The expense in our household that is rising the fastest is the grocery bill. I suspect this is the case with many families.
I hate waste and so have become pretty savvy with using the leftovers however changing the way I shop has made the biggest impact on food shopping costs.
Meat is notoriously expensive however I have found that the most economic way for me to find quality meat is via an online butcher.
Buying Meat Online
I recommend two meat retailers, Clare Barry (check out the “Green” offers especially) and Meatpacks (see below order) and I alternate between the two dependant on what I need and to take advantage of offers. This week I bought 6kg of meat which I have portioned up into 18 meals and popped in the freezer for £51.22 delivered as you can see below. Yes the delivery seems steep however the meat comes properly packed in temperature controllled packaging and even with this cost my meat still works out cheaper than it would at my local butcher. If you and a family member both ordered within one order you could also divide up the delivery cost.
Quality Meat
We’ve all seen the shock TV exclusives about the rubbish that is found in processed food and even supermarket meat may be injected with water and who knows what else to bulk it out and preserve it. The meat I get from the online butcher is free from all of the artificial rubbish so you pay only for proper meat. An additional benefit to this is that when you get a chicken breast from a butcher it doesn’t magically halve in size when cooked as the water evaporates.
For between £50 and £60 a month I can fill my freezer with 20-22 meals worth of meat for four (two adults and two children). Our other 8-10 meals are made up with fish or are vegetarian meals.
Where do you get your meat from? Would you consider using an online butcher? If you already do is there someone else that you would recommend?
Interestingly enough I was considering finding an online butcher as we spend too much in the supermarkets and would rather support real butchers and/or farmers, cutting out the middle man.
That’s not a bad price for a month’s worth of meat. I will have to compare it from doing a bulk shop in Costco, which is another option I’m considering as I think their meat quality is quite high too.
I refuse to buy supermarket meat anymore, it’s full of water and terrible quality.
I use a local butcher based in garden centre/emporium. The meats lovely quality and they do multi buy discounts and value packs. I tend to spend about £50-60 a month too. I get sausages, joints of beef,pork and gammon, massive chickens that last for 3 meals, bacon, mince and separate chicken portions. I have to do a 10 mile round trip but having a chest freezer means I can store it for the month.
Food for thought (see what I did there?). I’ve never considered online for value meat.
Great piece. I have a freezer and I love mine. Even tho I live in the U.S. I buy my meat in bulk and sometimes cut it myself. Example boneless pork ribs cut up make excellent stew meat.