What are your frugal and sustainable tips and tricks?

[gtaus]

Save Money On Chicken Feed

With the increased price in chicken feed, I am always looking for ways to save money.

This past week, I was in our local Fleet store, and I always check to see if they have any broken bags of feed on discount. My store calls it an "Oops" tag discount if the bag gets ripped. Well, I found a bag of layer feed set aside from the others because it had ripped on the seam. There was no discount tag on it yet, so I asked the guys in the department if they still gave out a 25% discount for those broken bags.

The guy told me it depends on how much was spilled out, but that is not really true. Anyway, he looks at the bag and offers me 20% off, which I accept. I have a pretty good idea if any feed was spilled, or not, just by looking at the bag, but also looking around the feed pallet to see if any feed has been spilled on to the other bags. It was clean around the pallet.

When I got the feed bag home, I weighed it at 50# on my scale, so I got a full 50# bag of feed for 20% off! Well, that plus I used my store Gift Card which I purchased at an initial 10% off.

I am currently feeding all flock feed to my chickens right now because I have a new group of young hens I just added to my coop. They cannot start eating layer feed until after 19 weeks old, which makes it about 20 September for my chicks. So, I had to store that layer feed for a while.

I transfer all my feed into 5-gallon buckets and put a lid on them. The feed stays fresh a lot longer than sitting in the bag, and the plastic bucket keeps out any mice or other varmints from chewing the bag to get the feed.

As an Inside Track Member, I usually get my 5-gallon buckets for free at Harbor Freight with a purchase of any item. Harbor Freight has those weekend bucket sales about every 3 months. That's a great deal. However, if you are not a member, they are having sales on those buckets for about a week...

Those buckets are stamped with a food safe code. That is nice. Lids are extra, unfortunately, but I have a number of lids for my feed storage and just reuse them.

A big advantage to me using these 5-gallon buckets is that each bucket can hold 25# of feed. It is so much easier for me to carry a 25# bucket of feed with a handle than it is to wrestle with a 50# bag of feed without handles to grab on to.

The buckets are also easy to stack. I might have 3 or 4 buckets stacked high if I buy feed on a special sale. I keep all my feed inside my garage. If I have to move the buckets around in the garage, I like to put a dolly underneath each stack. I just bought another 4 dollies from Menards that are sale this week...

Those dollies are regular priced at about $11.98, so if you are interested in something like that, try to get them fast before the sale is gone. Still have a couple days left...

 

[igorsMistress]

I got $2 off each bag of feed I bought today, which means one of the chicks I bought was free. Coupon was on the chick carrier, courtesy of Nutrena.

I’ve found that the feed stores are becoming a little more competitive with big box stores like TSC here. If we buy our dog food at the feed store our 12th bag is always free. That’s a big savings for us, and it’s not any more expensive there than ordering from Chewy. We have three large dogs so we go through a lot of food.

Chewy sends us $30 off coupons pretty regularly. In the long run that’s half a bag of dog food that’s free. We usually stock up on balls for the dogs and pill pockets for medication that one of our dogs takes daily. Wish I could just do peanut butter but it makes my girl sick so pill pockets it is.

 

[gtaus]

I got $2 off each bag of feed I bought today, which means one of the chicks I bought was free. Coupon was on the chick carrier, courtesy of Nutrena.

Where did you find out about that sale/promo? I cannot remember seeing any promotions like that where I live. Or do you mean that the coupon was printed on the box you got your chick(s)?

 

[igorsMistress]

Where did you find out about that sale/promo? I cannot remember seeing any promotions like that where I live. Or do you mean that the coupon was printed on the box you got your chick(s)?

Yes, attached to the box I brought the chicks home in, but it’s sponsored by Nutrena. The coupon is for that brand, I feed the all flock pellets so it was a win for me. The girl applied it to each bag of feed, I bought three bags; also got the three chicks at $6 each so one of the chicks was free.

 

[gtaus]

Yes, attached to the box I brought the chicks home in, but it’s sponsored by Nutrena. The coupon is for that brand, I feed the all flock pellets so it was a win for me. The girl applied it to each bag of feed, I bought three bags; also got the three chicks at $6 each so one of the chicks was free.

That was a nice deal, especially if you already buy that brand of feed.

I normally buy the cheapest feed brand at our Fleet store, but every once in a while, the higher priced feed goes on sale for less money. I have no idea if the higher priced feed is actually better or not.

One thing I have never done is to buy the "organic" feed at our Fleet store because it costs almost twice as much. We sell our excess eggs, but I doubt if we could get twice the price for a dozen if we only feed organic feed to our chickens. Maybe, but I doubt it.

FYI, our chicks here normally cost around $3.00 each. Maybe some exotic breeds special ordered would be $6.00 each, but not the common breed chicks I get for my backyard flock. Are you normally paying $6.00 per bird for common breeds?

When I first got chicks, many, many years ago, they were less than $1.00 each. I know that does not mean anything to anybody now, but it's just something I reflect upon as I get older.

 

[Sally PB]

One thing I have never done is to buy the "organic" feed at our Fleet store because it costs almost twice as much. We sell our excess eggs, but I doubt if we could get twice the price for a dozen if we only feed organic feed to our chickens. Maybe, but I doubt it.

Even if you switch to all organic feed, you cannot label your eggs as organic. They must have eaten organic since hatch, and there are other restrictions as well. Like they can't ever have been in a coop with treated lumber.

As much as I prefer organic produce for myself, I don't feed my chickens organic feed. Any produce and weeds they get from my garden are organic, but that's not their main food.

 

[Sally PB]

Just going to toss this out, as it's something we started doing.

We have tacos on Tuesday (like half the country!) and often again during the week, but recently I've made up the taco meat differently.

1 pound of hamburger, brown it, drain the grease, and add seasonings of your choice. 1 can of black beans, drained, stirred in.

1 # of burger is anywhere from $5 to nearly $7, depending on how lean it is, and where I get it. A can of black beans is about a dollar.

Now I have 2# of taco meat for $6-8, so $3-4 a pound. 2# is a lot of taco meat for us, so it lasts for several meals of tacos and/or burritos.

Hubby made this suggestion. I thought he didn't like beans, but he said he likes black beans.

Who are you and what have you done with my husband? You're telling me this after 35 years of marriage? Ok, so it's been about 5-10 years of taco Tuesday.

 

[CatInTheHenHouse]

1 pound of hamburger, brown it, drain the grease, and add seasonings of your choice. 1 can of black beans, drained, stirred in.

Do you save the grease for anything? I save my burger and bacon grease to make suet cakes for the bird feeder. It’s a bit cheaper than buying ready made ones and I can customize the seed mix so the starlings don’t take it over.

 

[igorsMistress]

That was a nice deal, especially if you already buy that brand of feed.

I normally buy the cheapest feed brand at our Fleet store, but every once in a while, the higher priced feed goes on sale for less money. I have no idea if the higher priced feed is actually better or not.

One thing I have never done is to buy the "organic" feed at our Fleet store because it costs almost twice as much. We sell our excess eggs, but I doubt if we could get twice the price for a dozen if we only feed organic feed to our chickens. Maybe, but I doubt it.

FYI, our chicks here normally cost around $3.00 each. Maybe some exotic breeds special ordered would be $6.00 each, but not the common breed chicks I get for my backyard flock. Are you normally paying $6.00 per bird for common breeds?

When I first got chicks, many, many years ago, they were less than $1.00 each. I know that does not mean anything to anybody now, but it's just something I reflect upon as I get older.

Yeah, the chicks were way cheep back in the day

Nutrena isn’t the cheapest or most expensive here, but it’s a brand that I can get all flock in pellets instead of crumble. I need the all flock because I have ducks and chickens and I prefer not to give the roosters extra calcium they don’t need.

 

[fuzzi]

Just going to toss this out, as it's something we started doing.

We have tacos on Tuesday (like half the country!) and often again during the week, but recently I've made up the taco meat differently.

1 pound of hamburger, brown it, drain the grease, and add seasonings of your choice. 1 can of black beans, drained, stirred in.

1 # of burger is anywhere from $5 to nearly $7, depending on how lean it is, and where I get it. A can of black beans is about a dollar.

Now I have 2# of taco meat for $6-8, so $3-4 a pound. 2# is a lot of taco meat for us, so it lasts for several meals of tacos and/or burritos.

Hubby made this suggestion. I thought he didn't like beans, but he said he likes black beans.

Who are you and what have you done with my husband? You're telling me this after 35 years of marriage? Ok, so it's been about 5-10 years of taco Tuesday.

Ever think about adding rice? My adult son makes himself a large batch of rice and black beans, then stores it in individual meal sized containers so he doesn't have to cook during the week. Not sure if he makes burritos/tacos with it, but it's fairly cheap and definitely healthy eating.