Wow..the price of meat!

Popperwell

Meat doesn't seem cheap around here...but it is probably relative to the income you have coming in...

I buy the value bread too I am afraid...

valk_scot

Meat is only really expensive if you insist on eating only prime cuts like chicken breasts, steaks, pork fillet etc and you want it ready prepped. Whole chickens cost far less per 100g of edible meat than chicken breasts though, a big piece of rolled shoulder pork will cost less than a leg joint, diced stewing pieces of any animal will cost less than prime cut muscle meat. But the nutritional value will be almost exactly the same, give or take a bit of fat. I think though that many folk don't want to know about cooking methods for cheaper cuts and they certainly don't want to get the sharp knife out and joint up their own chickens. Except for us here at MSE of course!

I keep a very sharp eye out for YS meat these days and because I can cook almost anything I hardly ever have to pay full price for meat and usually it's 50%-75% off. We are having roast duck for dinner tomorrow night, there's not as much eating on duck as an equivelent weight chicken but it only cost me £1.20 so I don't mind. I've got three of these £6 round gammons in the freezer at £1 each too, one of these does the four of us for a roast style dinner and enough left over to make a pasta or stir fry type meal the next day. I usually have a couple of chickens in the freezer too, jointed down to give chicken breasts, diced thigh meat and trimmings for curry, drumsticks and wings for tandoori or BBQ chicken. If I can't get them reduced for £2 or so each I'll buy the 3 for £10 type, as big as possible. Three chickens will do the four of us for a minimum of six meals plus soup and sandwiches.

Going4TheDream

chem1st wrote: »

Meat is ridiculously cheap in this country. I eat meat every day.

Pork for example, can be bought for £3-£5 a kilo (I did manage to buy some recently from Morrisons on offer at just £1.50 per kilo - it costs more than that to produce it!)

I have seen bread for sale that is more expensive than meat, even potatoes! Fresh fruit is often more expensive than meat too.

I often see people throw bits of meat out for the birds! (And these are elderly people - supposedly went through rationing, but I have never known a group more wasteful with food).

The general price of meat has gone up (both in supermarkets and butchers) along with the cost of potatoes, carrots, (veg) you put with it, the gas or electicity you cook it with. I used to buy Lamb steaks regularly once a week as a Friday night treat, as recently as 6 months ago for £5-£6, the same now is £8. A big increase

Council tax is what it costs, you cant get it cheaper, petrol/diesel are all going up, utility bills are going up - (these all affects suppliers, who use electricty and have their goods delivered likely by diesel trucks) and the average person in the street who also pay them

Food (and utilty bills) are probably the only 'flexible' thing many people really have in their budget to cut back on to a point and for some people on limited budgets or/an larger families to feed, it is becoming harder and harder stretch their budgets, and for many meat they traditionaly bought is now becoming less affordable. Just like putting the heating on

bluebag

I reduce the amount of meat in meals and add in pulses, beans and vegetables. I find the family don't notice if I don't tell them.

A pastry crust , sliced potato topping, cobbler, batter, mash or breadcrumbs mixed with a little strong grated cheese can make a small amount of meat and vegetable dishes go further too.

Almo

It's a toughie, isn't it? On the one hand it is a difficult time for a huge number of people and lots of people have been finding it tough for a long time. It's easy to see why people are distressed by news of rises to come. On the other hand, if we want to keep jobs in the UK and pay farmers a living wage, it seems that we need to start paying more for food as it does not make economic sense for lots of farmers to keep farming.

I suppose the answer is to try and source produce directly, wherever possible. That should minimise the effect of the price rises somewhat and secure British jobs for the future. If there was a wholesale switch back to buying locally either from farmers directly or independent butchers/bakers/greengrocers I suppose you might see redundancies from the supermarkets, short term, but you'd hope jobs would be created with the independents.

Sorry, went a bit off OT in my ramblings!

Helen2k8

And using the independents preserves and creates skilled workers - not "shelf monkeys" . Don't get me wrong, I love shelf monkeys, have done that job before and so have friends - but most were fed up to the back teeth, and staff turnover was very high. And the wages were subsidised by tax credits.

Aril

I buy turkey breast rather than chicken as it's less expensive and if I buy chicken it's either a whole one or chicken pieces. In my old pre MSE days I only ate chicken breasts but I am now much cannier and have learnt to enjoy wings, legs, thighs etc.

Check out the frozen meat section- I buy chicken liver for 50p from which I make a liver risotto. I also buy frozen veggie mince and simply substitute that for ordinary mince in my spag bol. We eat either tinned fish at least once a week or meat free meals half the time. Again turkey mince is cheaper than beef and because I used loads of herbs and spices it's not lacking in flavour.

I have found that our local Tesco is very good for meat reductions on a Sunday late morning/lunchtime. We drop by once a month [we assume there won't be anything so we don't depend on it] just to see what they've got. Last week I bought 3 joints and a chicken half price which are now frozen. Each joint will feed the 3 of us [2 adults and a 14yo hollowed leg lad] for at least two meals. I also this year have started to buy the reduced packs of ham from the deli and freezing them as they can be used in pies and with pasta etc. For some reason I always had a complete aversion to them but have trained myself better. The only thing I don't personally buy is reduced fish.

Check the weights in the multibuy offers- I found in Sainsburys that in a recent offer on sausages [I only buy decent sausages when on offer] the packs included differed in weight- some were 400g and some were 450g. As for the 3 for £12 offers - we've checked them against the single packs of the same items elsewhere on the shelves and have quite often found that you get more for your money buying them. Not of course that I am implying that the supermarkets would ever try and play naughty tricks to increase their profits:D

Perhaps try something new- one of the pieces of meat we bought last week was a joint of beef that you slow cook. Normally we'd have put it back but we decided to be brave as it was half price. We worked out that we could cook it in the SC and OH has found a really tasty sounding recipe for Chinese beef that it will be suitable for.

Arilx

[Deleted User]

My eldest DD loves meat and rarely eats much veg at all(she never has)but at school last year the dinner lady had cooked a veggie lasagne and when I saw her she was raving about it. So I often make a large one and portion it up to freeze and give her a couple for her freezer and she wolfs it down I think maybe the fact the veg is cooked and served in a differant way makes her no really think of it as a veggie meal.I will eat almost anything and have never been fussy over food (rationing concentrates ones mind to filling ones tummy :))I quite often have a veggie meal without worrying that there is no meat in it As long as I'm fed I'm not too fussed.By the way I am a pensioner and I have never ever fed meat to the birds they can fend for themselves as I have to.(ok maybe a little bit of bread if its really deep snow outside :))

jeanniebeanie_2

We have a couple of meat/ fish free meals each week which DH always enjoys, but if I were ever to describe them as vegetarian meals he wouldn't touch them with a barge pole:rotfl:

Butterfly_Brain

I have been taking advantage of the Aldi super six deals and this week I have bought a lot of parsnips, carrots, sweetheart cabbage, new potatoes and onions and they are all prepped and in the freezer. Brussels have gone down to 65p lb so I bought 10lbs and they are in the freezer too.