How much do you spend on meats?

[onecoolcat]

So wife and I are going to try the whole eating out less thing.  We are going to stay in and grill / cook more.  She's a bit of a foodie so we have to make good food.  I'm finding that we are eating a lot of chicken and steak because our local Winn-Dixie has some great sales on meats.  For instance I loaded up on Chicken Leg-Thigh quarters because it was $1.49 a pound and BOGO.  I think our prices below are pretty good, but I really wish we had a place around here where we could get good deals on seafood.  Anyone know any good places in South Florida for seafood?

Meat                                 Price/lb
T-Bone Steak                  5.99
Chicken breast                  1.98
Chicken Thighs                  1.49
Chicken Leg-Thigh Quarters   0.75
St. Louis Style Ribs          2.99
Spare Ribs                  2.49
Ribeye                                 6.99
Salmon   
Shrimp   

I only buy meat when its on sale.  I often will spend more than $5.99 on a good steak because we like steak and getting it for $5.99 a pound is rare.  I just stock up when its below 6.99 for Ribeye, NY strip, or T-Bone. 

[TerriM]

We spend $9/lb on meat.  We get a pastured meat share (CSA) which means every cut from ground hamburger to Filet Minion costs us $9/lb.

The flavor is much better than conventionally raised meat, though beef cuts may be tougher.

But pastured pork chops are the best, hands down.  Soft, flavorful, delicious. 

[Thegoblinchief]

I probably average close to $10/lb because like TerriM I prefer pastured meat for the taste, the humane treatment, and the health benefits. Pastured pork is incredible.

Not a big seafood person, but I do like Alaska salmon (sustainably managed fishery) and wild caught game fish like trout and walleye. But just because something is wild caught, doesn't mean it is a sustainable choice. Cod is one of the worst for being overfished.

[BooksAreNerdy]

We grew our own this year and it cost about $3/lb. That included cost of the calf ($100), grain, and processing. He got the leftover milk from our dairy cow. He is delicious.

Edit- growing our own chickens was not cost saving. Ended up about $7.75/bird. Damn juicy though. Raised on pasture and milk. Mmmm!

[alsoknownasDean]

I probably average about $10 per kilogram. Depends what I buy and where.

Chicken thigh is about $10 a kilogram (breast a few dollars more). A little more at one of the big two supermarkets, a bit less at the butchers or markets.

Whole chickens start about $4 a kilo, and go up from there, depending on if you want organic and/or free range.

Diced beef might be $10-15 a kilo, beef mince between $6-12 a kilo (depending on grade and source), steak itself starts around $15 a kilo and goes up from there.

Pork is probably also in the $10-15 a kilo range, unless I buy a big chunk of it.

Sausages usually around $8-10 a kilo because I refuse to buy the ultra-cheap ones.

I don't eat seafood, so no idea there. I usually don't buy much lamb as it's too damn expensive.

[RapmasterD]

We spend $9/lb on meat.  We get a pastured meat share (CSA) which means every cut from ground hamburger to Filet Minion costs us $9/lb.

The flavor is much better than conventionally raised meat, though beef cuts may be tougher.

But pastured pork chops are the best, hands down.  Soft, flavorful, delicious.

Do tell more, please. Where is this CSA? Thanks!

My answer: Really don't track meat costs per se, but we probably average around $11 - $14/pound for meat, and $4/pound for organic chicken. I'm buying an increasing amount of meat from a local SF Bay Area farmer's market, where a Pescadero, CA farm shows up every other week with amazingly tasty cuts of grass fed beef and the occasional grassfed pork.

Right now I'm firing up a beautiful butterflied boneless leg of lamb from Trader Joe's. It's from New Zealand -- grassfed, no crap added, etc. I think it cost $8/pound. That's a pretty good price for this type of quality.

[TerriM]

We spend $9/lb on meat.  We get a pastured meat share (CSA) which means every cut from ground hamburger to Filet Minion costs us $9/lb.

The flavor is much better than conventionally raised meat, though beef cuts may be tougher.

But pastured pork chops are the best, hands down.  Soft, flavorful, delicious.

Do tell more, please. Where is this CSA? Thanks!

My answer: Really don't track meat costs per se, but we probably average around $11 - $14/pound for meat, and $4/pound for organic chicken. I'm buying an increasing amount of meat from a local SF Bay Area farmer's market, where a Pescadero, CA farm shows up every other week with amazingly tasty cuts of grass fed beef and the occasional grassfed pork.

Right now I'm firing up a beautiful butterflied boneless leg of lamb from Trader Joe's. It's from New Zealand -- grassfed, no crap added, etc. I think it cost $8/pound. That's a pretty good price for this type of quality.

You sound like you're getting a pretty good deal from the farmer's market


The meat CSA I use is:

http://marinsunfarms.csaware.com/store/ 

I've been doing MSF for 5 years, happy with it, but you need to be ready to accept weird cuts like goat, and leg cuts that you wouldn't normally get (you need to be a little adventurous like any CSA).

[choppingwood]

My local, small-town grocery store has a good in-house butcher (the former owner-operator). There is a twenty-per cent off sale once a month for about eight months a year. When I shop at the sale (I am not always in town on the second Thursday of the month), I get 20% off $30 worth of meat, which is probably 20 servings. I would buy a mixture of chicken pieces, pork sausage, and pork chops. The rest of my protein would be eggs, and beans or lentils with rice or cheese.

Meat prices have gone up considerably in the last five months, though they are beginning to subside with better fuel prices, so I would say the monthly bill is now $36-38.

Something to keep in mind is that they never have the sale during grilling season. We are in serious lake/country home territory, and city folk must be made to pay. And are happy to. The guy who brings the groceries out to the car always tells me in May to come back if I have any more room in the freezer....

[NV Teacher]

My sister and I split a beef that was raised by a local grower last year.  The final cost for everything was $2.66/lb.  I can't buy any kind of decent beef for that price in my grocery stores.  It's fabulous meat.  I hope the grower is still around when I'm ready to buy again.

[TerriM]

My sister and I split a beef that was raised by a local grower last year.  The final cost for everything was $2.66/lb.  I can't buy any kind of decent beef for that price in my grocery stores.  It's fabulous meat.  I hope the grower is still around when I'm ready to buy again.

Nice :)))

I should look into that for a pig :)

I assume it was butchered, freezer packed, and labeled by cut?

[RapmasterD]

We spend $9/lb on meat.  We get a pastured meat share (CSA) which means every cut from ground hamburger to Filet Minion costs us $9/lb.

The flavor is much better than conventionally raised meat, though beef cuts may be tougher.

But pastured pork chops are the best, hands down.  Soft, flavorful, delicious.

Do tell more, please. Where is this CSA? Thanks!

My answer: Really don't track meat costs per se, but we probably average around $11 - $14/pound for meat, and $4/pound for organic chicken. I'm buying an increasing amount of meat from a local SF Bay Area farmer's market, where a Pescadero, CA farm shows up every other week with amazingly tasty cuts of grass fed beef and the occasional grassfed pork.

Right now I'm firing up a beautiful butterflied boneless leg of lamb from Trader Joe's. It's from New Zealand -- grassfed, no crap added, etc. I think it cost $8/pound. That's a pretty good price for this type of quality.

You sound like you're getting a pretty good deal from the farmer's market


The meat CSA I use is:

http://marinsunfarms.csaware.com/store/ 

I've been doing MSF for 5 years, happy with it, but you need to be ready to accept weird cuts like goat, and leg cuts that you wouldn't normally get (you need to be a little adventurous like any CSA).

It's not bad....but not as good as what you're getting. Thanks for the tip. I'm familiar with Marin Sun Farms. BTW, goat meat is shockingly delicious in a crockpot -- like knock you on your butt good. Thanks again.

[TerriM]

It's not bad....but not as good as what you're getting.

But you're probably getting the better than average cuts from the farmer's market, so $11-14 for better cuts of pastured meat is a good price.  And $4/lb for pastured chicken (though you did say "organic" which is not necessarily pastured), is also good.  But you can always try MSF out for a couple of months and supplement with the farmer's market.  You can get one of the smaller packages and see what it's like. 

[Siobhan]

You live in south florida, go catch some seafood!  Hubs and I just came back from 3 weeks down there with close to 100lbs in fish.  Total cost to us was the cost of a fishing pole and a spear gun, we were catching our limit of hogfish within an hour every day.  Got a nice 30 inch black grouper on the last day of the season too.

[UnleashHell]

I happened to be in Walmart in Tampa and the frozen fish selection price was better than Publix. Worth a look.

[1967mama]

We bought a side of hormone, med free grass-fed beef this year for $4.59/lb (in Canada) and are very pleased with the quality and taste of the meat. Also, we bought 50 hormone, med free, free range chickens (weighing 8lb each) for $20/bird. As a busy mom, I LOVE the convenience of having meat in my freezer and am always a day ahead with something thawing and something cooking. Today, for example, I have 2 chickens in the roaster oven for tonight's dinner (as well as casserole, sandwiches and bones done into stock later in the week). And thawing I have 4 lb of stew beef for tomorrow night's vegetable beef stew. I am saving the steaks for the summertime and half a dozen chickens for doing on the BBQ rotisserie.

[senecando]

Just bought acorn fed pork belly for 8/lb. Mmmmmmm.

Usually, we get cheap cuts of good animals for 5-6 a pound. I prefer ground, sausage or offal to steaks 8 times out of ten.

[MrsCoolCat]

Ur meat topic is popular lol.

[ketchup]

We use a meat/eggs monthly CSA and come out around $5/pound for pasture-raised meat and $4.50/doz for pastured eggs.  Ground beef/pork is about $4.50-5/lb, and then the pricier cuts (steaks, pork chops, bacon, etc.) are averaged back down by gratuitous use of the sub $5/lb cheap cuts (meaty soup bones, organ meats).  And everything bone-in gets recycled into broth.  I think we're about as cheap as can be with meat while still eating pasture-raised.

[Rural]

Organic free-range hormone-free venison is about $0.02 a pound if we butcher it ourselves, closer to $1.00 if we take it to a processor.


I bought an extra turkey over the holidays, but we're still eating on the first $0.68 a pound freezer turkey. I'm out of last year's ham as of last night, so if the Easter sales aren't any better than the Christmas ones were, I'm looking at over $2.00 a pound for ham.


Chicken breast also runs me just over $2.00 a pound most of the time.


I've quit buying beef because it costs too much. Don't need it with venison anyway.

[Emilyngh]

$0    We don't eat meat.   We spend around 0.50 per pound of cooked beans.

[onecoolcat]

Ur meat topic is popular lol.

Everyone loves talking about my meat.

P.S. want to go fishing?  At the beach somewhere?

[RapmasterD]

It's not bad....but not as good as what you're getting.

But you're probably getting the better than average cuts from the farmer's market, so $11-14 for better cuts of pastured meat is a good price.  And $4/lb for pastured chicken (though you did say "organic" which is not necessarily pastured), is also good.  But you can always try MSF out for a couple of months and supplement with the farmer's market.  You can get one of the smaller packages and see what it's like.

Thanks. Their RARE package looks good. And yes, the chicken is organic and not pastured.

[killingxspree]

lamb shoulder $17.30/kg
beef chuck $10/kg
in Melbourne Australia

[MrsCoolCat]

Ur meat topic is popular lol.

Everyone loves talking about my meat.

P.S. want to go fishing?  At the beach somewhere?

Fishing seems slow... do you think I can update my screen name?! LOL!

[Blue girl]

We bought a side of hormone, med free grass-fed beef this year for $4.59/lb (in Canada) and are very pleased with the quality and taste of the meat. Also, we bought 50 hormone, med free, free range chickens (weighing 8lb each) for $20/bird. As a busy mom, I LOVE the convenience of having meat in my freezer and am always a day ahead with something thawing and something cooking. Today, for example, I have 2 chickens in the roaster oven for tonight's dinner (as well as casserole, sandwiches and bones done into stock later in the week). And thawing I have 4 lb of stew beef for tomorrow night's vegetable beef stew. I am saving the steaks for the summertime and half a dozen chickens for doing on the BBQ rotisserie.

Care to share where you got the meats? I'm looking for a local source of better quality meats.
Thanks!

[Learner]

We get a side of beef from a local farm (in southern Ontario) and then split that 3 ways with friends.  The cuts are individually wrapped by a butcher.  The bulk price is $4.75/lb, but that's the pre-processed weight.  After we weigh out the cuts (for fairness), it ends up closer to $6.50-7/lb, which accounts for butchering losses (bone, blood).  The entire side fills a small chest freezer, but 1/3 works decently with other stuff.

[FarmerPete]

WOW!  I feel like I have left MMM and entered a commercial for Whole Foods....

We buy meat similar to the OP for similar prices.  Chicken leg quarters sell for $0.80 a lb.  We get them home, I cut them into drumsticks/thighs and then we freeze them in meal size packages.  I'll buy B/S Chicken breasts for $1.80 a lb.  You can get a better price from Sams if you buy a case at a time.  It's not too bad if you split the case with a friend.  Often Sams breasts are gigantic, so we'll cut them into smaller pieces to make cooking them take a normal amount of time.

I tend to buy most of our meat from smaller grocery stores.  They tend to run the best deals to lure you in.  Buy the meat and run off.  My favorite is a local place that's primarily a produce market.  They'll run Ribeye for $5 lb or NY Strip for $4 a lb.  You have to buy a 10lb chunk of it, but they'll cut it into steaks of your desired thickness for you on the spot.

My sisters have been buying a grass fed, hormone free, GMO free beef from a local farmer.  I think they've been paying $3.50-$4.00 a lb HANGING weight.  Actual meat is normally ~66% of that, so you're looking at more like $6 a lb.  That's probably a great price for what they're getting, but we just don't buy the expensive cuts of meat.  I'd rather pay $2-$3 for our ground beef and get the occasional 10# of steak for $4-5 a lb.  Really, we should all just eat less meat any ways.

[Hannah]

I'm pretty much going to quote to you the Aldi prices in Raleigh, but I will say, I average about 25% percent less by buying as much clearance meat as often as possible:

Chicken
Whole- .95lb
Thighs- 1.19lb
Boneless/skinless Thighs - $2.52lb
Quarters- 1.19lb

Turkey
Whole- $1.19lb (butterball not that good)
Ground- $1.89lb (use in place of ground beef)

Pork
Pork Shoulder - $1.89 (on sale at food lion, otherwise I don't buy it much)

Beef
Ground Beef 80/20- $3.89lb (slay me, this just went up by a buck a pound)

Meat is 25-30% of my grocery budget.

To keep costs lower we eat vegetarian 1 night per week, don't eat much dairy, and mostly eat the cheap cuts of chicken. Even so, I average about $25 on meat each week (for 3 adults and one toddler, and one gathering with 6-10 people)

[GardenFun]

OP, your prices are in line with us WI northerners. 

Have you thought about purchasing a 1/4 cow or 1/2 pig?  Price-wise it may be about the same as the grocery store, but from experience I can tell you that the taste is much better in the bulk purchase meat.  We are getting ready to do a 1/4 cow purchase.  Last purchase was $2.35/lb for organic, grass-fed.  It's nice to have friends who know organic farmers and get nice discounts.  ;-)  But even the local meat market is charging $4/lb per 1/4 cow and $2/lb for 1/2 pig and their meat is phenomenal. 

As far as seafood, that is also a struggle.  If you are into fishing, there are tons of options but otherwise its playing the waiting game until the sales occur.  With Lent coming up in the next month or so, good fish prices will be available soon. 

[CommonCents]

I don't keep a price book, so this is my best guess.  I'll buy when on sale at about these prices:
$2.99/lb Chicken breasts or tenders (DH does not like chicken on the bone so I've stopped buying it.  Used to be $1.99 for on-bone)
$2.99/lb Hamburger meat (prefer 90/10)
$3.99 - $6.99/lb Steak, depending on cut
$6.99/lb Frozen shrimp
$2.50 package of kielbasa

Can't recall ham, we buy it irregularly on sale around holidays.  DH won't eat turkey.

I think we eat well (having steak, shrimp in our diet ), but I save by only buying on sale and freezing.  We even will buy a whole filet and portion it up ourselves (about $9.99/lb I think).  By eating well this substantially saves on DH wanting to eat out every single night.  Getting him out of this habit has been hard.  The good part is we now have some recipes he can't get out at a restaurant that he particularly likes to eat, for which he'll ask.

I'm working on saving more by decreasing the portion size of the expensive meat and by slowly coming up with more recipes for the cheaper items (e.g. I didn't used to like chili, which is a DH favorite, but I'm been learning to like it better and work it into our menus more).

[TerriM]

WOW!  I feel like I have left MMM and entered a commercial for Whole Foods..

Absolutely not!  That's why I went for the CSA in the first place.  Back in Boston, when I started looking for grass-fed meat, I actually went into Whole Foods and they had maybe one super expensive grass-fed beef cut and no grass-fed ground beef.  I figured if I couldn't find it at Whole Foods, I'd have to go straight for the farm.

[RelaxedGal]

We spend $9/lb on meat.  We get a pastured meat share (CSA) which means every cut from ground hamburger to Filet Minion costs us $9/lb.

The flavor is much better than conventionally raised meat, though beef cuts may be tougher.

But pastured pork chops are the best, hands down.  Soft, flavorful, delicious.

This, verbatim, in Massachusetts.

I do cheat on the CSA and buy conventional chicken leg quarters (regularly $1.19/lb, recently on sale for $0.99/lb at Stop & Shop), ground beef ($4.99/lb for 90% lean at Hannaford) and hot dogs (???) because we don't get enough of those cuts from the CSA.

[TerriM]

RelaxedGal, out of curiosity, which MA CSA are you with? 

[Jags4186]

All US raised beef is grass fed. Good tasting beef is finished on feed.   The -most important- determining feature on what makes beef delicious is its grade. Stick to an upper 2/3rd USDA Choice programs and USDA Prime is the best beef you can get.  Be weary of anything labelled "All Natural". All that means is "minimally processed".  All beef is minimally processed.  If you insist on "all natural" look for never/ever programs (no hormones/antibiotic programs ever, not 'withdrawal programs').  Most ground beef isn't graded so try to buy a brand that does grade (Certified Angus Beef is top notch ground beef, upper 2/3rds choice or better).  I stay away from local or niche product as they don't have anywhere near the quality control the big players have.

[caliq]

All US raised beef is grass fed. Good tasting beef is finished on feed.   The -most important- determining feature on what makes beef delicious is its grade. Stick to an upper 2/3rd USDA Choice programs and USDA Prime is the best beef you can get.  Be weary of anything labelled "All Natural". All that means is "minimally processed".  All beef is minimally processed.  If you insist on "all natural" look for never/ever programs (no hormones/antibiotic programs ever, not 'withdrawal programs').  Most ground beef isn't graded so try to buy a brand that does grade (Certified Angus Beef is top notch ground beef, upper 2/3rds choice or better).  I stay away from local or niche product as they don't have anywhere near the quality control the big players have.

Umm I worked for a Hereford farmer in high school and we fed the cows grain beginning at weaning.  They stood in 8" of muck and ate the grain off the top of that or out of plastic barrels cut in half.  Definitely not grass fed.  And yes, I live in the US.   

[Jags4186]

All US raised beef is grass fed. Good tasting beef is finished on feed.   The -most important- determining feature on what makes beef delicious is its grade. Stick to an upper 2/3rd USDA Choice programs and USDA Prime is the best beef you can get.  Be weary of anything labelled "All Natural". All that means is "minimally processed".  All beef is minimally processed.  If you insist on "all natural" look for never/ever programs (no hormones/antibiotic programs ever, not 'withdrawal programs').  Most ground beef isn't graded so try to buy a brand that does grade (Certified Angus Beef is top notch ground beef, upper 2/3rds choice or better).  I stay away from local or niche product as they don't have anywhere near the quality control the big players have.

Umm I worked for a Hereford farmer in high school and we fed the cows grain beginning at weaning.  They stood in 8" of muck and ate the grain off the top of that or out of plastic barrels cut in half.  Definitely not grass fed.  And yes, I live in the US.

Of course!  99.9% of beef eats grain!  I'm just point out that all cattle eat grass :-)

[Jack]

I shop at Aldi, Kroger and Costco (mostly the first two; Costco is often the most expensive!)

• whole chicken: $0.95-$0.99/lb
• pork shoulder or pork loin (whole): $1.99/lb
• brisket or ground beef: $4/lb
• whole ribeye: $5.99/lb

If beef exceeds those prices, we don't buy it... which means we haven't bought much beef lately.

I'd love to find a CSA / half-hog / quarter-cow deal that can approach those prices for equal or better quality, but haven't yet.

[caliq]

All US raised beef is grass fed. Good tasting beef is finished on feed.   The -most important- determining feature on what makes beef delicious is its grade. Stick to an upper 2/3rd USDA Choice programs and USDA Prime is the best beef you can get.  Be weary of anything labelled "All Natural". All that means is "minimally processed".  All beef is minimally processed.  If you insist on "all natural" look for never/ever programs (no hormones/antibiotic programs ever, not 'withdrawal programs').  Most ground beef isn't graded so try to buy a brand that does grade (Certified Angus Beef is top notch ground beef, upper 2/3rds choice or better).  I stay away from local or niche product as they don't have anywhere near the quality control the big players have.

Umm I worked for a Hereford farmer in high school and we fed the cows grain beginning at weaning.  They stood in 8" of muck and ate the grain off the top of that or out of plastic barrels cut in half.  Definitely not grass fed.  And yes, I live in the US.

Of course!  99.9% of beef eats grain!  I'm just point out that all cattle eat grass :-)

I'm confused but I feel like you're being sarcastic and I'm admittedly terrible at recognizing that so sorry for not getting your joke? :/ 

[Jags4186]

All US raised beef is grass fed. Good tasting beef is finished on feed.   The -most important- determining feature on what makes beef delicious is its grade. Stick to an upper 2/3rd USDA Choice programs and USDA Prime is the best beef you can get.  Be weary of anything labelled "All Natural". All that means is "minimally processed".  All beef is minimally processed.  If you insist on "all natural" look for never/ever programs (no hormones/antibiotic programs ever, not 'withdrawal programs').  Most ground beef isn't graded so try to buy a brand that does grade (Certified Angus Beef is top notch ground beef, upper 2/3rds choice or better).  I stay away from local or niche product as they don't have anywhere near the quality control the big players have.

Umm I worked for a Hereford farmer in high school and we fed the cows grain beginning at weaning.  They stood in 8" of muck and ate the grain off the top of that or out of plastic barrels cut in half.  Definitely not grass fed.  And yes, I live in the US.

Of course!  99.9% of beef eats grain!  I'm just point out that all cattle eat grass :-)

I'm confused but I feel like you're being sarcastic and I'm admittedly terrible at recognizing that so sorry for not getting your joke? :/

Sorry!  I was being a little literal/sarcastic regarding the grass fed beef :-)  all beef at some point eats grass and is therefore "grass fed"

[caliq]

All US raised beef is grass fed. Good tasting beef is finished on feed.   The -most important- determining feature on what makes beef delicious is its grade. Stick to an upper 2/3rd USDA Choice programs and USDA Prime is the best beef you can get.  Be weary of anything labelled "All Natural". All that means is "minimally processed".  All beef is minimally processed.  If you insist on "all natural" look for never/ever programs (no hormones/antibiotic programs ever, not 'withdrawal programs').  Most ground beef isn't graded so try to buy a brand that does grade (Certified Angus Beef is top notch ground beef, upper 2/3rds choice or better).  I stay away from local or niche product as they don't have anywhere near the quality control the big players have.

Umm I worked for a Hereford farmer in high school and we fed the cows grain beginning at weaning.  They stood in 8" of muck and ate the grain off the top of that or out of plastic barrels cut in half.  Definitely not grass fed.  And yes, I live in the US.

Of course!  99.9% of beef eats grain!  I'm just point out that all cattle eat grass :-)

I'm confused but I feel like you're being sarcastic and I'm admittedly terrible at recognizing that so sorry for not getting your joke? :/

Sorry!  I was being a little literal/sarcastic regarding the grass fed beef :-)  all beef at some point eats grass and is therefore "grass fed"

Yeahhhh I thought about it and figured it out :D My bad!

[netskyblue]

I got a 1/4 beef from my sister & her husband who raise it.  We had planned on paying the locker fees for our 1/4, and then paying my sis something like $2.5/lb for the meat.  They decided to gift it to us, so we got them a gift of nice kitchen knives in return (for approximately the same value - we'd already set the money aside, and I know for a fact her kitchen knives were baaaad!)

It's not fully grass-fed, but it was raised on pasture, and supplemented with grain.  No standing in muck!  I appreciate knowing the animal (yes, even one I'm going to eat) was raised with care & under good conditions.

Sometimes I buy the super cheap chicken, but I always feel bad when I do, knowing the deplorable conditions those birds were raised under.  More often we buy pastured chicken, but less frequently, and stretch the meat into many meals rather than serving large pieces of meat.  (Casseroles, etc).

[TerriM]

All US raised beef is grass fed.

Maybe in the first 3 months of their lives.  After that they're lucky to see either the sun or a blade of grass before they die :(   Sad.

[expatartist]

We cook with meat at home once/month on average. DH was once a biochemist and doesn't like to have raw meat in the house. First time in a couple of months I've bought meat this week, at typical sale prices for reasonably-sourced meats in Beijing:

* 13RMB (~US$2.15) 200g beef patties from Inner Mongolia
* 33RMB (~US$5.50) 1kg free range chicken breast, Tibetan plateau

[NV Teacher]

My sister and I split a beef that was raised by a local grower last year.  The final cost for everything was $2.66/lb.  I can't buy any kind of decent beef for that price in my grocery stores.  It's fabulous meat.  I hope the grower is still around when I'm ready to buy again.

Nice :)))

I should look into that for a pig :)

I assume it was butchered, freezer packed, and labeled by cut?

Yep.  When the beef was sent to the butcher I call them and told them exactly how I wanted it cut.

I checked this weekend and the super lean ground beef at the market here sells for $6.19 lb.  I smile every time I get a pound out of the freezer.

[TerriM]

My sister and I split a beef that was raised by a local grower last year.  The final cost for everything was $2.66/lb.  I can't buy any kind of decent beef for that price in my grocery stores.  It's fabulous meat.  I hope the grower is still around when I'm ready to buy again.

Nice :)))

I should look into that for a pig :)

I assume it was butchered, freezer packed, and labeled by cut?

Yep.  When the beef was sent to the butcher I call them and told them exactly how I wanted it cut.

I checked this weekend and the super lean ground beef at the market here sells for $6.19 lb.  I smile every time I get a pound out of the freezer.

Indeed.  You have a sweet deal.

[swick]

I'm finding this thread super interesting. I thought we were paying quite a bit, but seems pretty much in line with everyone else who is eating grassfed/organic. We're in BC

Grassfed/pastured organic beef is 3.70 ln hanging weight
Organic pastured pork - 8.00 lb (could be 6.00 if we committed to a 1/2 or whole)
Organic pastured lamb - 4.00 lb hanging weight - This is an amazing deal, usual for our area is 7.00 lb hanging weight, but my mom made friends with the farmer :)
Haven't found a source for chickens yet
Organic Duck eggs - 6.00 a doz
Organic Chicken eggs 4.00 a doz

[1967mama]

bluegirl, sent you a PM with some info :-)

[kathrynd]

it averages $10-15 a week, for my husband and I.

I know that's a lot, but we have almost everyday.

Our grocery/restaurant budget is $50 week total, on average

[horsepoor]

Beef quarter ~150 pounds of meat, not counting bones, tongue, heart and liver, because I asked for them and think I got most of it because most people don't want that stuff.  Paid $550 I think, so <4/lb, whereas grass fed ground beef is at best $5-6 per pound at the store.

Half a lamb - Maybe 20ish pounds of meat for $160 cryo-vac wrapped, so about $8 per pound.

Both of these animals were raised on irrigated fields next door to the place I keep my horses, and literally the best quality beef and lamb I've ever had, including better steaks than we can get at the fanciest steakhouse in town.

Chicken - I usually get free range chickens from Natural Grocer for ~$2.50/lb, closer to $2 on sale.  Can really taste the difference from a 99c Foster Farms fryer.  Recently tried CostCo organic chickens for $2.50/lb but wasn't too impressed.

Salmon - when whole wild-caught salmon are available in late summer, I pick them up for about $6/lb and cut into portions and freeze in FoodSaver bags.

I haven't found a good source for non-factory farmed pork, so we don't eat it much, but occasionally do a pork shoulder or something for $2-3/lb.

[clarkfan1979]

We probably average about $5/lb. for meat. About 80% of our purchases are chicken at 2.25/lb., pork at 2.49/lb, and organic ground beef for $4.50/lb. There is the occasional fish for $7/lb. and steak for $6-$9/lb.