Before Mark came along, I was nearly a vegetarian.  But Mark is a carnivore ---  if he doesn't get his red meat at least once a week, he goes stir crazy.  In fact, I've found that farm work goes a lot faster if I feed him meat at least every other day.

So, how do you put a chicken in every pot during a recession?  Head to your grocery store and check out the reduced meat section.  If you get there soon after a batch of meat has been marked down, you can bring home quite a haul for as low as a dollar a pound.  Toss it all in the freezer immediately and you can thaw it out at your leisure for the rest of the week.  It is perfectly safe to eat reduced meat as long as you don't let it sit around in your fridge for another few days first.

Finding reduced meat can turn your grocery store schlep into a fun adventure.  We've discovered that reduced meat is most copious around holidays like the Fourth of July and Thanksgiving, but you can also talk to the guy behind the meat counter and find out when he's likely to mark meat down.  I estimate that we save about $200 to $300 on meat every year by catching bargains.