I have to pass a supermarket on the way home from work so i just get the discounted, near used bye date meat (usually better than half off), and cook a meal with that. At the weekly shop i get ingreadients to go with pork/beef/chicken/fish meals we like and, as I'm terrible at deciding what's for dinner, the bargain of the day decides what we eat…anyone else do this or am I a skinflint like my family tells me?
Why I've stopped buying meat in our weekly shops
Liratepirate on 01/04/2013 - 19:07
Comments
You are a skinflint like your family tells you.
Do you have to (as in budget), or you just do because you're a skinflint?
Bit riskier if the meat has sitting out for awhile/old as well.
It's still cheaper to get your meat from a butcher. Meat tastes better too.
Every butcher I have seen is more expensive. Nicer? Yes. Cheaper? No.
I must have gotten lucky then 'cause mine is definitely cheaper AND tastes much better :)
When I was living alone I shopped every night on the way home. Always bought what was marked down. When chicken drumsticks or Maryland was marked down to $1.99 kg I knew wht I was eating for a few days :)
What's a Maryland?
chicken hindquarter (drum and thigh), $1.99 is not far from the orginal price though.
40 minutes in the oven. chicken stock and seasonall over the top. cheap easy meal. anyone can cook it.
Sprinkle with italian herbs all over, 20 mins in the griller - delicious with Nando's hot sauce and a side of vege!
i do have the nandos hot sauce in the fridge.. will do next time.
..and the salad's in the oven.
chips with that, sir?
I second the butcher vote, the meats overpriced in a supermarket to begin with!
But then I am a terrible meal planner regardless as I am cooking by availability of what's cheapest that week (buy happy meat if I can).
When I was living/getting-by in Scotland there was a supermarket where you were guaranteed to find discounted everyday, among other less popular bits and pieces, lamb's kidney. I have very low standards but with the way I cooked them I didn't go back for seconds (liver from assorted animals was usually the second cheapest option). Some ingredient in them seemed to set off hostel smoke alarms…
And yeah, unless the meat is graying and undergoing what appears to be a second stage of death the butcher is normally cheaper.
…you're talking about haggis?
this doesn't explain why you stopped buying meat your weekly shop
Reduced meat can sometimes work, but I don't think its always a good idea.
Meat such as steak is often noticeably lower quality, doesn't cook perfectly etc.
If you decide you don't want to cook it all you have little options, you can freeze it but I don't think you should.
If you buy your meat at Aldi it can often be higher quality for close to the reduced price at Coles/Woolworths.
Also consider that people buy full priced meat and have it go off before the use by date or as soon as they have purchased it, I think especially with chicken its risky. Reduced meat is generally use by the next day.
Also love how so many people are mentioning to go to the butcher?
In Brisbane butchers offer you the choice of:
Butcher specials, same as supermarket specials
Buying in bulk which is a little cheaper but too much effort to deal with
Buying higher quality meat, but you pay for it.
I think people are just assuming butchers are the cheapest without actually checking prices.
I live in central Brisbane, and I know for a fact that the butcher in the valley (McWhirters) is always cheaper for pretty much any cut than the Spring Hill Wollies, even the ruduced stuff. Plus you get options like goat. Only problem is it's Halal, so no pork, and only open til 5:30 during the week, so most of the time I end up at woolies anyway…
Other than that I get my Dad to buy us some meat when he goes to the butcher and buys bulk. Generally about half the price I would pay at WooliesProve it?
Either provide some actual prices or at least a website/catalogue or address to this butcher.
Again, people don't pay attention to prices and don't include Aldi in their comparison.
lol, not sure what proof I can give you I don't know their prices for every cut off by heart, but they're always cheaper than Woolies. They don't have a website (or accept eftpos for that matter). They're in McWhirters in the Valley (if you don't know where that is this whole conversation is pointless), right next to the Vegie shop (which is also great).
I don't have an Aldi within walking distance of my place, and don't have a car, so no, I don't factor Aldi into my comparison.
I can only assume you don't know the prices or quality of meat very well then.
If they are cheaper its likely not by very much, your saying they are half price…
I said
Other than that I get my Dad to buy us some meat when he goes to the butcher and buys bulk. Generally about half the price I would pay at Woolies
Not at the McWhirter's butcher, but they are noticably cheaper there, and seem at least as good quality to me. At the bulk butcher my dad goes to in Moorooka they work out to be around half the price, that was what I was referring to.
Geez…See peterpeterpumpkin's comment below. It's the same in Brisbane.
I am vegan, so I usually go to the Indian shop in McWhirters across the hall from the halal butcher.
One kilo of legumes (lentils or chickpeas generally) lasts me about a week. About $3.00. Then I get 25kg of medium grain rice from the Yuen's asian market just around the corner. $32.00. That lasts me about three months.
They do prefer cash though.
fwiw thanks for the heads up - I work nearby so will check them out.
My butcher is about half the price of my local supermarket. I can get brilliant quality grass fed NY cut steaks for $9 a kilo. Half rumps for $6.99 a kilo. Chicken drumsticks for $2 a kilo. Chicken breast for $7 or $8 a kilo usually (the chicken shop is cheaper).
I can never find cheap/marked down meat. But as for butchers being cheaper - that's only if you're buying meat from week to week. But if you only buy in bulk when meat is on sale like we do, no they are not.
Bahahhaha I do the EXACT same thing. Just get whatever meat thats reduced/marked down, chuck it in the freezer and lunch/dinner for the whole week and next is sorted.
Eating my 70% off salmon for lunch today and it tastes great. There is not really any butcher around me and it is just much easier to get them from the supermarket.
I disagree that you can get meat cheaper at the butcher - most of the times the meat I get are 20% off, sometimes 40%-70%. Beat that!
Also, most meat aren't used by, they are best before. Which means its completely fine to freeze them on the day and eat them later. I won't encourage doing that for red meat though.
The only thing that really applies to is beef, and beef is either cheap enough to buy fresh or the cut is too expensive to wreck by having it old or frozen.
By the way - for anyone looking for a cheap butcher in Sydney you need to look for the "ethnic butchers" - not the typical show-off shiny white-tiled ones with giant men with meaty hands in blue overalls (with clean white vertical stripes) and EFTPOS as an option and paper-wrapping. So the suburb you live in can greatly affect butcher prices - my local butcher doesn't cater to cheapskates like myself. In Haymarket, my butcher didn't have seasonal chicken breast prices like Coles - if I remember correctly $7.99 all year round (I left 1.5 years ago though).
So we should look for shops where the white tiles turned mouldy green some years ago, the guys serving are wearing blood-soaked overalls, and they hand your order over in an old styrofoam box complete with blowflies… ;-p
Don't worry… We get whatcha mean.
Anyone can recommend good cheap butch in inner Melbourne?
all the private small places i've seen have mostly "made" stuff and the regular meat they do have is on par with the supermarket. So no real saving there.
I think what you're doing is totally rational and safe, just cool~
The cheapest meat i find is in footscray corner of emily and nicholson street just close to train station next to the adult toy shop.
The cheapest chicken only products can be bought from Baida poultry they are cheap with good quality meat products.. For eg chicken breasts for $14 for 2 kilo or $25 for 4 kilo
Because I can't be the only person who didn't know what a skinflint was:
skin·flint (sknflnt)
n.
One who is very reluctant to spend money; a miser.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright ©2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
skinflint [ˈskɪnˌflɪnt]
n
an ungenerous or niggardly person; miser
[referring to a person so avaricious that he would skin (swindle) a flint]
skinflinty adj
Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003
skin•flint (ˈskɪnˌflɪnt)n.
a mean, stingy person; miser; niggard.
[1690–1700]
Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary, © 2010 K Dictionaries Ltd. Copyright 2005, 1997, 1991 by Random House, Inc. All rights reserved.wow its not a very nice word is it…
One who is very reluctant to spend money
Hey, I resemble that remark! :)
Horsemeat is quite cheap at the moment.
Not in Perth. Same price as always.
A few years ago when we were completely broke, we had to budget per day to the penny and get as much nutrition as possible. The only thing we could do was shop at ASDA (supermarket for Chavs in the UK) and buy home brand of everything. Bulk chicken works out cheap and separate with sandwich bags. Lasagnas are good. It's a good way to get cheap meat that's not near the use by date etc. Also learnt how to bake cakes as we couldn't afford chocolate bars and so on, victoria sponge cake is the most basic I could find, cookies and carrot cakes are good too.
You need to work on your spelling. I can't take any argument you make seriously.
For the record:
- used by date
- ingredients
You obviously are not familiar with Pirate Engrish.
It's actually USE by date anyway.
You are correct!
Yeah if you see a used by date, there shouldn't be any meat left in the packet. :)
Cool story bro