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Original poster

Is a supermarket the cheapest place to buy meat?

40 replies

humptyNdumpy · 28/04/2009 13:18

After reading a few threads on here where people said they get meat cheaply from their local farm shops I went out to one today and was at the difference.

Half a leg of lamb was £15.99, it didnt say it was organic or anyhing. I appreciate this will taste better than half a leg of lamb from the supermarket but thats still a lot more money. In Sainsburys half a leg of lamb is about £7.99. I cannot justify paying that uch more for a small piece of lamb.

So when is comes down to it is a supermarket the cheapest place?

OP posts:
JustCallMeGoat · 28/04/2009 13:19

i don't know but i really can't bring myself to buy supermarket meat.

JustCallMeGoat · 28/04/2009 13:20

actually i do know. of course a supermarket is cheaper but istill won't buy it.

schneebly · 28/04/2009 13:20

I just spent £9 at a butcher's shop on some beef which I could have got from supermarket for about a fiver. I couldn't afford to do this all the time but I bet it is really delicious.

Overmydeadbody · 28/04/2009 13:21

Yes, pretty much. I cannot afford to buy expensive meat so end up just not buying it very often, and occasionally buying organic or free range meat/chicken when it is reduced in the supermarkets right before its sell-by date.

FrankMustard · 28/04/2009 13:21

Much cheaper to find a good butchers and get it there. You also save on all the packaging and can get suggestions for ways to cook the meat and alternative recipe ideas if the butcher is a good one.

Habbibu · 28/04/2009 13:23

Depends - at our farmer's market chicken breasts seem more more expensive on a packet basis - but weight for weight they're good value - often well reared chicken, for example, is much bigger than supermarket mass produced versions, so going by weight is more accurate - though in supermarket meat some of that weight is water...

Original poster
humptyNdumpy · 28/04/2009 13:28

I went to a butchers a few weeks ago, it wasnt cheaper than Sainsburys and we couldnt tell the difference. Nor could the friends we had round for dinner.

DH is a real carnivore and only likes one meat free meal a week so I'm pretty much resigned to buying quite a bit of meat. I don't mind paying a few quid extra for quality but I think the prices I saw today were ridiculous.

OP posts:
SomeGuy · 28/04/2009 17:48

Nothing wrong with ALL supermarket meat, you can get nice meat, Sainsburys Mey Selections is v. nice.

bubblagirl · 28/04/2009 17:57

we buy some things from farmers market and other meats from fresh meat counter at sainsbury's we often buy the really good meat packed when on offer 20 pound bit of beef on offer went for 9 pound and done 3 meals and was best bit of beef we had no fat very tasty will do that again

charitygirl · 28/04/2009 17:58

The cheapest - but often logistically impossible - thing is to shop around. Sometimes supermarkets have good offers on (got 1.5 kilos of pork shoulder for £5 this w/e in Waitrose of all places, and 4 enormous free range chicken legs for £5 in M&S) but often they are not good value, especially as you can't choose the quantity you need.

When you go to a market/farm shop/butcher's, don't be prescriptive. Ask them what's a bargain today, and buy in multiples which feed your family.

HecatesTwopenceworth · 28/04/2009 18:02

You can get supermarket meat a lot cheaper - but it is VILE! You pay a lot more in a supermarket for their best meat - which is still nowhere near as good as farm meat.

I bought half a lamb a week or so ago - £46. It's filled my 4 drawer meat freezer! try buying a freezer full of good lamb for £46 at a supermarket!

Oh and farm shops are much more expensive than farms, erm, iyswim. If you go to a farm shop - proper building, staff, car park.... £££ dear. Roll up at random farms and ask if they sell meat - far cheaper! The farm I go to for my meat has no proper shop, just a couple of freezers and a bit of storage space. It's just a normal working farm.

clumsymum · 28/04/2009 18:10

You may also find that you get a much better deal on good meat from a farm/farmers market or farm shop if you can buy in quantity. As an example by half a lamb, or a quarter of a cow. It will, of course be divided up into the different cuts (and should all be labelled), so you get some of everything, from the best fillet to the scrag end of neck.

It relies on you having a large freezer capacity, or teaming up with friends/family to share out the meat between you, but will get you good, locally produced meat at a decent price. It also helps to encourage you to try cuts of meat you may previously have ignored.

My main objection to supermarket meat is that it isn't hung properly, (which is why it's that awful bright red colour), so the taste and texture are poor compared to good farm meat.
I also worry that our farms arent being supported by the supermarkets.

clumsymum · 28/04/2009 18:13

Oh, and if any of you are in the Herefordshire/Gloucestershire borders area, I can recommend a good place for lamb/beef/pork, all raised by my sis and Bil....

HecatesTwopenceworth · 28/04/2009 18:21

you know, we should have a farm / farm shop recommendations thread. off to do it now!

Otoolie · 28/04/2009 18:23

I would love to buy from the butcher every time but as most people here point out it can be prohibitively expensive.

I appreciate that Supermarkets drive price down at the expense of quality (hence the addition of a bottle of plonk and lots of fresh herbs to put it all back in!) and I would like to support the farmers as much as possible but my local butcher is 4-5 times more expensive. So that does make a difference to the budget. Great for special occasions but not an everyday occurrence unfortunately. And even the butcher is not always that reliable for quality.

Plus I live in a small London flat so not much room to store half a cow! Anyone want to share ;)

GentleOtter · 28/04/2009 18:23

We got a pretty good deal from one of our local butchers today and they were also doing a 'buy two get one free' on mince and stew.
It is excellent meat, well hung and tender - far better than the flacid pale stuff from the supermarket and worked out loads cheaper.
And it is local.

ABetaDad · 28/04/2009 18:37

humptyNdumpy - there are two factors that make your example difficult to compare.

The Sainsbury one at £7.99 might have been smaller and also a New Zealnd Lamb while the £15.99 might have been English and bigger.

Buying meat by just looking at it on the shelf is notoriously difficult unless you know the exact source. It is like trying to guess which is the best red wine by just looking a at a series of glass fulls of different wines - they all look red no matter what the quality. Of course if you knew the origin of a series of different bottles and you knew a bit about wine you could make a pretty good assessment of which was the best without tasting. Same with meat.

Finding a supplier that has consistently good quality at the price you can afford is the best way. That may be a supermarket or a butcher or a local farmer's market. I don't think you can say definitively one is always better than the other in terms of price versus quality.

charitygirl · 28/04/2009 19:03

ABetaDad - why it is so hard to buy English lamb at the supermarket? I was in Waitrose today, hoping to buy some neck fillet, but I just don't want to buy NZ lamb when I know there are English producers. ALL their lamb was NZ.

I also dislike the fact that there are usually 10 types of Danish bacon on the shelf and only 2 UK ranges.

EachPeachPearMum · 28/04/2009 19:29

charitygirl Sainsbury sell British lamb (along with ubiquitous NZ lamb)- their organic lamb is all british- and it tastes way nicer than the non-org NZ stuff too.
I bought NZ last week, as an attempt at economy... but the taste was nothing like as good. The organic stuff is just meatier - a purer taste.

ilove · 28/04/2009 19:35

try www.welshfarmorganics.co.uk for absolutely gorgeous, UK, meat/poultry of all varieties. Whole lamb is around £80, you can just buy the cuts you need if you want, and they deliver overnight by refridgerated vans.

Superb. Free delivery usually too!

Ewe · 28/04/2009 19:41

We have a market every weekend where I live and there is a butcher there who does some great deals towards the end of the day i.e when he has had enough and wants to go home!

For £20 I got...

4 x 1kg bags of mince
2 x Pork loins
6 x Lamb chops
1 x HUGE leg of lamb
8 sausages

All organic locally sourced etc. Do you have anywhere like this near you? I always try and bulk buy so they will often do a deal or throw other things in.

Ewe · 28/04/2009 19:44

Tell a lie, DP said it was two roasting joints of pork leg, but it has no bones I guess he just removed them. I am useless at identifying cuts of meat!

Dozymare · 28/04/2009 19:45

good deals on at the moment and excellent quality

Dozymare · 28/04/2009 19:46

sorry, try this