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Original poster

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

418 replies

AbsentmindedWoman · 20/10/2020 21:15

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?

OP posts:
bakereld · 21/10/2020 12:31

Our food bill has skyrocketed since lockdown and it's only me and DP.

A 20% increase wouldn't affect us too much luckily, will just be a massive pain in the arse. I don't know how people our age with a couple of kids and average jobs will manage.

Janevaljane · 21/10/2020 12:53

On the other hand, petrol is cheap atm so as I drive a lot its equalling itself out a bit.

kowari · 21/10/2020 12:53

Pretty much everyone can just eat less.
People eat loads.
Yes it’s not ideal but half portions won’t kill you. It’s not the end of the world.
Seeing as I am already borderline underweight and maintaining on what I normally eat, I don't think half portions would be a good idea.

Angel2702 · 21/10/2020 12:54

No would be nearly £100 a month more. Our bills already went up a lot over lockdown as we can’t eat with family any more and we have had to make sacrifices to afford our current bills.

AriettyHomily · 21/10/2020 13:32

We can absorb it, yes, we are fortunate that we can shop at farm shops local butchers etc and avoid shitty American imports with chlorine chicken and hormone beef.

No sea is a shit show. I think a large majority of the population have forgotten it's even going on.

20mum · 21/10/2020 13:46

Maybe do some research? There are people posting on line details of how they feed a family of four with tasty and nutritious meals for pennies. Apparently people discard half the food produced. Certainly food is historically unreasonably, unsustainably cheap. (So are clothes)

Maybe also research what people lived on during and after the war. It would be a barely recognisable diet nowadays, and yet under rationing, the standard of health increased. (The fact that even though politicians like Churchill wallowed in unlimited luxury and as much life-costing imported food and cigars and champagne and brandy as they wished, other rich people and even royalty kept to the allowance on a ration book. That wouldn't have done harm to food supplies. Of course it wasn't fool proof, but the butcher simply couldn't keep large cuts of meat for the rich, once their coupon book was empty) For decades afterwards, people would be horrified to think of food waste. (Or clothes waste. Clothes were not only dear, but rationed. Plastic tat wasn't invented.)

pointythings · 21/10/2020 14:00

20mum you clearly don't know anyone who has to choose between heating their house - or to be more accurate, one room in their house - or eating. You clearly don't know anyone who is financially so on the bones of their arse that they can't afford food some days. You don't know anyone who has to choose between buying fresh food (and not being able to afford the electricity needed to actually cook it) and buying crap because it heats in seconds.

You're lucky. You're complacent.

TracyBeakerSoYeah · 21/10/2020 15:44

Hear hear Pointy

Though we could always live on the MN Chicken, it'll last for months if it's chlorinated. Or turn the dead into naice ham or pate like in the Siege of Leningrad.
I'm being flippant btw.

kowari · 21/10/2020 15:47

I've seen threads where people ask for help with cutting their food bill, while buying foods like fresh blueberries. Many people will be able to cut their bill by a sixth in order to absorb a 20% increase. For some there is nothing left to cut, I understand that.

ListeningQuietly · 21/10/2020 15:57

The end of transition is right in the middle of the UK's hungry gap when the country is most reliant on imports
and yet the UK Govt is fighting to NOT protect farmers from January

you could not make it up

Janevaljane · 21/10/2020 16:00

you clearly don't know anyone who has to choose between heating their house - or to be more accurate, one room in their house - or eating

I never understand why this is so weaponised on mumsnet. I don't know anyone who I think has to choose between heating their house or eating. Does that mean you can only comment on threads like this if you do?

DTIsOnlyForNow · 21/10/2020 16:01

We would just have to eat in season and british food
We will not die because we cant get french cheese German sausage and any other food from eu
Yes it will be different but we will adapt

if this is your plan you will actually starve to death.

raspberryk · 21/10/2020 16:01

I’ll have to go back to mainly dried pasta and rice meals I expect, cut meat right down, economise on dp lunchbox snacks and sandwich fillings, swap back to apples being the only fruit we buy etc.

DTIsOnlyForNow · 21/10/2020 16:03

nder rationing, the standard of health increased

People always trot this one out. You understand that it only increased because it was so bad before, right? Really fucking terrible, upgraded to just fucking terrible?

midgebabe · 21/10/2020 16:05

People advising we don't need french and Spanish food,, the uk has relied ( not preferred, needed) food imports since WW2 when without the merchant navy people would have starved

pointythings · 21/10/2020 16:11

@Janevaljane

you clearly don't know anyone who has to choose between heating their house - or to be more accurate, one room in their house - or eating

I never understand why this is so weaponised on mumsnet. I don't know anyone who I think has to choose between heating their house or eating. Does that mean you can only comment on threads like this if you do?

Janevaljane pointing out that it isn't OK to be complacent about affording food just because you will be alright isn't 'weaponising' anything. It's understanding that there is actual food poverty in the UK. I'm a bit gobsmacked that there are still people who don't think that is the case. And if you don't mind, I will continue to 'weaponise' the point, because it is the truth. You don't need to know people in this situation personally to understand that, you just need a bit of knowledge and maybe some empathy.
GeorgiaGirl52 · 21/10/2020 16:24

We are already seeing an increase here in the US. Also shortages. And it has NOTHING to do with Brexit.
Meat has gone up 300%. Ground sirloin was $5/lb and now it is $15/lb with a limit of 2 pounds per week. Fresh fruits and vegetables are also in short supply. But there are plenty of canned goods and paper goods.

SimonJT · 21/10/2020 16:27

Luckily yes, but thats a luxury that a lot of people don’t have.

I have noticed food prices have increased since March, today tins of coconut milk (so yes, not essential) were £1.60 each. There have been fewer offers, plus I found in lockdown that cheaper brands and own brands were hard to come by, yet expensive brands like heinz etc were in better supply.

January is already a hard month for many people who have to choose between heating and eating, some people will be in dire situations.

ChardonnaysPetDragon · 21/10/2020 16:29

Between that, the inevitable tax rises and rising transport costs it will be quite unpleasant.

Doodar · 21/10/2020 16:35

I can absorb it although I resent the 30% rise in the cost of apples in M&S and haven't bought them since.

Bingbongbinglybong · 21/10/2020 16:36

Fortunately yes we can afford it, but I will spend more as I can't cut back much more (I've traded down brands, shop at Lidl and the market, cook from scratch, grow my own beans, tomatoes, courgettes and herbs).

However as life is generally a bit more crap with Covid, we have saved money on holidays, eating out, day trips, extra curricular activities and so on, so I feel like 2020 has been a good value year.

Janevaljane · 21/10/2020 16:37

@DTIsOnlyForNow

*We would just have to eat in season and british food We will not die because we cant get french cheese German sausage and any other food from eu Yes it will be different but we will adapt*

if this is your plan you will actually starve to death.

I'm not sure you'd starve to death. I could eat all year by buying all my food from the very expensive farm shop which only sells food and veg within a 100 mile radius. I couldn't afford to, but it would be possible
midgebabe · 21/10/2020 16:40

There isn't enough bristish food to feed everyone even if we were all rich enough to use farm shops

ListeningQuietly · 21/10/2020 16:42

I could eat all year by buying all my food from the very expensive farm shop which only sells food and veg within a 100 mile radius
What does it sell in January ?

Camomila · 21/10/2020 16:44

Yes, luckily, but we'd have to cut down on something fun (eg, movie channels) or put less in savings (saving for deposit).