A really good buy is the 10# bag of chicken legs. I separate the thighs from the drumsticks and get out and open a bunch of zip bags. If the legs are on the small side they can be left whole. I put drumsticks together in their own baggie and use these for chicken soup. The thighs usually go in their own baggie and can often fit in a sandwich size bag.
For cooking up chicken to strip off the bone and use in any dish, I boil them right from the freezer in onion soup mix, plus added water and bouillion if needed. When the chicken is done (about 45 minutes to an hour) remove from the broth and set in the fridge to cool off (about 15 minutes) before stripping and cutting into bite size pieces. The broth should be frozen in 2-3 cup containers and can be used as stock to make really good beans.
When pork roast such as butt is on sale (usually for 99 cents/#) save the bone and the meat stuck around it to put in your beans.
Beans: Even if you don't have a bone rescued from a roast, Jenny-o Turkey Ham is only about $2 a pound. You can't tell it from real ham by look or taste. Dice up a thick slice and add during the last 1/2 hour to spilt peas, it's a meal in itself. Beans are cheap and by using the meat off a bone, or cheap, but delicious turkey ham, you have a main dish meal for less.
Rice: Go ahead and get the meat for chili, but be sure to serve it over rice. It goes well with the chili and saves using up the chili too fast.
Kielbasa: $2.50 a ring. Make store brand fried rice. Slice and fry kielbasa rounds with onion and bell pepper. Stir together and serve. Usually I only use half the kielbasa max for one box of fried rice. So you have at least one other meal with the kielbasa, or make a double batch.
Cheap and easy: Boil cabbage, onion, garlic and small potatoes together until tender. Add kielbasa in large pieces and bury it under the cabbage and take off the heat for about 10 minutes, covered. If you let the kielbasa boil, it will split and the juices get into the soup. That sounds good, but the kielbasa itself ends up tasteless. Go easy on the salt until it is ready because the kielbasa will add a lot. The same goes when adding ham to a dish.
Cheap ground sausage: Either make plain stuffing from bread heels (save them for stuffing and meatloaf filler), sauted onion, celery & poultry seasoning. OR, just use store brand stuffing mix, cooked according to directions. I partiicularly like the cornbread. Brown 1/3# of sausage with a small onion and drain. Mix the meat with the stuffing and a 1/2 can of drained mixed vegetables. Put in a small casserole dish and bake 350 for 1/2 hour. If you need more double the recipe. Any more than 1/3# of sausage per box is too much. You can use up to a pound, but it overpowers the flavor of the stuffing.
Liver and chicken livers are cheap too, if you like it.
I hope these ideas help.
