Food for thought!

EFGM

New member
Food for thought!

I don’t know about you, but my Lady and I think eating a meat and a salad together in our own home is a pretty good thing.
We are, primarily because of me, somewhat selective on our choices of protein, so she has to suffer eating Salmon, Tilapia, Brisket and Chicken Breast with a basic salad. Sometimes we just east sandwich meat and salad, but only on occasion.

Now I’ve had some say "I guess that’s what you have to do when your  on a budget." I on the other hand think those not a bad selection of food choices
whether you eat out or at home and I prefer my cooking to most restaurants.

So let’s look at some numbers. I have calculated out the cost for these choices and averaged them out to be $3.08 per meal,
per person. This includes the vacuum seal bag. The salad as we prepare it costs $.60 cents per serving. So this totals out at
$7.36 per evening meal for the 2 of us. For easy ciphering, lets just round it up to $8 a meal for 2 people

Now I do have some investment in the equipment and for this example I am going to use the Current prices on Smokin-it smokers,
current pricing on a Weston Pro 2300 Vacuum Sealer.

Weston 2300  $390 from Home Depot ( I know that price can be beat, I was fortunate to pick mine up on a sale for $299)


#1 $300 + WESTON PRO $390  =            $690
#2D $600 + WESTON PRO $390  =          $990
#3D $700 + WESTON PRO $390  =       $1090
#4D       $1700 + WESTON PRO $390  =       $2090


OK, for a family of 2 eating on a budget or not, Brisket, Salmon, & Chicken Breast with Basic Salad for 5 meals a week costs  $40.

1 week     $40
1 year $2080


Could we all agree eating out for 2 people would cost with tip $25? For easy ciphering sake, lets just round it down to $20.

1 week   $100
1 year $5200.


So lets take that eating out cost of 5 nights a week for one year and compare it with the cost of SMOKIN-IT Smokers with a Vacuum Sealer

$5200 (Cost of eating out 2 people 5 nights a week)
      -    690 (Cost of #1 and a sealer)
      -  2080 (Cost of Salmon, Brisket, Chicken Breast, Tilapia & Sealer Bag)
__________
$2430 SAVINGS IN 1ST YEAR

$5200 (Cost of eating out 2 people 5 nights a week)
      -    990 (Cost of #2D and a sealer)
      -  2080 (Cost of Salmon, Brisket, Chicken Breast, Tilapia & Sealer Bag)
__________
$2130 SAVINGS  IN 1ST YEAR

        $5200 (Cost of eating out 2 people 5 nights a week)
      -  1090 (Cost of #3D and a sealer)
      -  2080 (Cost of Salmon, Brisket, Chicken Breast, Tilapia & Sealer Bag)
_________
$2030 SAVINGS IN 1ST YEAR

$5200 (Cost of eating out 2 people 5 nights a week)
      -  2090 (Cost of #4D and a sealer)
      -  2080 (Cost of Salmon, Brisket, Chicken Breast, Tilapia & Sealer Bag)
__________
$1030 SAVINGS IN 1ST YEAR

ANYBODY GOT CHILDREN, WELL, THEN “CACHING," , the savings increase.

Now if you don’t like smoked food, you probably won’t be reading this. But we all love smoked food, so when we share our goodies with our friends and neighbors, we can show them how this can pay for itself in one year with a #4D, and quicker than that with one of the smaller smokers.

Sometimes we just have a quick Smoked Cheese Brisket or Chicken Nacho and skip the salad. Anyway just more food for thought.
Now you can afford that next bigger model, yes???  And I didn’t even mention the possibilities of pork.

Please feel free to challenge my math.

Doug

 
Sounds solid to me Doug. I've said it before and I'll say it again, the SI is the best value on the market by far, a real no brainer. 
 
You have way too much time on your hands, Doug. ???

LOL!  Seriously, you have put numbers to what we all know.  Smoking our own great Q is vastly economical to eating out, and SO much better!  Thanks for the analysis!
 
Doug,

Well said and right on!

I travel for a living, but when I cook/smoke I do it in larger batches (just the wife and I at home). Eating out is expensive, time consuming and the food is mostly just ok.

Add drinks and a tip to every lunch and dinner and wow... the bottom line is....

Buy a great smoker a great grill and you will eat better and save tons of money!

Greg
 
Doug - How much for a year's supply of wood?  Or do you have access to pruning from orchards and woodlands? Dave
 
LOL David, no pruning rights for sure. Don't be mislead by that one big cook. I had order the big box with Red Oak and Hickory from Smokinlicious a long time ago. Still have quite a bit left. I normally, like Greg I do larger cooks and then vacuum pack and freeze everything. Then I just use the pot of boiling water to reheat. Like to do Chicken Breast 30 at a time and keep a pretty good inventory so I can also give some away to help take the load off some caretakers when their loved ones get out of hospital or are going thru a sickness, etc. Chicken and Salmon and Tilapia are great healthy sources of protein for them. And you already know most cooks require very little wood.
 
"Sometimes we just have a quick Smoked Cheese Brisket"

This intrigues me.  Can you clarify?

And about Tilapia, my wife has read that it isn't really very good for us as most of it is sourced in Vietnam.  Don't know why, is it something in the water?  Either way, where do you get yours from?

Your budgeting chart is well done, thanks. :)
 
Scott, I think my typing lead to the confusion. What I meant to say was, sometimes we just have a quick Smoked Cheese Brisket "NACHOS", or Chicken "NACHOS"  As I keep cold smoked cheese vacuum packed on hand, we just shred it and put the shredded cheese on the On the Border Chips, and then cut the brisket and put on top. The vacuum packed brisket is vacuum packed in 5 oz servings and frozen. Cut some slits in the package and micro for 2 minutes and it warms up nicely without drying it out. Sorry for the confusion!



Concerning Tilapia, I have heard conflicting reports so I am not sure what to believe. It is not my favorite, but my wife and both daughters and family love it. I get all of my meat from Costco. I use Tatonka Dust on it and the Salmon. Looking forward to lots of pictures and stories of your 4D smokes!
 
Scott, here's a link to the supplier of Costco's Tilapia. It might help answer some questions. I like there little sign that says "All Tilapia is not created equal" 
I still prefer Crappie, fried!
http://www.regalsprings.com/5-reason-why-your-family-should-eat-tilapia/
Doug
 
EFGM said:
Scott, I think my typing lead to the confusion. What I meant to say was, sometimes we just have a quick Smoked Cheese Brisket "NACHOS", or Chicken "NACHOS"  As I keep cold smoked cheese vacuum packed on hand, we just shred it and put the shredded cheese on the On the Border Chips, and then cut the brisket and put on top. The vacuum packed brisket is vacuum packed in 5 oz servings and frozen. Cut some slits in the package and micro for 2 minutes and it warms up nicely without drying it out. Sorry for the confusion!



Concerning Tilapia, I have heard conflicting reports so I am not sure what to believe. It is not my favorite, but my wife and both daughters and family love it. I get all of my meat from Costco. I use Tatonka Dust on it and the Salmon. Looking forward to lots of pictures and stories of your 4D smokes!

Those look like some mighty fine nachos!!  Thanks for the explanation. :)

And we've had the Tilapia from Sam's and/or Costco, just a bit leery about it now.
 
EFGM said:
Scott, here's a link to the supplier of Costco's Tilapia. It might help answer some questions. I like there little sign that says "All Tilapia is not created equal" 
I still prefer Crappie, fried!
http://www.regalsprings.com/5-reason-why-your-family-should-eat-tilapia/
Doug

Thank you.  Crappie is good eatin' fish, too. :)
 
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