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24 January 2009

Unexpected bounty of the credit crunch [More:]

I like to eat well, and always try to buy the best food I can afford but, man, that organic stuff is so expensive and it's often way outside my budget, particularly the meat. But it's been reported in the UK that sales of organic food have dropped dramatically in the last few months.

I went to the supermarket earlier this week and bought two thick organic pork chops that were reduced to 59p (that's about a dollar) from £4.99, and two big pieces of organic beef (about a kilo each) reduced from a little over £12 to £2.99. All were good to be frozen (sometimes meat has been frozen once and can't be put back in a freezer once thawed, but these were fresh). One piece of beef I used to make this last night, and there are still two good meals left from it, after I'd had a big portion.

Today I went into the small-ish Tesco in Epping, which is a pretty affluent town, and found the kid with the price gun marking down organic celery, tomatoes, mushrooms, nectarines, apples, cilantro and blueberries, all of which found their way into my basket. The prices were silly - these lovely little sweet plum tomatoes reduced from £1.99 to 29p (and they're great, nowhere near soft), blueberries at 39p instead of £3.99, nectarines for 79p for four.

Timing is everything. The meat bargains tend to be had towards the end of the day, and as my favourite supermarket isn't open 24 hours, they have to try to get rid of stuff before they close at 10pm. The fruit and veg, well, you have to be close by as the price gun appears, and pounce on the produce as it's loaded onto the shelf. But hey, I'm not proud, I'll happily get into a scrum to grab a bargain, and I'm pretty decisive about what I want.

If I can take care of myself and save some money at the same time, then I'll do that. The producers of the food I bought at knock-down prices have already been paid by the supermarket, so the loss of profit is borne by the retailer. In the UK there is a choice of only five major supermarkets and they are all still raking in huge sums of money. So, no, I don't feel guilty about it.
Yay Jan! TheDonF and I were just discussing similar things after doing our weekly shopping trip. Most of our money goes to the Farmers' Market and the local butcher, and we only buy things like flour and lightbulbs from Sainsburys.
posted by Specklet 24 January | 10:40
My local farmer's market is only one once a month, but the vegetables from it are amazing.
posted by essexjan 24 January | 10:45
Yeah, here it's every two weeks. Winter of course brings less selection, but today we bought a Savoy cabbage that is so beautiful, I'm going to take pictures of it. Beautiful beets too!
posted by Specklet 24 January | 10:49
You're in England now, girl, it's beetroot, thank you.
posted by essexjan 24 January | 12:12
Alas, the price of snackcakes -- Hostess Cupcakes, SnoBalls -- seems to have gone up ($1.39 for SnoBalls! Used to be 79/89 cents). One pays for one's vices.
posted by Pips 24 January | 13:13
When I was a kid, my mum discovered the time of day when our local Sainsbury's started to discount their fresh meat and would head on down there at the right time to stock up. We're doing pretty well at avoiding supermarkets - we buy from our local greengrocer and butchers; if there was a local fishmonger (the last one shut down years ago), I'm sure we'd eat a lot more fish. As it is, I can't remember the last time we bought any.

And, yes, beetroot :)
posted by TheDonF 24 January | 13:41
BEETROOT BEEEEEETROOOOOOT
posted by Specklet 24 January | 14:16
Well done! You can have a biscuit! Hee!
posted by TheDonF 24 January | 15:56
BISCUUUUUUUIT
posted by Specklet 24 January | 16:09
Or a scone. Which you will probably think is a biscuit.
posted by essexjan 24 January | 16:16
Or a biscuit, which you will probably think is a cookie!

We get a supermarket delivery every three-four month;, a meat delivery every five-six months; a fruit/vege box, milk and bread delivery every week and olives, baguettes, eggs, fresh herbs, spices and pulses from the Lebanese and Indian/Polski/Caribbean grocers nearby. Buying a chest freezer (it has plants on top of it) cut our food bill in half, even before the credit crunch. Plus I love to cook, which helps.
posted by goo 24 January | 16:35
And (look away if squeamish)...

I love beetroot, but I hate the first time after you've eaten it for the season, and you look into the toilet and think you're bleeding until you remember "oh, beetroot, right" and breathe a sigh of relief.
posted by goo 24 January | 18:48
Oh, I know, goo. You have that moment of "oh holy god what's wrong with my bowels?!" and then go "oh yeah, heh, beets".
posted by Specklet 24 January | 20:11
Once you get over it, beetroot, parsnip, carrot, onion and leek tossed with olive oil, salt and pepper and roasted at 230C for 25 mins are YUM!
posted by goo 24 January | 20:33
goo: I MISS LONDON (used to do a similar thing when I lived there, minus the chest freezer - still haven't got room for one of them, sadly).
posted by altolinguistic 25 January | 06:32
Looks like MeFi has been hacked || Grandma's turning 90. Help me figure out a meaningful gift, plz?

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