*Half* a Cow...and Save Moneyby Traci Anderson | More from this Blogger 01 Apr 2007 07:01 AM Stop having a cow about your grocery bills each month...and *half* a cow instead! (Sorry..I couldn't resist.) One of my husband's coworkers approached him with an idea last year. "Why don't we contact a local rancher and buy a cow." "Our families can split it and we will both save money". It was a great idea and the timing couldn't have been better. We'd just received our tax return and figured that filling our freezer would be a great way to spend the money. All together, our half cost us a little over $300 and we had nearly a years' worth of ground beef, steaks and roasts. While it cost us quite a bit up front, I noticed a tremendous difference in our weekly shopping bills. Imagine being able to skip the meat aisle all-together. It saved me a considerable amount of time too. This year, we decided to do it again and we contacted two more families and split a cow, and a pig into 1/4ths. This time we spent about $500 and have a freezer plump full of ham, bacon, sausage, ground beef, roasts, steaks and ribs. Frankly, this has been one of the best frugal decisions we've made as a family. I don't have to clip coupons anymore or wait around for sales. I also feel good about supporting local ranchers. We got a great deal (about $1.99 per pound for everything (including roasts and t-bones) and I simply have to walk 15 steps to my garage freezer to decide what we are having for dinner. Check out the other great ways you can save money on your grocery bill each month from our other frugal bloggers; Make Your Milk Stay Fresh Longer and Save Money Too Make Your Bread Last Longer and Save Money Learn more about Traci Anderson  Traci is a work-at-home-mom (WAHM) from beautiful Big Sky Country (Montana). She spends most of her time trying to keep up with two extremely energetic (but hysterical) Irish twins. Relevantfrugal tags User Comments  Valorie Delp |
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