Here are three things my wife and I have done to make our carnivore diet a little more affordable.

1) We shared a cow from a local farm. We bought 1/6 of a cow for about $700 which worked out to $11 lb

2) We discoverd a huge pack of rump cap in our grocery store meat section. Rump cap is also called Picanha in Brazilian steakhouses and is tender with a big layer of fat across the top. Once cut into steaks, they resemble NY strip but are way better IMO

3) We also discovered whole ribeye and cut 8 or 9 thick steaks out of a $111.00 pack...way cheaper than the normal $25 lb or so.

Bonus: a lot people are unaware of chuck eye steaks, which have been called "the poor man's ribeye". Almost as good has ribeye, half the cost!

1. We try to make it to Sam's just before close, or in the morning to catch the "short date" mark downs. We pick what we like and freeze whatever we aren't going to use soon.

2. We just bought two cows that have been bred. It will be a long time before we see meat from that but still looking for some steers to feed out (this market is crazy expensive right now). Not sure how much money we will save this year, but hopefully the investment eventually ends up providing great meat at equal or less cost.

3. Totally agree on chuck steaks- I think when they are thin sliced, they might be even more tender.

We found a local butcher where we can purchase our hamburger. It is more than Costco but we find we get a better yield from it per pound. We can also get local-sourced fresh beef liver so we are planning on making our own liver pate (we won't eat liver otherwise😄) using a carnivore pate recipie we found online. We can also purchase 1/4 and 1/2 sides of local beef.

Chuck steaks and hamburger is usually the go-to's for me when saving a few dollars.

I also hit the marked down red-meats whenever I see them. Most of the time I don't care which cut, just the reduction in price is the key. The fattier the cut the better but I can always add some bites of butter to get the fat content up.

Around here pork and chicken are cheap in comparison to red meat and I stock up, especially leg thighs or quarters, whenever they go on sale.

I also check out ads at different stores. I don't drive to three or four stores to catch their sales but if one has a particularly good sale, I will do the remainder of the shopping at that store.

Sams's is also a good choice. The closest one to me is about 35 minutes away but on the way home from work. My wife and I seldom shop together there because is it does not make a lot of sense to drive 35 minutes (gas and time) to save (maybe even less) on food. (the time carrying most of the weight). I usually stop by there on the way home from night shift. It is convenient with that approach and sometimes convenience can carry some dollar value.

Our chickens produce more eggs than we can eat but not enough to off-set the cost of feed and time. I feed the extras to the dogs so it sort of off-sets their expense some. This one the value is in knowing where they came from and what went into them being made. I can't tie it to a dollar amount but I feel like there is some 'value/savings' in just knowing.

We used to do our own cows and pigs but have gotten away from it several years ago. Between my Mom's restaurant and another in town my feed cost for the pigs was just the gas and time. Just an opinion and never had the heart to do the math. We always seemed to need one or two more cows sold or butchered to break even. Every time it looked like we were going to be on the + side of the equation it would stop raining. A drought or semi-drought meant I had to buy hay and when people know you have to buy hay, that price goes up too. By no means did we have the Yellowstone, nor was it a large cattle operation, but by the time we did the math I always hoped we just could break even. My wife and I have talked about getting more and spacing their ages out, so we have one aged/grown enough each fall. Go from there.

Great topic.

Scott

I wish I could tolerate beef liver for the nutrition. I just can't stand it, even mixed with burger. To cover our bases, we take dedicated liver pills instead.

I also wish we had chickens, one day. My wife and I eat A LOT of eggs and knowing exactly what the chickens are eating would be great.