Saving on Lunches (lunch meat)

Lunch meat is not one of my favorite things to eat. When I’m pregnant and not supposed to eat it, I then, of course, have cravings for it. Lunch meat definitely isn’t the healthiest thing to eat. It’s usually full of nitrates and preservatives and have you ever really sat down to think about what bologna is made out of? The “cheap” stuff I saw at a local grocery store the other day was running about $8 a lb. I don’t even want to know what the good stuff at the Whole Foods store is selling for these days! What are your options besides PB&J when your kids want lunch meat but your pocket book is saying “ouch!!”? There are two ways that I have thought of that will save you money and hopefully get you some smiles from your kids.

First, in the section where they sell the pre-packaged meats you can sometimes find hunks of lunch meat that aren’t cut up already. This is a cheaper option; however, you have to make sure you can actually slice it thin enough to be cost effective. If you see this as a good option, I would invest in a small, counter top meat slicer similar to the ones at the deli.

Second, cook your own lunch meat. I was at said supermarket the other day and decided to browse through the meat clearance section. This section, if offered at your market, is a great way to get meat at up to 50% off. I spied a roast that cost $17.00 (about $4.50/lb) that was discounted 50% since it was only two days from its sell by date. I did the math and figured that if I cooked this for our lunches it would cost about $2.25/lb or about a fourth of what the deli counter was selling their roast beef for. I love roast beef but can hardly ever justify paying $8-9/lb at the deli counter. I took the meat home, cooked it up according to directions and while it was still pretty hot, I took a very sharp knife and cut slices as thinly as possible. Now, if I had a meat slicer I could have used that instead and gotten even smaller slices, but as it was I figured since the slices are a bit thicker than the deli counters’ I would only need to put one layer on a sandwich instead of two or more and therefore I was still probably coming out ahead. I divvied the meat into four freezable containers since I have no idea how much we’ll go through in a week and I certainly don’t want any to go to waste.

If you have a big freezer or a big family, you can really stock up on clearance meat especially after the holidays. Turkeys tend to go on clearance after Thanksgiving, hams after Easter. You just have to keep your eyes opened for sales and other specials.