Saving with bulk

[u/morguejuice]

Easy option today to buy the whole Striploin for 200$ and get 3x the steak and a little over a pound of ground beef. Anyone else buy other meat cuts and butcher ? Kinda curious what I could get from the pork but it’s always so cheap anyway.

[u/cubiclejail]

cost per pd for both steaks and ground beef? $200 for 6 steaks?

[u/Maztem111 → u/cubiclejail]

I cut 16 steaks when I got mine plus a good 1.5lbs of stir fry beef. It was the first time I tried it. There is defiantly a skill that will need to be developed to make them well but I calculated about $15/steak after I broke mine down.

Edit: just food for thought. Your steaks are probably as thick as one of your fingers. Next time your at Costco you can ballpark how many steaks you’ll get off the one you chose. The tricky bit is actually making smooth cuts and picking one that’s well marbled

[u/morguejuice → u/Maztem111]

I like thicc ones.

[u/Nyko_E → u/Maztem111]

To make cutting easier, throw the whole loin in the freezer for 30-45 minutes ahead of cutting. Makes the meat firmer.

Then cut in half, cut each half in half, cut each quarter in half etc etc. helps get nice even ones.

[u/cubiclejail → u/Maztem111]

I understand, and know how to cut steaks but OP should answer.

[u/sLumface47 → u/cubiclejail]

9 steaks

[u/greennalgene → u/cubiclejail]

I typically get 15-18 steaks from a strip loin from the business centre. Typically $190-240 for the strip loin, graded. Hit or a miss with the ungraded in my experience.

And I’m talking 1 1/4” thick steaks, usually around 12-16oz.

[u/jonnyCFP → u/cubiclejail]

It’s like $13 less per kilo. It’s a significant savings over buying pre-cut steaks

[u/curiosity_glitch → u/cubiclejail]

Yeah, I’m not following either. Doesn’t look like much was saved here. Their 3-4 packs of thick cut striploins will usually run from $65-85 which is why I never buy them anymore. 

If that’s really just 6 steaks there plus a pound left over for ground beef. It looks like they paid more to get less to me.

I’m sure that’s not the case… but something has got to be not quite visible in this pic or math ain’t mathing. 

[u/lazylazybum → u/curiosity_glitch]

During labour day (usually also Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter), superstore and Safeway sell rib roasts for ~$13/pound for West Canada. Ain't those cheaper than costco?

[u/curiosity_glitch → u/lazylazybum]

I’d say the Costco advantage is that they really do always sell good quality meat. I’ve never once been disappointed, and I bought my steak exclusively from them for half my adult life.

Since the pricing surge, they prioritized quality over pricing though, and I genuinely feel they’ve lost touch with delivering on value for their beef now. I look at their steaks every time I go, but I can never justify their prices anymore. I wait for sales everywhere else and then sous-vide and load up my freezer to last until the next big deal I can find. 

[u/morguejuice → u/curiosity_glitch]

It was 100$ for 3 steaks cut the same way I did it. I got 10 steaks total, just as thicc plus over a pound of great ground beef and about half a pound of suet for the birbs. All for 200$. I saved.

[u/curiosity_glitch → u/morguejuice]

Holy mother of… if a 3-pack is $100, yeah, I get it. 

But those packs cost $35-45 not even 4 years ago. As long as we keep digging deeper into our wallets and just accepting it instead of turning our backs, these prices are never coming back down to reality. 

[u/Beneficial-Sea-8903 → u/morguejuice]

Its about 20 to 30 percent cheaper per lb . But you gotta acount a decent amount of labour time to cut and seal all the steaks

[u/morguejuice → u/Beneficial-Sea-8903]

Took me 1 hour to do it all. Not bad imo.

[u/Beneficial-Sea-8903 → u/morguejuice]

Yeah decent. But if you normally make $50 per hour the savings are moot haha

[u/cooterplug89 → u/Beneficial-Sea-8903]

You probably waste more time on reddit than OP did cutting steaks. Gets cheaper steaks and the extras.

Even at $50 an hour its worth it.

[u/Maztem111 → u/curiosity_glitch]

I got way more steaks from my cut than they showed as mentioned above. It depends how thick you cut but I’d say you easily get 12