Also consider buying straight from the source if it’s at all possible in your area.
For several years we’ve bought an entire cow and split the meat and costs with others according to our needs. Works out to about $2.50/lb. for black Angus, we get ground beef and nice variety of cuts and we know exactly where it came from. All we have to do is pick it up from the processor.
You need a big freezer for that.
Similar to what I do ...
Six neighbors (one with a pasture) and 3 cows. We take turns buying feed (Purina Cattle Developer) and each will get 1/2 cow in late fall/early winter. About half come back from the processor as ground beef but there are lots of roasts and steaks too ... years worth of beef for about $2.25. It almost fills up my 15 cf upright freezer. Porterhouse is on the menu for tonight.
As a bonus they throw in the bones for free. I end up getting around 15 gallons of stock out of them.
I have thought of doing pig and lamb the same way but we are the only ones who really like lamb.