I admit- I cannot do this even though is it budget.

[girli565]

Lord of the Flies!!!!
We did that once at my grandparents house. I did not eat any of it. The head was on the kitchen counter so everytime we went in there it was looking at you. Thank God we were eating in the dining room.

Hahaha, exactly!! It smelled great when they cooked it but subconscienciously I could not eat it.

 

[Karenj2]

That's almost to the letter what my hubby said to me when I suggested it! I would love to get half a cow, if I could get it cut in the way I want it (i.e., 4% fat ground beef, roasts, etc.)

As for how to get it, I found this: Eat Wild! - this is grassfed beef, which might be more organic (therefore a bit less budget friendly).


For me, one thing I couldn't do, even though it's budget, is to buy the generic forms of some products I love. I'd rather only get it occasionally than to buy the cheaper version of it. (i.e., Bryers ice cream)

 

[JudyS]

I cannot get a whole or half animal cut up to freeze. I have a big freezer and yes it would save money but my sister can't do it either. I swear I would feel like the thing was trying to put itself back together again everytime I closed the freezer door. Just thinking about it gives me the heebie jeebies! It would be like Pet Cemetery. Except instead of a cat it would be a cow. I know it is irrational but I can't get it out of my head. So what is the one thing you can't do even if it is budget?

I'm a vegetarian, but even if I wasn't, I think I'd feel the same way. I'd feel like I was in Tales from the Crypt episode or something!

Of course, when I was a kid I was also terrified of the dinosaur bones at the museum. I hadn't figured out that if they hadn't come back to life in the past 40 million years, they probably weren't going to during the 30 minutes I spent looking at them.

I had to look up what a Diva Cup was, but even before I did, I had already guessed that it was "the latest innovation in feminine hygiene protection" as their website puts it. No thank you!

 

[kbkids]

How long would 1/2 a cow last a family of four? We eat red meat probably twice a week.

 

[TheBigBadWolf]

When I was younger, I felt the same way. I always named our cows and calves and made pets out of them, and got way too attached to them. We
always sold our cattle since I could never eat one I raised. I always cried when we sold them because I knew "someone" would eat them eventually.

Fast Forward ten years.... DH bought a calf and informed me we would be raising it for beef, so I'd better not get too attached to him. I strived to give that calf the best life I could prior to him meeting the butcher. I did cry when we had him butchered, but I have to say that was the best tasting meat I have ever eaten in my entire life. Not only that, but I knew every bite of food he'd been fed, and I knew he was "safe" for my family to eat. No antibiotics or mad cow disease in that grass fed steer... Since that day we've always raised a calf to eat, and I will never go back to store bought beef again. Store bought beef makes me gag and I would be a vegetarian if I had to eat beef that comes from the grocery store. All I can say to you who think you couldn't buy a half a beef or a whole beef already processed and wrapped, you have no idea what you're missing. It tastes soo much better than the beef you buy at the grocery store.

 

[stemikger]

Originally quoted by Karenj2
For me, one thing I couldn't do, even though it's budget, is to buy the generic forms of some products I love. I'd rather only get it occasionally than to buy the cheaper version of it. (i.e., Bryers ice cream)

Truthfully when it comes to food, I don't feel like I have to budget, we are small family only 3 of us, so we get what we like, even if it is a few dollars more. If we were a large family it might be more of an issue.

Having said that, I have bought some generic brands because they were the only ones available at the time, and I am hooked on some of them now. They are actually better then the name brands they are supposed to be copying.

 

[LisaNJ25]

LOLOLOL I couldnt do that either.. I am weird.. I cant cook or eat meet on a bone..an cooking a turkey?? forget about it.

 

[fakereadhed]

So, one thing I couldn't do even if it is budget friendly is use that DIVA CUP another poster was recommending. *gagging**

 

[Mouse House Mama]

I'm a vegetarian, but even if I wasn't, I think I'd feel the same way. I'd feel like I was in Tales from the Crypt episode or something!

Of course, when I was a kid I was also terrified of the dinosaur bones at the museum. I hadn't figured out that if they hadn't come back to life in the past 40 million years, they probably weren't going to during the 30 minutes I spent looking at them.
I had to look up what a Diva Cup was, but even before I did, I had already guessed that it was "the latest innovation in feminine hygiene protection" as their website puts it. No thank you!

OMG! Me too!!!! We live in NY and we always had field trips to the Museum if Natural History. I hate that place!!!! The bones and the tombs. I swear that place is evil! In my head I can still hear the music they play and all those dead heads looking at you! Blech! I felt like at any minute they were going to come back to life. It just isn't right digging up a dead person and putting them on display. That person is going to be mad!


I still think seeing a disassembled cow in the freezer is worse than a few packages from the butcher or grocery store. I swear that thing would try to put itself back together! I can just see me opening the freezer and there is a whole cow with no head wrapped in freezer paper ready to take me out.

Oh- and I could never ever raise a cow and eat it. I would rather not eat.

 

[bpdigsvb8]

I bought 1/2 a cow....Hoosier Grassfed Beef if anyone is in the Lafayette Indiana area. I actually saw their ad on craigslist but you can just look in the yellow pages for butchers or meat processors and call and ask if they have any recommendations. It was a little more than a regular cow since it was grassfed but I feel good knowing that there are no antibiotics/hormones/etc in my meat. We don't eat red meat that often, so I think it will last us (family of 3) around a year or so. The grassfed meat has a bit of a different taste (just a tad more gamey) but I think its more flavorful.

 

[Kycha]

My Dad was an avid hunter. So it was always an adventure opening the refrigerator or walking into the laundry room at our house. When Dad came back from hunting, he would leave his kills(rabbit, squirrel, turkey, dove etc) in the tub sink in the laundry room where he would finish dressing and skinning. Then he would put it in the fridge in a big tupperware bowl filled with water to leach out the rest of the blood. On those days, I knew I was eating cereal for dinner. Fortunately my parents weren't the type to force us to eat anything.

 

[kpm76]

LMAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yeah, I wouldn't be able to do that. The kids and I don't eat red meat at all and my hubby only eats it like 4 times per month. But, I even get creeped out at chicken. I hate washing it and feeling how slimy it is. YUCK>>>>>

So, one thing I couldn't do even if it is budget friendly is use that DIVA CUP another poster was recommending. *gagging**

I agree with you...I don't eat red meat and even chicken and turkey are starting to gross me out....I don't know why but I just can't really deal with meat anymore....

 

[Anjelica]

Ok - while this is sort of off topic I thought it was pretty funny to share. My daughter was a little over two at the time. We were reading a baby farm animal book about all the differing farm animals. I would point to an animal and she would say horse, cow (for calf), puppy, etc. When I got to the baby chickens I asked her what those were - She said "Chicken Nuggets".

 

[tinytink]

I am all for 1/2 a cow if I could, we love our beef and I think the less handling of my beef the better. I have family members who eat their beef so rare they could probably eat it straight from the butcher. I don't mind if my dinner resembles what it looked like in life. We eat whole fried fish, crabs, clams/oysters on a half shell what is the difference?

Beef=YUMM-O!!!

 

[HunnyPots]

I did cry when we had him butchered, but I have to say that was the best tasting meat I have ever eaten in my entire life.

OK I'm sorry but that sounds like a line from a horror movie or some Edgar Alan Poe story!

Could not do it! I make it a point not to eat my friends. Nope nope nope...

 

[WendyisDarling]

My parents raise Black Angus and always have a stocked freezer. It is wrapped in white paper and really seems no different to me than buying a lot of beef at the grocery . I really like the way their butcher does the ground beef. He uses cylinder type plastic bags that are tied off with a metal twist (not a twist tie, you have to cut it off). They look kind of commercial and say ground beef. Each package is very near to one pound. It keeps better than buying the cellophane covered at the grocery or putting it in your own freezer bags. AND it is very lean. I can't stand any other ground beef now. My siblings and I always bring a cooler when we go home for a visit. Maybe my parents keep the freezer full so we visit more often. We always had a lot of beef growing up. DH still laughs about a time when we were first dating and he visited my parent's house...he was shocked to hear my sis whine and pout that we were having steak again!

I think you'd be OK once you did it. PLUS, beef industry is really taking a hit right now and you can probably get a good price. Grain costs so much that farmers can't afford their cattle and they are forced to take them to market. So, with supply up obviously price is down. But, once those herds have dwindled...cost of beef will increase significantly. It may be a good time to give it a try.

Not nearly so bad as some stories I could tell growing up on a family farm. My family wasted nothing. Some stories are far too disguisting to share. But, I can tell you I will never forget the smell of rendering pork lard. And, yes, some people actually eat pickled pig's feet not to mention other things.

So, some white packages of steaks and roasts in the freezer --no biggie.

A budget thing I can't do -- stop "stealing" my parents beef supply

 

[nana2tots]

crazy

 

[tzolkin]

i know so many people in real life who are sensitive to this as well. i guess i just always thought that if i couldnt deal with the fact that it was an animal that i was eating that i would be a vegetarian.

for the past 9 years my parents have been raising the animals we eat. (yes, they have names and are loved.) the first time my little sister could not eat the "gus burgers". now, to be honest, i find it gross to eat meat that i don't know where it came from. it actually bothers me that i don't know what that animal ate, what meds it took, what it's living conditions were like, or how it was treated. i guess i'm the odd one out here.

our meat is in vacuum sealed packages with printed labels inside them. the meat is sold just like this at the local health food store for $7 or more per pound.


budget that i can't do: buy cheap toilet paper. my mom does this. it's so thin and awful. i always tell her that people just use more so she's really not saving anything.

 

[hsmamato2]

I'm probably the odd one out here,but I've read Barbara Kingsolvers "Animal,Vegetable,Miracle" and have a strong conviction that we should all be familiar with what we eat. If I choose to eat meat,then I knowingly am choosing to end an animals life (in whatever way it happens) and eat it. Just like a veggie or fruit,or cutting down trees for my papers.
I don't personally do it,but it's important to me to know and acknowledge that it happens,and we are using these resources. So a side of animal meat is different form a cellophane pack in the store only in that it's more cost effective.
My kids are well familiar with the concept,knowing that a hamburger is from a cow,etc. I haven't made them stand and watch a slaughter,but they're familiar with the process,having a friend with a dad from a 3rd world country,who returned from a family visit with pictures and stories of slaughtering time....
I'd already decided for my consience,i would have to be willing to raise/slaughter my own meat if I had to,or I would be a vegetarian. \Now,I haven't yet had to do that,and I don't really have a desire to do it,but I would,if I needed the meat for my table,and had decided I was a meat eater.... I'm not crazy,but just trying to be mindful of where food comes from.....

 

[stefffe]

if i had the room i would do it in a heartbeat!!!!! But im the one that helped my dad get pigs ready to..umm....become supper when i was little...so i learned to dis-associate things like that early in life