Save big on sandwich meats

Is the cost of your brown-bag lunch getting you down? Here's a way to make those sandwich meats both cheaper and tastier: Roast your own.

"Don't waste your precious grocery money on lunch meat," says Amy Allen Clark in her new book, "The Good Life for Less" (Perigee, $15).

Allen roasts a whole gobbler every two weeks to provide sandwich fillings for her family. "Once you have a turkey sandwich like this, all of that processed lunch meat won't taste as good and you will never go back," says Allen, who blogs at  MomAdvice.com.

Equally important: "You'll save between three and seven dollars a pound, depending on your turkey and deli prices."

Not that you have to limit yourself to turkey.

A friend of mine regularly buys on-sale whole or half hams and slices the meat thin for sandwiches. Most of it goes into the freezer. At this time of year you'll see some very good ham prices; even up here in Anchorage it can currently be had for as little as $1.49 a pound.

Spiral-cut hams are pricier but have the advantage of being sliced already. Cutting turkey or ham does take some practice; a very sharp carving knife or an electric knife will make it easier to cut thin slices.

A reader of the Frugal Village website forums reports that the local supermarket will slice half or whole hams for free. Ask if your grocer will do this. (Make sure to get the bone, too, for soup.)

More for your money
Another FV reader says she grills a chicken breast every Sunday, slices it up and makes sandwiches on flatbread with olive-oil mayonnaise, mustard and pickles. "Very healthy: low-fat and no hydrogenated oils."

Frugal tip: Whole birds are cheaper per pound than chicken breasts. Eat the rest of the meat for supper or chop it up for chicken salad, then make soup stock from the bones and defatted pan juices.

Whole turkeys are cheaper than turkey breast, too. Once you've cut off and frozen the cooked breast meat (author Clark keeps it moist by adding chicken broth to the freezer bag), you've got the rest of the bird for meals plus the pan juices and bones to turn into soup stock. Or you could make dark-meat sandwiches, rather than eating that part of the turkey for dinner.

Finally, a reader on The Dollar Stretcher website suggests cooking beef for sandwiches -- either making a larger-than-usual roast with plenty of leftovers, or roasting an extra one in the oven or slow cooker.

"The bonus is that home-cooked roasts do not have the added water and salt of deli meats, so you get more for your money and healthier food as well," she says.

Readers: Do you make your own lunch meats? Got any tips to share?

More from MSN Money:

• How to re-grow your grub
• Save big bucks on spices and herbs
• 10 reasons to buy old bread
• How to eat for $50 a week or less