Can you easily absorb a 20% rise in your grocery bill?

[AbsentmindedWoman]

I am worried about this, predicted to come early next year. I moved abroad last year but have people I love in the UK, some are budgeting very tightly already, and there's nothing I can suggest when they are worried.

I find it really troubling. Surely this is going to be the straw that breaks the camel's back for quite a few people who are coping with limited money? It could mean the difference between being able to get by and being stuck?

Would a 20% increase in food prices be difficult for you, or just a pain in the arse?

Is there any way a price hike can be avoided?

But the majority CAN afford to eat a lot less.

Yes but what about those who can't? Are you suggesting that the spurious advantages of making some people lose weight (there is no proof that increasing food prices would do this - lots of cheaper foods are unhealthy and highly calorific) are worth plunging loads of people into food poverty? Because if so, you are either being dim, offensively cruel or wilfully obtuse.

Xenia you must also understand that those who advocate eating less/less often for the health benefits also advocate eating real healthy food. This type of food is more expensive.

Low income families who have less to spend on their food shop will end with more cheap stuff (carbs, corn fructose syrup, trans fats etc) and a healthy diet of meat, vegetables, whole grains becomes an even more distant prospect.

I think it is hard to find common ground on these threads but I appreciate hearing the views of everyone. If every family only drank tap water like I do that would be very cheap. I am sure that is something we can agree on as most places have drinking water that is safe to drink.

🤦‍♀️

If only people realised that everyone is different!

Can't stand tap water! I do drink spring water b because I can't stand tap water. But maybe I should do what Xenia says and drink tap water ugh!!! ( P.s water is not free by the way and u should drink 2 litres a day to be really healthy times that by 6 or ,8 will soon put water bill up just saying)

@Sostenueto

Can't stand tap water! I do drink spring water b because I can't stand tap water. But maybe I should do what Xenia says and drink tap water ugh!!! ( P.s water is not free by the way and u should drink 2 litres a day to be really healthy times that by 6 or ,8 will soon put water bill up just saying)

The average person uses 142 litres of water per day, an an extra two litres isn't going to make any negligible difference.

Drinking tap water is fucking miserable when you're cold. A hot drink makes do much difference.

Ours has increased, it doesn’t impact us but I find it annoying

@PickAChew

Drinking tap water is fucking miserable when you're cold. A hot drink makes do much difference.

I agree, a teabag or a teaspoon of coffee makes all the difference. I assume Xenia was talking about drinking tap water over juice or fizzy drinks though.

Did you get that stat from Google. I only ask because when I looked it up the highlighted google answer to water consumption was:

Each person uses about 142 litres of water each day. The average household uses 349 litres of water each day1. The average annual metered water bill is £4272.

Which is suspect, isn't it? Because I have a family of 5, we're on a meter, we're not judicious in our water use but we spend less than £500 on our water.

Anyway, it's beside the point but I'm not convinced that is reliable information kowari.

FourTeaFallOut I did. I agree the annual bill is obviously wrong but the volume of water looks right, we use roughly double that for two people.

To be honest I think so many things will be completely unavailable I’ll be making savings by default.

We can afford it though from March I’m on 6 months unpaid leave so will be more of an issue (mat leave). However, whilst we can afford it I am donating to food bank. The one in WR was pretty bare yesterday. Put some Halloween mini rolls in - know it’s not an essential but might be nice for a family with young kids to have a treat

@kowari

And who can really truly only spend £40 a week on groceries for a family of 4? I had £20 a week for myself and an 8 year old six years ago. I'm not sure how much prices have gone up since then. It wasn't great but we got our 5 a day and just about managed. I currently spend £35 a week and we eat well.

But there are only 2 of you not 4.

Anyway back to the question.

But there are only 2 of you not 4.
You said £40 for four, I said £20 for two...

That was 6 years ago & I was referring to a family of 4 (there are always a family of 4 or more plus animal who said they spent £40 or less a week for their food & they hardly ever come back & show their receipts or they then realise they haven't included school meals or or too up shops or separately bought laundry, toiletries, cleaning stuff)

You said you spend £35 a week now for you & your daughter which is reasonable. If there were more people in your family you would spend more.

Yes it was six years ago so that may make a difference, I acknowledged that. I don't understand why it matters if there is only DS and myself. Do two adults and two children cost more than double what one adult and one child costs? We spend more now because we can, we spent less then because we had no choice, I couldn't do top up shops because the food money was gone.

I would say if not double close to double if you go on £x amount per day for each family member.

And yes you are right that most of us can spend more now as we have the money to do so.

If food prices go up & up it will really affect those who have to have strict food budgets (low pay, unemployment, high housing & utilities etc)

If food prices go up & up it will really affect those who have to have strict food budgets (low pay, unemployment, high housing & utilities etc)
I agree, we would have struggled if food prices had gone up by 20% when we only had £20 a week to start with. It would have made the difference between getting by and having to ask for help. If thousands of families who were getting by suddenly need help, and thousands of other families (like us now) who could afford to help a bit suddenly are only getting by themselves, then it doesn't look good at all. I think threads on how to feed a family for less are useful though, if there is less help available then, sadly, it will need to be reserved for those who need it most.

I honestly thought we would be okay, but this thread has meant I am already eating less now. DS is (finally at 14) starting to eat like a teenage boy. I am underweight but maintaining. If I lose weight it is likely to trigger me to want to lose more though.

I know exactly what you mean.
Well I think I do.
Anxiety & worry can/does make things much worse.
A child especially, should not have to worry about food or money.

Thought I would put this on for everyone's perusal

The Operation Yellowhammer document acknowledges that “Low income group will be disproportionately affected by any prices rises in food and fuel”. At the same time, the Department for Food, Environment and Rural Affairs (Defra) provided a dismaying response to a parliamentary question on legal duties with regards securing food supply in an emergency. Defra’s official statement says (with direct quotes indicated and full text available here):

“Defra is not responsible for the supply of food and drink to the population in an emergency.”
“Local authorities do not have a general duty to provide food but have duties to provide food to particular groups in particular circumstances, including schools and care settings.”
“The expertise, capability and levers to plan for and respond to food supply disruption lie within the industry,” and “The food industry is experienced in dealing with scenarios that can affect food supply.”
Food for schools (Department for Education), hospitals and care settings (Department of Health and Social Care) and prisons (Ministry of Justice) “is led” by different government departments and Defra provides “advice and support”.
And there is a welfare benefits safety net.
Pause a moment to take on board the implications of this official government position, in light of the Yellowhammer contingency planning document released this week, highlighting the ‘reasonable worst-case scenario’ of a no-deal Brexit, including shortages of fresh food over a period of three months or more, and the likelihood of a significant rise in food prices. Here are the worrying conclusions that we draw from the collision of these two official documents and our experience over the past year:

In a food emergency, our Government does not feel a duty to:
step in and secure food supplies, neither for the general population, nor for people most vulnerable to food price rises and shortages of fresh food.
assess the scale of need, nor to publish data openly to help with resilience planning and resource allocation.
allocate adequate resources to address the crisis.
Our Government expects the commercial food industry to be willing and able to ensure that everyone gets the food they need, including those with too little money and those who have difficulty accessing the shops.
If you receive meals in a care home, hospital, prison or school, your food supply might be secure, but this is not guaranteed; and for children, the school holidays are not covered (except potentially in those areas where there is a scheme to address holiday hunger).
Welfare benefits already fall short of providing for household food security, are not calculated to meet the cost of living (including not taking into account food price rises), and would be unlikely to rise to meet the higher food prices likely in a national food crisis.
Other European countries are reportedly considering declaring no-deal Brexit a ‘natural disaster’ in order to trigger emergency funds to help out businesses and vulnerable people. No such luck in the UK. Despite some passing references over the past nine months to our Government having considered making available a hardship fund to address vulnerability, there is no indication that any money has been allocated beyond ‘business as usual’ welfare benefits, nor in any case have suitable methods of disbursement been agreed that would reliably reach those most in need.

@TracyBeakerSoYeah I was struggling with anorexia and not in a good place last winter, so I need to be careful. Anxiety about food and money makes me want to stock up on food and eat less. You do your best to shield your child(ren) from the worry of course.

Obviously anyone with anorexia needs to follow their doctor's advice and don't suddenly eat less. For others on tap water - I only used to be able to drink it with squash added (we could not afford things like orange juice) sa that is how we had it as children. Breaking a habit is quite hard (my son's dissertation this summer was on habit - really interesting topic). I did change from the pint of squash on my desk all day to a pint of tap water. It takes about 2 weeks or so to form a new habit unless it is a product with real addictive qualities but it is possible - not easy. if it were all easy I would be a stone lighter!

I am not the only person supporting tap water. Apparently most children get a lot of their sugar from drinks. Now whilst that is better than dying of starvation of course we are now on a planet where for the first in human history people are killing themselves sooner than their parents in large part because they eat worse than their parents did - it is a huge reversal of how things have been across human history.

Moving a family to tap water drinking perhaps with a campaign - save the NHS and only drink tap water and leaflets given to parents weaning their children off breastmilk telling them to give them tap water might be good and would also fed into the commonly held anti dairy views too and save money. We need a few very very simple and free of charge things to help people. [My first pint of water is on my desk. i take it up to bed to drink if I wake in the night and then I fill it up and put it on my desk when I come down in the morning]

@Xenia I agree with you about the drinks. Though juice can count once towards your 5 a day so a litre of OJ per child per week and you have one of their 5 a day covered for 69p. DS has a glass of whole milk a day, I drink two cups of black coffee, other than that it's tap water.

No one is going to get a pay rise for being underweight so they don't have to eat less. I work full time so I will make the budget work, we will be okay, even though this thread is making me anxious that we won't. Not everyone is lucky enough to have a full time job though.