Rachel Johnson's £32 chicken!

I live a really frugal life but will spend about that on a chicken.

Meat is a rare treat for me and I would rather I paid a fair price to reflect the work of the farmer and butcher who are both local to me. I like that the money goes back into the local economy.

I keep hens myself, but only for eggs, and buying a chicken that had been kept in awful conditions and led a short, miserable life would be dreadful. If a cheap, supermarket hen that had a hell of a life was the only option I would never eat chicken.

Rachel Johnson was brought up on Exmoor and still has a house there now. She is amongst farming folk there and shouldn't be surprised by the cost of good, ethical produce.

If I were to buy chicken, I'd rather do so once a month and get the Very Expensive version than the far cheaper, sad chicken that's had a shit life living in squalor. Cheap meat is not a good thing.

I’m not a Rachel Johnstone fan but it seems like an entirely reasonable thing to spend money on if you can. Far rather an ethically reared animal than factory farmed. For a life of a chicken, the butchery etc it is probably not that excessive. I think we have been swayed for too long by cheap, shit, unethical meat. I’d rather eat good meat once a week than cheap meat more frequently.

Yip it’s how we spend it - albeit my weekly butcher chicken is about £25 (and does two meals). my local mates think nothing of dropping £60 on some nice beef rib for a week night supper for the family (mum dad and two kids).

They'd have to on a higher income than us. No way would I spend that on a chicken, and I do but higher welfare meat when possible.

I’m glad there is a market for expendivechappy chickens. I do but free range, but that’s beyond my means.

How is that, @Cynic17 - assuming you’re not vegetarian?

Have to say, as an ex-carnivore (pescatarian for about 20 years) I’m always a bit perturbed when posters on cooking and housekeeping threads list their ‘too expensive’ weekly shop items - they always seem to include cut up bits of supermarket chicken, rather than a whole chicken that you can do so much more with.

We only have artisan butchers and farm shops around here, haven’t had a family butcher that we could all afford for years.

Same here.

Yes!

I have never bought a whole chicken in my life - what do they normally cost?
But if it's quite large, organic, from a good supplier, then £32 is what it costs for the quality she wants. It's her money, so what's the problem?

Are you including food in that total?

That’s not true. I’ve got a C local butchers by me on its own farm. One of those fancy over priced jobbies that’s branched out into a cafe, gift shop etc. Tgeir meat is delicious but expensive but at the far end of the counter is their own pre packaged meat with a shortish date on special offer. Their braising steak is really good value and I pay around £10 a kilo and freeze it as soon as I get home. The been mince is £10 for 1.3-1.5 kg and I just divvy it up and freeze it. It’s Brittany quality and all of their beef is grass feed and flavourful. They also give you free bones for stock or dogs when you spend £15+ so I make my own stock and reduce it down.

as for sausages and bacon I’m very lucky that my sister works in a cafe and we get a wholesale cash order , a big box of Kennedys award winning sausages is £10 and I divide them into 8x6. The thick cut back bacon is £13 for 2.2kg and the sausage and bacon lasts us 4/6 weeks easy for very little money.

One could argue that it’s MUCH better than £36 herb fed chicken

I don't presume that. But it makes tracing easier, and I only use ones I know and trust already. The Christmas chicken is coming from someone I know.

I agree. There is a sort of unspoken idea that a butcher means quality.
There is a reason so many of them have gone out of business.
Mine doesn't label what it is you might be buying. Nor a price. The old fashioned I will charge you what I decide prevails.

Pretty sure I spent over £30 on an organically raised turkey from a local butcher - way back in the 90s!

We have a crap local butcher. They don't do anything organic. I just go to sainsburys or waitrose.

I buy a chicken from our local butcher, they’re around the £25 mark. We are too used to cheap food.

"Do people on a high salary really spend their money like this without any thought?"

Well, yeah, of course! Why wouldn't they?

Don't assume that a butcher means ethically raised and slaughtered meat. I remember having a chat with our local butcher once - he said he buys as high quality as he can, but he has to be guided by what his customers will pay and in his case, they won't pay for the good stuff and he can't sell it so he doesn't buy it.

The chicken I have pre ordered for Christmas is costing over £40. It's a capon from a small holding that they will slaughter themselves. I will get giblets with it.

And Christmas is a special occasion.

No, it doesn't at all. It means you're hoping to get ethically raised and slaughtered meat. I eat vegetarian 75% of the time, to ensure I only eat meat that I can trace back to both slaughter house and farm. No more expensive that eating cheap meat 100% of the time.

I spend a lot on food. But I drive a six year old car with no intention of changing it and buy a lot of my clothes on EBay. I also buy nice shampoo but cheap as chips moisturiser. But meat-ethically reared is expensive. We eat it a couple of times a week-the rest of the time, it’s tinned fish and pulses.

A medium chicken from our local butcher in leafy West London is £20ish. For one adult and two small children, it does 2 dinners, plus one child's lunch for another two/three days, and probably a sandwich for DH, too.

We have a very high household income but I don't spend this money without thinking. It's a very careful choice. I'm veggie, and so when I buy meat for others in the house, I try to buy high welfare and I like supporting a local small business. I appreciate that I'm fortunate to be able to make those choices. But I'm not setting fire to pound notes: I'm buying a product I feel is worth paying a premium for.