To be horrified at the price of food

[Thorts]

Single pepper, now 60p - everywhere.
Apple juice - 99p everywhere for the cheap stuff

How are people supposed to eat fresh fruit and veg daily (and the right amount) with these prices?

If you were to look at processed food however; pack of ham 20p, custard creams 20p, garlic bread 35p.

You could get two of all the processed items mentioned for less price than one pepper and one carton of 1L value Apple juice.

Surely something needs to be done?

@Naytr33 I buy wonky veg. Kale is not that cheap. I know the costs of this kind of cooking as it is how I cook. It is too expensive for those who are really poor.

Rubbish. A bag of kale is 79p and a bag of cheap pasta is the same. With garlic and chilli it’s a very cheap meal for a family.

Telling people they can’t eat cheaply and it’s processed food or nothing is a really bad message to send out.

@Naytr33 Kale in ALDI varies in price through the year. The cheapest it ever is 79p. It goes to £1.29 some times of the year. And when it cooks it is not a lot of veg. It is not as bad as spinach for that though.

This is how I cook as I said. But I am not on the bones of my arse. I know if all I could afford was pasta, onion, tinned tomatoes, bit of garlic, that the pasta would be much more boring and that I would rely much more on carbs to fill everyone up. And I know that the ready made food from places like Heron Foods would taste better.

When I make a pasta sauce I use onions, garlic, mixed herbs, pepper, tinned tomatoes, some sun dried tomatoes, and lots and lots of mushrooms. Mushrooms add depth to the flavour. Some extra ingredients make these meals much more tasty. Just as you add rice, breads and mango chutney to your dahl.

Today in Asda carrots 15p. Good

All things you can get cheaply and store. Ready meals and processed foods x 4 are hugely expensive . If kale is expensive for a while you choose a veg that is in season and cheaper.

Macaroni cheese can be a cheap meal with peas, broccoli or cauliflower on the side. Way cheaper for a family than 4 x processed meals.

Whole uncooked chicken £7.25!!! Really expensive! Used to be under £4

I’d never use mushrooms or sundried toms in pasta sauce. 1 of my kids hates mushrooms and I don’t feel the need for sundried toms. My pasta sauce is nice enough without. I have an expensive recipe book that has a tomato pasta sauce with the same ingredients I use.Its interesting that in a poncy recipe book it’s deemed ok.

The whole thread is pointless unless you tell us where you can buy a pack of ham for 20p!

Personally, I don't think fruit and veg is expensive- it's uneconomical to buy one pepper- buy bag of cheap cooking peppers and they'll be about half that price.

@Naytr33 why don't you google the price of the XL range in Heron Foods? It is cheaper than the meals you are suggesting.
Kale is a cheaper veg, but carrots are the only veg that is always fairly cheap. And frozen peas.

@pinkstripeycat don't be so stupid. It is a loss leader for a few days before Easter. The rest of the year although cheap, you will pay about 80p for the same bag.

I think you are all just googling prices but are too well off to know how much these foods usually cost.

There are loads of ways to buy cheap veg but you need to be proactive and use a mixture of frozen, fresh and tinned and follow the seasons. Telling people it’s impossible isn’t going to get people trying.

https://heronfoods.com/products/

Looks pricey x 4 compared to what I cook.

@Naytr33 some things are. Their XSell range is incredibly cheap.
What you see on their website when you open it up is products they are pushing that they make more money on.
And following the seasons only makes a slight difference to price. The real difference is to quality. Cheap apples out of season do not taste that good.
Tinned veg worth buying is tinned tomatoes and sweetcorn. Lots of veg does not freeze and recook that well. Things like frozen broccoli and kale are only fine for recipes where it is fine being really soft e.g. vegetable curry pr kale bake. It is pretty horrible by itself - may be better with expensive frozen veg brands, I have only used cheap frozen veg.
You are talking to me as if I do not know about how to cook cheaply. I do. But I also know the reality of cooking when you are really skint. And the much recommended pasta with an onion and tinned tomatoes that gets trotted out on MN all the time is frankly a horrible meal. You need other ingredients to make it tasty.

Pack of ham.- 20p?! Really? Where do you shop? 1986?

I had a quick look. Cheapest I saw were meals for £1.59 each. £6.36 for an average family. Pizzas are £4. We'd need 2 at least so that's £8.
That seems much pricier than making healthy and wholesome food yourself.

That heron foods seems expensive to me.
Most oven meals take as long to cook as a quick pan dish too. A stir-fry takes minutes, add noodles, done in no time.
I think the trick is to learn to adapt to cook with seasonal veg and meat on offer.

Olive oil was over £6 today in Lidl - we used to buy for less than half that so am using is more sparingly, using the 1 cal spray and airfryer instead.
olives in bottles were around 80p - stopped looking for them at supermarket when I saw they were over £2 a jar!

agree with posters about having to shop and eat cleverly.

It’s true, what people say, it is all about the planning – e.g. bulking out good food with fillers, batch cooking,even meal swaps with family/friends, couple of cheap beans on toast meals a week - gave to get creative about how to eat well and on a budget

@Thorts
An alternative is grow your own if you have a garden or allotment. Or can take advantage of one of the schemes to garden someone else's garden they cannot manage in return for growing your own.
Even growing a couple of tomato plants or peppers on a windowsill pays dividends in terms of costs.

Other ingredients that cost next to nothing- garlic, chilli flakes…Lots of veg freezes well- carrots, beans, cauliflower, peas, sweetcorn…. Apples always taste ok in a crumble( savers flour,fat and a bit of sugar), stewed you can have apples in porridge…. A tub of custard powder lasts ages.Dictating that it is impossible to eat healthily on a low budget isn’t helpful.

I’m still struggling with someone paying £1.44 for one Leek ! 😳

@AstralSpace You do not know Heron Foods. XSell range last time I was in 2 weeks ago - a bag of about 10 large pieces of battered fish for a couple of pounds 0 can't remember the exact cost, but ultra cheap.
Most pizzas are £2, but they always have offers of buy pizzas plus other stuff that makes it much cheaper.

We don’t have Heron. In Aldi we have have 4 small pieces of battered cod for 3.49, then you’d need chips at a couple of quid to go with it. You absolutely can cook a healthier meal for that price.

I don't agree frozen carrots, beans or cauliflower tastes anywhere near as good as fresh. Always too soft. I do buy frozen cauliflower to make curries. Frozen peas and sweetcorn are fine.
A tub of custard powder (it needs milk added) is pretty poor quality food - I would not eat it. Stewed apples are fine. I would not have it on porridge, I do not think it goes. I do sometimes make stewed apples as a pudding with raisins and bit of sugar and nutmeg.
Eating on a lowish budget is fine - I keep saying this is what I do week in and week out. You can not eat like this if you are totally skint. That is what you are not accepting. A single person on universal credit gets too little money to be able to eat like this, unless they have family helping them.

Oh for goodness you are too fussy
and a food snob There is nothing wrong with the frozen veg I mentioned or powdered custard powder. We eat them all the time.

Also my dd lives alone and is on UC she manages to eat healthily without any help from us because I have taught her how to be food savvy, to cook and to know that with a bit of effort she can feed herself healthily.