Cheap Meat not Scary Meat

I live in Florida and in the circulars, Beef and Chicken usually runs over $3 a pound currently.

Unless you're me.

Cheap Chicken:

Albertson's consistently has boneless skinless chicken breast on sale at under $2 per pound. If you're buying buy one get one chicken, do the math. It's simple, divide by two. Chicken breast at 4.99 per pound -bogo is $2.50 a pound. If it's in another circular at $1.79/lb, then your better deal is the straight buy, not the bogo.

Set yourself a limit. I won't buy meat at more than $2.50 per pound and my goal is $2/lb or less.
Know how much you need for your recipes. Watch and wait for the sales and freeze like mad.

Example: I'm serving 8-9 people and can make leftover lunches for 2 people. My service goal is 10 servings. My entire family except Steele only likes white meat. Since he's also my gluten-free kid, and loooooves chicken legs when I do chicken I can cook dark separately for him. Most of my chicken breast recipes involve 3lbs of skinless breast. Normal price : 3.99/lb for the tits, 2.69 for the legs. Watch and wait. I won't buy legs unless they are under $1 per pound. I get him the family package of legs and separate that into freezer bags of 2 legs each. One family pack generally yields 4 bags. Count how many is in the flat when you're at the store. Make sure it's an even number unless you're buying two packages. They run about $3.50 per flat. Which is like 88 cents per serving. I wait until I can get boneless skinless breasts for under $2/lb. That's $6 per service for tits. Which is like 70 cents a serving since I'm serving 9 or 86 cents if I'm serving 7. I also have picky eaters, so it's usually a good idea to have a few breasts frozen separately for those who won't eat my main course because of the meat. If your family doesn't care so much about the white/dark issue, keep your eye out for whole fryers. They pop up in sales for under a dollar pretty frequently.

Leg/thigh quarters in a bag:
I've found that in these the leg bones are usually broken. If you can deal, get the deal. I've seen these bags for 50 cents a pound. Don't spend over $1/lb for them. You can get thighs and legs separately for $1/lb without the broken leg issue. Cut them to separate the legs from the thighs or not as you choose, dependent on what your family likes.

Cheap Pork:
Roasts - these are great in a crock pot to make BBQ out of. Or just a pork roast. Since we have a whole lot of people, I rarely do roasts. You have to calculate an extra pound per 5 people due to the fat content and possibly a bone, unless it's a loin roast. Be aware you may need a backup plan in case you don't like any of the cuts. My standard pre cooked weight is 1/3lb per person. If it's heavy, I have spare for work lunches, if it's a little under, I add an extra veggie to the dish to make up for the mini-meat. You can find these for under $2/lb pretty frequently. I see them at least once a month in the circulars.

Pork loin roast:
This is what they make boneless pork chops out of. If you see pork loin roast at 2.19/lb and boneless chops at 3.69/lb start laughing. You can go to the meat-man at any store and have them cut a pork loin roast into pork chops, and you can even request the thickness you desire.
Which means you get boneless chops at 2.19/lb that other fools are buying for a dollar plus more per pound. When you get home, count out how many chops you need per serving and bag & tag those suckers. Again I say : count em in the store. Know how many service packs you will have for meals. Stash a service pack away every once in a while, it will save you when the meat sales suck.

Sometimes the pork loin roast you saw in the circular is the end cuts of a loin roast and not useful for boneless chops. These can be cooked and then chunked and tossed into a salad or rice and veggies or slivered for chinese cooking. I won't pay more than $2 per lb for end cuts.

Economy chops or bone-in chops:
These pop up on buy-one-get-one sales regularly. Remember to adjust your poundage because this cut has a bone in it. Use the same ratio: add a pound for every 5 servings. I'd suggest washing these chops before you freeze them because they tend to have lots of bone meal on them due to the cutting.

Ribs:
These will eat your lunch. When I buy them, I super cheap two other meals that week to absorb the cost. It's due to the bone and gorge issues. They have lots of bone in them and my family tends to want more than the standard 1/3lb pre cooked weight. You can find them in the under $2/lb price every so often. There's no real reason to deny yourself. Just steal from this to do that. Use backup meat for one meal and do a super cheap meal. Plan ahead.

Country ribs:
If you have picky eaters who complain about fat in their meat, this one can be tricky. They have more meat than regular ribs and can be cooked in the same fashion, but they have a high fat content. When I cook these, I have to spend time removing the fat after they're cooked to stop the bitching at the table.

Bacon:
This is a great bogo item. You can find it on sale -non bogo from time to time as well. When you see it, if you can do it, get some. Freeze it and use it when you want to. Make breakfast for dinner. Throw on top of some burgers and look like the coolest mom ever. Toss it on top of a salad and have the kids grin when they find large chunks of bacon in there. Watch the weights. Bacon comes in 12oz packages as well as 16oz packages. If one store has bacon on bogo at 5.00 for 12oz packages and another has 16oz packages for 2.50 each, get the larger package.

Sausage:
It's pretty easy to find sausage or kielbasa at a 2 for $5 rate. It's 2.50/lb but I slice it thin-ish and go under my 1/3lb per person average, but I add extra veggies to make up for the lack.
It's savory and can do lots of stuff, so it's a good fast go-to if you're low on time. It can be found at a 2 for $4 rate, but check the weight. Store brands are usually the same price as name brand on sale, but of heavier weight.