I spied a few bargains when I was out and about the other day.
Not vast amounts of money off as I was shopping quite early in the morning, but the coincidence of finding some reduced British and Welsh lamb only hours after Lovely Hubby's admission that he would prefer some lamb for Christmas rather than the chicken he usually gets, meant that these packs on the reduced shelf caught my eye immediately.
We don't have turkey in this house .... ever. I have a 'thing' about the way they are handled and treated in the processing plants. I saw a programme back in the late eighties when my turkey ban began, and the images have lived with me until this day.
We have talked a few times about raising a few turkeys ourselves so that Lovely Hubby could eat a home reared one, but he has a fear that we would end up with half a dozen of the ugliest pets ever running around the paddock until they finally keeled over from old age.
A turkey is for life .... not just for Christmas ;-)
I got a couple of other things alongside the lamb.
The cheese was a fantastic reduction and is now nestled in the freezer, grated and boxed and ready to last us for a long time. The beauty of buying mature cheddar is that a little goes a long way in the taste stakes, and as I try not to eat too much cheese, although I love it, that suits me just fine.
The fish pie selections are also in the freezer, which is now full ... to the very top. Usually I have a bit of room for Christmas purchases but unless we eat a lot over the next two weeks there is no room. It is not a worry though because at least this means we are going into next year with a good selection of food, both bought in and home produced.
All in all not a bad saving, what would have cost me £41.77 actually came to just £27.44 a saving of £14.33. I've got to get in the habit of bargain spotting even more than I currently do if we are to survive next year with our limited housekeeping budget.
I'm ITCHING to open the Sealed Pot to find out what cash we will have to go with the Nectar points and the vouchers and coupons that I have pinned to the notice board in the kitchen, but I've been told to wait until LH is home for the Christmas holidays so we can do it together. I do keep picking it up and marveling at the weight .... I hope it's not all coppers!!
Reverse Advent - Day 8
Three unused make up items.
Never has my make up bag been lighter!
Sue xx
Some bargains there Sue. I'm with you on the turkey and besides, we don't enjoy it as it always seems to end up being dry. Our free range chicken, or pork is far tastier. We tried to breed turkeys once and they are the dumbest birds ever! :)
ReplyDeleteWe kept turkeys way back in time, but only for one year, they were a pain to look after. I don't buy turkey either, they have more bone than meat I reckon so free range chicken for us too - and those veggie pies that I wrote about a few days ago.
ReplyDeleteAfter raising lamb and knowing what grass fed tender lamb is like anything we've bought since has been a big disappointment
We normally don't have turkey either but giving our guests the choice this time, they choose a turkey crown. As we have chosen one which serves 8 - 10 people, we won't be inundated.
ReplyDeleteGood bargains, every little helps, we don't have lamb very often, only when there is a bargain or good offer.
ReplyDeleteI love a good bargain and it seems that you do, too. Nothing wrong with saving a wee bit of money.
ReplyDeleteGreat bargains there and what a co-incidence with the lamb.
ReplyDeletexx
Turkeys can be raised for 6 months or more free range before culling.... They are delightful characters.
ReplyDeleteMind you when young they are nortoriously difficult to look after as poults can suffer from a range of infections.
They can pick infections up from hens too......
But i would recommend getting a couple
You won't eat turkey because of the "way they are handled" but perfectly happy to eat lamb? Double standards here as lamb are "handled" just as abominably as turkey
ReplyDeleteCan I just point out here that I don't eat lamb or any other meat. As regular readers to my blog know I occasionally eat fish but usually a vegetarian diet.
DeleteThere is a huge difference in the way turkeys and lamb are slaughtered, I've seen both.
Please jump off your high horse before it too gets injured!!
I agree with you Sue, poultry gets the absolute worst treatment, although all industrially raised/processed meat is pretty grim. I'm lucky that the shops now sell certified humane chicken - which does raise the obvious questions (I haven't checked for turkey), and there are several small producers of grass fed beef, heritage pork, etc. I'm moving more and more to a plant based diet, but still serve meat on a few special occasions - but I am careful with my choices. Another chain of grocery stores announced they will stop selling pen raised hogs and had very strong public support. Things are gradually changing.
DeleteI also think there are ways of having civil discussion without being rude and accusatory.
Cheers
Jake
Exactly Jake. I have absolutely no problem with someone asking me why I do something if I haven't explained myself very well, but I do take offence when some is accusatory without even knowing me.
DeleteIf I ruled the world NO living thing would be killed for food ... except maybe a vegetable or two ;-)
Agree with John and Joy. However, if you really care but don't want to rear your own, then go to a reputable organic producer for all of your meat.
ReplyDeleteWe WILL be rearing all our own meat as soon as LH is able to be on the farm full time, in the meantime unfortunately we have to just do the best we can :-(
DeleteBlimey! Who would have thought a simple post about a few bargains would cause such a storm?! I'd love to raise our own meat, but Mr D would never be able to kill it (and by that, I mean send to slaughter) let alone eat it so we eat a lot less meat and try to buy decent quality. Turkey is so dull, but again I've been forced to buy it as its 'tradition' :(
ReplyDeleteI know ... I'm peering out from behind my rock ... but I do have a shotgun so beware ;-)
DeleteAs do we all.
ReplyDeleteI had a veggie friend, her husband is a meat eater. She bought supermarket meat for him, safe in the knowledge she was not eating it. ???
I also have seen animals slaughtered, my own, humanely, and others not so.
I am very concerned about the way they are reared. Happy that you will be rearing your own. In the meantime, I believe the manner of their living is just as important as the manner of their dying. Questionable with supermarket meat.
I buy the meat LH ASKS me to buy, he is after all the one that is eating it. Whenever we can we buy the best quality locally reared, slaughtered and butchered meat from our nearby farm shop. BUT, and that is a great big BUT we can't always afford to be that choosey.
DeleteI had that cheese the other day and it was so tasty !!! It didnt last long. I have never frozen cheese so I may give it ago. Coincidentally I have the same fish pie mix in my freezer, which was also a whoopsie. Mine is headed towards a fish pie :-)
ReplyDeleteOur Turkeys have done really well reared outdoors, they havent been a problem and are very entertaining, the first cull happens this week end, I saw a horrific video on how lambs are slaughtered glad we are raising our own meat wouldnt took supermarket stuff again, this morning on the news they wer talking abut the antibiotics in meat again, if livestock were reared less intensive there wouldnt be so many health issues with them, but on the flip side it would mean meat would become expensive.
ReplyDeleteReading your comment on if you ruled the world no living thing would be killed for food, well we would all starve we would be so over run with animals there wouldnt even be vegetables to eat. Its either cull to eat or cull to maintain numbers what a waste of an animals life that would be.
We dont eat meat at every meal but what we eat we appreciate.
Lighten up I was only joking :-(
DeleteAnyway if everyone stopped eating animals we would not need the intensive breeding programmes that are in place, so we wouldn't be over run with 'pet' cows and sheep!! and all the billions of tons of grain would be available to feed people instead of the beef cattle they are being fed to.
But this is my blog, a diary, not the place to put the world to rights and to be honest this is all just getting a bit stupid.
We usually opt for Venison for Christmas. When we could get red deer (off the Balmoral Estate - localish butcher (St Clears) sold it, we would have that. They only have fallow now, and we have gone back to always using Dewi Roberts at Ffairfach. His venison is local (Dynevwr Park, just across the road from his shop) and have had a good life and a good death at the end of it.
ReplyDeleteI have to say Dawn's turkeys have been living the life of riley up there and will taste wonderful, having always been free-range.
Great bargains Sue - we had a leg of lamb on Sunday & I turned the remainder into a curry, shepherds pie & a soup. Not a bargain cut but it went along way x
ReplyDeleteFour different meals from one joint is brilliant, no wastage there :-)
DeleteThe farmer has various nieces and nephews who live far away and often come home for Christmas, so I always have to keep items in the freezer which I can bring out at short notice if they pop in for tea. So, like you, my two freezers are full to bursting, but it is a nice feeling isn't it?
ReplyDeleteLove lamb and always pick it up if I see a bargain. I opened my pot Sunday because I wanted to take advantage of Sainsbury's 25% off clothing and Christmas bits.
ReplyDeletegreat bargains for you, no turkey for me either, yuck
ReplyDeleteLIKE the cheese reductions :o))
ReplyDeleteNice bargains. Yesterday I bought a pack of 4 pears that were on their Sell By date, and they are just right - at the perfect sage of ripeness. Normally the pears you buy in a supermarket labelled as "Ripe and Ready to Eat" are rock hard!
ReplyDelete