Want to save on beef. What is the best way?

[georgiamom]

Should I buy cheap rolls or should I buy roast and grind? I know I saw this somewhere but not sure where. My family is tired of chicken. I have been dieting. I like turkey dh not. Pork not good for my colestrol. I want to be as frugal as I can.

[dogmatix]

We buy no beef but have a freezer we fill with 2 deer each year. Nearly free, leaner than beef, organic and eco-friendly.

[Contrary Housewife]

Do you have a meat grinder or do you have to invest in one? Do you have the time to grind it yourself and do the cleanup afterward?

I buy ground beef when it is on sale and separate it into portions I use. I do not buy the really cheap rolls because I think the quality is poor. If dinner doesn't taste good then leftovers get thrown out and that is no savings.

Is there a butcher shop near you where you can buy in quantity? They raise beef around here so it is easy to find a place where you can buy half a cow at once and fill a freezer with quality, low cost cuts of beef. It ends up being cheaper than the grocery, but you have to have the money to buy it all at once.

Some cuts of pork can be very lean. Look for tenderloin or loin roasts on sale. They have about the same amount of fat as chicken.

[LastDragonfly]

We NEVER buy the rolls/chubs of anything. It's more expensive I think. And I've never seen a chub of beef that wasnt wrapped in plastic wrapping that was not clear. If I cant see what it looks like--I don't buy it.

I agree. Perhaps gind your own etc.

[georgiamom]

We do have a butcher shop and I have bought a half cow before nd split with my mom but you have to do it during a certain time of the year. I have a machine that I can borrow from mom it is a grinder. I do buy and split in to portions. I love chops but my oldest dd want eat it. Not into pork. I am just looking for alternatives that could be frugal. We all love fish but you can only do so much with that.

[mombottoo]

If you are worried about your cholesterol then you shouldn't be buying cheap rolls of ground beef...it's mostly fat. I find that if I watch the sales I can get ground round for $1.99 lb or ground sirloin for $2.19 and both of those grinds are low in fat. I don't know how much roast is where you live, but I just bought roast on sale for $2.79 lb...so for me buying roast & grinding it up wouldn't be very economical.

[rosey7415]

we NEVER buy the rolls or chubs either. it is a quality thing. hth

[rowdy35]

if you go to Costco, they have some very lean beef in the freezer section, you can buy 5 lbs. for around 12.99. The quality is great and it's very low in fat. I'm hooked on it now and this is the only ground beef I buy.

[Grainlady]

Not that long ago I used to have a $2 a pound limit on meat (boy do I wish those days were back....) Now I fix a percentage of my grocery budget (1/5) for meat purchases and buy according to what's on sale, what can be found early in the morning in the discounted meat section, and portion and freeze most meat I purchase. I don't limit it to certain cuts (although we're not much for steaks, other than chopped steaks), but according to what fits in the budget.

I'll cut my own pork chops when pork loins are on sale. That way I can cut thin "breakfast" chops, that we like.

Rarely would it be cheaper to purchase a large portion of meat and grind my own hamburger - not when freshly- ground beef is still under $2/pound on sale. You still have to figure unit cost.... Even when the store had buy one roast get the next free, recently, it would NOT have been cheaper per pound to grind them up for hamburger when I figured price per pound.

My meat budget is $10/week (household of 2 adults) and we have at least one or 2 vegetarian main meals a week, and at least two low-meat meals (stir-fry or casserole, homemade pizza). We also enjoy meat alternatives, like homemade bean burgers, eggs, cheese, peanut butter, tuna and keep our consumption of meat and meat alternatives to 2 servings a day.

I do save my leftover grocery budget money and purchase large quantities of grass-fed beef from a friend each fall. When the garden is in full swing, I don't use much of my food budget during the summer, so I save it and use it for grass-fed beef and fresh whole chickens to stock my freezer (and I only have the refrigerator freezer).

Yes, grass-fed beef is more expensive, but I know all the ground beef is made from one animal and the fact it's a single animal processed at a time as well as grass-fed, assures me it's less likely to be contaminated (E. Coli) like mass-produced store products. But I still stay within my food budget even when purchasing large quantities for the freezer. So I use a combination of store and farm-direct meats.

[ahmom]

There is a meat calculator on the internet somewhere. There was also a chart that I printed out about 2 years ago. You checked the number of servings a certain type of meat yealded per pound. Then looked at the chart where the prices are. You found out the price per serving. Sometimes steak was cheaper per serving than ground beef.

[Momto2Boyz]

I still have a $2 per pound limit of meat. I only buy on sale!

You can try mixing a 1/2 and 1/2 mixture of lean ground beef and lean ground turkey. Or even fattier beef with lean ground turkey. My Dh hates ground turkey. Back when Aldi's had turkey for 69 cents a pound, I used to mix it in with everything, and becuase it was 1/2 ground beef, and tasted like ground beef, he never noticed the difference!

You might give it a try!

[ahmom]

I remembered something I do. If a recipe calls for 1 lb meat, I use 3/4 lb.

[YankeeMom]

The cheapest way I have found is to buy a 1/4, 1/2, or whole cow from a farmer or amish butcher. We bought a whole cow last February and it ended up being less than $2/lb for everything from ground beef to NY Strip Steak. It tastes soooo much better than beef from the grocery store too. We still have about 20lbs of ground beef and several roasts & pkgs of steaks left too. We will probably be getting another cow and pig in the spring.

[santoria]

I buy the large flats of extra lean beef for $13 or $14 and split into 4 equal smaller dinner size portions.

for the other stuff I buy a large piece for $14-$15 and cut into steaks and small roast, and other stuff.

[pat in east texas]

I like to stretch meat loaf with oatmeal. My meat loaf is never the same twice - I vary it by putting in ketchup, or not; horseradish, or not; different seasonings, sometimes bread instead of oatmeal. And I use the crusts, too. It adds a nice texture. Add cooked rice or barley, leftover veggies, chopped.