Saving Money on Dog Food
I’ve removed social media from my phone. I found myself just spending way to much time scrolling. And I have plenty of other things to do around here. But I’m still on it 3-4 times a week for work. And it was during this time, I saw an announcement that someone opened a butcher shop downtown. (Really any new business around here is exciting, especially if we don’t already have one!)
But I had a brainstorm. Now that I’m back to making my dogs’ food, perhaps I could get a deal on meat at this new butcher. Currently, I go to our local Quality Food and buy all the weird cheap meat – turkey necks, pigs feet, chicken leg quarters, etc. And buy their soup bones to make bone broth. Then I add in veggies (some frozen, some from my garden), brown rice, and/or kidney beans. Etc. It is truly much more healthy and so economical. But the meat cost does add up.
This week, I wandered into this new butcher shop and inquired about meat for dog food. Holy cow, I got about 100 lbs of meet for $40. And it’s good stuff…lamb, steak, etc. And he’s agreed to sell me his “scraps” every week going forward. We exchanged numbers and I walked out of there with two large, heavy bags of meat scraps.
My dogs eat a mixture of raw and cooked foods. While most of this haul went in the freezer, I cooked up a bunch of lamb with kidney beans, sweet potatoes, and water plus turmeric and parsley in the crockpot. That will last the rest of this week. (It doesn’t look for smell good to me, but the dogs LOVE it!) And I’ll be packing up individual meals in freezer bags with meals to send with Princess when Jake goes to live with her. Sophie will most likely return to kibble when she moves to Virginia in July.
With no more big family to cook for and time on my hands, I am enjoying returning to preparing my dog’s food from scratch. (I do still wish I could make it a side hustle, but after looking at the regulations, it’s just too much.)
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