Biggest bang for the buck page 2

[BOMO]

1. Ethnic markets. Find one. I found one catering to the Hispanic population.
There is every cut available you could ever want. Heads, tails, snouts, skin, feet, kidneys, tongues, tripe, neck bones, cheeks, maws, gizzards.

2. Odd bits. Saves lots of money.
- Pig's tails for about $2 for 3 tails. One tail has enough meat, fat and skin on it to make a lunch for me.
- Soup bones were about $5 for a package and there appeared to be enough meat on them to make a nice dinner for two of burritos. I'm guessing neck bones would probably be similar.
- I spent a week eating a beef tongue. Came out to less than $2 a meal.
- Spare ribs were on sale for $2 a pound so I got 2 pounds for only $4. That's going to be way more than we need for dinner for two.

I know grass-fed beef is supposed to be so much better for you, but the only thing available locally are $20/lb minimum rib-eyes and NY steaks. Who can eat that way every day? So I focus on an occasional pastured chicken and livers, eat the odd-bits meats from the ethnic market and buy local produce. I save the fat, the broth, everything I can and figure out how to use it.

Also helpful is all the produce you can get for free at the office. If you have produce, start bringing it to the office to share. Others will do the same. We've been feasting on fresh tomatoes and zucchini this summer and there's a lady at work with more eggs than she knows what to do with, so we help her out in exchange for avocados.

We live in a small midwest town, so I doubt there is an Ethnic market available.

To be quite honest, the offal and uncommonly eaten parts are still "out there" as a possibility for us. We've only been primal for 1.5 months. I would need to do some heavy convincing of the rest of the family before they would consider it.

There is occasionally produce available at the office, so I will jump on it when it's available.

[BOMO]

Some great advice here I would also add that you don't need to eat the expensive stuff often to be healthy. I like to treat myself to steak and smoked salmon sometimes but I mostly live on tonnes of veggies, eggs, stews made from bone broth, and cheaper meats like chicken, bacon, and tinned fish.

Whatever you make, cook it in grass-fed butter or tallow, that will make it almost as tasty and healthy as eating a steak!

Another thing you can do is to make your diet your priority. Of course bills need paying but there are sometimes small changes you can make to your budget to allow for some bigger grocery bills sometimes. I spend about the same amount on meat and veggies as I used to spend on conventional food, but I can now afford to treat myself to smoked salmon regularly because I cut down on other stuff that slid down my list of priorities, like drinking and spending on clothes, for example.

Our diet is definitely a priority now. I've been looking for grass-fed butter, but haven't found any. We rarely spend $ on anything we don't need.

[noodletoy]

loads of good advice here and i don't think too many of us are eating grass-fed ribeye everyday.

one of the most budget-friendly primal foods is bone broth. at a local asian market, i can buy cafo chicken heads, backs and feet for a couple bucks and get many quarts of broth. i reduce it down for easy storage, so then each quart bag has about 8 servings in it. i stir some greens, eggs or bits of meat in there and i am full for hours. for beef, i buy neck bones and soup bones mostly, sometimes "feet". it works out to pennies per portion.

offal is super-nutrient-dense and very cheap. one of my grocers has oogly bits available on mondays, or i can get some stuff at an asian store. have been eating lots of heart and tongue lately. heart is powerfully good for you and i've been paying less than $2 pp. it's all trimmed and cut up too.

free-range organic chicken livers go for about $3.50 pp, i think. i buy a couple tubs at a time and make pate, which i portion, bag and freeze. i get about 6 portions from each pound, so again, very cheap and very nutritious.

i buy some local fruits and veggies, but i live in new england and our season is very short. i eat loads and loads of frozen spinach because it's cheap and filling.

my everyday protein is pastured eggs and i do use only pastured butter now. (kerrygold.)

i think i actually spend less on food now, because i spent so much on bread, corn chips, crackers and cheese. once junk comes out of the grocery cart, you get all kinds of money to shift around.

i also don't have cable, don't buy many clothes, drive an old car and gave up my land-line phone.

[sbhikes]

We live in a small midwest town, so I doubt there is an Ethnic market available.

To be quite honest, the offal and uncommonly eaten parts are still "out there" as a possibility for us. We've only been primal for 1.5 months. I would need to do some heavy convincing of the rest of the family before they would consider it.

There is occasionally produce available at the office, so I will jump on it when it's available.

But what is the difference to you whether the meat comes off the ribs or buttocks or off the legs, throat, face or tail? Meat's just meat. I can see maybe being afraid of the guts, but meat is just meat even when it once was used to chew some cud or swat some flies. What do you think they put in all that ground beef anyway, rib-eye? No, they put in the cheeks and tails and whatnot and then they charge you like it used to be chuck roast.

[SCruz Carter]

Buying and cooking in bulk helps too. I live alone and will make a HUGE pot of spagetti sauce and put it in tupperware or zip locks when its cool. I then can use this as a base for a lot of things and even with meat comes out to a buck or 2 per meal. Good eggs should be a priority since they can be eaten all the time, are protein rich and the commercially produced stuff scares me with all the GMO grains they are being fed and the breeding ground for diseases their living conditions are.

Even in the midwest there will be an ethnic market around, it may look dingy from the outside, but the meat and produce will be cheap on the inside. Ask the local taco truck where they get their meat.

[BOMO]

Farmer's market: check out who is there, and ask around for referrals. That is how I found out about the little farms near me that do 80/20 or 70/30 grass/grain ratios. Not all grass-fed, but certainly better than the crap in the grocery store, when they butcher two animals each week. You know where your meat comes from, and it tastes amazing. And it is CHEAP. 3.15/lb for ground meat. You can't get much better unless you buy club packs. BUT when I was single and didn't have access to these farms, I bought the best I could afford. Some weeks, it was organic. Other weeks, it was club packs. Do the best you can. But definitely prioritize meat over organic veggies. I'd buy -- still do -- frozen veggies that cost a buck a bag, and get creative with them. Cheap salad. Few fruits, unless they were in season. Raw nuts are cheap enough for a snack, and you can get creative with them. I kept it really cheap. You do what you can with what you have. Lots of great ideas on the forum for cheap meals, too.

Wow! $3.15/lb is amazing! That's about as cheap as CAFO from Walmart. I haven't contacted all of the Farmers in the area (adds to the to-do list).

[ciavyn]

Yep. I used eatwild.org, but it doesn't list everything nearby. Sustainabletable.org might have a few listed in your area. I had much better luck going to farmer's markets and asking around. I moved to this area a few months ago, and I am spoiled with all the fresh foods available. I hardly know how to act. I feel your pain -- you do what you can. Work towards best with better, and let the rest go.

[BOMO]

But what is the difference to you whether the meat comes off the ribs or buttocks or off the legs, throat, face or tail? Meat's just meat. I can see maybe being afraid of the guts, but meat is just meat even when it once was used to chew some cud or swat some flies. What do you think they put in all that ground beef anyway, rib-eye? No, they put in the cheeks and tails and whatnot and then they charge you like it used to be chuck roast.

I'm not disagreeing with you. I'm just saying it may be hard to convince the rest of the family. Kind of an out of sight, out of mind thing.

[noodletoy]

i've been bringing beef heart as lunch to work most days this week or so. people peer in my container and ask what it is, i just say "beef." it's all cut up in tiny pieces, over veggies. this avoids other people's squick factor. i just don't feel like having the conversation with somebody who is eating a special k bar, ya know?

sb, i think you're forgetting, or don't realize, how far removed most americans from any kind of realization about their food sources and that their stryo-packed, shrink-wrapped meat comes from a WHOLE living animal.

[BOMO]

Thanks for the great comments. I think we're on the right track to eating healthy and we do focus on buying good eggs since the mainstream grass-fed meat cuts are quite expensive.

I don't have a problem with the offal, but I will work on convincing the others.