Just curious who else is living super frugal

[ScottnLydia]

Its not just gall bladder either. We were practically living on meds for tummy issues for a long while. Everyone had them, even the kids. As we have moved away from as much processed foods that has almost disappeared. No more eggs for the store, no more meat from the store, only from the butcher ( other than my frozen fish sorry I need that yum). Most of our veggies and fruits are from the farm. Some from a local orchard but majority is from here. I have not yet added making kefir or our own milk YET but thats coming.

I have no idea what they do to the meat though. The doctor of course thinks I am nuts. Beef is beef and I should just become a vegan. Thats all she has to say but there is a difference. We have 2 packages left in the freezer that I am waiting to cook for visiting family to get rid of the stuff. I am the only one who seems overly bothered by it. Thats ok I'll just keep stocking at the butcher. The meat is cheaper there anyway, even if I do have to buy bulk.

Well sorry to disagree with your M.D., but then that's nothing new for me (saved my wifes life by doing that!) Beef is NOT beef! Only in the sense that it comes from a bovine animal. There is a vast difference in how meat is treated, both before and after slaughter, that can effect what you get. What they are fed in the feedlot, hormones, antibiotics, stress from overcrowding, etc, before slaughter. Then packing companies will often 'modify' the meat by injecting 'solutions' designed to 'improve flavor, moistness, tenderness, etc'. Ever see "Moist 'n Tender Pork"? Mostly it's just to make it weigh more and to extend shelf life to increase profits!

'Enhanced' meat is nothing new, look how long Butterball turkeys have been on the market. I worked as an apprentis meat cutter in high school (yes I learned how to cut mastodon steaks) and the owner back then used to 'shoot up' sides of beef with a solution of water and papaya enzymes. Everyone loved how tender and moist our beef was! We were sworn to secrecy but since he has been gone for (deleted) years now, I figured, what the hey. Point is, each agribusiness could be pumping in a different concoction and we (consumers) have no idea what they are up to.

Raising your own, or buying from someone that has, is the only dependable way to bypass this if you choose to eat meat. With all due respect to the vegetarians and vegans, I choose to eat meat. As much as possible, I grow my own, give them the best life I can, and when harvest time comes, do it quickly and with respect and thanks that they are due.

Good luck!

~S

 

[Beekissed]

Just a word of caution to vegans. My parents had been vegan for 17 years and never went to the doctor in all that time because of all their improved health. Unfortunately, the only part of their health this diet did not help was their mental status. B12 is important to neurological function, particularly the brain function, and can only be obtained from an animal based diet.

You can not metabolize it in pill form and the only way you can absorb it is with an intramuscular injection and now they have a nasal form of it but it is very, very pricey. The natural way to get the needed B12 is eating meat, eggs, dairy, etc.

The testing for B12 levels in the blood in America isn't the greatest and will only show if you are extremely deficient and sometimes it doesn't even show that in time before the deficiency has done irreparable damage to the brain. My father is currently in a facility...seems men have a harder time with this deficiency and cannot recover, even when given massive doses of B12 therapy. My mother is now showing signs of memory loss and some other symptoms that are eerily like my father's when it first started. She refuses to go to the doctor because she "feels fine" and her physical shape is wonderful.....but the B12 is a definite factor in both their symptoms.

http://www.myhealthnewsdaily.com/1721-low-vitamin-b12-spurs-dementia.html

 

[HeatherLynn]

No worries about me going vegan. I am eating alot more veggies and cutting back on the meat a bit but I'm not cutting it out. I didn't have any beef or pork or even the fatty fish I love for 2 whole weeks. I was scared to eat anything. No eggs, no butter either. I was starving though. The tummy upset from that last beef from the commissary though was horrid and it seriously had me scared to eat much of anything. I subsisted on less than 1000 calories a day. I am back to normal though. Not sure what will happen to those last 2 packages of meat from the commissary but I am not eating them. I did enjoy some pot roast today and steak yesterday from the butcher though and was totally fine. Very weird. I do love my meat though and I don't much care for having to avoid it. Glad I found some I can eat.

My doc just pushes the vegan because thats what she is. She considers is moral issue. She raised farm animals and found out she was not cut out to eat all those animals she gave cute names to. So she went vegan. She is a bit baffled at an animal lover who raises animals to eat. Its ok. I don't go much by what doctors say anyway. Any improvements to my health always come from me and never from them.

 

[shelleybeans]

We use the liquid as well, the powder Does not dissolve every time in our soft cold water and the liquid goes farther. We use the Douggers recipe. One 5 gal bucket last our family over a month. Wally World sells fels naptha for 99 cents and can ship site to Store if you order enough. Me and DH and 2 growing boys go through alot of cloths . DH prefers the smell of Gain yet he has only bought it a few times in the last 2 years. His Gain cost 9.99 and lasts One week. For 9.99 my soap lasts at least 3 months.

 

[Hangtown Farms]

Sorry to butt into the conversation, I have a friend (also on BYC) that has the same issues. She is allergic to almost everything.
She has the same issues with the meat, and has started raising and butchering her own.
And she is feeling much better. Hormones, antibiotics, all that crap is in "store meat"

we got a quarter cow this year. worked out to about 3.00 a pound after butchering. Best meat I have ever eaten. plus that 3.00 a pound is farm raised with no hormones and is everything from hamburger to tri tip

 

[stoopid]

I think I need to get that chest freezer....

 

[ScottnLydia]

You know, in an article I read in Mother Earth News about grass fed beef they said that beef are bovines just like bison. As such, they are designed to thrive and grow fat on a grass diet. Fat, not obese. For some reason the cattle industry has decided that we consumers want our beef with inches of fat onit to cut off and throw away. They do that by sending the cattle to feed lots where they are fed a sole diet of corn which their systems were not designed to handle. They suffer from indegestion and diarhea (if you've been by stockyards, you know the smell) and require antibiotics just to handle the abnormally hot diet. Just for the sake of weight gain in the form of fat that we cut off anyway!

Whenever possible, and affordable, try to get grass fed meat. It is higher in lignans (they are good for you) and lower in cholesterol (bad for you). That's why we raise our own sheep on grass alone.

The beef industry has gone nuts! Like so many food industries. We have to watch out for ourselves! Gone are the days when we can just trust the food industry to have our well being at heart!

Case in point; I was looking at the ingredients on a package of Mexican flavored gelatin. I found a chemical I had never heard of before, Neotame. I looked it up when I got home and boy was I shocked! Neotame is a new, reformulated and more toxic version of Aspartame that can be made cheaper, but thanks to some Mickey Mouse chenanigans with the FDA in 2001, THEY DON'T HAVE TO SHOW IT ON THE INGREDIENT LISTS, EVEN ON PRODUCTS LABELED AS 'ORGANIC' !!! So why had I just heard of it? Mexico requires it on their labels! Since I am one of those that is sensitive to artificial sweeteners, now I know why I've been getting so many headaches. Yes, they add it to sugar sweetened products to lessen the amount of expensive sugar they have to use.

Make your own, make from scratch, know what's in the food you eat! Your food can be your medicine, or your poison.

End rant now,

S

 

[stoopid]

Research. We all need to learn how to READ again.
Thanks!

 

[mickey328]

Let me borrow a little corner of your soapbox, cuz you're absolutely right, Scott! I remember being shocked when I found out that according to law, "free range" chickens are simply chickens that have some access to the outside. No time limit, no description of the pasture they're on...nada. And "cage free" isn't much better...the chicken can spend its whole life locked in a shed of some sort...but it's not technically in a little cage, so they're allowed the label.

And "organic" vegetables? Well, they might be grown without chemicals, but they can be grown in uncomposted manure and can contain tons of e.coli...but because it's labeled "organic", folk think it's healthy.

Stoopid, you're right too...you really have to know what you're doing and not take things at face value.

 

[DennisK]

Good Greif – you folks are setting a fire under me! I really need to get that Jersey milk cow! My property is fenced with barbed wire, but it also needs cross fencing so that I can control her grazing. Does anyone know if barbed wire is adequate for sheep? I also want a few sheep as I love that more than I do beef. Fortunately, Jennifer and I can enjoy chicken without worrying about what we are eating, that is if the feed we are giving them is not also poisoned. Jennifer wants to start growing our own chicken feed.