Baby Steps #2 - Buying Large

Buying Large

Well, this might already seem like an obvious step in being a good steward, but so often we don't think of things that way.  Sometimes it is just easier to buy those crackers in the cute little individual snack packs and rationalize that we don't have TIME to do it any other way.  Truth is we all have the time to do it - if we plan ahead.

Some of the items that I buy in bulk require extra equipment, canning supplies, large freezer, etc, but we can all start small and work our way up.  :o)

Buying Meats:
My family does this big.  A wonderful friend of mine hooked us up with a family farm in Maryland and we get our beef - yes, a whole 1/2 of a cow - for an entire year.  It comes portioned and wrapped and frozen - and at an amazing price.  It is also a grass-fed yearling so it satisfies our new found eating habits as well.

An easier way to buy bulk is to go to a local butcher and ask if they have a discount at a certain level of purchase.  I had done this in the past (prior to the cow thing) - there was a 15% discount for buying $350 of meat at once.  Good deal and I could pick from anything there, chicken, turkey, beef, veal, whatever!  Learn how to best freeze your meats for safety and freshness.

Buying meat in a supermarket is my absolute last resort and rarely happens.   I still do buy my chicken in bulk from the grocery store, but only a particular brand.  The best thing to do when you get it home is portion it off (I do 2 at a time) and seal it either in a ziplock or invest in a great vacuum sealer (I got mine on clearance).  This serves three purposes... the portions are easier to control, the items defrost very quickly because they are separated out and not in one huge lump, and it controls freezer burn.

We have also discovered a new way to do lunch meat!  Now, my husband is a big lover of sandwiches, so I needed to find a solution for that expensive (and frequently unhealthy) sliced deli meat.  This did require the purchase of a deli slicer (but again persevered and found one on clearance).  Instead of paying $7 per pound for deli sliced turkey ham at the store, we buy it by the chunk (Jenny-O makes a nice one) and pay $2.50 per pound!  I have also bought turkey breast (sometimes I can get great sales on this) cook it up, peel it off the bone in a large chunk after it has cooled completely, and sliced it up for deli sliced turkey.  This has been an amazing transformation and we buy this in bulk and freeze it sliced (and vacuum sealed) so it stays fresh and defrosts quickly.

Another key to buying large is knowing what you are paying for a measured amount of whatever.  In the store this is usually represented in a unit cost.  Buying in larger quantities USUALLY gets you a lower unit cost.  You have to shop around, though, since this does not always hold true.  The second problem with buying in bulk is storage.  You must be able to store it and have it stay fresh long enough to eat it.  With most processed foods, this is not a problem since they are loaded with preservatives.  Think about getting some great Tupperware storage containers :o) to store and dispense snack items.  We also break up snack items into individual snack bags and place them in a larger container in our pantry.  This allows the kids to grab a snack for their lunch bag, but you don't have to pay the elevated price for the individually packaged snacks.

To be continued: