Even the price of pork has nearly doubled

[Fiddledee]

This is just ridiculous how are loads of people able to afford to eat. I'm fortunate in that I don't have to look at prices that carefully but I had a wobbly when I saw how much two pork chops cost in Waitrose compared to a few months ago. Back to Aldi I think.

I know slightly off topic but I was in Pets at Home the other day and one of the girls was going down the small pet isle marking up all of the products on that isle.

What, hay and grass-derived pellets and things like that?

Could they possibly just have been late with the VAT increase pricing?!

If it is hay etc it would make sense as we've had a bad couple of years for hay and silage.

Not VAT product costs going up,
It was everything feeding bowls, food, bedding, water bottles, toys.

All those things would have VAT on them, so they might just have been doing the VAT price rise. Quite a lot of companies didn't do it at the start of the year.

I'm telling you all - Tofu is the way but no ones listening to me!!!

Did you read what anyone else said either, upahill? I'm not a vegetarian and would like to continue to eat meat and see animals in the countryside.

just being light hearted!

Fair enough, upahill.

get thy bumcheeks to aldi.

1. all the fresh meat is british

2. large free range chickens are £4.99

Eating cheaper cuts is probably the answer, as HappySeven said. I buy my meat from a farm shop (that way I know that it is local and that the animal has been treated well). The meat is far better quality than from the supermarkets. It isn't that expensive either, although obviously you can't buy 2 chickens for £5! Minced beef (which is Welsh Black and lean) costs about £2 for 1lb, braising steak costs about £3 for 1lb. Which is comparable to the supermarkets, and the profits go straight back to the farmer rather than lining Mr Tesco's pockets.

I eat cheap meat. If I had my way I wouldn't, but dh cannot fathom a meal without meat so the only way we can afford it is buy cheap meat which I absolultely hate doing.

Even buying crap meat I have to make it stretch, this week I bought two chickens which will do us four meals (Roast chicken on sunday, curry with leftover chicken on Monday, Roasted 5 spice Chicken with stewed plums on Friday and left over chicken rissoto with peas and mint on Sunday) The rest of the week will be one packet of lean mince made into two meals (spag. bol one night, left overs made into lasagna the next)

I don't know how anyone can eat industrially farmed meat. If you can't afford to buy meat that comes from high welfare farms, don't eat so much of it: cheap pork chops aren't an inalienable human right!

This thread has made me speak to dh about not eating so much meat. I would prefer to buy good quality meat and not eat so much of it

Can you buy good quality meat from anywhere other than a butcher? Is all meat from Tesco rubbish?

I don't think so, ijudge, although I don't really know. I watched the programme with Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall trying to improve the welfare of chickens sold there but that must be a couple of years ago. I think most supermarkets now sell a range of qualities and there's a difference of course between quality and animal welfare (although hopefully the two go together).

As other have said there are farm shops. Oh and I should say that buying at farm shops and butchers doesn't guarantee good quality but you can see what you're buying and the ones I've met are very much trying to promote animal welfare issues and getting the best from your meat and budget.