There's Frugal...And Then There's Potted Meat

Baby Bear and I popped into MTF last week - for those of you who don't know what MTF is, it's a sort of liquidation store that the general public may shop at. They carry everything from groceries to cleaning supplies to toys to electronics...it all depends on what they get from the companies they purchase from. These items are usually freight claims (damaged shipping containers), retail overstocks and refurbished items. As with any store like this, you have to be a smart shopper by checking expiration dates, obviously not buying extremely dented tins, and avoiding weak looking or downright broken merchandise.

I hadn't been to MTF in a very long time - maybe even more than a year ago? And for some reason, I had it in my head that Baby Bear and I should check it out, just for kicks.

Turns out they are moving from their current location to a new location and are having a 20% off everything sale. There isn't a lot left in their old store but I did find an item for under $5 that I can use as a gift either for Christmas or a birthday, 2 boxes of breakfast cereal, a 10 serving pouch of Nesquick and a jar of Hellman's - all for under $15.00.

We also found a tasty looking little tin of something called POTTED MEAT FOOD PRODUCT by Armour Star.

There are so many things wrong with this inconspicuous little tin.

The first red flag is the name. Potted Meat Food Product. Not just Potted Meat, oh no. No no, it's a Potted Meat Food Product.

Second red flag - the 'serving suggestions' pictured on the label. Mmm MMM - what looks like raw ground beef that you've squished through your hands till it's almost creamy in texture has been happily slathered on some All American White Bread, plopped onto some poor crackers with a few creepy looking garnishes that didn't do anything to deserve this treatment, stuck atop that pile of goop that looks like it probably smells like dog food.

Third red flag - It has a seal of approval from the US Department of Agriculture stating that it's been inspected for wholesomeness. I have never in my life seen anything that had to be inspected for wholesomeness, have you? Sort of makes me wonder what suspicious things get tossed into the grinder during the processing of. Which leads me to -

Fourth red flag - the ingredients. You may wish to sit down for this, if you haven't already. Mechanically Separated Chicken, Beef Tripe, Salt. Then, because they obviously just had to be specific, there is 2% or less of the following: Mustard, Natural Flavorings, Dried Garlic, Vinegar, Dextrose, Sodium Erythorbate and Sodium Nitrite. The Nutritional Information reads like a bad (are there any good?) Danielle Steele novel: 23% (twenty three!!) of your daily intake of sodium. 20% (twenty!) of your daily cholesterol. 10% total fat but 11% of your daily saturated fat intake. Yikes.

I'll let you think on that for a moment.

Ready to go on? And yes, we're moving right along, no stops on this train, no sirree - doncha wanna know what it looks like for real?




I was actually pretty surprised when I cracked open the tin. I had assumed it would be a firmer substance but it was actually quite loose in texture. Very spreadable. Mooshy, to use poor vocabulary.

In the interest of publishing and of course satisfying my dear reader's curiosity I was going to taste just a bit but I just couldn't do it. I can however tell you that although it didn't smell completely disgusting, it definitely did not smell good.

Why, you may ask, would a frugal chick like me even bother to spend $1.00 on such a horrifying item?

Because it makes for good writing! You're still reading, aren't you?