It’s A Meat Market Out There.

So, I shop.  A lot.  Whether for food, clothes, household items..I’m out there just about every day looking for the best deals for my family.  Most deals are achieved with coupons, but there are some that aren’t.  I really enjoy couponing and love saving money on things I know we’ll need for a very little bit of money, or even free.

But a lot of my couponing deals are non-food items, since those are easy to find and are often freebies.  I have razors, shaving cream and shampoo up the wazoo, but those things don’t feed two bottomless pits growing kids.  So I take some of the money that I save by couponing and use it on food, most often meat.

Now we are a family of carnivores, to the last man.  Even Hallee, who is a super picky eater, will take down a chunk of roast beef like a lion going after a wildebeest on the African plain.

Photo courtesy of Biggles 621, InfoBarrel.

Now if you’ve been to the store to buy meat lately, you know that oh my God, the prices!! I tried all of the stores, with varying degrees of success.  If the price was good, the meat was not.  I even drove WAY out of town looking for good deals, only to figure out that I was spending more in time and gas than I was saving on mediocre meat at a mediocre price.

Out with the girls one day this summer, I happened to stop at Six Mile Falls Store on Outer Broadway here in Bangor.  I had been there a few times once or twice over the years, but mostly for gas or a can of soda.  It wasn’t…aesthetically pleasing?  Female friendly?  Allyson approved?  Whatever you want to call it, I wasn’t a regular shopper there. So I was intrigued to see a sign out front stating new ownership.

Six Mile Falls Meat Market
2354 Broadway, Bangor, ME 04401
Phone:(207) 942-4233

I walked in and was impressed.  The aisles had been widened, the shelves were stocked,  pretty curtains in the windows..CLEAN.  There was a huge table in the middle of the store full of home-made treats.  Cookies, fudge, brownies, bismarcks, oh Lord.  Time to break out my elastic waisted pants!  (Hahaha..break them out..like I don’t already live in them)

The meat market that had always been in the back of the store was still there, but boy did it look great!  Brightly lit, sparkling clean and they had every type of meat I had ever seen at the big chain stores and what the what?  Those were some pretty good prices!  Thinking I’d be underwhelmed, but too lazy to drive into town wanting to avoid a trip to the grocery store,  I went to the back to pick up a package of hamburger to toss on the grill that night. I was met by a real live butcher in a real live butcher hat and apron who proceeded to ask me what I was cooking, what spices was I using, how long did I plan on cooking it.  Huh? Dude, it’s just hamburger, does it really matter?  Well yes, come to find out, it really does.

He insisted on grinding me what I wanted fresh while I watched and I was sent home with 80% ground beef for less than Hannaford and you guys?  Really?  We’ve never looked back.

Price board..for this quality of meat, I’d be willing to pay more.

That night I took a bite of my first Six Mile Falls burger and immediately said to Mark, “Something is different with my burger, are you sure they’re done?”. (My weird germ thing, I live in fear of food poisoning)  He assured me they were done, it was just my first taste of truly good, top notch hamburger.  No dyes, no iodine, no preservatives of any kind.  It was velvety, soft and full of flavor.  Then we bought the steaks.  And the pork chops.  And the chicken. And the sausage.  And THEN I found out that they do meat packages.

Their packages start out at about $50 and we were allowed to pick and choose what we wanted. We bought a 1 year old freezer from a friend on the buy and sell Facebook pages ($50!) and bought our first meat package.  For about $160.00 we filled that bad boy to the brim with chicken, beef and pork of just about every variety.  Steaks, roasts, boneless/skinless tenders, breasts, sausages, and we have enjoyed every bit of it.

I have saved a lot of money by not running to the store to grab something for dinner every night.  Because you know, especially if you have money-pits-on-legs kids, that you don’t come out with just the one item you need.

The new owner Jeff gave me permission to write this (Yes, I asked, because I am nice and sweet and stuff) and I am receiving no compensation of any sort here.  I just wanted you all to know that there’s a hidden gem in Bangor that deserves a second look, especially for those of us trying to save a few bucks.  They also have a freezer section full of their own frozen hamburger for $1.99 a pound that cooks up every bit as tasty as the fresh. I personally will never go back to chain store meat, and when I eat it somewhere else, a barbecue or at a friend’s house, boy do I see the difference.  Meat isn’t supposed to be dyed red, pumped full of iodine and slapped on a preservative pad.  Huh.  Who knew I’d become a meat snob?  So.  That’s where I shop for meat.

And now that I’ve shared that with you?  For no other reason than it’s super cute and was FREE, check out the Halloween tablecloth I got free from Target!  There is a $3.00 online target q on any tablecloth and they have lots of cute ones for $3.00, making it free!

It has tiny little ravens and skulls all over it! I love it!

Allyson Sorenson

About Allyson Sorenson

Bangor mom. BDN blogger. Volvo lover. Coffee drinker.