Well..., it can be a cold and lonely low carb world out there! I have taken it on the chin a few times lately mostly from those who love you best (supposedly). They are getting great mileage out of the name of the "LivinLavidaLowCarb" blog (Jimmy Moore's excellent & encouraging blogspace on the low carb life) that they have heard me talking about. It is a catchy name - I guess if it was some ol' boring name they might not get so much mileage out of it.One of my brothers in-law recently sung his own rendition of the popular Ricky Martin song "Livin' La Vida Loca" in front of the rest of the family that was basically a giant put-down at my expense. He was pretty proud of himself. He had spent a while writing it and couldn't wait to see if I had seen the lyrics he had written. I hadn't. Anyhow all I remember of it was it was some kind of visions of blubber in spandex. Really snazzy high-class fellow. Made a big impression on me.
Recently my wife has taken to calling the low carb diet I am on "LivinLavidaBROKEcarb" due to the high cost of meat - compared to our rice, pasta, bread, and otherwise carb-rich diet I ate before.
Which brings me to my topic of the moment. I have been looking at ideas on how to save money on our meat purchases. I have explored various ideas with fellas at work. One was telling how at the wholesale Mega-grocer he could purchase really large portions of meat and have it cut to order at great savings. He reminded me of a wonderful man at our old church that would take his trailer and would buy a hog or cow and take them to a local rendering facility, where they would cut the meat up into whatever you wanted. Steaks, tenderloins, ribs, beef tips, hamburger, sausage, etc. He said that it netted out to .50/lb plus the actual rendering costs. That sounds like a great idea to me, and is something I suppose we will try.
When I was a kid my family used to buy Blue Ribbon meats, and my folks would get a half-cow at a time. Our family of nine would eat on that for months and months. Now they have a guy coming to their house every couple of months named "Mike the Meat Man". Mike sells restaurant quality meats (beef, pork, fish, shrimp, etc) in bulk by the box. Same basic principle. Save money - really high quality meat, loads of meat in the freezer to last a long time.
So anyhow..., it may take me a while to work out the details, but short of going full blown country or Amish and living off the land myself, it seems like the next best thing. Fresh meat, as cheap as you can get it. Pick the healthy cow yourself (or better - let someone who understands how to do it, do it), and cut out all the middle men.
Looking at the meats in the Allmart giganto-store the other day. So many meats are chock full of SODIUM (my kryptonite). Only the more expense fresh cuts of meat are not processed in some form, and have no sodium, it seems like. Even shrink wrapped steaks are in a bath of 15% solution and high sodium. ARGH!
So as they say... Necessity is the mother of invention.
I would appreciate any comments on this post with great ideas on how you have invented your way into savings on a low carb, meat-heavy diet.
