Food for Thought (or thoughts on food)

[steve-in-kville]

My wife an I are doing some meal/grocery planning for the next few months. I set a goal for grocery spending for the month of October.

My problem is (and no offense to the vegans on the forum), but I like my meat. We thought of buying a whole steer (dressed of course) from our local butcher shop. We would have the freezer space and there is considerable savings.

I am also thinking of raising rabbits for meat. I grew up on small farm and we always had small animals. And rabbit meat rates pretty high in my book (second only to prime steaks!!).

So any other thoughts on buying meat for a frugal household?

[Its_Donna]

I stock up on Loss Leaders, Markdowns and 2fers.

[dwallyfam]

I buy a side of beef and a pig every year. For the $ it is well worth it. Can't beat having t-bone steaks and it only cost me $1.65 a pound instead of $14.

Kellie

[Odilia]

I certainly think if you have the room in your freezer, buying all or part of a beef is a great idea. Not only is it smart financially, but in this age of mass food recalls and iffy production and slaughter practices, it makes a lot of sense to buy locally grown foods from producers you know and trust.

I can't speak to rabbits (the kids are lobbying for them, though ), but since you know you enjoy them, it sounds like a good idea.

If you have additional room, maybe a few hens for eggs would be nice. Three laying hens will provide approx. a dozen eggs/week -- no need to keep a rooster. Chickens were our first livestock.

[guest002]

Sam's Club has affordable chicken, fish, and pork chops. The ground beef is on the high side compared to my military commissary but not to a reg. grocery store.

[Darlene]

Go for it. Was funny talking to my 21 year old college son. He said there is no way he's paying more than a $1.99 /lb for any meat, I had to smile. So he shops sales & marked down meat to freeze or use right away.

[AmyMCGS]

My DH has to have meat in every meal, too.

We buy most of our meat at Sam's, as someone else said above. I find it cheaper and better quality. I break it down into meal-sized portions when I get home.

I also stretch meat where I can... hamburger especially. It's easy to use less than a pound in a recipe and then stretch it with oatmeal or bread crumbs.

Another cheap meat we use a lot is stew beef. I use it for fajitas, casseroles, beef and noodles, etc... it's usually cheaper than other cuts of beef.

We split a side of beef with friends a few years ago, and I'd love to do that again. Not only was it cheaper, but the beef was much better quality.

[baxjul]

When I lived in PA, we always split a steer (cow, whatever) with a friend of ours that raised it. We also always got a half a hog, I never had to buy meat!

[Judi Dial]

Also you can do your own (sort of) butchering...there's a great book by Merle Ellis: cutting up in the kitchen. He talks about things like my dad used to do: cutting a porterhouse steak into the two pieces it is: a fillet and a NY steak. You buy bigger pieces of meat and cut them down yourself.

This doesn't answer your "should we buy a beef?" question, but as I've never done that, or raised my own meat, I can't speak to it. I do recommend the Ellis book though. It's saved us a bunch 'o money.

Judi

[Jaded]

I have several tips. I don't have a freezer, so I never buy in bulk.

I buy the 10 lb. bags of fryer quarters at Sav-a-Lot. They're pretty cheap, and that's a lot of chicken.

Also, Winn Dixie marks down their meat on Wednesday afternoon because they have all new specials that start on Thursday. I've gotten some great buys from that.

I buy the chub packs of hamburger at Sav-a-Lot also, and stretch it in things like spaghetti sauce, tacos, sloppy joes, chili (anything that has sauce) with TVP (texturized vegetable protein), which you can buy at most health food stores. You can also use the food processor to grind it up and use it in hamburgers, but if you do that, I'd only use it 1/3 TVP to 2/3 meat. It not only stretches the meat, but it is high protein, and it cuts the fat.

As for stew meat, I buy the biggest chuck roast I can when they're on sale, and I cut it in thirds. One for just cooking for a meal, one to cut up with vegetable soup and one for beef stew. Lots cheaper than buying the stew beef already cut up.

Spam is GREAT sliced with a cheese slicer and fried up like bacon for half the price.

Pork steaks are frequently on sale, especially around this time of year (when they butcher the hogs) and even though they are sort of fatty, I cut them up, flour them and fry them as "nuggets". My sons used to LOVE these!

Also, pork roast on sale can be used just like the chuck roast, but to make things like pulled pork bbq, or bbq hash for rice. Of course, you can also eat it as a roast, and then just use what's leftover to make the other stuff.

That's all I can think of right now.

And on a side note...Wal-Mart and Sam's meat is NOT cut in the store. It arrives frozen, pre-packaged, and is thawed and put out in the cases. It can sit in the freezer for up to a week before it's thawed. Also, look at your label. All their meat has salt in it. That's why it tastes so good.

Why do they do this? Because years ago, the meat cutters in one of their stores joined a meat cutter's union and went on strike. In retaliation, and to keep it from happening again, Wal-Mart vowed to buy all their meat pre-packaged and never employ meat cutters again.

[Sari]

Also, look at your label. All their meat has salt in it. That's why it tastes so good.

That's why I refuse to buy meat at Walmart. It's ridiculous for someone to pay the same price - or more - for 10% salt water when you can get like 0% at Publix or another store. Just another example of how Walmart doesn't care about their customers.

[frugalfarmwife]

The best way to purchase beef is to know a farmer raising it. We have a LOT of friends who raise for others, we have supplied our family in the past.

Within the next two years we'll be raising for clients also, we're working up to it.

We just brought home the COOLEST young bull for our cows yesterday, he's 1/2 brahma and 1/2 simmetal (sp?) and looks JUST like a brahma.

call the local butchers, ask around, they can put you directly in touch with a farmer and you can get the best price that way.

We work with a small private butcher here. We raise the beef, he has it picked up and slaughtered, then packages to our liking, works out GREAT that way.

And on the rabbits, sigh, I just can't do little cute fuzzies. We do raise chickens and turkeys and have them butchered also, we have a local Amish woman that does it for us.

kj

[DAAC3DEC]

ARE YOU A HUNTER??? MY HUBBIE AND 2 OF THE THREE KIDS EAT MEAT, PRETTY MUCH ALL DEER MEAT IS CONSUMED, I SOMETIMES FILL IN WITH GOOD DEALS-BUT THEY EAT ALMOST NO BEEF WHAT SO EVER.

[Persimmon Lace]

I second finding a local cattleman that grows his beeves in a healthy manner and make a deal with him. The beef is better, locally grown, has had a better life in the pasture and if you can find one completely hormone free. There's a guy who comes to the farmer's market that sells wonderful beef, yes it's more expensive but it's a fair price for raising the beef and taking the risk! When I can catch back up with him I am going to buy a side of beef and have it cut to order.

Growing up we raised a steer and went on halves with another family if we couldn't raise one ourselves. The beef was always better and we knew how they were raised. That way we always knew we were getting "happy" cows, as my father would say.

[gentledenny]

I hate the fact that i cant buy my beef, chicken , pork without the salt solution .. i was used to reading it about the ham which didnt seem to bother me,, but now they seen that they can add the 15 cent worth of a salt solution and charge us 1.29 -3.29 a pound for the solution. i see it in the chicken even like a pack of chicken legss??? i see it in the ham, i havent noticed in the beef probadly only because i haven't read the packageing yet.... I recieved a lot of information from this post. good job steve.