Here’s a way to lower your grocery bill that I had not considered. Instead of buying meat from the butcher, buy part of a cow from a farmer.
The way it works is a few families get together to order enough beef to slaughter a cow, called cow-pooling. Each buyer pays a flat rate of about $3 to $5 per pound, which is much less than you would pay for grass-fed beef anywhere else, according to Time magazine, which has a story about cow-pooling in its June 15, 2009 issue.
“That price includes ground beef and stew meat as well as tenderloin and filet mignon, not to mention beef tongue and a cantaloupe-size heart,” the story says. (Note, heart is apparently a good substitute for bacon?!)
Jean Edwards, a woman interviewed for the story, has an extra freezer to preserve the side of beef she purchased (about 250 lb ) as part of her cow-pool. The meat lasts about a year.
Assuming you can eat that much beef – about 2/3 lb each day for a year – how much does it cost to freeze? If you don’t have an extra freezer, how much does one cost?
Let’s look into this because these costs are a real part of buying “cheaper” beef. Home Depot has a 7.2 cubic freezer for $219. Shipping is an extra $149, which brings the freezer cost to $368.
How much electricity does this freezer suck up in one year? Hubby suggested I check EnergyStar.gov, which has an easy-to-use calculator to determine how much you can save by either upgrading an appliance or by getting rid of an extra one. (Look for an upcoming blog post about this.) Energy Star says running the Home Depot freezer would cost $57 bucks a year.
That means the total cost of buying a side of grass-fed beef is:
250 lb x average of $4/lb: $1,000
Cost to buy freezer: $368
Cost to run freezer: $57
Total: $1,425, or about $5.70 per pound of meat in your first year. In your second year that drops to $4.20/lb, assuming your freezer is still working.
Is $4.20 – $5.70 more or less than you pay on average for beef? It’s much higher than I usually pay, though we never buy grass-fed beef. Apparently once you eat grass-fed beef, it’s hard to go back to the regular (corn-fed) stuff.
Related resources:
LocalHarvest.org helps you find farmers’ markets, family farms, and other sources of sustainably grown food in your area if you want to buy produce and grass-fed meat.
EatWild.com has information about grass-fed meat and links to farmers who sell grass-fed beef, lamb, goats, bison, poultry, pork, dairy and other wild edibles.
Welcome to Bargain Babe! I’m Mara, and I’m so glad you’re here. I am an obsessive bargain hunter and penny pincher, and I am determined to live a full life without EVER paying full price. 
This is a great idea. As a child my family use to buy 1/2 or 1/4 of a cow from FEDCO…any one remember Fedco? Of course, in the 60’s and 70’s it was cost a lot less, but its great for a family. It certainly takes a second freezer to store this up…but from experince its the BARGAIN way to buy beef!
People forget that frozen meat does deteriorate. I’ve heard that 3-4 months is approaching the upper limits of how long you should keep meet frozen, so I guess we’d be eating 2-3lbs a day to finish the meat before it went ‘bad’.
If you’ve got a good sized family going that can go through that much meat, buying a side of beef (or share of the cow) is a good idea. While ~$5 a pound is expensive for ground beef or rougher cuts, it’s super cheap for the steak and tenderloin cuts. We’re only 3 people (soon to cut down to 2 when roomie leaves) so it wouldn’t make as much sense for us or other small families.
If you do go for this, be sure your cow doesn’t look like the one in the photo. That’s a dairy, not a beef cow. The huge udder isn’t for looks.
Julia’s great-grandparents in Tennessee had cows on their farm, and they killled a young male about once a year. I never heard my grandmother say anything about the meat going bad, but some of the meat was kept in a locker provided by the slaughter house, which was probably a lower temperature than a home freezer.
Wow, this post has really tapped into some interesting stories about my family and how other readers live. I love it!
I used to live in Northern California and the older dairy cattle were slaughtered when they got too old. The meat wasn’t as fat as steers raised for meat production but still had good flavor, so don’t turn your nose up at a dairy cow…with the drop in milk prices, there will be a lot of dairy cattle coming on the market as meat.
Also: heart is NOT a good substitute for bacon. There is no fat and it is all muscle …it needs to be braised OR ground up and mixed with regular ground beef, it’s not a tender cut.
When I was married we shared a cow one time, and it was sort of ok…the meat was good but you are really limited in the cuts you get. You might think you’d get a lot of steaks, but it’s not the case. You’re also going to get (again) braising meat (beef shanks, beef neck, ex tail etc). so cooking time will be a factor with these (long and slow).
When you buy meat at a market, you know what the grade is. You don’t always know the grade when you get the whole carcass…or if you do, it’s not going to be prime or such…go to a USDA website or such to find out what the various grades and possible cuts are.
Try:
http://www.ams.usda.gov/AMSv1.0/getfile?dDocName=STELDEV3002633
Storage. Most markets/meat cutters wrap the meat in butcher paper, which is plastic coated on the inside. As one writer noted, there can be spoilage. I’ve run into more freezer burn that I want to remember. I would suggest rewrapping in double plastic bags to prevent the damage. Don’t know if anyone has eaten anything with freezer burn but it isn’t tasty. Frugal dad’s grand parents probably were aware of this and took the extra steps to protect the meat. The locker at the slaughter house was also a dry cold (which is better) and wasn’t like a home freezer where it was opened and closed all the time.
We found that gong to the dairy cow slaughter house and buying certain items worked best. Buy x # of pounds of heart and have it ground in with the cheap beef (some people would make it go even further by having lung or brains ground in…no real change in flavor, but much lower cost. Som people would have the liver ground in…not to my taste…if I want liver, I want liver, not liver flavored beef. You could also specify ground beef (finely ground) or chili beef (coarse ground). A good option if you’re getting part of the cow, too.
As we have all learned (or are learning!), discipline is a big part of saving money. I remember people who would have a big barbecue and all their steaks would be used at one time…and they’d have memories of a good party, and ground beef the rest of the year.
I’m sure it works well for some people, but if one has access to a lot of markets (as I do, living in LA) I think selective (rather than bulk) buying is the better choice.
And remember, as with other food commodities, there are seasons based on the weather, so shop seasonally for beef (etc) too.
Bon appetit!
I live in NE and have no idea why anyone would eat grass fed beef if they have tasted corn fed beef. Dairy cattle can be eaten but I would suggest having the majority of it made into hamburger. Hats off to the farmer who is selling cows at $3 or more per pound. We’ve never paid that much ever even for corn fed black angus. That’s quite a racket that guy has going! Heart is not useable to make into bacon but we do have a use for it- cat food.
A great way to save on meat & groceries is the old fashioned coop concept. Two excellent ones we’ve found are http://www.goldensharefoods.com and http://www.angelfoodministries.com. Anyone can use them. Great prices and quality staple food items for your family. I’d love to learn of others.
Thanks for these resources, Melinda. I’ll check them out!
This post makes me think of an I Love Lucy episode when she bought a side of beef.
I can only imagine what Lucy would do with a side of beef…hehehe
If we are not purchasing kosher beef, corn-fed all the way! I do not care for the taste of grass fed beef. It’s not the same. Of course, others may have differing opinions regarding the dietraty aspects of corn vs. grass, I’ll stick with corn fed.
I don’t like your example of the freezer, because it would be too small for a whole, side or even quarter of beef, but with that said, as far as the freezer cost, and since this is BargainBabe, the way to save money, I’m shocked Julia, you’re very frugal, I can’t believe you would even consider paying for shipping! If you have a pick-up truck or SUV, that size of freezer would easily fit in the back, even if you have take the carton off. Also, Home Depot has a program where you can rent one of their u-drive trucks for $19.00 for the first 75 minutes, and $10.00 for each 60 minutes or fraction thereof.
See: http://www.homedepotrents.com/truckrental.asp
Even a U-Haul rental would be less expensive than shipping for this example.
Also, don’t forget to pick-up the movers kit from the Post Office to save an additional 10% from Lowe’s or Home Depot for purchases up to $5000 in a single transaction, and very few exclusions apply. (The USPS changes the coupon between Lowe’s and Home Depot every few months for placement in the movers kit. To me, the USPS should just include both retailers all the time, it could be a Lowe’s vs. Home Depot thing).
The other thought I have as far as the freezer, I would rather have a frost-free freezer (I do) than this example that is not, however, the energy usage is higher with a frost-free freezer. You gain cost savings for lower energy usage vs. having to scrape out the frost (good project for the kids…lol) than a frost free model.
Something I learned on my most recent trip that many in eastern Washington who have the land (and the desire) may rase a few head of cattle for the sole purpose of butchering for personal use. Many towns have a local processor to handle the processing, and I discovered (as others have mentioned) that one or more families/friends may split the contents among themselves. One person told me that it was cheaper to share costs among a couple of family members (feed, shots, butchering, freexer expense) over a year period than buying meat at the supermarket or the likes of Costco and Sam’s Club.
Nice to be back and I miss my looooong posts…LOL
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