The Dollar Tree Steak Deal We Regret Overlooking

If you're a regular baller on a budget, you know that bargain chain stores are good for more than just off-brand snacks and cheap home supplies. Despite its inherently thrifty nature, there are a surprising number of fancy foods you can buy at Dollar Tree, though some may raise more eyebrows than others. It's one thing to pick up deluxe mac and cheese from the discount retailer, but ribeye steaks sound like another story. However, according to news reports and social media, Dollar Tree not only used to sell frozen ribeye steaks for only a dollar each, they were actually ... pretty decent?

In 2015, ABC13 had taste testers buy and try the $1 steaks for themselves. They noted that the meat was sliced thin and only became thinner once it hit the grill, although ribeyes are generally perfect for grilling. Despite some resulting chewiness, the flavor was deemed much better than expected, especially when mixed with veggies and butter to make budget-friendly fajitas. The steaks were deemed ideal for shoppers cooking for one, since their small portion sizes kept down costs and food waste.

However, reviews were not universally positive. The steaks, which came from the brand Stampede, were reportedly packaged in brine, giving them an extremely high sodium content. Some Reddit commenters maligned the taste and even blamed the meat for causing stomach issues. Still, for such a low price, we wish we could have tried them for ourselves before they stopped being widely available.

We can't say for sure that Dollar Tree will never offer $1 ribeye steaks again, but they're no longer listed on the store's website and there hasn't been a social media sighting of one in a while. In line with Dollar Tree's former plans for offering fresh produce, it seems that even frozen steaks aren't the most cost-effective product for the discount retailer to sling. But if you're dying to try the chain's cheap meat for yourself, we've scoured Dollar Tree's selection for the most promising alternatives.

Though the Stampede brand is no longer listed on Dollar Tree's website at all, some social media chefs have posted videos trying their very own Dollar Tree ribeyes over the past few months. The catch? Instead of $1, the frozen steaks now cost a whopping $3. However, they've also increased in size from 3.5 to 5 ounces, keeping the cost per ounce relatively consistent. We can't promise that your local store will offer these steaks, but it's worth checking.

Another steak product that Dollar Tree does advertise online is the sliced Steak-umm Beef Sandwich Steaks. At $3 a box, this frozen pre-sliced meat doesn't have quite the same cachet as a whole ribeye, but it does offer beefy flavor at an impressively low price. Finally, you can also look for other steak-adjacent items at your local Dollar Tree in its frozen meal section. Slightly different from their singularly packaged meat, the chain offers some of the most affordable frozen meals on the market, including ones like Salisbury steak dinners and chicken fried beef steak bowls.