A meal isn’t a meal without meat: without meat it’s a side salad. Or at least that’s how I feel about it. About the only vegetarian meal my wife can sneak past me is quiche, although even then I prefer one with ham or chicken.
These days most decent sized townships have a bulk butcher where you can purchase either bulk packs or sides of beasts. I personally don’t like the bulk packs, with their assorted cuts. I’m not fussed on sausage mince rissoles and the like. But it depends on your tastes.
We often buy cuts like best quality rump steak in buy lots from a local butcher. Because we’re buying so much we get a decent discount. In fact, it’s often cheaper than similar budget cuts at the supermarket.
What we’ve found a great help with our grocery bill is buying mince in bulk. Through a friend of a friend, every six months or so we get the opportunity to buy a bulk lot of high grade mince. Although the cost is about the same as we’d pay in the supermarkets, with so much less fat we can cook a meal with less mince. We usually buy in 20kg lots and freeze in 300g packs (we can use multiple packs for bigger dishes).
300grms?! The way my four boys eat that would barely satisfy them each!! And 9kgs of potatotes may last just over a week.. And then they STILL go looking for something to eat.. You are just lucky your younger 4 are still young and that you only have one more male appetite to deal with! lol 🙂 One of my mates from work was telling me about his two teenage 17 & 20 boys caught snacking on the dog bones that they pre-cook and keep in the fridge… nothing is sacred!
LOL we eat a lot of pasta and rice as well, lostangel. And like I said, multiple packs when necessary.