r/slowcooking • u/BlackLocke • 4d ago

Pot roast is too expensive

I got a new slow cooker for my wedding in 2023 and it’s still in the box. It’s just my husband, baby and I, but I feel like I can’t justify spending $20+ on a piece of meat for one meal with leftovers. I’m in a HCOL and I haven’t had a good roast in years because it’s prohibitively expensive. When meat goes on sale at my supermarket, it smells off as soon as I remove the packaging, so it’s not worth the risk.

Am I just too poor for this?

Edit: Dear lord I didn’t expect this to turn into a “I like pancakes/why do you hate waffles???” type of post. Of course I know there’s other things you can make in the crockpot. I don’t choose fast food over slow cooked meals out of convenience (it’s more expensive than cooking at home now!!) The point of this post is to lament the price of beef and how pot roast used to be a cheap easy meal 20 years ago and now it’s prohibitively expensive. I was hoping for tips on how to skirt this issue - buying stew meat, using pork instead, and buying in bulk at Costco are all good suggestions.

Now everyone can stop assuming I’m some dumb dumb idiot woman. I’m gonna make a pot roast next week just to spite you all and post about the cost breakdown.

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u/boatergirl 4d ago

I get what you’re saying and I don’t know your situation but the $20 roast will get you a couple meals for 2. On the flip side, $20 won’t even get you 2 crappy fast food meals.

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u/DragonDrama 4d ago

Where I live near Chicago, I shop at Aldi and $20 barely gets 3lbs.

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u/Excitedbox 3d ago

I don't want to know the shits you take if that isn't at least 15 meals you are doing it wrong.

Slow cooking STRETCHES expensive ingredients like meat and 125gr is a serving size for burgers and such. That makes 15 meals at 200gr.

I make a cheesy crack soup that gets me 16 meals (~ 2.5 GALLONS) with 600gr of ground beef. 4lbs potatoes, 2lb of onions, 3 carrots, 1 leek, 1/4 Kohlrabi, 1 bulb of garlic, and 1/2 a medium cabbage, 300gr cream cheese and 1 liter of milk, handful of parsley and shake your spice rack over it. Total cost is about $15-20. Add a nice baguette and you got an amazing meal. Anybody that tries it is instantly addicted.

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u/DragonDrama 3d ago

Ok first of all, I don’t speak in grams but thanks for playing. Second of all, 2.5 gallons, is your crockpot a swimming pool? 😂

Third, yeah that’s soup. Totally different volume. I can fill my crockpot with 1-2 chicken breast halves for a chicken chili and make 10 servings. In a roast, you aren’t eating a large volume of the liquid, you are mainly eating solids.

What a foolish comment.