To be horrified at the price of food

Don’t really understand the ‘food has been too cheap for too long’ crowd, do people really believe the current prices are due to farmers being paid more fairly?

Surely not.

I have a low income. A single person on universal credit only is not on a low income, they are officially in absolute poverty.

You do a dis service to the many people that have to and mange to eat healthily in a low income.

@AstralSpace I would not want to eat that kind of food every day either. But I can afford to eat a bit better, can pay my energy bill, and am not on an expensive pre payment meter.
In terms of public health, if you want people to eat healthily you make the healthy option the easiest and cheapest.
In some countries abroad there is lots of cheap healthy street food available to buy. Even when I lived in London I was near a cafe that sold cheap veg meals to eat in or take away. It was an easier choice than buying a pizza and cooking it.
Whereas most of the time the healthy choice is harder to do and more expensive.
And what nobody takes into account when discussing this is when you are stressed and barely coping, you do not always have the bandwidth to choose the harder option.

So. It’s nice and doesn’t hurt on top of a homemade crumble made with apples that don’t meet your high expectations either.

I have to eat on a budget, many do and manage to eat healthily.

@NoisySnail ok fair enough but I'd honestly not want to do a whole weeks shop of that kind of food. Maybe some battered fish with potatoes and veg of some kind.
I'm much happier feeding my family the pasta with simple tomato sauce with some protein and veg added, even a small amount, dahl and rice, jacket potato, omelettes, curry and rice.
Even when we were skint, that's the kind of food we'd usually have.
I would feel ill on such a processed diet and I feel really bad that people are living like that.
There are consequences when your diet is that lacking in nutrients as well as the inflammation from eating a huge amount of upfs.

Not a food snob. I like good food. And I can afford to eat reasonably. I have never bought food like asparagus tips, only cheaper ingredients. But I do not have to only eat the cheapest food.
Custard powder is only - Maize Starch, Salt, Colour (Annatto Norbixin), Flavouring
It is effectively a thickener and you have to add milk and sugar yourself.

I agee. Although it’s not quite right to say salaries have hardly gone up since, as average salary has risen 85% since 2000. I do suspect food costs have gone up by more than that but not hugely, but it’s all the other costs going up that has made it so much worse.
I’d happily pay double what I currently do for all my food shopping if we could go back to the equivalent year 2000 rent and mortgage costs

Also my dd lives alone and is on UC she manages to eat healthily without any help from us because I have taught her how to be food savvy, to cook and to know that with a bit of effort she can feed herself healthily.

Oh for goodness you are too fussy
and a food snob There is nothing wrong with the frozen veg I mentioned or powdered custard powder. We eat them all the time.

I don't agree frozen carrots, beans or cauliflower tastes anywhere near as good as fresh. Always too soft. I do buy frozen cauliflower to make curries. Frozen peas and sweetcorn are fine.
A tub of custard powder (it needs milk added) is pretty poor quality food - I would not eat it. Stewed apples are fine. I would not have it on porridge, I do not think it goes. I do sometimes make stewed apples as a pudding with raisins and bit of sugar and nutmeg.
Eating on a lowish budget is fine - I keep saying this is what I do week in and week out. You can not eat like this if you are totally skint. That is what you are not accepting. A single person on universal credit gets too little money to be able to eat like this, unless they have family helping them.

We don’t have Heron. In Aldi we have have 4 small pieces of battered cod for 3.49, then you’d need chips at a couple of quid to go with it. You absolutely can cook a healthier meal for that price.

@AstralSpace You do not know Heron Foods. XSell range last time I was in 2 weeks ago - a bag of about 10 large pieces of battered fish for a couple of pounds 0 can't remember the exact cost, but ultra cheap.
Most pizzas are £2, but they always have offers of buy pizzas plus other stuff that makes it much cheaper.

I’m still struggling with someone paying £1.44 for one Leek ! 😳

Other ingredients that cost next to nothing- garlic, chilli flakes…Lots of veg freezes well- carrots, beans, cauliflower, peas, sweetcorn…. Apples always taste ok in a crumble( savers flour,fat and a bit of sugar), stewed you can have apples in porridge…. A tub of custard powder lasts ages.Dictating that it is impossible to eat healthily on a low budget isn’t helpful.

@Thorts
An alternative is grow your own if you have a garden or allotment. Or can take advantage of one of the schemes to garden someone else's garden they cannot manage in return for growing your own.
Even growing a couple of tomato plants or peppers on a windowsill pays dividends in terms of costs.

Olive oil was over £6 today in Lidl - we used to buy for less than half that so am using is more sparingly, using the 1 cal spray and airfryer instead.
olives in bottles were around 80p - stopped looking for them at supermarket when I saw they were over £2 a jar!

agree with posters about having to shop and eat cleverly.

It’s true, what people say, it is all about the planning – e.g. bulking out good food with fillers, batch cooking,even meal swaps with family/friends, couple of cheap beans on toast meals a week - gave to get creative about how to eat well and on a budget

That heron foods seems expensive to me.
Most oven meals take as long to cook as a quick pan dish too. A stir-fry takes minutes, add noodles, done in no time.
I think the trick is to learn to adapt to cook with seasonal veg and meat on offer.

I had a quick look. Cheapest I saw were meals for £1.59 each. £6.36 for an average family. Pizzas are £4. We'd need 2 at least so that's £8.
That seems much pricier than making healthy and wholesome food yourself.

Pack of ham.- 20p?! Really? Where do you shop? 1986?

@Naytr33 some things are. Their XSell range is incredibly cheap.
What you see on their website when you open it up is products they are pushing that they make more money on.
And following the seasons only makes a slight difference to price. The real difference is to quality. Cheap apples out of season do not taste that good.
Tinned veg worth buying is tinned tomatoes and sweetcorn. Lots of veg does not freeze and recook that well. Things like frozen broccoli and kale are only fine for recipes where it is fine being really soft e.g. vegetable curry pr kale bake. It is pretty horrible by itself - may be better with expensive frozen veg brands, I have only used cheap frozen veg.
You are talking to me as if I do not know about how to cook cheaply. I do. But I also know the reality of cooking when you are really skint. And the much recommended pasta with an onion and tinned tomatoes that gets trotted out on MN all the time is frankly a horrible meal. You need other ingredients to make it tasty.

https://heronfoods.com/products/

Looks pricey x 4 compared to what I cook.

There are loads of ways to buy cheap veg but you need to be proactive and use a mixture of frozen, fresh and tinned and follow the seasons. Telling people it’s impossible isn’t going to get people trying.

@Naytr33 why don't you google the price of the XL range in Heron Foods? It is cheaper than the meals you are suggesting.
Kale is a cheaper veg, but carrots are the only veg that is always fairly cheap. And frozen peas.

@pinkstripeycat don't be so stupid. It is a loss leader for a few days before Easter. The rest of the year although cheap, you will pay about 80p for the same bag.

I think you are all just googling prices but are too well off to know how much these foods usually cost.

The whole thread is pointless unless you tell us where you can buy a pack of ham for 20p!

Personally, I don't think fruit and veg is expensive- it's uneconomical to buy one pepper- buy bag of cheap cooking peppers and they'll be about half that price.