More and more Americans opted for cheaper cuts of meat over this past Fourth of July weekend. Instead of steak, many found themselves opting for hot dogs.

“It will be the cheaper cuts that will take the majority of the business,” said John Kleist, analyst with the McHenry, Ill-based advisory firm Allendale Inc.

Thanks to the highest jobless numbers we’ve seen in 26 years and the ongoing recession consumers’ spending decisions have been deterred and due to how large holiday meals typically are and the overall cost, people will be trying to feed the same amount of guests on a much smaller budget.

Even with meats on sale at many grocers across the country, they are still expensive and when the sales figures come out for the week, they are likely to show that sales were much less this year when compared to last year’s meat sales.

“I think the economy is going to have a negative effect,” said Len Steiner, a principal with the retail consulting firm Steiner Consulting.

Sales of beef and pork have been really slow this year, and much slower than expected throughout the spring and summer seasons when barbecues lead to higher sales of the meats. I can also assume that slow pork sales has something to do with swine flu worries more than the cost, simply because I find pork to be much less expensive than beef and actually similarly priced to chicken. Slow sales of meat is bad news for livestock farmers. Over the past year, feed prices have been really high for them and due to the slow sales, they are unable to get profitable prices for their cattle and hogs.

“Until the economy improves, we are going to see pressure on the quality meats. That is keeping pressure on livestock prices,” said Ron Plain, agricultural economist at the University of Missouri. “People are just wanting to eat cheaper.”

When I buy hot dogs, I always buy the turkey ones that are 98% fat free so they’re pretty expensive when compared to the prices of other kinds of hot dogs.