To be appalled at the cost of food?

[pinotnow]

I know this has been done to death and we are in a cost of living crisis, but listening to the news they are intimating that it is slowly levelling out and the worst is over. Yes as far as I can see it's spiralling out of control.

I did a Lidl shop this weekend and bought absolutely nothing for main meals as I have a Hello Fresh box for three days coming, boys are going to their dad's for the weekend on Thursday and I have store cupboard stuff in already.

Therefore all I bought was stuff for lunch boxes, snacks, fruit and breakfast cereal. No cleaning stuff, oil or pet food needed this week and one bottle of wine. I thought it would be a bit less than I usually pay (only the second time I've used Hello Fresh) and certainly the trolley wasn't as full.

It came to £78!! Maybe £5 or so less than I have usually paid lately. It's out of control. How on earth are people supposed to manage and when will it stop going up all the bloody time?

Yes, a quick Google tells me the average annual NZ income is £48k compared to £26k in the UK. Although to be fair to that poster, most of those prices are over double the UK cost, with the average wage being less than double. I don't know how other costs compare though (rent, electric, taxes etc), so no idea if the higher food prices could be more easily absorbed overall.

Minimum wage is only a pound more per hour. I think minimum wage is more relevant than average wage if we are talking about people struggling with the cost of food. Then you'd have to figure out if any top up benefits for families are comparable.

Property prices are high.

There's definitely profiteering. The big agriculture companies are making $10bn profit up 200%.
The big 4 supermarkets are also making more than pre-pandemic. Tesco up £600m profit since 2019 in the UK. I think a lot of that is petrol though

amp.theguardian.com/business/2023/mar/12/global-greedflation-big-firms-drive-shopping-bills-to-record-highs

The problem is housing costs are so high in the UK people don't have a huge amount of disposable income...so it's much harder to absorb these price rises.

I ended up down a rabbit hole of watching videos on social media of Americans saying what jobs they did and how much money they made. It was eye opening seeing people doing average admin/payroll/HR type/accounts roles and earning 100k plus when the equivalent job in the UK would pay £35k

The problem is housing costs are so high in the UK people don't have a huge amount of disposable income...so it's much harder to absorb these price rises.
Housing costs are very high in Australia too, and food prices are higher.

In Ireland today the government are bringing in all the big retailers to question them on why the cost of food is still so high. The government have said inflation is now running at 6% but food inflation is at 12% will be interesting to see how they respond. Prices always go up rapidly with inflation but rarely come down much once inflation settles.

I have a fussy child. despite years of trying, cooking lentils, beans, chickpeas etc etc etc in different and delicious ways, I still can't get him to actually eat them - cue gagging, spitting out etc etc. Sometimes it just doesn't work. Don't kill yourself trying to get them to eat these things if they flat out refuse. focus on providing more of the healthy stuff they DO like. Ok it drives you slowly mad to cut 100 carrot sticks every day but it's better than driving yourself madder trying to prepare and cook and then waste food that they refuse to eat, flat out.

Some kids just won't accept these things. I think that's really hard for some people to understand (especially if you have kids with adventurous tastes) that some kids just won't no matter HOW much you try.

I have beat myself up for years wondering what I can do differently, blaming myself but it's ultimately not my fault. We don't have battles over food or anything; the times I have tried to encourage it it leads to such difficulty I just don't bother. I do keep offering and trying but that's all I can do. If you have a fussy child IT'S USUALLY NOT YOUR FAULT!!!

US salaries do appear high but costs are also much higher.

So a 50k salary here is 100k in the US, £35k = $70-75k etc. I do lots of US and UK hiring and it's almost universally double the £ in $ for the same role, perhaps a touch more in some locations such as SF (although no one wants to live there anymore) and NYC.

And so many people are overweight.
That size 14 somehow has become normal. In 1950 that would be simply overweight.

Most people need to eat less.

I wouldn't be built like an average 1950s woman if I ate like a bird. I'm several inches taller and do weight training for a start.

You don't understand why people who can only afford/easily access cheap beige food might be overweight? You don't know much about poverty, do you?

I know it's mad. We were looking at average salaries compared to the US for some of ds' future career potential. Top end was $500k whilst here, it was £85k

Regarding food prices, I'm finding that it's cheaper to bake bread and cakes in large portions. I don't have time to bake bread every day but as the prices have gone higher, I'm finding it's cheaper to bake it myself.
Cakes for lunch boxes work out much cheaper and I get the dcs to do it.
Just simple traybakes like carrot, lemon or chocolate. You can get quite a few portions and freeze them.

I've been poor and we couldn't afford any junk after buying the minimum for basic healthy meals. We were a healthy weight but iron deficient.

The people I'm talking about (and I've been one of them) are not buying 'basic healthy meals'. When you can go to Iceland and get the 5 for £5 offer which takes minimal cooking time/skills and doesn't need much if anything to go with it, that's likely to win out in the same way as if I was hungry and had 50p I would buy a packet of cheap biscuits over an apple.

We're not only talking about a lack of money. Food poverty is far more nuanced than most people seem to realise, which is why we get the endless 'but why don't they just knock up a lovely vegetable and chick pea stew?' posts.

Just because I taught myself to cook didn't mean we weren't poor. Many times we didn't have the money for a packet of cheap biscuits as a treat.

As size 14 is not overweight.

Good for you. I can cook too, but many people can't and even if they could the fuel is too expensive, especially if you're on a key meter.

A cheap packet of biscuits is not a treat in that situation. It's dinner.

I added up all I spent on food the other month and it was £400! For one adult and 2 teenage boys (12 & 13yrs - who eat like a plague of locusts). My mental health was really bad, so I wasn't properly focused on cooking or anything properly.) Made a plan to reduce the cost. Signed up for a weekly fruit and veg box for £20 with delivery from a local greengrocer. Any veg that's left gets made into soup that I eat. My boys said it looks like vomit and won't touch it! How rude!! Fruit is put into cakes if not used.

I've started baking cakes using veg oil. Only discovered this by accident when I ran out of butter half way through a recipe. Anyway, it makes the cakes really 'moist' 😂and is cheaper. I have a bench top halogen cooker (promoted by Mo Farah so it's now called Mo) which is cheaper to run than the electric oven.

I cook everything in Mo! I bought meat from Muscle Foods (£60 for 55 portions) and started a bread subscription from Earth and Wheat which helps stop food waste - it's 'wonky' bread, except that it isn't and it's flipping delicious! (and cheaper for us too).

Last month I managed to cut the food budget down to £250 which included a couple of top ups for toiletries/loo roll and oil/pasta etc. Plus it significantly reduces the packaging that I have to recycle or throw away.

We don't eat lentils or processed meat replacements. I do add more veg and potatoes to meat dishes, so we have reduced the amount of meat we eat (without my boys noticing win). I'm aware the meat isn't free range, and when I have more money available, this is something I'll work on.

We're a lone parent family, single income.

No, salaries are not generally higher. A few professions would be higher but not all.

Part of the extra cost of food is because we have GST(VAT) on all items, nothing is zero rated, although the rate is 15% rather than the 20% in UK. When I visit the UK I can usually buy NZ Apples, Onions, Lamb and wine much cheaper here than in NZ.

Further to my above post - there have been times when I've skipped meals so my boys could eat. We're classed as low income family in a deprived area - so spending £250 on food still seems like an extravagance to me (some of the £400 on food was on a credit card - I really wasn't in the right mindset). It's a constant uphill battle, isn't it?

I added up all I spent on food the other month and it was £400! For one adult and 2 teenage boys (12 & 13yrs - who eat like a plague of locusts

To be fair I know it may seem like a lot in relation to your income but this is pretty good going. I'm easily spending £150-200 a week right now. I don't buy brands, rarely buy alcohol and shop around for good deals.

Thank God! Someone with a different and more realistic perspective, on how hard it is for the poorest in society. Of course families are going to go for the £5 deal (which yes, will contain factory farmed meat - v. Controversial on this thread!). Is it great? No. Is it healthy? Ethical? Probably not. But what it is, is affordable and mostly filling when coupled with a couple of slices of cheap bread on the side.

This is how a lot of families are scraping by in these times.

I bought the ingredients for a family salad the other day - 70p for a lettuce, 50p for an apple, 10p for a carrot, £2.50 for some stilton ( to give a bit of flavour!), 30p for a red onion, 50p for a red pepper.. Very nice but it wasn't filling on its own, so then I had to add in potatoes and protein . All in all a very costly meal. So at these prices, no wonder poorer people will just grab the £1 frozen pizza which only uses 15 minutes of energy to cook when Even vegetables are expensive!

'As size 14 is not overweight.'

It absolutely is. It's a lot of extra weight. It's not slim. @ArseInTheCoOpWindow

Exactly and the frozen stuff will last whereas the salad stuff you have a couple of days life from it at most so unless you know it will be eaten it becomes wasted money.

I read something the other day that people are using frozen food more and really it’s not surprising when it’s a quick and easy option and it will last until it’s needed not until it has gone too brown to eat!