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I realize this may not be for everyone, but consider buying a half of a beef or a whole hog from a rancher. I hunt and so we eat a lot of wild game, but we also buy a side of beef and a pig each year. I've got a wife and 2 growing boys, so we eat a LOT of meat.
Ever think about hunting to reduce your grocery bills? Frankly, it's not "necessarily" cheaper, but at least you know what your getting is fresh, isn't full of hormones and chemicals, and it teaches you some skills that are lacking in todays world, mainly patience and the self-satisfaction of doing it yourself and not depending on the local store to feed your family.
Just my .02 for whatever it's worth. Buying beef and pork from the local rancher helps keep your money LOCAL where it will do the most good for everyone. Even if "local" is 100 miles away.
Thanks again for the replies. Regarding food- is sea food sold at the market? By sea food I mostly mean Pacific/Atlantic fish species, or is trout and salmon the only come by? I do not eat farmed fish but buy wild caught fish, be it in the ocean or river, at the local markets. What about fruits? Are fresh organic fruits hard to come by year round? Veggies?
Housing- I was looking at housing and found a lot of decently priced house, then again where I am from the cheapest you can find a house is half a million!!! I found nice houses with acreage from about $170,000- $270,000. My question, is there anyway to negotiate the prices cheaper? I obviously do not want a CASTLE but a nice small 3 bedroom home with some acreage.
Quote:
Originally Posted by rmmoore
I realize this may not be for everyone, but consider buying a half of a beef or a whole hog from a rancher. I hunt and so we eat a lot of wild game, but we also buy a side of beef and a pig each year. I've got a wife and 2 growing boys, so we eat a LOT of meat.
Ever think about hunting to reduce your grocery bills? Frankly, it's not "necessarily" cheaper, but at least you know what your getting is fresh, isn't full of hormones and chemicals, and it teaches you some skills that are lacking in todays world, mainly patience and the self-satisfaction of doing it yourself and not depending on the local store to feed your family.
Just my .02 for whatever it's worth. Buying beef and pork from the local rancher helps keep your money LOCAL where it will do the most good for everyone. Even if "local" is 100 miles away.
I am actually picking up hunting! I think factory farming is disgusting and much rather have fresh meat that was actually not treated to a life of confinement. How much is would half a beef run from the local rancher?
And I am all for helping the local farmers. Having lived in the city, I am sick of the greed and materialism. I want to actually live life and enjoy where I live, where money is irrelevant.
Thanks guys.
Last edited by JumpingRoo; 02-06-2010 at 01:19 PM..
Housing- I was looking at housing and found a lot of decently priced house, then again where I am from the cheapest you can find a house is half a million!!! I found nice houses with acreage from about $170,000- $270,000. My question, is there anyway to negotiate the prices cheaper? I obviously do not want a CASTLE but a nice small 3 bedroom home with some acreage.
A couple summers back my friend from San Diego and I were driving though a nice mid-sized city in northern MN and he was commenting that some of the little (less than 1500 sq ft) homes that we were passing with for sale signs would go for no less than half a mill where he lived. Yikes.. I don't know how Californians can put up with prices like that. I have a feeling I'd end up living in a tiny tiny cardboard box if I had to live there. You've a good mindset to leave the sinking ship, I think!
Good luck on your quest. I'm interested in your organic foods query too. I know Walmart stores have started to carry some--not many but some--and you might be able to find more things in season locally.
Thanks again for the replies. Regarding food- is sea food sold at the market? By sea food I mostly mean Pacific/Atlantic fish species, or is trout and salmon the only come by? I do not eat farmed fish but buy wild caught fish, be it in the ocean or river, at the local markets. What about fruits? Are fresh organic fruits hard to come by year round? Veggies?
Housing- I was looking at housing and found a lot of decently priced house, then again where I am from the cheapest you can find a house is half a million!!! I found nice houses with acreage from about $170,000- $270,000. My question, is there anyway to negotiate the prices cheaper? I obviously do not want a CASTLE but a nice small 3 bedroom home with some acreage.
I am actually picking up hunting! I think factory farming is disgusting and much rather have fresh meat that was actually not treated to a life of confinement. How much is would half a beef run from the local rancher?
And I am all for helping the local farmers. Having lived in the city, I am sick of the greed and materialism. I want to actually live life and enjoy where I live, where money is irrelevant.
Thanks guys.
Here in Sheridan, veggies are not a problem year around. A little more pricey during the winter, but it's trucked in year around. As far as fruits are concerned, we have fruits available all year also. Again, more pricey during the winter. However, we have a much better selection during the summer.
Also, during the summer we have a farmers market that sets up and sells every week. We also have a lot of truckers that pull in and set up to sell straight from their truck.
As far as organic, I wouldn't know. I don't specifically look for organic.
Fish is available at all the grocery stores. As I don't buy fish, I catch fish, I couldn't tell you if what they have is frozen and shipped in or if it's delivered fresh. But I don't see how they could get it here fresh. But several varieties of fish are available. Salmon (Coastal), white fish, etc...
Until I joined the Navy, I thought Mrs Pauls Fish Sticks were fresh sea food.
Thanks again for the replies. Regarding food- is sea food sold at the market? By sea food I mostly mean Pacific/Atlantic fish species, or is trout and salmon the only come by? I do not eat farmed fish but buy wild caught fish, be it in the ocean or river, at the local markets. What about fruits? Are fresh organic fruits hard to come by year round? Veggies?
Housing- I was looking at housing and found a lot of decently priced house, then again where I am from the cheapest you can find a house is half a million!!! I found nice houses with acreage from about $170,000- $270,000. My question, is there anyway to negotiate the prices cheaper? I obviously do not want a CASTLE but a nice small 3 bedroom home with some acreage.
I am actually picking up hunting! I think factory farming is disgusting and much rather have fresh meat that was actually not treated to a life of confinement. How much is would half a beef run from the local rancher?
And I am all for helping the local farmers. Having lived in the city, I am sick of the greed and materialism. I want to actually live life and enjoy where I live, where money is irrelevant.
Thanks guys.
Fresh fish is more readily available than you would expect ... King Soopers and Albertson's both have sea food. We are routinely able to buy Wild Caught fish seasonally of various ocean species ... tuna (various types), shrimp (gulf coast), salmon (generally Pacific NW or Alaskan), halibut, and so forth. Around Cheyenne, you won't find much in the way of freshwater fish except catfish ... which is usually farm raised. With Denver as a major regional fish supplier, it gets fresh fish flown in every day. In Cheyenne, the King Sooper's (which I prefer to the Albertsons) gets a delivery Mon-Wed-Fri, at probably only 1 day more in the shipping/handling then if you'd gone to a supermarket counter on the West Coast of the USA, so it's still pretty good. I prefer USA Wild Caught species, so I stay with that ... especially shrimp. Unfortunately, I have to settle for imported stuff for the calamari and octopus ... and usually go to Denver's major Asian food markets for that.
Seasonally, you will see major promo's on fresh fish of various species ... esp Alaskan crab, salmon, halibut, PNW dungeness crab ... and so forth. Gotta' watch the ads for when it's in season and being promoted ... when it's sold out, it's gone. But it is fresh, not frozen ... and not very much more expensive than I've paid for it at similar promo's back on the coast.
The only way I've been able to get fresher ocean fish is to go catch it myself or buy it directly from the seafood markets, such as in Seattle.
Housing Prices? Make an offer. The asked price isn't written in stone for many sellers. If you don't negotiate a lower price, then you've locked yourself out of that possibility. You'll never know until you make an offer as a capable and qualified buyer.
Buying Beef; unless you're taking a whole beef, you've got two problems trying to buy directly from a rancher. If you're truly into organic/natural, then many of the ranchers aren't raising what you'd want for the product.
So you need to be sure that the rancher ... more likely a "hobby rancher" ... is raising the beef on grass in the pastures here. Secondly, you'll need to find somebody who will split the whole beef with you, which may be relatively easy to find. The easiest way to buy what you want for cuts, however, is to go directly to the processor when they have beef in inventory ... Home on the Range in Cheyenne, or Double J or Innovative Foods in Colorado.
Unless you want all of the misc cuts from buying a half/whole beef, you'll appreciate getting just what you want by the direct purchase. Most people don't realize what the yields are from a live beef ... all the weight is not beef, all the hanging weight is not steaks. Most of the hanging weight will be hamburger or stew meat. Overall, you won't save a lot of money buying your beef this way ... because you're paying as much for a lot of ground beef as you are for your steaks and roasts. The benefit is that you can get a better quality of beef than through your grocer's meat counter.
Keep in mind, also, that you're buying a lot of beef at one time ... 150-200 lbs. for a half. How quickly will you consume that? If you don't eat a lot of it, you're looking at freezer aging issues, and you'll not have the quality of product that you'd like.
Your local farmer's market is a good source for locally raised natural food, meats, poultry, vegetables, honey ... and so forth. Cheyenne runs a Tuesday afternoon and Saturday market for much of the year and requires that the product actually be produced by the seller ... not brought in stuff that they're reselling.
Oh there is this place out of Jackson Hole in WY that I found online awhile back that claims to have free range type buffalo and elk meat for sale... sans the antibiotics or growth hormones. I thought their prices were high, (10 lbs for $206.. ouch) but there may be other wild game that one could buy cheaper. I don't know. I know we can buy ground bison meat in our local grocery store as there are local people who raise them, for around $5/lb. Haven't actually gone looking for steaks or roasts or anything though, there are probably places in WY, MT or the surrounding area which sell organic raised meats. Just do a search online for organic farms-Wyoming.. and there should be a listing.
Location: formerly Gillette, WY now Sacramento, CA
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Luckily we have access to all the bison, elk, and other game meat we could want. I bought 1/4 cow from my friend who is a rancher here. It wasn't cheap but more importantly it was hormone/ antibiotic free grass fed locally raised beef. Also I can directly find out what the cow ate and if I wanted, go visit the processing place. I also got to choose the cuts I wanted and other things like the thickness of the steaks, leaness of the ground, etc. If I had to save money I would cut down our meat consumption just to still have high quality meat.
I love locally raised anything. Last week I just scored some raw unfiltered North Dakota honey and can't wait to make some baklava with.
Here's a link to an organic farm/ranch in south Goshen County that raises natural veggies and hormone-free, grass-fed beef, etc. She takes a load of deliveries for Cheyenne customers to the farmer's market in Cheyenne during its season. You have to buy "shares" to get it, but they are very reasonable and the food is wonderful.
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I think factory farming is disgusting and much rather have fresh meat that was actually not treated to a life of confinement. How much is would half a beef run from the local rancher?
