You can save a lot of money if you buy meat in bulk, and then split it up into recipe sized portions. Then you only have to thaw out what you need for one meal at a time.
I love to use just a little bit of bacon in a lot of my dishes as a seasoning, but bacon is expensive! At first I was shaving a bit off of the end of a frozen package to use as seasoning, but then I found something better! Look in the cold case where the bacon is for a big box that says “ends and pieces” on it. Sometimes you can get ends and pieces from the butcher counter. When it isn’t on sale, it’s something like $5.00 for 3lbs of bacon. If I’m dicing it for a recipe, I don’t care what shape it started out to be!
I cut it open and untangle it all, then repackage in single-dish sized portions in resealable bags, roll them up and keep them in the freezer. I got 18 portions of bacon from one box so it may last me two months of good bacony cooking.
We do the same thing when we find good sales on chicken breast and repackage them into recipe sized portions in plastic bags. Ground beef is pretty easy to find in bulk packages and also pretty easy to split it up into recipe portions as well.