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The Anorak Info



Savings: The Assumptions

When calculating the savings you’d make by taking part in the Munch Less Meat Challenge we had to make a number of assumptions. Here they are;

Definition of a “meal” = all food eaten at one sitting (i.e. starter, main)

(1) Meat As a Treat
  • Assuming 14 meat meals per week normally
  • If have meat as a treat then assume 3 meat meals per week
  • Not taking in to account that high quality meat is likely to be organic and British reared so the savings will be even greater


    • Click here for the benefits of eating organic vs intensively reared meat

    (2) Learn To Cook TwoMeat Free Meals
  • Assumes you’d cook one meat free meal per week
  • Assuming one person


    • (3) Pass On A Meat Free Recipe
  • Assumes you’d pass it to three people
  • Assumes these people would use your recipe once per month
  • Assumes one person eating (so you can multiply this by the number of people your friends are cooking for)


    • (4) Have One Meat Free Meal Per Day
  • Assumes that normally two meals per day are meat, therefore assumes 14 meat meals per week now reduced to seven meat meals per week


    • (5) Have A Meat Free Day
  • Assumes that you usually eat two meat meals per day


    • (6) Baby Bite

    No assumptions made – the savings are very small, but you’re still making a difference and we’re thrilled you’re on board!

    (7) Host a Meat Free Dinner Party
  • Assumes six people eating one meal each


    • (8) Ask Your Local Restaurant For Two Meat Free Options

    OK so this won’t save anything just by offering it – but it certainly makes it easier to be meat free and in turn to make those savings.

    In addition think of all the additional savings you’ll be helping to make by making it so much easier for other people to go meat free. This one might be the hardest to measure but its also the one that can have the greatest potential impact

    (9) Have A Meat Free Christmas Dinner
  • Assuming one Christmas dinner is actually the equivalent of four meals
  • Here we’re assuming there are four people eating the Turkey and getting one meal each
  • Or we can assume that you’re not immune to gorging yourself at Christmas and that one Christmas dinner is like two normal dinners!
  • In addition we’ve assumed that the left over Turkey makes another two meals! So that’s four meals in total


    • Whichever way you look at it it’s a big saving and it’s a bit different to the usual Turkey

    (10) How quickly Can You Save £50 By Munching Less Meat?

    We haven’t made any assumptions as this is entirely up to you!

    However here are some interesting facts about how much meat can cost you. We’ve taken ordinary, basic meat, not organic, or free range or anything special, just “cheap” meat;
  • 450g mince beef £2.80
  • 4 x skinless chicken fillets £4.00
  • 2 x pork chops £3.50
  • 440g stewing steak £4.50
  • 2 x lamb burgers £2.50
  • 2 x duck legs £3.00
  • 1kg beef roasting joint £6.00
  • 2kg Turkey joint £10.00



    • Now see how cheap it is to replace these with pulses. We’ve chosen tinned pulses as they are easier and quicker, but dried ones are even cheaper to buy, so you’ll save your £50 even quicker;
  • 440g Put Lentils 0.87p
  • 440g butter beans 0.48p
  • 410g chick peas 0.50p
  • 410g aduki beans 0.74p
  • 2 x pre-prepared mushroom burger £1.50
  • Approximate cost of a home made nut roast for four people £4.50
  • 2 x red lentil burgers 0.70p


    • As you can see by replacing some of your meat meals with pulses and meat free alternatives you’ll be saving money.

    You could use it to treat yourself to a lovely bottle of wine (be sure to choose a vegetarian wine, most wines are made with the use of fish – yes really!) or use your savings to take part in the “meat as a treat “challenge.

    Note: prices are from Sainsbury’s 5th September 2009

    (11) Go Vegetarian


    Note: of course, overall the savings will vary depending on ...
  • what you choose to eat instead of meat (for example air freighted exotic vegetables can also be very carbon intensive although most will require less water and less land than the equivalent meat)

  • whether you normally eat cheap, intensively farmed meat or British reared organic, free-range meat


    • Unfortunately we can’t take everything for everyone in to account. We hope this campaign and the information on this site helps you make conscious decisions about the food you eat and encourages us all to think a bit more about the impact our diet has on the rest of the world.

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    Sources And References: For The Information Quoted On Munch Less Meat

    These savings were calculated by;

  • Pieter van Beukering, Kim van der Leeuw, Desirée Immerzeel and Harry Aiking (2008) “Meat the Truth. The contribution of meat consumption in the UK to climate change” Institute for Environmental Studies (IVM), VU University, Amsterdam, the Netherlands


  • HM Government (2006) Climate Change, the UK programme 2006



    • SOURCES


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    Content copyright . Chantal Cooke. All rights reserved.
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