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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

to think that food is not 'cheap'

71 replies

bollywoodfan · 13/02/2013 19:16

Well not according to how much I seem to spend in Tesco anyway!
I am surprised when people say that we have got used to cheap food, because I don't think it is. I suppose the value brands are pretty cheap, but if someone is buying all value products for their weekly shopping, its because the feel they need to. Nobody would buy them if they didn't have to. Hence 'proper' food is NOT cheap.

OP posts:

CogitoErgoSometimes · 14/02/2013 13:52

YABU.... Some foods have gone up in price and some foods have always been expensive. But if you check the prices in the produce department they are about the same as they were five or even ten years ago.

ScarletLady02 · 14/02/2013 13:56

Personally I don't find it more expensive to eat healthily. We do a lot of one pot batch cooking so eat a lot of soups, stews, curries etc. You can get away with "past their best" veggies then. DH only eats chicken really as it's all we can afford and we eat mostly veggie. Meat is expensive, but you can eat healthy meals for cheap.

I really can't eat ready meals and processed stuff that often. It makes me feel bloated and sluggish. I'm not perfect obviously, I LOVE pizza, but tend to make that myself as well. Flour, passata and mozzerella don't come to much, and olive oil is so cheap in Aldi.

expatinscotland · 14/02/2013 14:00

Plenty of places in the UK with no Aldi.

Food my cheaper than Europe and N. America, but petrol and fuel are markedly far more expensive here.

Narked · 14/02/2013 14:02

Food is cheap as a % of income compared to some other countries and past decades. Housing costs are much higher compared to past decades.

fromparistoberlin · 14/02/2013 14:05

go to Italy! food IS cheap, but doing all shopping at Tesco is a FAIL

you need to mix it up a bit

AmberSocks · 14/02/2013 14:05

I shop at waitrose and we spend about 250 a week including food for the cats.I dont buy nappies.formula,cleaning stuff or toiletries as they are all home made or reusable.

I grow fruit and veg but not enogh tosustain a family of 6.I buy mostly organic stuff,but occasionally when i cut back(as sometimes i think thats a lot to spend and t doesnt right with me)i do notice a difference in quality and enjoyment of food.

I dont like tesco or asda i find the quality awful,sainsburys is good though.

Losingexcessweight · 14/02/2013 14:08

Frozen is cheaper than fresh.

Theres me, dh, and 4 month old dd in our house.

dd on formula.

We spend amount £150 a week in Tesco

I never buy anything frozen apart from veg.

Tuna is expensive, fish, cold meats like meat slices, bacon, free range eggs etc.

The value stuff we could get away with a £50 shop if not less, but supermarket standard brands and branded food is not cheap.

Matildaduck · 14/02/2013 14:11

Aldi, if you can cook you will save a fortune. I also neatly wept at the tesco bill, it's such a rip off!

One small fresh piece of fish in tesco was £2.00 ( haddock) really!? It made 5 fish fingers.

We eat much less meat than most, its not healthy and bake and cook from scratch. Batch cooking also helps!

Our food bill is a small % of our income. ( i'm not for wasting food or cash)

Pootles2010 · 14/02/2013 14:13

Ambersocks may I ask - do you find the ingredients for making cleaning stuff/toiletries cheaper than just buying off the shelf? I like idea of it, just baking soda/lemons etc seem expnesive...

ScarletLady02 · 14/02/2013 14:15

I agree with Matildaduck - Not sure we could shop so cheaply if neither of us could cook. It helps that we both can,and are both decent at it.

CogitoErgoSometimes · 14/02/2013 14:15

Did you know ..... that the average retail price of bananas in 1985 was 93p/kg.... exactly the same as it is today?

source data

FannyFifer · 14/02/2013 14:31

£150 a week on shopping for two people,that's mad.

NumericalMum · 14/02/2013 15:29

I am a supermarket snob. I hate asda. I am sure there are nice ones but our nearest is vile (and not near!) I adore Aldi. I could happily buy everything there but I need to so most of my shopping online so we use ocado and aldi once a month when I have time. I would happily shop in aldi alone. When will they do online?

TeWiSavesTheDay · 14/02/2013 17:10

Our Tesco has really unhelpful decided that our store has a rich Target audience so everyone DH goes he ends up coming back with finest fruit and veg because that's all they had!

Our other choice is waitrose which does at least stock all it's essentials stuff.

The proper market in big town is so much cheaper but it's £6 on the bus to get there.

I agree that it's not that food is all that expensive but that all our other bills are huge and fixed (everyone has to pay rent/mortgage) so every small rise in food is really felt.

I do get annoyed at being told the solution is for everyone to go veggie. I can't for health reasons.

OBface · 15/02/2013 00:05

Food is cheap in the UK. Especially compared to the likes of Australia, £6 for 4 pints of milk anyone?

lljkk · 15/02/2013 08:01

Terry Leahy (head of Tesco) was on the other day talking about shopping with his mum in the 1960s, how half of most people's income went on food. half!

I realise today it's >= half on housing.

We spend a stupid amount on food now that DC are getting bigger, but I can still see that food is relatively cheap.

countrykitten · 16/02/2013 11:15

I don't think that £150 for two people is 'mad'. If you are buying good quality ingredients - that's how much food costs now. OH eats meat so that can tend to bump up our bill as I make him get organic free range ( or just free range) as he would buy any old factory farmed crap and not let it bother his conscience one jot.

havingamadmoment · 16/02/2013 11:28

we spend around £65-70 a week I dont buy a lot of meat but when I do I always buy decent quality - I would rather not eat meat if it was a choice between that and cheap processed meat. At this time of year its cheap to cook with root veg and lentils rather than things which are not in season which I think a lot of people forget!.There are 7 of us. We grow salads etc in the summer which actually saves quite a bit.

I think the problem is that people are used to a very varied diet all year round which IS expensive as is eating meat a few times a week.

kimorama · 16/02/2013 11:53

Dead right Bollywood. Food is only cheap if you have loads of dosh

Tortoiseonthehalfshell · 16/02/2013 12:03

Ha. You English people, you don't know you're born. I shop almost completely at local butchers/farmer's markets because they're much MUCH cheaper than supermarkets, and I only ever buy cheap cuts, I buy a whole chicken ($13 for 4lb) and make four meals from it rather than buying fillets, meal plan, turn bones into stock, bulk buy pulses and whatnot, and if I come in under $AU200 a week (about 130 quid) for two adults and two small children I throw a fecking party to celebrate. Which I should, because the average spend for a family of two adults two children here is $350 a week.

littlemisssarcastic · 16/02/2013 12:18

It's not food costs that are the problem in my house. It is the cost of rent, council tax, electric, gas and petrol.

When the cost if those things rise astronomically, people struggle to buy food that is good quality because of the expense and people begin to think food is too expensive.

74% of my income goes on rent, council tax, electric, gas and petrol.
If food prices came down, those things I've mentioned would increase further to swallow up any extra money I had.

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