The Dismemberment Plan

I write a blog about how to live on the cheap. I try to impart wisdom (for the like, one person who reads this - thanks mom!) on how to cut costs and maximize one's capital and minimize the overhead of living today. I have somehow overlooked the simplest rule: Don't pay someone else (or some company) to do for you what you can do for yourself.
Lisa and I bought a whole chicken the other day. Not because we had any grandiose dinner plans or anything. No giant family gathering to roast it for. It was just 88cents/pound. We bought a whole chicken for $4. For those of you averse to math and the grotesque, I suggest you stop reading now.
At a national discount grocery chain, you will pay $6.99/lb for chicken breast. You would pay $2.66/lb for drumsticks, $2.66/lb for chicken thighs, and $3.47/lb for wings. What we got from the chicken we bought was the following:
2 enormous chx breasts for grilling, frying, or reuse in pasta salad,
2 wings to fry and have with some red beans and rice,
2 thighs we've yet to use, but will probably grill and serve with homemade buffalo sauce,
2 good sized drumsticks that we marinaded in lemon and oregano (from the garden) and slow grilled, and
All the great gizzards and neck (as well as additional bone parts) for future incarnation in chicken stock.
Now comes the unpleasant part (see fig I)... but once you get over your queasiness, it's really quite simple, and well worth the ten bucks (at least) that you'll save. Reach in the bottom. Trust me - this is by far the worst part of the process, and it's best to just get it out of the way. Remove the neck and giblets that have been thoughtfully stowed there by the Gold 'n' Plump people (or more ideally some local co-op). Set aside - you can boil these later to make chicken stock. Take your chicken by the wing with one hand, and a sharp, sturdy knife with the other. Sever the wings at the shoulder (see fig. II).
If you want you can separate the wing, but I personally don't mind it whole (it's easier to grill that way, too).
Now it's time for legs. Grab one and pull it out and away from the body (see fig III). First cut through the skin to expose the joint. Then, keeping the blade as close as possible to the body and preserving as much of the leg as possible, cut through the joint and ligaments from front to back. Separating the drumstick from the thigh is simple, but will require some hand work. Flex the leg until you hear the ball joint crack (see fig. IV). Then you can go right through with your knife, leaving you with a clean drumstick and a thigh to either grill or stew. Once the extremities are off, flip the carcass over and use a very sharp knife or kitchen shears to cut the back ribs from the spine (see fig. V). Keep the spine with the innards for stock preparation. Flip the bird over and flatten by pressing down in the middle of the breast with the heel of your hand (see fig. VI). You'll hear it crack as it flattens. Flip again so it is skin-side down, and pull the breast bone out by hand (there's no easy way to carve it out with the knife) (see fig. VII). Cut the breast in half where the breast bone was (see fig. VIII). Set aside whatever parts you're using for the current meal, and freeze the rest (see fig. IX).Congratulations. You've just bought yourself at least four meals for four dollars. Here's what we did with the breasts (fig. X):

Consult the Joy of Cooking for the fried chicken recipe. It was crispy and delicious. For anyone wanting to be thrifty and self-sufficient though, cutting up a whole chicken is a really handy skill to have.