It’s all an investment Mike. Without question the best/cheapest way to ‘get meat’ is to hunt and fish. Deer venison is great lean meat substitute for beef and liberal deer quotas in most all states can allow for 3+ animals to be harvested per year. Gotta have guns though and make the time to hunt and become proficient at it though. Same as fishing - a boat helps but Not necessary as I see many people fishing below dams doing very well. Fish runs are seasonal though and you need to know what species can be caught where around you at what times. Chickens, well you can easily raise enough chickens to support your needs for the year in just 8 short weeks. We just raised 60 Cornish cross meat birds in Sept/Oct. Live weights at butchering time were 10# for the cocks and 8# for hens. These are the same breed you would buy at the store from Tyson. Gotta make your own mobile pens which can be easily done with inexpensive hay rings, chicken wire, and tarp or corrugated metal roof. That’s it, except for the feeding/watering them everyday for 8 weeks then couple days of butchering all of them.

All of this takes time and effort to become proficient but once you do then you can greatly supplement your dietary needs and take great pleasure in the wonders that God has created for us. Yes, I still buy food at the grocery store but every year we are slowly adding additional skills and preparations to our homestead. Some are for emergency and some we feel are just necessity. Example of necessity would be laying chickens. We built and maintain a 40+ henhouse and free-range chicken area for eggs. Costs for fencing, netting, coop, roosts, laying boxes, watering/feeding containers etc was over $2500-$3000 and would be crazy expensive if you had to hire someone to build for you. However, we now have a steady supply of eggs and will do even if grocery stores don’t. I will NEVER recoup the costs of this and supplemental feeding but we have a steady egg supply. At the onset of the Covid scam I went 2 weeks without finding a dozen eggs at the local grocery stores and said that’s it!

Some emergency plans we have include hydroponic gardening supplies. We researched YouTube videos for several months then bought all of the supplies including nutrients for solutions and seeds. We then ran several ‘test runs’ with various seeds and vegetables to make sure everything worked OK. Once satisfied we then invested in LOTS of heritage seeds and nutrients and growing containers. We aren’t currently growing anything as current time commitments don’t allow, but if inflation gets too crazy or lockdowns of some sort come out, at least we feel better prepared that we can raise a lot of our own food.