To think this increase in cost is going to break me?

Similar to my thoughts upthread.

Another thing that jumps out to me on food threads here, is the wastage.

Can I cook this steak? Would be the thread title. The sell by date was yesterday and will it make me ill if I use it today?

The amount of replies saying, oh no don't risk it, I would bin, it astonishes me. There are always sensible ones saying don't be daft, of course it's fine, but they aren't always majority.

I feel like chiming in to say, well we go to the shop in the afternoon just to buy meat marked down for this very reason. And we are all still rocking and rolling.

So much binning happening.

I used up my last swede only last week. I also store in our very cold garage in a brown sack.

Prices will go up with RR NI increases due to start in April and minimum wage is going up quite a bit so prices will definitely rise again in April.

Great post.

I spent some time in Japan pre baby and fruit and vegetables are so expensive. It really made me appreciate how cheap basic food items are here.

I don't think people realise that as resources become more scarce it's only going to get worse. We can sit around bitching and moaning about it or try to be more savvy and resourceful. How much food is wasted in the average household?

I shop at Lidl and each month you get one shop with 10 percent off if your spend is over a certain amount. I wait and buy things like toilet rolls, washing powder, hand wash etc in that shop.

If you mean the farmland that's only "productive" if farmers are given large public subsidies maybe that's not such a bad idea. Especially, as you can see from this thread, the average consumer is unable and/or unwilling to cover the real price for food production.

Haha give it as rest indeed… Sorry, are you suggesting you deserve black pepper?
That the economics of food production, distribution and retail should have advanced in such a way so that it’s a god given right you can afford it???

The entitlement is just crazy and utter nonsense!
Global markets see a demand and hence create a supply - it’s available for you to buy.
If the price being asked is unpalatable to you, then don’t buy it.
But I have to admit, if pepper was on my list of things stretching out of my financial reach, I’d probably invest more time increasing my earning power than shouting at the clouds about what I’m entitled to vs the fucking Tudors lol what a clown 😂

We are being fleeced by supermarkets and Brexit. I live in Northern Ireland and in Lidl olive oil costs over £7.00. Across the border in ROI the same item costs the equivalent of £4.50. It's just ridiculous. Unfortunately I don't live near the border.

Food is cheap in the UK relative to earnings. I have lived in a few other European countries and prices there are much higher.

What is different in the UK are expectations and food habits, as well an an innate unwillingness to use up leftovers in creative ways.

Soup and maybe bread are a normal meal in many countries - both for lunches and dinners. They are dirt cheap to make: meat stock from bones and salt, vegetable stock from offcuts (such as the ends of carrots and swede that no one eats), fish stock from fish bones and heads. Throw in a few vegetables past their best before date and some soup noodles. Or blend whatever vegetables with leftover poatoes or mash to make a thicker soup. They freeze well and make several portions - I eat homemade soup every day at work and it's considered odd by some of my colleagues, who moan at the cost of food but buy a meal deal every day.

Stews and pies are are a great, cheap way of cooking with offal, which is a fraction of the price of muscle meat. Speaking of offal, cooking with liver, heart or black sausage is a good way to get cheap nutrition. Again, considered perfectly normal elsewhere but the look of disgust on so many people in my social circle when I mention that is priceless.

Then there is seasonal food. You just don't buy fresh fruit, salad leaves and herbs in winter, you either grow your own on a windowsill, which is very easy to do, or you buy frozen or canned. Buy winter vegetables in winter, summer ones in summer and adapt your meals around that.

And leftovers are made into omelettes, potato-based cakes and pies or otherwise incorporated into another meal.

The whole animal, the whole fruit or vegetable are no longer considered as bases for different foods and only prime cuts are deemed acceptable for meal times. See also wonky fruit and veg - why is that even a thing and not thrown in with general fruit and veg? Because people wouldn't buy it, but why?

TL;DR, I find that a lot of people in this country are not using foods in a way to get the most out of them.

When storm Darrah swept through a solar farm locally covering many acres was destroyed. Our wind farms offshore were locked down.

If we're going to have more and fiercer storms then the whole thing is an unworkable shambles.

Maybe it's doubled in 2 years rather than a year. I know that a cucumber used to be 49p and now it's 89.

Well do it then. Everyone sits about moaning how people should do something but don’t actually do anything themselves.

Find a like minded group and organise something.

I think Tesco can be a little more expensive but I tired switching to Aldi and Lidl and I absolutely hated the food. The quality is awful, the portion sizes are tiny and a lot of the time it’s cheaper to go elsewhere and buy the branded version.

I’d also assumed she meant we need to be realistic about what is a “good” salary, a “low” salary and a “high” salary.

Anything below £35k if it’s to keep a family (not just one of 2 salaries or just keeping a single person) kind of needs to be seen as a low salary because living costs have gone up so much it doesn’t have the buying power.

Price rises are only so unaffordable because we’ve not kept wages in line with cost of living.

This government wants 10% of England’s productive farmland to be used for solar panels and environmental projects.

The increase in the price of olive oil is due to weather issues more than COL I believe. I read on here that it will start to reduce now that harvests are going to be better. It's not something thats happening to all products, the whole of Aldi food hasn't doubled in price

I only in the last few months started reducing UPF in my diet and honestly it's really expensive to maintain. People on here have mentioned how cheap some items are (jam etc) but have you looked at the ingredients of these products? I totally get that it's all some people can afford but I think food quality is definitely an issue. People get ill eating UPF. Cheap doesn't mean simple ingredients.

While food has always been relatively cheap, everything else in the uk is more expensive (compare housing here to France - take out London and Paris to get a true reflection for the majority for both! Also just look at electricity prices in both countries. If you take a car over to france for a holiday it’s been standard advice to make sure you fill up in france before you come back as it’s cheaper. And france isn’t seen as a cheap place to live.)

UK food was always the cheap bit in an otherwise painful budget. Now that’s expensive too.

*Well that's a little unfair isn't it?

Not everyone is in a profession that allows career progression and financial growth at an exponential pace*

I don't think that's what she means though. I think she is saying that we need to look at those salaries as low rather than decent.

Well that's a little unfair isn't it?

Not everyone is in a profession that allows career progression and financial growth at an exponential pace.

It's also a very well documented and well studied fact that women's careers and pay stagnate for socioeconomic reasons that do not challenge men in the same way (children and other caring responsibilities often fall to women)

It's not as simple as "get a better job" or "earn more money" and you are being very simplistic in your thinking on this.

All this is taking aside the vast majority of salaries in the UK does not rise in line with inflation. We pay more for food and utilities and rent and mortgages whilst earning relatively less.

Food has always been very cheap in the UK, when we moved to the UK from Pakistan here food prices were very very similar to what we were paying to the equivalent items in Pakistan. Yes food is now pricier in the UK, but compared to earnings it still isn’t expensive when you look at food prices elsewhere.

Actually they can have six months to sell the house, split it with the ex and then buy another one but only keep UC if they use the money for that reason.

You can only have £16k in the bank, and benefits are reduced if you have savings over £6k, so you won’t be receiving anything after selling your home.

Every thread like this starts with "i earn a decent salary" then it emerges op earns about 26k. Or 32k in london etc

Those are "decent salaries" if you are about 26 but the point is you need to work your way up a career ladder to earn more if you want to afford family.

You can't just expect to stay in low responsibility lower paid work forever and live a comfortable family life off it.

89p for strawberry jam in Sainsbury's.