Hm, hi there.
I have noticed, a lot of you are doing a great job, spending so little on food, but when I read, for example $1/lb of pork/chicken, I have to ask. Do you trust that meat?
Here, I would not buy chicken for $3 (average size 3lbs), even if it is the most low cost tesco, imported from Brazil. In western EU it would cost at least double. I think that cant go even more low cost, but even if so, on some SALE, maybe it would.
BUT then - I think, I have no proof, but I think and heard, these chickens get injected.. with water. Not sure if this is allowed in the US. So i might buy $1/lb, but 20-40% of it would be plain water.
I did calculate, how much would cost to raise such chickens, in bio-quality. I think it would be somewhere around $1.5/lb depending on a lot of factors. (space, heating, food source quality, life span) and I do not count the work hours invested in it. (if you do 50-100 chickens, if can go as high as 150-250hours in total). A very bad time investment indeed.
But you know, in home growing/raising, you do not pay the truck driver, shareholders, taxes... So how on earth could some mall get meat so cheap?
I would be afraid about quality (truly, I do not buy chicken in my country (Slovakia), I go to Austria for that, but there it cost $11 per chicken, budget chicken! merkur/spar, 3lbs+-15%). Also i get chickens from my grandparents, they raise them for close family.
So, how about you? :)