Carrie emailed in the following tip:
Recently, I bought two whole chickens for $0.98 per pound and was able to feed my family (three adults) four meals! I took three of the breasts off of the bone to use for a future meal. I used two thighs, two wings, four legs, and one breast to make fried chicken. I took two thighs and all of the meat/bones from the back and breast to freeze for a later use.
Here were the four meals I made from two whole chickens:
Meal 1 = Fried Chicken
Meal 2 = leftover fried chicken for lunch
Meal 3 = General Tso chicken with the three breasts
Meal 4 = Chicken and noodles using the thighs and all of the little bits of meat off of the bonesI also bought a whole ribeye the other day for $4.29/lb, and, with a little time and planning, we were able to eat several high-quality beef meals for a very low cost. We cut our ribeye into: 14 steaks, 1 lbs. of scraps for three steak sandwiches, and .75 lb. scraps for stir-fry
When I buy pork butts I will usually have the butcher cut off a three pork steaks for me and then I take rest of pork butt and braise it for more meals. You can braise pork and freeze it in small cooked portions with some of the broth for future meals like: Pork and rice, BBQ pork, and Chinese food. Depending on the size of the pork butt I can get anywhere from four or five meals!
I have been able to reduce the cost of the meals in my house by almost half with a little planning and work on my own part. -Carrie
Note from Crystal: If your family is willing to have less meat at each meal, Laura posted about how she stretched one chicken into six meals for her family!
Do you have a fun and frugal DIY idea to share? I’d love to hear about it! Read the submission guidelines and submit it 
