that is awful indeed, but the other day at Walmart they had a two and half pound package of 90 % burger for $6.64 and a pound package of ground pork for less than two bucks, so we made some meatballs out of it and did buy three packages of the beef and two more pork packages...maybe you could check and see if the butchers at your store do anything with short coded beef and either freeze it or use it the same day