“Bored, Gloucester, thanks for your support.
Yes, it was a comment on what I choose to do, not a lecture, nowhere have i told anyone else what they should do. We all make choices in life, and I refuse to buy day-glow orange meat, still dripping with very thin blood - yuk!!

Mary S, Chelts, I've been on this planet a few years now, and while I do actually KNOW that it IS cheaper, I was trying to be diplomatic and NOT lecture you. As Bored says, we also spend a little less, but I have never enjoyed eating meat as much as I have in the last few years, since we went free range. The greatest compliment when a chef friend of ours was salivating over an extra portion of lasagne my wife had prepared, and he NEVER compliments anyone else except himself!
There is a myth that buying good food is expensive. Sorry, it's nonense. You have to spend quite a while digging out local growers, but once the data is in place, you just keep calling. We buy free range eggs from a little farm at the side of the road, where the yolks are so bright, someone staying at the farm complained, as she had never seen them that colour before. They were collected that morning.
Supermarkets are great for lots of things, but not red meat.”

“I'm not on a great wage by any stretch but I also always buy my meat from a butcher. Not only does it taste better, I also know exactly where it comes from and it does work out cheaper.”

“So high street butchers recommend that people buy from their shops and not from supermarkets.
What a surprise.
In other news, the Federation of Christmas Turkeys recommend having a vegetarian Christmas dinner this year for a change.”

“Ah, I remember going to the butchers with my nan. Sawdust on the floor, carcasses hanging up alongside where customers were queuing (yes, people queued in those days). You couldn't ask for the wrong thing; scrag end of neck, belly pork, nice piece of brisket, hare, foie gras entier (just kidding)
Happy days :)”

“Mary S I know for a fact it works out cheaper. We still occationally have to shop at supermarkets and it almost always works out more expensive and like I and others have said even if its a more expensive cut you need less of it because it tastes so good.
Not to mention the rubbish they pump into supermarket food. I had some asda chicken breasts a few years ago that I had to bin as they tasted so much of chemicals.
Its not lecturing its comenting on a story.”

“Whitevanman, you say it 'probably works out cheaper' to get you meat from the butchers, but without actually finding out how do you know you're getting 'the best deal'?

Supermarket meat is reasonable, tastes nice and can be made to last several meals (not just butchers meat that can do that). If people can afford to buy their meat at a butchers, good for them, I wish I had the money to do it - but don't lecture down to those of us who can't afford it.”

“Queen of Sheba, Gloucester
Spot on. We buy all our red meat from Chesterton butchers in Cirencester. They give a 100% personal service, so that you can call them a couple of weeks in advance, and have say smoked back bacon or ham joints ready. All of the meat is free range (not organic) and are mostly rare breeds. The prices are slightly more expensive, but because you actually need less on your plate because the taste is so intense, if anything, it probably works out cheaper than Asda. When I see the bright orange meat in a supermarket, I want to be ill. They think we are fooled, but as said before, meat needs to hang, such that some fillet steak my wife bought recently was almost black. It was so tender, and the flavour.....................
So, while I want my butcher to do well, i'm quite happy knowing that I'm getting the best deal, and everyone else can carry on at the supermarkets.”

“wouldn't know space monster, don't originate from stroud. But all animals have their own characters and personalities, it isn't restricted the domestic pets or the human race. Many people have made a pet out of a farm animal. Oh and when i said loving relationships space monster, my mind wasn't going down the alley yours obviously did ... Bristol thing maybe !!”

“I would say i'm at the lower end of the pay sector and shop at farm shops and butchers for all my meals for me and my husband.
We go on the weekend and do our weekly shop which is normally around £20 for the two of us or £30 if we are really pushing the boat out.
If you shop seasonally, make meals from scratch and look for the cheaper cuts of meat shopping like this doesn't have to be expensive.
The meat is also tastier so you need less. A small pack of mince lasts two of us for three meals easy.

As for the whole pets V meat argument these animals wouldn't be alive in the first place if it wasn't for the meat trade some rare breeds are kept alive by the meat trade shall we just kill them off instead of eating them?”

“"Carnivores pack more protein per meal than do herbivores and, as a result, they have evolved to become more intelligent and cunning" geraint, gloucester

Chomping on cows makes you cleverer ?

"Cows, lambs, chicken, pigs etc ....are capable of forming loving relationships with humans" Wendy Stroud.

Maybe that's just a Stroud thing eh Wendy ?”