To be horrified at the price of food

I’d never use mushrooms or sundried toms in pasta sauce. 1 of my kids hates mushrooms and I don’t feel the need for sundried toms. My pasta sauce is nice enough without. I have an expensive recipe book that has a tomato pasta sauce with the same ingredients I use.Its interesting that in a poncy recipe book it’s deemed ok.

Whole uncooked chicken £7.25!!! Really expensive! Used to be under £4

All things you can get cheaply and store. Ready meals and processed foods x 4 are hugely expensive . If kale is expensive for a while you choose a veg that is in season and cheaper.

Macaroni cheese can be a cheap meal with peas, broccoli or cauliflower on the side. Way cheaper for a family than 4 x processed meals.

Today in Asda carrots 15p. Good

@Naytr33 Kale in ALDI varies in price through the year. The cheapest it ever is 79p. It goes to £1.29 some times of the year. And when it cooks it is not a lot of veg. It is not as bad as spinach for that though.

This is how I cook as I said. But I am not on the bones of my arse. I know if all I could afford was pasta, onion, tinned tomatoes, bit of garlic, that the pasta would be much more boring and that I would rely much more on carbs to fill everyone up. And I know that the ready made food from places like Heron Foods would taste better.

When I make a pasta sauce I use onions, garlic, mixed herbs, pepper, tinned tomatoes, some sun dried tomatoes, and lots and lots of mushrooms. Mushrooms add depth to the flavour. Some extra ingredients make these meals much more tasty. Just as you add rice, breads and mango chutney to your dahl.

Telling people they can’t eat cheaply and it’s processed food or nothing is a really bad message to send out.

Rubbish. A bag of kale is 79p and a bag of cheap pasta is the same. With garlic and chilli it’s a very cheap meal for a family.

@Naytr33 I buy wonky veg. Kale is not that cheap. I know the costs of this kind of cooking as it is how I cook. It is too expensive for those who are really poor.

Nope. Wonky veg is very cheap. Carrots are next to nothing…

You only need a little bit on top as strong and v hard.£2.99. Will easily stretch 2 weeks or more. A basil plant is 79p and lasts weeks and will regrow if you look after it. We have chives in the garden. Aldi cream cheese with chives is nice on jackets and in sandwiches….

Ah so you don't just have a big bowl of dahl and you add veg to the pasta. It sounds as if your food budget is similar to mine. If you are really poor, and I have been, these kind of meals are too costly.

Where are you finding ham and custard creams at 20p???

Yep we have jacket potatoes too. Dahl is lovely with boiled veg, mango chutney on the side maybe a bit of flat bread, egg fried rice is lovely, kale and chilli pasta is gorgeous…. You just need to collect some veggie recipes you like. Honiton is really nice.

I buy parmesan from ALDI. It is fine, but no I would not say it is incredibly cheap.

There is a massive middle ground between a very basic tomato pasta and asparagus tips.
And you eat other meals as well I assume?

And before you leap on about the cost of Parmesan. Aldi do a reasonable slice quite cheap that can last a long time if you use it sparingly which we should be taking cholesterol levels into consideration.

The days of salmon and asparagus tips, strawberries etc in winter are gone. It was ridiculous anyway.

@Bumblebeeinatree Fresh parmesan makes it much more expensive and was not included in your original recipe.
You really eat a basic tomato pasta, dahl and egg friend rice on rotation for months and months?

I would feed my family pasta and sauce, porridge for breakfast, etc if that’s what I could afford. I’m not in a place where I need to now, but I have been in the past and plain, cheap, nutritious was the order of the day.

Errr I feed my family these meals week after week. I have to. There is nothing wrong with it. There is some ridiculous food snobbery on here.

Don’t be utterly ridiculous.It is absolutely not an unhealthy diet and carbs in that context are perfectly healthy. Not boring either. Chilli, garlic and a bit of fresh Parmesan makes pasta sing, I love Dahl, ditto egg fried rice….

And the middle class people on here would not feed their families these meals week after week and month after month. They have these meals as quick easy food in between more interesting meals.

It is true that pasta with a very basic tinned tomato sauce is cheap and quick, as is egg friend rice and dahl as a meal, but it is not a healthy diet. It is very carb heavy and frankly boring as fuck. I know, I have eaten like this week after week in the past.

There are no tariffs on any goods between the UK and EU, as part of the bare-bones last-minute December 2020 "EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement".

And most of the non-tariff barriers are going the other way, hitting British exporters rather than importers. For stuff coming in, the UK still hasn't implemented most of the border checks that it is required to carry out under WTO rules.

In other words, the most direct effects of Brexit on food prices are still to come. If I were the current UK government I'd probably leave that particular timebomb for the likely incoming Labour administration.

Where Brexit has made a difference already is in things like the shortages of both farm workers and truck drivers. And of course those have definitely contributed to increased prices.

Cheap meals don't have to be meat free. You can use a small amount of meat and make really tasty healthy meals.
Things like bolognese or lasagne with just a small amount of mince and more veg.
Pasta bake with mushrooms and chicken
Chickpea or veg and chicken curry

Chicken and bean stew
Wraps with more veg than meat. Maybe some black beans.
Basically anything can be made using half the amount of meat and upping the veg and/or adding pulses.

I agree that the profits they are making are ridiculous, and up a lot compared to in the past. That’s the same for other essentials too, like energy. But if you buy from small independent retailers food is hugely more expensive so it’s not all about profit. Unless those small retailers are ripping us off to an equal amount.
But I could shop for way less than £50 for one person and even if that was the average cost, it would be affordable if everything else hadn’t gone up in price so much