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.