
It’s buying beef in bulk. Period. That’s it. Super simple.
What Do You Mean?
We butcher a steer or heifer and fill our freezer with the meat from, typically, half an animal at a time.
Cutting Instructions
When the animal goes to the butcher, I’m able to give my exact cutting instructions — Which is THE BEST! I let them know how many steaks I’d like in each pack, if I want 1lb, 1.5lb or 2lb packs of ground beef, how many pounds I’d like my roasts, if I’d like to save the flat iron steak, if I’d like a tenderloin roast or have it cut in steaks, etc.
The first few times I made these choices for our family it was overwhelming. I was used to eating meat this way, but I had never made the decisions on how many pound roasts I thought would be adequate. Now it’s really fun – I like to save the liver and the soup bones with the hope that I’ll be brave enough to try the liver and make the time for homemade bone broth.
Right now, for our family of 6 that includes kids aged 1-6, I ordered:
- 2lb packs of ground beef
- ~5lb roasts
- 2 steaks in a pack, 1″ thick
- Tenderized round steak (this is my favorite! I use it to make steak fingers)
- Keep the tenderloin as a roast
- Keep the liver and soup bones
- Keep the flat iron steak

Cost
Depending on the weight of the animal, market price and the processing charges for any “fancy” cutting requests, our meat usually costs ~$6-7 a pound. For the burger that’s right in there for price when purchasing directly from a local family, but more expensive than when the grocery store goes on sale. The real magic happens when you realize that your tenderloins, sirloins, and roasts all averaged ~$6-7 a pound too. That’s what makes buying a whole, half, or half of half beef worth it! Check out the price I found at Walmart on this tenderloin below:

But Wait, There’s More!
Saving money is a big draw, but having the security of food for our family is worth more than we give it credit. After living through Covid and never worrying about what would be stocked at the store because our freezer was full, I now see so much more value in having a larger supply of food on hand.
Meal planning is fun and less stressful too! I go shop the freezer to see what we’ll eat for the week without having to watch the sales at the grocery store. It makes Tuesdays special to have steak because why not? PS — steak in the cast iron is delightful!

So, What’d We Get?
As it is with everything in life it seems, we’re always going as fast as we can and I’ve never taken the time to count what we get for beef. I’ve never known how many steaks, roasts, or pounds of burger we get back, until now! We took the time to count, for the first time. Below is a list of the packages we put in the freezer:
T-Bones: 8
Ribeye: 6
Sirloin: 6
Tenderloin: 3
Cubed Round Steak: 9
Tip Roast: 3
Round Roast: 3
Arm Roast: 2
Chuck Roast: 4
Soup Bones: 2
2# Ground Beef: I started counting out loud, then got lost talking to a kid and thought Kyle picked up where I left off… He thought I kept counting. So we have a shelf in our freezer full of 2# burger packages. When we brought home our half of a half of the burger cow we had 90 pounds of ground beef, which PS, I like the leaner burger from a burger cow better when we have the chance at it.
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