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Start with a Chicken

A whole chicken, ready to be cut up
Kyle Phillips
One of the easiest ways to save in a supermarket is to do the preparation yourself. Take chicken, for example: If you buy it cut up into serving-sized pieces it's going to cost significantly more than a whole chicken because the supermarket will pass on the cost of paying the person to cut up the bird in the back room. The obvious solution is to do it yourself; you'll need a cutting board, a chicken, and a sharp thick-bladed kitchen knife that's stiff enough to cut through the bones without twisting.