vacuum bags that we cut down ourselves to save more money. When I bring home the 20lbs of meat, I am going to go ahead and break it down into smaller portions, and then vacuum seal each portion. I use a marker to label each portion with the date and then put it in the freezer. The great thing about the vacuum sealed bags is that it is very easy to defrost them. If I forget to take them out the night before and put them in the refrigerator to defrost, I can easily just put the whole vacuum sealed bag in a bowl of water. The ground beef in the clam shell type packaging, Styrofoam plate, or the prepackaged rolls take much longer to defrost then the vacuum bags.
- Have a Freezer Inventory List – It is so easy to not remember exactly how much food you have in your freezer, so make a handy checklist. I am not always great about remembering to mark off when I use an item, so when I do my meal planning for the next week, I will go ahead and check off what I used for the last week. I use a fridge magnet and keep the list on the freezer, so I don’t lose track of it.
- Go for Cheaper Cuts of Meat– ground beef comes in many different degrees of fat, and chicken can be bought in thighs, tenderloins, and leg quarters. I have no real loyalty to which cuts of meat I buy. Usually, my decision is made based on how we can cook the meat and the price per pound.
- Think outside the Ground – With the prices of ground beef going up so much, we have started utilizing other ground meat options. We regularly pick up ground chicken, ground turkey, ground pork, sausage, and ground deer meat. When these are on sale for a good price, I will stock up. You can still make all the same dishes that you normally use ground beef for, and they taste just as good. (Pro tip for ground deer: if there is very little fat in the ground deer, combine it with sausage for more fat and it won’t taste dry.) We have recently started making homemade burgers out of ground pork instead of ground beef, and my husband actually thinks the ground pork tastes better than the beef ones!
- Manager’s Specials – Most stores have a small section in their meat department that has Manager Special Deals. These could be items that are coming up on their Sell By date or if they have an overstock of a certain item. We have picked up so many great deals on meat by looking for Manager’s Special. As long as the meat does not look bad, there is no reason that you can’t freeze this meat and use it later if you don’t plan on cooking it right away. We usually find deals on sausage links and bacon too!
- Shop the Frozen Section – since most of the fresh meat that we buy, we portion out and then freeze ourselves, we don’t mind buying meat that is already frozen. Most stores sell chicken breasts and ground beef in a frozen state. These options can be much cheaper than the one in the Meat section. We have tried many different frozen chicken breasts over the years, and some of them are really great. Others we have tried and would only use them in casseroles or crockpot meals because once the chicken was defrosted it did not have a great texture.
- Always shop in your Freezer first– Before I go to the store to buy anything, I am checking out what is already in my freezer. I make my meal plans based on what I already have. If you are buying all the meat for your meal plan every week, then you are at the mercy of whatever the prices are that week. Most weeks I don’t buy any meat at all. I typically only buy meat when it is on sale and then I stock up.
- Three-month sales cycles – most grocery stores work on a 12-week sales cycle, so that means when an item is on sale, it will probably not go on sale again for 3 months. When I stock up on a good deal on meat, I will usually buy enough to last at least 3 months until the next sale. The only time I buy more than 3 months’ worth is if it is an extra super special deal and I know that we will eat that meat for a long time. Most meats will last anywhere from 3 months to a year in the freezer, so make sure you will eat product before it starts to go bad. Using vacuum seal bags will also keep your meat from getting freezer burn and it helps make it last longer.
Saving Money Takes Patience
The true trick to saving money on meat or anything else is to do your research and to know when to buy. When you buy an item because you need it right now, you will have to pay whatever the going rate is at that moment in time.
When you research and are prepared to buy when prices are at their lowest, you can spend the least amount of money and get more for your money.
I should also mention that saving money requires practice. The more I am on the lookout for good deals and do my research, the more I can instantly spot a good deal. I have a running list in my head of how much different items cost, and I use that information to spend as little as possible.
For instance, if I know that I occasionally see boneless chicken prices on sale for $1.69-$1.99 a pound, then I really don’t want to spend more than $2 pound at any given time. Over the years, I have had to adjust this price range due to rising costs.
A few years ago, I could regularly buy chicken breasts on sale for $1.29 a pound, but I haven’t seen that price in a good long time, so I have adjusted it to more recent prices.
For more information about saving money on meat, check out “What Meat is the Cheapest?” Lots of tips and tricks to get the most meat for the smallest price.
With preparation, a little bit of time, and determination you can easily start saving lots of money on meat! Once you buy that meat, if you store it properly and use it, then you won’t have to keep buying meat at the highest of market prices.
Don’t forget that you can make even the cheapest cut of meat taste like a winner with spices! Check out “How to Save Money on Spices” for tips and tricks to saving money and using spices.
