To be seriously worried that the cost of food is getting so scarily high

[thebird]

I am not extravagant I buy shop own brands where I can, I try to shop on a budget, I cook from scratch and have given up buying extras like wine (well just the odd bottle to keep me sane) but still each week the cost of my food bill goes up and up. I know inflation is running at around 4-5% but I cant understand this as many basic items have increased almost 30-50%. When the hell is it going to stop or I really will be living on beans on toast every night(and even they've gone up lots!

A couple of years ago, I could buy all our shopping for 7 for 250pounds a month tops, now I find that it's nearer 350pounds. I have to admit that since I have been ill, I don't bake as much as I used to but we just do without cakes and things and the kids have basics digestives/shortbread or whatever after dinner. It's not just food, it's things like toilet roll, soap powder and the like as well.

I buy a lot of things from approved food, especially dried things, like beans and lentils, and snacky things like flapjacks and crisps. So I have about 40lbs of dried beans, a ton of barley, split peas, polenta and the like and a huge stockpile of tinned mackerel, clams, beans, meat and anchovies so that I can avoid spending a fortune on protein foods in the supermarket.

I have a small landshare as well, so, from july to october, I have plenty of veg. I grow basic things like potatoes, onions, carrots, cabbage, turnips, courgettes, peas, beans and leeks and freeze, pickle or preserve the excess for winter. We just don't have the climate for things like peppers, aubergines or even pumpkins or squash. They need a heated greenhouse here and I haven't got one and wouldn't want one, either.

mostly we eat a vegetarian diet. I feed the kids meat or fish no more than 3 times a week (either at dinner or lunch) and make sure that most of what I buy does more than 1 meal. I am ceggie so don't eat it at all. This month, I cooked a 1kg gammon joint, cut it into 4 and will use it to make chicken and ham pie, savoury rice, ham and bean soup and butter bean goulash. I never buy fresh fish and usually used tinned salmon, tuna or anchovies. I sometimes make pate, kedgeree or chowder using smoked mackerel. I also bulk cook beans and make several different meals. This week, I cooked 2lbs of chick peas and made chick pea curry, chick pea and pasta soup and hummus, next week I will do 2lbs of pinto beans and make Monterey beans, Caribbean rice and beans and refried bean quesadillas. A turkey drumstick will make pie and then stock for soup with a few meat scraps in it.

I am quite worried because everything is going up and DH's wages are standing still, we can't afford any more, things are fairly basic as it is. Our rent has increased almost 50% in the last 3 years, Dh's fares for getting to work are 30% of his wage, in the winter last year it was costing almost 200pounds a month to heat the house (we are home almost all the time and the place just sucks heat out), if things get more expensive, which they will, I don't really know how we will cope. I suppose that we will just have to deal with it, but I'm not sure how I can pare the food bills back much more, tbh, and still give the children a decent standard of nutrition and variety.

I would really agree with Takver. People seem to have a completely different idea of what's necessary than when I was growing up. Then, we ate salad in summer only (almost every night) and the rest of the time we had carrots, cabbage, swede, cauliflower, kale ,things like that. You couldn't even buy peppers where I lived until I was about 15 and things like aubergines and blueberries were unheard of. We had apples and bananas, oranges at Christmas, peaches, melon, strawberries and cherries as an odd treat in the summer and that was about it. Now people think that they should eat salad in the winter and berries all year, it's unsustainable, really. I still only really buy apples, small citrus and bananas as staple fruit. I buy the odd bag of kiwis and at this time of year I buy a punnet of nectarines or peaches once a week, but they are a very rare treat. I NEVER buy berries unless I am making jam and only get things like plums or cherries when I go foraging. This year I was given 20lbs of gooseberries from my mum's neighbour's bush, so that's the jam that we will be eating for the foreseeable future. The only cucumber I buy in winter is for my guinea pigs, in the summer I grow my own and pickle the excess for human consumption during the winter (except this year because my whole crop failed, just like my tomatoes ). I don't know, I suppose it's all about expectations, really. Perhaps we need to reassess somehow.

I've started using margerine for making cakes when I can't get butter on special offer. Not a healthy choice but we only have them occassionally and I don't imagine it's any worse than what bought cakes contain.

Someone was asking about Lidl. I don't buy much in there but their mozarella and cream cheese both at under 50p are fine and much cheaper than anywhere else.

Things do seem to be going up scarily fast. A few weeks ago Sainsbury's Basics pasta sauce (great for pizzas) was 18p a jar. Now it's 38p!

I think knowing how much things do/should cost is very important if you are trying to bargain spot. Am also trying to wean myself off supermarkets where possible but it's tricky when you live in London and a Farmers Market is a lifestyle rather than cost-saving thing!

I know it's not food related, but it's worth a mention - if you have very high water bills, you may be able to have them capped. You need to check with your water supplier.If you have three or more children aged 19 or under and living at home and are in reciept of certain benefits then you could be eligible for a cap on your water bills. My bill last year was close to £600, it's been capped at £280 now - a huge difference.

You are lucky you don't live in Ireland.I was up in northern Ireland last week visiting my mum,and we always get the shopping in before heading south to cork as groceries down here are 5 least 30% more expensive than up north.

Have PM'd my £30 meal plan to those who asked

stressedHEmum,you don't need a heated greenhouse for peppers,aubergines ect.A lot of varieties grow outside and I've grown mine in an unheated polytunnel for years now.I've just made a huge pot of pasta sauce from homegrown stuff,and it 'll freeze really well.Last year we were eating homegrown tomatoes from July and I froze the excess,which lasted us until February.

Apparently the tomato harvest in Italy,which is where the tinned ones come from,has been very bad this year,so the price of tinned toms will go up due to shortage of supply.

I agree food is too cheap, as is air travel.

The problem is that we have become used to low prices, and we are not used to paying a reasonable amount.

Archieleach

The thing with supermarkets are that they allow mothers to work and to shop for their families. In their own profiteering way they are pro feminist. In my old village in Sussex there was lovely butchers, bakers and greengrocers that could have provided our family with great quality food, bakers and greengrocers were cheap, butcher was high end but super quality.

But not unless you are around during the day. When I was around during the day I would use their shops, I loved the village and the local shops, but I would spend a whole morning shopping for food, maybe twice a week.

When I had to work full time in the city it was not an option to get all our food from the high street and the supermarkets were a godsend.

please send me the £30 meal planner too

notlettingthefearshow

Food is to cheap .Erm not here it is not i now shop online so can keep tighter control of money

Can I have the £30 meal plan too please ChoreDodger

In relation to prices in the past, and other countries, it is relatively cheap, especially compared to the rest of Europe.

I can't find the post, but someone better at remembering numbers than me had some percentages about the proportion of income spent on food these days!

you must be PM'ing like mad B&TChoreDodger! But if you have time for another, please can you PM it to me too. TIA!

goodasgold
The thing with supermarkets are that they allow mothers to work and to shop for their families. In their own profiteering way they are pro feminist.

Supermarkets are pro-feminist! You think you've heard it all and then you know you haven't. What about Saturdays? If you shop on Saturdays I guess you must be misogynistic then?

Abusing seller power, through practices such as price flexing and below-cost selling. According to the Competition Commission's report on the grocery market from 2000, the big four chains were persistently selling products at below market price. This could damage independents and smaller chains, and in turn damage consumers. This report also found that some of the chains were engaging in price-flexing. In geographical areas with no major competitors, they were selling products at higher prices than in areas where they faced stronger competition. The submission by the Association of Convenience Stores to the Competition Commission grocery market inquiry in 2006 found that such practices were continuing.
Abusing buyer power, in particular squeezing suppliers on prices. The larger chains can extract more favourable conditions from suppliers than other types of retailer can. They are able to do this because of their market shares and integrated supply chains.
abusing the planning system, because of their superior resources compared to competitiors or local authorities. In a town near me for example, the council, in their wisdom, has decided the town would benefit greatly by knocking down the only swimming pool and selling the site to Tesco for the 11th supermarket in a town of 25,000 souls! It won?t surprise you to learn that pretty much everybody objected to this, but our glorious leaders know best of course.
Garment workers,
A quarter of all clothing in the UK is bought from supermarkets After decades of scandals and abuse in the garment industry, mistreatment of workers is still endemic, only made worse by aggressive buying practices from supermarkets in forcing down prices to suppliers

UK workers
For every superstore that opens 276 workers lose their jobs in the local economy
Profits go to Head Office and are not spent in the local economy
Most jobs created by supermarkets are low-paid, low skilled and part-time.

I personally wouldn't call supermarkets pro-feminist by any stretch of the imagination

gaaagh - You sound very hard up. It must be difficult for you. But there is somewhere to go. You can get better quality food at half price quite easily.

Food might well be cheap but the cost of fuel and housing are exorbitant!

My food bill has increased by £100 a month in the last year, fuel by £20 and diesel by £25. My wages have gone up by £12.

We have all but stopped buying meat, we just can't afford it.

BodyOfEeyore Fri 19-Aug-11 15:45:22
Erm. no. I said I bought reduced eggs. I bought them on the date of their 'display until' date but the 'use by date' gives them another week. What on earth has fish got to do with it? Or donkeys?

I suppose it is a question of fish and donkeys, Eeyore, or at least apples and oranges, ie a qualitative difference in labelling, not, ?along the same sort of lines? at all.

I was trying to point out that food such as eggs are subject to ?display until? and ?use-by? and at some quite near point after these dates they will become dangerous (year old fish analogy), whereas pasta beans etc subject to ?best-before? can be safely eaten for years after their date. Jam for example should be good for 100 years according to research by Salford University.

The entire food production and supply chain is totally dependent on oil and oil by products, so as the cost of oil goes up, so does the cost of food.

popbiscuit - can I have that cake recipe please?
I worry about the health risks of using margarine, but canola/rapeseed oil is a "good" fat, isn't it? And a lot cheaper than butter. :)

The trouble for us is that our food bill (as a percentage of our living costs) isn't that high. But rising house prices have eaten into the rest of the money (live in SE). So it's not as though we have a lot of surplus money to buffer us when food costs go up so quickly. And of course, everything else is going up too - petrol, gas, electricity and so on.

We eat in season and almost completely vegetarian, plus we have insulated the house really well and wear jumpers in preference to turning the heating up. The low hanging fruit have all gone. :(

What worries me is the cost of junk foods does not seem to be going up as fast and the stores are full of special offers for crisps, sweets and other 'non essentials'. I feel like they are just pushing this stuff and making it difficult for those who want to eat a normal healthy diet. Surely the cost of oil and animal feeds also effect the cost of cakes, biscuits and sausage rolls! They should put up the price of these to subsidise the cost of basics, fruit and veg encouraging all of us to live better.

I would be interested to see the £30 meal planner as well !!

bitterandtwistedchoredodger I would appreciate a copy ofyour meal plan too if you don't mind.

archieleach, but we both work fulltime.

In between work, childcare, housework, helping out my folks (who are able bodied but getting on), and so on, I don't have time to shop at the local shops.

Where can I get a butcher that opens at 8pm on my way home from work?
... and not one of the middle class fancy ones, which are on the way home, I'm talking about one which has bargains readily available too, like offcuts of meat or near its best before date, for me to freeze?

The bakery near us - I went there on an afternoon off, thinking i'd surprise DH with a couple of pineapple cakes (a rare flash of indulgence!) - they had none. this was at 3.30pm on a weekday. most of the shelves were empty.

I don't have time nor the inclanation to go shopping every Saturday for the entire day, with the kids in tow - and anyway, if I were to pay for us all on the bus, we'd end up spending more than if I just nip to Tesco (about a 20 minute walk away) by myself.

You can say all you want about "oh but you can get 4 peppers for half price if you shop local, don't you get it?" but the fact is that:

• my local supermarket is open all hours of the day
• my local supermarket sells everything i need, so i don't have to spend petrol or more walking or a bus fare to shop around the independant ones
• for most of the things we buy, it wouldn't be cheaper (we buy the smartprice / value tins of toms, nothing is ever branded), maybe it would be if we bought a lot of fresh veg and fruit tho
• time - I have enough stress on my time as it is without spending 8hrs on a Saturday doing more fucking household chores. i don't have any time at the moemnt, what would it be like if i went back to what my mum (a SAHM) was doing as I grew up?

Until independant shops catch up with modern working families who are on a budget and time constrained, I don't have much choice about shopping in the nearest fancy independant shops, which cater to the more well off in the community at shite opening times at the moment.

I can sit here and agree that certain things about it attract me (better quality food, supporting local businesses, it might even be relaxing on some occasions to go and browse).

But it's not practical, not in our position, and it never will be.

Until independant shops move with the times and realise not every family has a wife to go and shop during the weekdays, they might as well not be there, as far as I'm concerned - the possiblity of shopping in them for the bulk of our food/other household items, regularly, is 0.

Sorry if that comes across as a bit harsh btw - i actually resent passing all those fucking independant shops on my way to work (i take two buses to work, 2 buses back, and the middle stop is actually RIGHT in one of the streets with them all in, on the edge of town).

I want to be able to shop there; I really would love to be in that position.