I don't eat that much beef, have home raised pork in the freezer, and I get chicken from my flock, loss leaders, Zaycon or Costco (rotisserie chickens there average #5, even though they say #3+, already cooked for me for $4.98, so less than $1/lb). When I do buy beef, it's usually extra extra lean ground beef from Winco for 3.88 or so per pound. I stretch the ground beef - use 1/4 to 1/3 of a pound for a dish calling for a full pound, add extra noodles, use cheese instead or in addition to small amounts of meat. I also boil up the chicken carcasses for broth and to get the last bits of meat - I can usually get another meal or 3 from that, and it's tasty. I don't like beans or I'd be eating a lot more meatless meals.

Well, hunting is a no go for us. Well, we could live quite nicely on cats........ :( that was just for Oggie........but seriously, why is it the creatures that have no trouble multiplying are not particularly appealing as food? Coyotes and scorpions, could do those......

Beans! Oh yes, beans! Once a week as the "meat", that cut done one meat dish per week! I can my own, three different types we have settled on: Pork 'n beans, Southwest Pepper Beans and Bacon Molasses Beans.

We buy the biggest pork loins we can from Sam's Club. I food-saver them into chops and small roasts (no-leftover size roasts for 2).

Not worth growing our own meat chickens anymore as feed costs make it too pricey. Being in the desert the chicken tractor wouldn't work - nothing for them to eat but sand!

So I buy the BSCB when they drop to 1.88 lb. at Sam's. I can those and freeze. I find we use less chicken canned, a bit less, as I can't seem to get 2 full breasts into a pint jar. We never notice it in the recipes though.

I also do buy good angus roasts at Sam's, and can those too. I add our home canned potatoes to a pint of that meat plus sauce to make enchiladas. Really stretches quite a ways.

DH makes sausage using ground pork and we cook that ahead into rocks, then use that in spaghetti sauce or sloppy joes. I quit buying ground beef completely as it tastes metallic to me now, not sure why, DH doesn't notice it but it's so awful to me that I can't eat it. So now I stick with the canned roast.

Hmmm, I am not the food shopper for our home so I must say I have not paid close attention to prices. I remember, last time I was the shopper in about 2002 or so that ground beef was 1.89 to 2.29 per pound if memory serves me correctly (which would be highly unusual LOL) Today, my research shows that ground beef is about 4.99 at the big city grocery store...is that about right?

I only get what's on sale. Often the only cheap meat is chicken. Dollar General had some really reasonably priced canned/cooked chicken. I stocked up on a bunch of that.

If I have to go meatless I will probably be eating alot of spaghetti.
Peanut Butter only sandwiches I've been having for lunch for years.

Meat
 

Didn't read all other posts. Tonight went to Aldi's. I only buy 1 slice of ham at a time. Only use for canning soups. Picked up a slice, it was $4.15. OUCH! So I looked thru pile, and found one for $2.80.

Slice it thin, and use it as an ingredient. Veggie stir fry,pasta stir fry, cubed potato stir fry, even bean and rice stir fry. Get creative. We have been eating more pork, beef is just crazy expensive.

We eat a lot of venison.
 

(or just plain old deer meat as we call it) and I am learning way to prepare it and to cook it in more ways then I ever thought possible.
One of my tricks is to buy, (or much of the time they will give a couple/three pounds) pork and beef fat to season venison with.
Especially making sausage or meat balls to freeze.
My cousin's wife started making deer jerky last year and she has the best jerky that I ever tasted in my entire life. It isn't nearly as tough as any I ever ate and the flavor is just unreal, but she screws up. She spends a lot of money for the ingredients to soak it in and soaks it over night and then she pours the solution out. She wont soak a second batch in it because one lady from work had one batch that made her family and some friends sick so one batch of venison is the limit for her, even though the lady that she got the recipe from told her that she had already soaked several batched before she made that batch.
Something else that I haven't had any for a couple years now but this spring I am going to order some more day old chicks and I want to get a few turkeys this time also.
I also want to try and get a few goats this year for meat, milking and making cheese also.
I have never tried goat meat, milk of cheese but there is always the first time, lol.
Anyway, there are so many from the middle east around here that I can sell it all for more than what it will cost me to buy what we do like, so if we don't like it we'll end up alright anyway. Plus the taste might grow on us since it is supposed to be a lot better for you that cow milk and cheese is.
And there will be a large garden this year plus I am going to start raising an orchard of all sorts of fruit trees all around the yard here.

Godspeed

Ranger


Godspeed

We have beef, grass fed, no hormones or antibiotics and one is processed every Jan. ,everything else we have to pur phase. Dh is a huge meat eater so it takes a hunk out of the groc. Budget.

We are dependent on the stores, as the city we live in has laws against any sort of farm animal or poultry. Also, we commute from the city house to the lake house weekly, - 3-4 days at one place and 3-4 days at the other- and the lake house is on a generous sized lot, but not even 1/3 acre. I do buy chicken and pork at the supermercados or bodegas, sometimes ground beef, but learnt the hard way not to buy steaks or roasts there- it's USDA GOOD if it's graded at all, which means tough meat!! The Named cuts I get at either WinnDixie or Publix, GFB likes the chicken cordon bleus sold individually at Aldis for about a dollar.

I have decided that this winter I will create a snail box -turn the lid into wire mesh and punch drainage holes- keep it at the lake, stock it with any snails I find, and feed them garden waste until I get a tremendous "herd" of snails (what is the plural of snails? Is it a "slither"?) and then process them for use in alfredo, stuffed mushrooms, on toast, paella, chowder, scampi. I need a "purge" pot for keeping them on cornmeal a couple days prior to starving them prior to processing.

I CAN'T eat vegetarian- each time I've tried it in the past wound up with a 20-30 lb weight gain in a little over a month..and I am STARVING constantly. GFB could manage as a semi vegetarian. Me, I;m a carnivore. We have discovered little 6 oz packages of "seasoned beef crumbles" by Libbys- were being sold at Walmart for about $2.20- but that would give us enough spaghetti or chili for 4 servings- 2 meals for GFB and me. Yes, it's a lot per pound but we don't have a freezer anymore and the fact it can be stored on a pantry shelf is a real plus.
Also do a LOT of stirfries with garden produce mainly during fall-winter-spring.
Maybe I will get a fishing license and try for some bass and brim this winter

Cats aren't really meat. They're filled with evil.

You might occasionally notice some cat licking the spot that's located under its tail. They do that because they're trying to get the taste of evil out of their mouths from grooming the rest of themselves.

We buy grass/corn fed beef from our neighbor once a year... we do a hog every year, and I raise my own meat birds-once a year. While it's not cheaper than store bought, you do know what you're eating!! I buy rabbit from an Amish guy nearby. I make a lot of side dishes with a small amount of meat for the main and I generally don't eat the meat so that everyone else can have some. I eat a lot of potatoes c: and chocolate! I like chocolate...lol!

I buy loss leaders, I can usually get 80% ground beef for $1.99-$2.09/# and eye of round steak for about $2.50# FIL and I also raise meat rabbits. We also use beans and lentils to fill up while using less meat.

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You stretch your dollar by buying just the bones. This little package only cost $4.