Even the price of pork has nearly doubled

[Fiddledee]

This is just ridiculous how are loads of people able to afford to eat. I'm fortunate in that I don't have to look at prices that carefully but I had a wobbly when I saw how much two pork chops cost in Waitrose compared to a few months ago. Back to Aldi I think.

Ah, I assumed that, as feed crops like wheat and corn were international commodities, the profit pressures for producers were likely to be the same throughout the world.

However, perhaps I ought not to have assumed that all countries have such strong supermarkets, which are able to shaft their suppliers, as in the UK. Maybe there is hope somewhere in the world!

I wouldn't know though yes, all commodities are getting more expensive here but of course the government prevents too serious price hikes.

Here you're not dependent on supermarkets plupadentic. You go to an open air market and haggle with one of many stall holders. If you're rich you go to carrefour.

Sorry... In my earlier post I was trying to attribute the general rise in meat prices to the rise of meat eating middle classes over here but of course that's not the whole story.

If only I could get the kids and DH to eat tofu... Although is that £1 for organic tofu, I don't fancy genetically modified tofu to be given in large quantities to my kids

I'm always terribly jealous of people who say: "Isn't it awful how much XY or Z costs... but I'm lucky, I don't have to count the pennies"

Sorry, but I can't help but be whenever I hear this

My life is a shitty roundabout of shit, shit and more shit when it comes to money and getting nowt

I'm jealous when people say they are "thin" or too old to have children and they are under 35.

Those too Fiddledee.
I have a long list of envies
Not proud, just sad

As you all were

Katiekitty I really hope life for you does get better. I'm pondering about what I can do, there is only so far that budgeting can take you. I really worry that there are kids and mothers who are not going to get enough food and other essentials due to price rises I wish people would focus on this more, rather than whether property prices will increase

I accidentally bought 8 lamb chops for £14 at waitrose the other day. FOURTEEN POUNDS!

blimey. only noticed when I got home.

(thank you Fiddledee, I hope you cooked up something nice with the bits you got in Waitrose )

two chicken breasts we £6 in twwaitrose today - they're £2 in tesco so i doubt many will go without (the less ethical anyway)

Don't shop at Waitrose and buy something else instead.

Don't say sorry, beijingaling; I enjoy learning about the limitations of what I think I know! Paradoxically, it makes me feel as though I am understanding better and better about the world....

Suck pork instead of eating it, it lasts longer.

we've starting eating haggis, yum yum!

Meat is too expensive, apart from being cruel. Why are you talking about veg being more expensive? If you replace cheap meat with expensive veg of course that would cost more. But lentils are cheap. That is undeniable. They are not that much fun to eat day in and day out but they're cheap as can be, filling, quick to cook, good for you. Stop moaning and eat lentils. :) (This year's fashionable poster slogan, maybe?)

Having spent my life savings on solicitors fees when moving house we are having to economise drastically.

Used to spend £70pw on supermarket shop for me and DS, now have to keep to around £35. The other day I bought 8 items in Sains and it came to £15. OMG.

Still, by getting all the offers, buying reduced fresh food daily, trying to get DS to try new foods (ie home cooked and cheaper) we may win the battle.

So far I can't imagine spending what I did previously ever again. Maybe other people will be turning their back on overpriced supermarkets too?

Well with pig farmers working on huge losses due to the sharp increase what do you expect? Plus, you're shopping at Waitrose. If you need to budget perhaps not the wisest choice!

This is the reality we're going to have to face up to. After years of squander. We can whine about the Tory cuts, about how this is typical of them but the country has been left nearly bankrupt.

Interestingly there is enough wealth in the world for there to be no problems. Pity it is not shared at all.

I've just watched the first comic relief programme. Now I'm usually set against these sanctimonious sorts of things but lets face it - we're not going to starve, our kids can go to school, get medical help, we don't live with open sewers outside our front door. If we bother about paying more just think of the people who can't gasp and then fork out the extra.

There is one accidental plus of food costing more. We're less likely to waste so much of it. Remember http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7389351.stm this story from a few years ago? Families with children used to ditch 27% of all the food they bought, untouched. Literally, good food and good money straight in the bin..... appalling.

Food Waste Story link

supermarkets are profiteering don't use them as much as you can

In North Wales (prime Lamb rearing country), they are getting around £10 - £15 per carcass.

Strangely most of the local bankruptcies are sheep farmers.

The supermarkets are not profiteering - if so they would be at 30 - 50% profit overall. The fact that the biggest is making around 5% says alot.

What they have done though is create closed food ecosystems where they decide a price point, and then batter suppliers to meet that price point, knowing full well that the supplier would not be able to secure another outlet for thier produce.

For some farmers, the farms are now financed by Tesco - so Tesco gets all the produce from that farm at 'cost', with no margin.

Buy local, shop local

U

We'll just have to eat free range meat less often because I won't buy battery meat.

It's a good job we love a lentil.

The cost of meat and food generally has radically changed the way I shop Tbh. I scour the local co-op for reduced British meat to pop in the freezer (this weeks bargins included a leg of lamb reduced from 14 quid to 3 quid and made 5 meals and British fresh sausages reduced to a quid) I never buy meat now unless it is reduced.

I cook everything from scratch and make our own bread. We are going to grow veg in a big way this year after dabbling for a few years. Our portion sizes are smaller these days and I can make a pack of mince make 2 separate meals as everything is padded out with veg and herbs. I get really cross now when things are wasted due to laziness like not being used within the date whereas previously I wouldn't have given it s second thought.

On a plus side me and dh have lost weight which is probably no bad thing but times are tight and we have to stick to the budget. The days of a weekly takeaway and ready meals are long gone.

"For some farmers, the farms are now financed by Tesco - so Tesco gets all the produce from that farm at 'cost', with no margin."

Thanks, ursusnix; that's really interesting.

That is the kind of vertical integration that takes place when "security of supply" is threatened. Funnily, it's the sort of ecnomic behaviour which is broken up by monopoly agencies. I wonder when the government will get involved in dealing with the effects of supermarket market share in the UK? The reviews which happened after takeovers in the last couple of decades have been very dishonest. Looking at the convenience and "big supermarkets" separately, to determine lack of market dominance? What bullshit that was.

But it's the supermarkets that have kept meat at a false low price. They can afford to have small profit margins as ursusnix says because they have such a high turnover. Farmers and small butchers cannot afford to work to those margins as they don't have the turnover. Asda used to (don't know at the moment, my sister told me) sell 2 chickens for a fiver. How could a farmer/butcher do that? Should it even be possible?

When you look at how much other things have increased in price it's surprising how cheap meat is. Our grandparents wouldn't have expected to eat so much of it or such good cuts as we want to buy these days. Who buys neck of lamb? 30 years ago (I'm estimating) a packet of Polos was 7p. What is it now? I'm guessing but I reckon meat hasn't gone up by the same percentage.

If we don't use or local shops then they will go and we won't have the expertise available to provide a range of meat so that we don't waste half the carcass. Many farmers give up each year and there aren't young people wanting to take their place.

The average age of a British farmer is somewhere around 54. If we don't start supporting them there won't be anyone left to produce British meat and that would be very sad. British meat is produced to a high standard and the animals are well cared for under British law. Noone will be keeping sheep and cows for us to look at out of our car windows and the British landscape will be changed forever.