His meat costs him half as much since he cuts it himself

A Bellechasse resident makes huge savings by cutting up large pieces of meat himself that he buys at a discount at the grocery store: what would cost him more than $100 at the supermarket costs him less than $50. And he wants to share the good news.

“The price of meat at the grocery store just doesn’t make sense anymore, so I cut it myself,” says Christian Leclerc, 47, who works as a maintenance man on the South Shore of Quebec.

To illustrate the benefits of his method, the ex-butcher bought a French roast beef, four pork tenderloins and half a pork loin on sale at IGA earlier this month. The total bill was $47.98.

With these pieces, Mr. Leclerc was able to make himself 6 marinated steaks, 10 beef cubes for skewers, four marinated pork fillets, ground pork, Chinese fondue cubes, 9 pork escalopes, pork rolls ham and cheese and bacon.

“If I had bought all of this in a cheap grocery store like Super C, I calculate that it would have cost me $107.66,” he explains.

This is a savings of $59.68. “If I had bought a carcass, for the same number of meals, it would have only cost me $22.08,” adds Mr. Leclerc, adding matter-of-factly that there are “savings to be made.”

Know-how

No need to have training as a butcher to reduce your bill in the meat department, as Christian Leclerc does.

“You can get by with two knives and a meat slicer, for about $120,” explains the man who intends to be the apostle of his method.

“I want to put together a course to show people how to do it. It’s not complicated. At the butcher, the pieces of meat often arrive vacuum-packed, then young people and students do the cutting. It’s within everyone’s reach,” he proclaims.

Mr. Leclerc plans to give free workshops to teach those who wish to cut their meat. Just send him an email.*

Tendency

But the word is already starting to get around, according to the co-owner of the Terre et Océan butcher shop in Blainville.

“There is more demand for entire pieces, because it saves people money,” he notes in an interview. “With us, on average, it’s 30-35% off.”

Mr. Palinakis also notes that customers who buy large cuts generally prefer beef, even if pork is cheaper. “Pork, technically, it’s almost 50% off when you take the whole loin,” explains the butcher.

According to the most recent data from Statistics Canada, the price of food increased by 2.4% over the past year, which adds to the constant increase in the price of the grocery basket in recent years.

For certain cuts of meat, the increase is much more pronounced. The cost of a kilogram of stewing beef increased by 29.8% between August 2023 and August 2024, and that of ground beef increased by 18.9%.

*Interested people can write to Christian Leclerc at the following address: [email protected]

With the collaboration of Mathieu Boulay