Follow this step‑by‑step checklist to raise, process, and freeze your own beef and pork at a fraction of retail prices.
Based on: Farm to Freezer: The Prices Goes Up, We Find A Cheaper Way To Have Meat! by This Off Grid Life
▶ Watch the source video on YouTube
What if you could stock your freezer with premium beef and pork for less than half what you'd pay at the butcher — and know exactly where every bite came from? That question is exactly what This Off Grid Life set out to answer, and the results are hard to ignore.
Meat prices keep climbing, and that half-cow from the local butcher — cut, wrapped, and delivered — is running anywhere from $3,400 to $4,000 these days. For a lot of families, that's simply not realistic. And buying grocery store meat that's been through who-knows-how-many hands? That stops feeling acceptable once you've seen a better way. The frustration of wanting clean, ethically raised meat without the jaw-dropping price tag is real — and it's exactly the problem Seth and Katie from This Off Grid Life decided to solve on their own land.
Imagine opening a chest freezer packed to the brim with grass-raised, grain-finished beef, homegrown pork chops, tenderloins, and bacon — all processed by your own hands, split with a trusted neighbor, and costing you roughly $2,650 total. That's the picture Seth and Katie painted in this video, and it's completely achievable with the right plan. Their steer, a Speckle Park-Angus cross named Meat, came in at $4,500 delivered ($500 for delivery), was split 50/50 with a neighbor, and with about $300 in grain costs per person, their all-in price landed around $2,650 each — for a freezer full of beef. Compare that to butcher shop pricing and you're saving over a thousand dollars, while getting a better product.
Seth and Katie aren't armchair homesteaders. They raise their own pigs, chickens, and cattle on their off-grid property. They've processed hogs from scratch — skinning, breaking down into shoulder, loin, side, and ham — and they know how to build a corral out of salvaged timber with nothing but 8-inch Ardox nails and a post-pounder. Their knowledge comes from doing the hard, muddy, cold work themselves so you don't have to figure it all out the hard way.
This checklist takes everything from their farm-to-freezer process — sourcing the animal, splitting costs with a neighbor, corral prep, feeding protocol, processing day setup, and freezer stocking — and organizes it into a clear, actionable plan you can follow on your own homestead. Whether you're processing your first hog or preparing a corral for your first steer, this checklist will save you time, money, and costly mistakes. Download it, print it out, and get your freezer full.
Every checklist item comes with actionable notes to guide you — things like "Don't forget to do this before you start," "Avoid this common mistake," or "Set a reminder for 30 days out." Nothing vague, just clear next steps.
+ 22 more action items inside...
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