I do shop the marked down meats, and I stock up on sales. I guess to me it seems more expensive because I make a lot of casseroles and soups with lots of starches and not much meat. That's always been my comfort food. If I do just meat and veggies it would cost more. We eat a lot of hamburger in casseroles. I don't mind eating a hamburger patty every night, but my dh would get tired of it. I've been thinking about it today and decided that maybe I just won't do as many casseroles. I guess I could do more of stir fry type things too. I told my dh I wanted to make me a cheesecake and he said that would be a waste because then the rest of the family would only get little slices of "their" cheesecake and I'd get one all to myself. Geesh, I can't seem to win. I've thought about passing off a low carb one on him, but he's pretty sensitive to sugar replacements and can usually taste the difference. Right now I'm making chocolate chip cookies for the family. So, I don't mind making them one thing and me another, and if my dh would think about it he'd realize that I'm giving up a lot of things that I still make for them, like the 6 loaves of homemade bread I make every week for my dh sandwiches, the cakes, cookies biscuits and cornbread. I'm still cooking for the family. We have a 16 yr old boy, an 8 yr old boy and a 6 yr old girl still at home, we have two others that are on their own now. You're right, we don't eat prime rib often, my dh took me out for a treat.

Songberrie