Price of Beef


 
Brett-EDH said:
At Costco by us:

NY Strip today, while loin was $9.79#.

Tri tip was $8.99#, four in a pack, $82 for 4.

Rib Eye whole loon was $10.89#

Pork butt was $2.79#
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Those are some nice prices. It seems to vacillate here a lot. My freezer was down to it's last 2 scrawny end cut steaks (one of which I ate last night) so I know we needed to put something in the freezer. Wife can't eat piggy, doesn't much care for lamb, doesn't really go for "smoked" things like brisket, and such. She's not even much on ribeye. But, she does like the expensive stuff (strips and tenderloin). So my bulk beef buying stays around there. I know Sam's Club sells the whole sirloins but I don't know how to work with those. I know how to work with strips and tenderloins though so they're what I buy. That bad boy I just bought was close to 17# so I got some good yield out of it. And I have a bag of scrap I need to get through today to turn into chopped beef and maybe some "tips" for a stir fry. So part of the cost issue I had was how huge it was and being a bit higher cost per lb than what I have been used to seeing. But, I buy when I need.
 
I grill steak tips once a week for the wife and I. $30 for 4 good size ones is expensive enough for me. I’ve been smoking mostly pork, chicken and fish that I catch to keep the costs down. The cheaper the better for me.
 
I can buy choice packer briskets at my local grocery store for $3.49 . You need to shop somewhere else. A lot of people use their covid stimulus money to go out and buy things like pellet grills. Many wiill get tired of them never cook a brisket again.
 
Question for you guys.

DH and I also like to shop for bargains and store in the freezer, but, don't you find the difference in flavor between the frozen meat and fresh bought meat? Sometimes I feel that the money we save is not worth giving up the flavor. What say you all?
 
I own lots of beef.....Tried to purchase a lot before prices increased, but they were already fairly increased.
Seen it happening, tried to save by purchasing a lot at once instead of paying more later.
I spent around $700 filling up freezers with ground 80/20, brisket, flank, picanha, ribs ect.......generally things I like the most.
I currently have no steaks in the freezer.
Here are some on sale prices from flyer this week local to me....
Strips........on sale........
1660570693393.png


T-Bone's on sale,

1660571030670.png

Ground beef on sale

1660571054411.png

Just a few examples, regular price really hurts.
There is something to be said when you eat what is on sale rather than what you have a craving for.
It's pretty lousy when you think about it that way.
 
Darryl - swazies said:
I own lots of beef.....Tried to purchase a lot before prices increased, but they were already fairly increased.
Seen it happening, tried to save by purchasing a lot at once instead of paying more later.
I spent around $700 filling up freezers with ground 80/20, brisket, flank, picanha, ribs ect.......generally things I like the most.
I currently have no steaks in the freezer.
Here are some on sale prices from flyer this week local to me....
Strips........on sale........
View attachment 57479


T-Bone's on sale,

View attachment 57480

Ground beef on sale

View attachment 57481

Just a few examples, regular price really hurts.
There is something to be said when you eat what is on sale rather than what you have a craving for.
It's pretty lousy when you think about it that way.
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USD or CAD?

If that’s USD, that’s very expensive, to me.
 
Joan said:
Question for you guys.

DH and I also like to shop for bargains and store in the freezer, but, don't you find the difference in flavor between the frozen meat and fresh bought meat? Sometimes I feel that the money we save is not worth giving up the flavor. What say you all?
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I really can't say I detect a difference in the flavor of the frozen meat vs, fresh. But then again very seldom do we buy fresh and not freeze it.
Plus, my 74 year old taste buds aren't up to what they were years ago.
The shocking thing to Barb and I was when we transferred the frozen food from our 12 CF. freezer to the new 21 CF. freezer we wrote down what we paid for our stash of frozen meat. Even with the dog food specials we figured we had close to $1000 invested. Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think I would have that much invested. I can't imagine what it would be at today's prices. As an example, we have about 15 strip steaks that we paid $3.99 a pound for on sale about 6-7 months ago. Strips at Safeway are now $9.99 on sale.
 
Yeah you may be bang on, I stopped doing the math with gas and groceries a while ago....
All I know is I pay too much for a lot of things these days and the bank account feels it.
 
Joan said:
Question for you guys.

DH and I also like to shop for bargains and store in the freezer, but, don't you find the difference in flavor between the frozen meat and fresh bought meat? Sometimes I feel that the money we save is not worth giving up the flavor. What say you all?
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Depends on a few things. First the quality of the meat, second how it's handled, 3rd how it's packaged and last stored in a proper freezer. I have various proteins in my manual defrost upright I bought a little more than 2 years ago. And whenever I have had opportunity to use them I cannot tell any difference from fresh. Stuff I have put into my frost free bottom freezer on my large Amana fridge 2 or 3 months and it's useless. Full of ice crystals and so on. Both products packaged identically both freezers kept at same temps.
Also I've noticed if my wife freezes the protein before vacuum sealing it the end result seems better. Though I think this is more "visual" and "textural". But I cannot emphasize enough. Quality product, careful handling and a good freezer.
 
LMichaels said:
Depends on a few things. First the quality of the meat, second how it's handled, 3rd how it's packaged and last stored in a proper freezer. I have various proteins in my manual defrost upright I bought a little more than 2 years ago. And whenever I have had opportunity to use them I cannot tell any difference from fresh. Stuff I have put into my frost free bottom freezer on my large Amana fridge 2 or 3 months and it's useless. Full of ice crystals and so on. Both products packaged identically both freezers kept at same temps.
Also I've noticed if my wife freezes the protein before vacuum sealing it the end result seems better. Though I think this is more "visual" and "textural". But I cannot emphasize enough. Quality product, careful handling and a good freezer.
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Larry, I'm experiencing the same with our house bottom freezer. Thats why we don't keep anything long term in it. But the garage frost free refrigerator which has a top freezer never frosts or gets ice crystals in the frozen foods. Our older upright frost free garage freezer never gave us any issues either. Hopefully our new larger upright frost free freezer will be a non issue also.
When we transferred the frozen food from the smaller freezer to the larger freezer, I found a Tri-Tip buried in the back of the small freezer. It was in there for 16 months. defrosted it and grilled it up and it was perfect, although not as nice as that gem of a TT you did, but tender and tasty.
 
Joan said:
Question for you guys.

DH and I also like to shop for bargains and store in the freezer, but, don't you find the difference in flavor between the frozen meat and fresh bought meat? Sometimes I feel that the money we save is not worth giving up the flavor. What say you all?
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Joan, I try to keep only a running supply of meats in the freezer, say up to 30 days worth.

On beef, we wrap each steak in cling wrap and then in zip lock bags. Because we use most of our steaks, meat, up in 30 days or so, we don’t experience freezer burn or degradation. Defrosting in the fridge for 2 days nets us the same results as buying meat fresh that day.

We also eat more chicken and fish than beef these days. Lamb every few weeks too.

And we prefer the garage freezer as it doesn’t get opened as much as the kitchen freezer, adding more consistency in temps and maintaining quality over time.
 
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Joan said:
DH and I also like to shop for bargains and store in the freezer, but, don't you find the difference in flavor between the frozen meat and fresh bought meat? Sometimes I feel that the money we save is not worth giving up the flavor. What say you all?
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Joan there are only 2 of us wanted to chime in so I only buy bulk to a small degree. For instance on Saturday bought 4 Filets at Costco the choice they were fresh as I said was 15.99 a pound so somewhere around 42 bucks they were pretty large individually but we both had one each then I vacum sealed the remaining 2 and put them in the freezer. I don't ever put any meat or chicken or whatever in the freezer don't have a standalone freezer without vacum sealing and to be honest not really ever noticed the difference when I defrost them but again there are only 2 filets frozen and we will be eating those in 2 or 3 weeks so they really are not hanging around that long. I buy the bulk party wings at Costco but those are already cryo wrapped about 11 to a pack so usually will cook 2 and throw the rest in the freezer Costco the last time I was in there did not have those had fresh large packs so I vacum sealed the remaining portions.

With ribs I kind of stopped buying them at Costco cause they are 2 or 3 packs and my Kroger will have them on sale for the holidays and I can just buy a large rack we just don't eat them enough to justify a multiple pack would rather just buy what I need 5 or 6 times a year if I pay more so be it.
 
I left home and moved to a different city in 1981.

Having to pay rent, transit pass, food etc. wasn’t easy making $4.25 an hour.

I ate a lot of pasta and peanut butter sandwiches.

I worked my way up and got better and better jobs, but I just seem to remember that food used to be more expensive.

With so many “advancements” in the meat industry in general, maybe it’s more of a case of beef, chicken, pork etc have just been relatively inexpensive for so long that now it just seems expensive.

All anecdotal on my part.

If I researched it I could probably find some “adjusted for inflation” statistics that would disprove this thinking.

But like many here, we shop for a family of four with extended family frequently visiting, and yes- everything is more expensive. We buy much of our beef from Costco or Whole Foods.

But my wife will still make me black beans with white rice topped with a little extra virgin olive oil for a meal if I ask, because I really enjoy that- a remnant of leaner times.
 
John_NJ said:
But my wife will still make me black beans with white rice topped with a little extra virgin olive oil for a meal if I ask, because I really enjoy that- a remnant of leaner times.
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good source of protein and they taste great. never too much pride to eat healthy and light. good for you!
 
John you made me think of those leaner times when tuna fish was cheap ate it 4 times a week to this day I am the opposite can't even look at it probably not had a tuna fish sandwich in 40 years.
 
Brian B Atlanta said:
John you made me think of those leaner times when tuna fish was cheap ate it 4 times a week to this day I am the opposite can't even look at it probably not had a tuna fish sandwich in 40 years.
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That’s me with boxed macaroni and cheese, lol

When I got tired of eating that, I needed to branch out and learn to cook.

Very long ago, I learned a recipe for “pasta with tuna and tomatoes” that is basically chop a yellow onion and heat it in olive oil, dump in a can of tuna in oil including the oil, a few large tomatoes chopped in large pieces and a handful of fresh basil and heat for about 15 minutes until the tomatoes start to break up- serve it over pasta- still one of the best recipes I ever learned.
 
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Rich Dahl said:
But the garage frost free refrigerator which has a top freezer never frosts or gets ice crystals in the frozen foods.
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Odd. Our top freezer in the basement fridge ices up even worse than the bottom unit on our upstairs fridge and it's lots newer. The only place I can freeze anything without having it go bad quickly is in the stand alone freezer. IDK why this is. But I even recall reading an informational article about it (maybe it was Consumer Reports?) with the advice being if you buy a stand alone freezer to only buy manual defrost ones. I'm not wanting to rehash the whole brue ha that went on earlier about this. If someone is having luck with a frost free, good for them. All I can say is my track record is not good with frost free freezers. I'm at 2 years on my stand alone one and it's only now beginning to look like it might benefit from a defrost. But actually very little buildup is in it at all
 
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