Welcome to an impromptu Survival Saturday. This week, we will be talking about an unusual topic for this column. Rather than how to preserve food, secure your preparations, or set up supplies for a grid-down medical emergency. We are going to be talking about groceries. I don’t know about you, but it is becoming more and more of a survival issue in our house as the costs increase, putting a real strain on our household budget. This has caused us to substitute the foods we prefer for cheaper, lower-quality foods, eat far more rice and beans, and do other things to get by. It still gets harder and harder every month. To the point we have, at times, broken into our survival stockpile to get through.
We grow, hunt, and forage as much as we can, but becoming food independent is a process, and things at the store went pear-shaped as we were still getting the self-sufficiency worked out. We do eat meals that are entirely sourced from our property, but we are still working towards always eating meals sourced from our property and are more frequently eating meals partially sourced from our property. That number is about 90% of the time; at least one major component of any given meal originated here, so that is progress.
I am always looking for ways to afford to eat more like we used to or reduce our total food costs, which are, unfortunately, often over $2000 a month. Since May 2022, the average has been $1863 (rounded to an even number, no change), an increase from the average between 2018 and 2021 of $975 (rounded to an even number) a month. I recently made a discovery that has increased the quality of our food supply and helped to fight rising costs at Sam's, Costco, or any grocery that cuts its own meat. Most of them sell a macro cut called the chuck roll. They sell for $3.75-$5.65 a pound, depending on grade and season. It is all of the cow from about the third rib to the neck above the shoulder blade, usually weighing 25-35 pounds (here). If you like steak, the best part is the front 4-6" of the ribeye muscle group is present in the chuck roll (they call the steaks chuck eyes, but I can't tell the difference eating them) it does taper as it approaches the neck so you can only get 2-4 nice 1"-1.5” steaks out of one and a couple of smaller ones (I use it for grind). You also get 6-8 Denver steaks (like a sirloin, only more flavor). 5-7# of roast cut however you want. I usually do two roasts and 10-15 pounds of burger/stew meat.
We got one on Friday. It weighed 25.7 pounds and cost $4.98 a pound, for a total of $127.99. Here is the part some of you might have a problem with. The chuck roll is inexpensive because you have to butcher it yourself. With practice, it can be done in 10 minutes, and the grind can be completed in another 10 minutes. Add in clean-up, and you are at 30-40 minutes total. There are also several ways to do it, and many videos show how to do it here, here, here, here, and here. These are examples, and none are the ones I used the first few times (I can’t find it), but they show a wide variety of ways and opinions on how best to break down the chuck roll.
Here is the fun part:
We got 4 chuck eye steaks totaling 2.4 pounds at the time of writing, $12.98 a pound from Walmart (here)
We got 2 Chuck roasts, totaling 5.7 pounds at the time of writing $7.93 a pound at Walmart (here)
We got 9 Denver steaks (boneless short ribs), totaling 6.3 pounds at the time of writing $10.97 a pound at Walmart (here)
Lastly, we got 10.7 pounds of ground beef between 80-95% lean ( I eyeballed it a little) at the time of writing, $4.53 a pound at Walmart (here)
There was .6 pounds of trim waste, including silver skin, gristle, excess fat I didn’t want to put in the burger, and the like. I could have rendered the fat to tallow, but there wasn’t enough of it besides the dogs and chickens, like the scraps.
The bottom line is that the individual cuts cost $193.93, so we saved $65.94 for 10 minutes of work. The savings were greater just a couple of years ago, but it is still an excellent deal.