Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Cost Update

Entry Fee $135
2 bone in pork butts 20.65 lbs @ $1.19/lb = $24.57
2 All Natural briskets 18.95 lbs @ $2.95/lb= $55.90

We still have to purchase ribs and chicken.

About the briskets. I'm sure that price seems high and the weight low but it's an all natural grass fed product that has worked very well for us.

About the pork. Boneless butts are going for .90 some odd cents but we definately prefer the bone in variety. You would think bone in would be cheaper but they're not. Go figure.

Grand total so far $215.47. We still have a lot of shopping to do and this doesn't include rubs, sauces, injections, marinades, charcoal and wood. We have sponsors for several of those items but if your planning to get into competition bbq you'll have to purchase them.

Monday, February 25, 2008

Let's get this season started !!

Well we're ready to start off the new bbq season here in good old New England. It's currently 43 degrees outside and the weekend forecast calls for rain and snow with a low of 24. I feel bad for anyone that doesn't have an insulated pit, our Backwoods should do just fine in this weather.

I thought I might try to track our expenses a little better this year and share some of those figures with you. The entry fee for this contest is $135 dollars. The contest was originally supposed to take place in Hancock MA which is 160 miles from my house but it's been moved to Maynard MA which is less than 30 miles. My truck gets about 9 miles to the gallon towing my trailer so that's roughly $40 dollars of fuel savings. We were going to get 3 hotel rooms in Hancock which were $97 each so that's another savings of $291 dollars. This move of venue has saved us a bunch of money.

Well with all that savings I started thinking about the possible 20 degree temps and ordered a propane heater online. It was only $60 dollars and it lasts 6 hours on 1lb of propane. It was a no brainer to me, I just hope it gets here before the contest.
I'll let you know what our meat costs are when I find out. Now I just have to remember how to cook competition bbq.

Edit: 10 seconds after hitting submit for this post I got an email saying the heater has been shipped. Oh boy oh boy. That's good news.