Mixing Up Lunch, The Frugal Way

We don't rely on lunch meat very often around our house. Maybe 2 or 3 times a month. There are health issues (nitrates, processing, etc.) and financial issues (so many other less expensive and more filling options) for this decision. But we do enjoy those sandwiches when we have them.

Sometimes though, I like to take the lunch meat issue another step and have a really fun (and surprisingly more frugal) lunch. I do that with these -
Only a few of the grocery stores in our area offer these "ends and pieces" deli trays, but whenever I see them, I snatch them up. They are filled with, as the name implies, end and pieces of various lunch meats and cheeses from the deli department. Because this pieces can not be sold as is, and since they still taste just fine even if they're not as pretty, they are packaged up and sold at a very reasonable price.

The packages are always a mixture of different things. It's kind of like those surprise goodie bags that candy stores or toy stores used to sell for a dollar. We've have made some incredibly good sandwiches and meat, cheese, cracker platters from deli trays.

It is definitely worth asking about at the deli of your local grocery store. Find out what they do with all those ends and pieces. If they do not package them up to sell, maybe they'd still be willing to sell you some when you ask.

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