Review: Is Butcher Box worth the cost? Just pick your plan & options, then be intentional with the recipes in your meal plan. This monthly meat subscription is so easy to manage, and it can SAVE you money!
Have you ever been reluctant to try something, but then ended up loving it? That’s how I feel about Butcher Box.
I hemmed and hawed on trying their service for MONTHS. When I finally did, I actually loved having high-quality meat delivered to my door!
I shared my honest review on Butcher Box, and not too long after wrote a second Butcher Box review after being a customer myself for several months.
What may be a secret though, is how I make Butcher Box work for my family budget. I get emails asking me this all the time, so I thought now would be a good time to let the cat out of the bag! Here’s how to make Butcher Box worth the cost.
Six Ways We Make Butcher Box Affordable
1. We went back to viewing meat “on the side.”
Several years ago when we were actively reducing our grocery budget, we couldn’t afford a lot of meat. That’s just the way it was. Fast forward and there was a time when we were eating Whole30, which requires a lot of produce AND a lot of meat.
We came to two conclusions:
- We wanted to eat more plants and fewer animals.
- The animals we did eat, we wanted them to be either grass-fed or pastured.
Fortunately, these two go hand in hand – eating less meat means being able to afford better quality.
Keep in mind that this is how MY FAMILY has chosen to eat. You should do what’s best for you and your family and priorities.
2. We buy the “Custom” Classic Box, and I’m intentional with the cuts I choose.
Being intentional with the cuts I put in my “custom” box means being able to save BIG TIME. Let me explain.
All cuts at Butcher Box have a value of “one” and you choose six cuts for a “classic” sized box. Here are some examples of what “one cut” looks like, just to give you an idea:
- (1) 12 oz package of sugar-free and Whole30 compliant bacon
- 2 lbs of ground pork
- 5.5 lbs bone-in pork butt
- 3 lbs of boneless skinless chicken thighs
- 3 lbs chicken drumsticks
- (1) 3.5 – 4.5 lb whole chicken
- 2 lbs ground beef
- 10 oz ribeyes
- 2.25 lbs chuck roast
I have one goal when I login to change my monthly order: get as many pounds of meat as I possibly can so I can make my Butcher Box subscription worth the cost. Here’s how I do that:
- Choose a whole chicken instead of the chicken breasts.
- Select the center-cut pork loin instead of the pork chops.
- Choose the chuck roast instead of the premium steak tips.
Bear in mind, this isn’t exactly what I order every month. It’s more of my methodology: Choose big roasts or whole pieces instead of individual cuts.
- If I do the work myself, I can order 20+ pounds of grass-fed and pastured meat, delivered to my front door for about $10 per pound. It also means I can make the one box last us all month long.
- Note: Doing the work myself is one of the key points I teach in my course Grocery Budget Bootcamp. If I choose to let Butcher Box do the work, I can order as little as 6 pounds of meat and pay close to $15 per pound.
3. I bought my Butcher Box subscription during a promotion on the meat we eat often.
I bought my subscription when Butcher Box was offering free 2 lbs of ground beef with every box for the life of the subscription.
Not only is that free ground beef (which is a no-brainer), but it’s also meat that I don’t have to add to my box or that I’d have to buy at the store… every single month.
I’ve seen several Butcher Box promotions come through my inbox, but I chose the free ground beef promotion because…
- It’s one of the most versatile meats we cook with – there are TONS of ways to use it!!
- My kids and I really enjoy ground beef!
- It comes EVERY month, not just the first month.
- I can stretch two pounds of ground beef into SEVEN different meals! (Here’s a meal plan on stretching two pounds of ground beef over one week!)
4. I pay attention to the specials.
This used to be a monthly thing, but Butcher Box now has member-only specials that you can add to your order.
These might not be a good deal if you have access to a local butcher shop or find a great deal on grass-fed beef or pastured chicken, but for those who want to eat better meat and can’t find it locally, this is a great option!
5. I waste NOTHING.
To make it worth the cost, I make sure that I waste absolutely NOTHING from my monthly Butcher Box subscription.
- I save ALL the chicken bones for homemade stock.
- I re-use leftover meat for dishes like pork and potato soup, or southwest chicken salad, or I freeze it for a future meal.
- Bacon grease is saved for cooking with.
- I render beef fat into tallow and cook with that too.
6. I stretch the meat I do buy.
- 2lbs of ground beef can last my family 7 days.
- I can make one whole chicken last a week.
- One pork loin can cover 7 different meals.
And I can do all of this without my family feeling like we’ve been deprived.
Here’s the kicker though – add up all those days and you have 24 meals out of just 3 “cuts” from Butcher Box. That’s nearly a whole month of meals with only HALF of a Classic Custom box. You still have 3 other “cuts” left!
Bonus idea: Don’t buy the cuts you can get locally. If you have a local farm that sells organic chicken at an amazing price, buy local. Just use Butcher Box for grass-fed beef and pastured pork! This way you are buying what you need at the quality you want for the best possible price.
If you’ve been wanting to try Butcher Box and you’ve been holding out, here’s your chance.
Exclusive for Crumbs Readers
Get 2 lbs of free 100% grass-fed, grass-finished ground beef in every order for the life of your membership.
Click this LINK to get the offer.
FAQs
I covered this pretty extensively in my honest review of Butcher Box, but here’s the summary.
Butcher Box offers two boxes: Classic and Big Box.
The Classic Box is $149 and comes with 9-14lbs of meat. This comes out to an average of $10.64 to $16.55 per pound.
The Big Box is $270 and comes with 18-26lbs of meat. This comes out to an average of $10.38 to $15 per pound. Right off the bat, the Big Box is the better deal.
You can choose to have a box delivered once a month, or every other month.
If you decide on the once a month option, you can “postpone” delivery one month if finances are tight, or if you aren’t ready for another delivery just yet.
Yes! Use the same tips that I use, and you can actually save money! That price per box might sound like a lot, but consider how much you CURRENTLY spend on meat. Have you ever sat down and tracked your meat expenses? You might be surprised!
If you compare the prices of grass-fed meat in the grocery store, Butcher Box can actually save you money. Plus, the quality and convenience of Butcher Box meats beats out the grocery store grass-fed meat any day!
That comment was made a year ago and Tiffany hasn´t changed it yet.
Sorry about that, it should be fixed now.
I was watching British chef Jamie Oliver up here on Canadain TV he was cooking a whack of ground beef bolognese style and mentioned that one could add black lentils to make the dish go further. Interesting! I haven’t tried it yet though.
Yes! That is a great idea. Black lentils are really good too!
Hello. I look forward to trying some of your recipes using our Butcher Box meats. What 6 items did you choose in your current Custom Classic box? Thank you.
Hi KB! It depends on what we need each month, but a typical month would be 3 whole chickens, 1 chuck roast, 1 pork roast and pork chops. We really like their pork chops!
Considering that many companies now sell organic and free range chicken and wild caught fish in the stores, spending this much on a box and then trying to make meat stretch doesn’t really seem to make sense if you are a regular person on a budget. When I did the math on what I spend monthly butcher box is grossly overpriced…plus eating all that red meat doesn’t seem healthy at all when it comes to long term health.
New comment to old comment 🙂
First I need to point out it’s a myth that grass fed beef isn’t healthy. It’s far more healthy than corn fed (usually GMO corn). Americans are obese primarily due to their reliance on processed grains plus added sugar. If you want to save money cut out the processed food and buy quality protein. My own butcher box order is supplemented with wild caught salmon or halibut from the grocery store. And I’m not enthralled with the crazy random size of their chicken breasts either so part of my monthly budget is $20 or so for on sale tenders. My box is much like Tiffany’s — two chickens – cooked every other week, one extra two pack of ground beef plus my two free ones, either a pork loin package of two in the bag, cooked at the same time because they are essentially stuck together frozen, a beef chuck for stew and soup and I get free bacon also which we stretch by not eating it as strips but as a condiment or topping. Now if I were to buy the following it would totally kill my budget:
Baked goods, such as bread, bagels, English muffins; crackers, pasta, rice or other dry flour products that come in a box, bag or other cardboard container;, sugar, jelly, jam, syrup in a jar; canned sauces and vegetable, prepared salad dressings etc. Literally the only cans in my pantry are olives and diced chilis. The only jars are olive and avocado oils and mustard. I make everything else from scratch. We use vegetables for pasta, cauliflower for rice, and eat starchy veggies like sweet potatoes and white potatoes as treats. We are both in our 70s, trim and fit with no ailments and we take no prescription meds. At all. None. Even our seasonal allergies just vanished when we removed wheat from our diet. I think to add a butcher box subscription on top of a standard American diet would be prohibitively expensive. We spend probably an hour over the course of a week in our veggie garden. Just last weekend I canned ten pounds of San Marzano tomatoes using Tiffany’s recipe. I can’t tell you what the water cost to grow them but the seed pack was about a dollar and one 24 oz can of Cento tomatoes is about $5.00. I was able to make 6 quarts of organic tomato paste for pennies. That’s how we fit butcher box into the budget – we don’t let commercially producedfactory foods into our life. We do use almond flour and a few other flours like tiger nut to make a rare burger bun for pulled pork but it’s not a regular thing. I make pumpkin pancakes in the fall and cottage cheese pancakes in the summer and occasionally some almond flour muffins if we are traveling. Years ago I bought an Ina Gartin cookbook and in it I saw these words repeated over and over ‘best quality’ referring to olive oil or butter or balsamic vinegar. That’s been my watchword ever since.
You can stack the lifetime offers. Many cost a one time fee of $25-$35. For example I paid $25 one month and now I get 3lbs of chicken wings every box for the life of my subscription. It paid for itself in a few months. I did the same thing with bacon. And have the 2 lbs ground beef for life.
That’s a lot of meet/month any no additional cost. It has really dropped my price per pound cost and made it affordable. I also wast nothing.
Is this still something that can be done? If they do the bacon or chicken again, I’d love to add that lifetime deal to my subscription!
I love butcher box. I have ground beef for life and wings for life.I do the custom box and only order chicken thighs. The meat is delicious.
I’ve been thinking about Butcher Box for a while now, but haven’t tried it. Thank you for the very specific details and honest review!
You’re very welcome Tracy!
Yes. That’s what the article says.
10 lbs of ground beef for $49.99 is $4.99 per pound.
Yeah. I don’t know about you, but I can get 10 lbs of ground beef at Walmart for $27.53, which is $2.75 a lb. This the current price as of today; I checked it on the website.
Thanks for sharing your experience Roberta!
The stuff from Walmart is not grass fed, it’s not organic, it’s ground from scraps from a multitude of animals which were raised on gmo corn. I’d stop eating ground beef if I was faced with that stuff. I can’t see spending money on food designed to make me sick. I live in California where everything costs more and we eat very well on $400 a month. That’s three meals a day every day. I’d give up my subscription to Netflix and Hulu before I’d eat factory meat.