The impact of the cost of food to your food spending habits?

Grass fed beef is difficult. In order for beef to taste good, it has to have fat. Grass fed cows have a lot harder time getting fat. Plus, they just taste different in general. I'd say that in a taste test, most people would prefer non-grass fed beef.

 

Coincidentally we did a taste test over the weekend with a prime and grass fed steak. Both pieces of meat were comparable in terms of marbling so i thought it an even match up. The prime won the taste test. Just had a more rich flavor. Texture of the grass fed seemed a bit more chewy, not as melty like the other. One other interesting note was that the grass fed cooked down a lot more than the prime. Uncooked, grass fed was about 1/2inch taller but after cooking, the two steaks were pretty closer in height.

The grass fed was still good, but doing the side by side comparison really highlighted the differences

 

Buy the store brand knockoff sodas. They are half the price and taste just as good (IMO).

I am physically addicted to 7Up Zero, but a 12-pack is like $8.50. I started buying the HEB Diet Lemon Lime soda for like $4.20 and now I like it even better than the 7Up.

At Kroger, a 12pack of DP costs $9 but a 12pack of "Dr K" cost $4. They taste just the same IMO. (ducks for cover)

 

Holy ****. Thank goodness I stopped drinking coke a long time ago. I stick to beer and water. Beer I only drink like 1 can every few days, so don't drink that much.

Grocery bill has definitely gone up for us, however, eating out bill has gone down. I like getting good quality ****, so grocery bill runs high, but we do a really good job of getting through most of it. My goal is that we reduce our waste completely and stop having things from spoiling on us, but we are struggling with that still. Both my wife and I work full time, demanding jobs, with a little one we still need to tend to. Our weekends we love doing things to get our minds away from work, so we just don't have the time to do preplanning meals, so essentially we cook and prepare everything the day off. I've gotten really good of cranking out meals in 30 - 45 minutes. I'm usually washing dishes in between as well (which is probably why my food sometimes slightly over cooks, or burns, but for the most part, I'm able to multi-task, with the added bonus of sometimes having my 1 year old following me around lol).

 

I do buy the HEB brand when I buy them but the problem is not that long ago they were $2 and something cents..

 

Now that is true. Used to be $2.99.

I can't believe a 12pack of Coke now costs $9. That's what you would expect to pay for beer, not soda.

 

Good Lord. I never was a huge soda drinker or anything, but at those prices, I'm glad I gave them up.

 

Just thought you should know that my farm egg and homemade bacon (but with store bought cheese/bread) sandwich earlier today was delicious.

 

I'm down to just drinking coffee, tea/iced tea, and water, but mostly water, daily. Every now and then I replace the water with limeade which I have an unhealthy addiction to that I probably should curb, too. lol.

 

Nah, just go halves on a domestic one every couple of years and butcher it ourselves. Wild pigs are great for some things and not so great for others (too lean)

 

You built a smokehouse to get the job done or use another way to get bacon?

 

Yes, I built a smokehouse, 4x10 with racks and hangers

 

Considering that you grew up in Houston, your adaptation to Country Living is impressive.

Perhaps/probably you use pecan wood to smoke with?

At first, I had the smokehouse as quite large to smoke bacon from your 1/2 hog, but now think that your friend might have his share in there as well.

 

This is me and my dad, back in the day, skinning a wild pig. We did this so many times (and deer)...I miss that ol' guy so much

 

Powerade Zero is the nectar of the gods.

 

Never buy soda at retail price. Wait until it's 3 for $12-15. At HEB, they tend to do a lot of 3 for $14 on Dr. Pepper brands (Dr. Pepper, Sunkist, 7-up, RC Cola). Walgreens will do 3 for $12-15 rotating between Coca Cola products or Pepsi/Mountain Dew. Same at Target.

I don't have a favorite other than trying to stick to zero-sugar products as much as I can. Coke/Pepsi Zero, Sunkist/Fanta Zero, Sprite/7-up Zero, and Mountain Dew Zero are my go tos.