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?

At the moment Tesco have carrots, swedes, bags of potatoes and bags of onions all priced at 15p. There is always fruit and veg on offer.

Food in this country has been cheap for far too long.

We're in the March to May window that's always been a meager period for local seasonal food. Frozen is still a good option.

The main problem is the amount of energy (oil) that goes in to our food production - heated indoor growing, machinery, fertiliser and transport. It's hard to change that.

When oil was $10 a barrel (not that long ago) no one was going to invest in the alternatives. So, high oil prices are probably good in the medium term. That's no comfort when you're doing the weekly shop.

On the other hand, you can still get 6 salad tomatoes from Morocco for less than £1. That seems cheap to me.

I think fruit and veg has gone up a lot in the last couple of years. Cucumbers used to be 43p and now they are 89p; lettuce used to be about 50p and now it is £1, for all people are saying seasonal veg is cheaper, it is still more expensive than 2-3 years ago. My salary has not gone up 50% so it means to by the same amount of fruit and veg, I spend more on food and struggle to save as much, which means the list of jobs needing done on the house expands, because electricity and gas is also more than it was 2-3 years ago, travel costs are more, everything is more.
So I don’t think it is necessarily about the 60p pepper but the cumulative effect of all costs going up a lot. It’s disingenuous to suggest this is not the case or doesn’t matter for people.
And then I live in Scotland so I also pay more tax as well.
I do feel a lot poorer than I did previously.

I wonder how many people complaining about the price of food are quite happy to pay for an expensive mobile phone contract and expensive TV package.

No, my phone is six years old and on a SIM only deal and I don’t watch TV. So?

Surely its all about shoping around and buying what's in season?

Saying junk food is cheaper is just a poor excuse!

Onions, carrots and bananas are cheap. Chopped tomatoes are cheap. Frozen peas good value etc... so many healthy foods are good value.

Then in some areas you can get an odd box delivery of wonky fruit and veg.

A single pepper was 60p probably 10 years ago, possibly even longer ago. It's always been more expensive to buy a single than a 3 pack. Having lived abroad & also travelled extensively in the last 6 months I can assure that a) that is still a reasonable price compared to other countries and b) food prices have gone up globally.

So good for you then, but on another thread where people were moaning about the cost of living, someone on there was paying £35 a month for a mobile phone contract over 3 years which is a whopping £1250.

Before you complain about food in the UK being expensive have a look at some of the frugal dinner youtube bloggers from america. Frugal Fit mom and See Mindy Mom are my favourites but you will see that what they consider super frugal eating is about the price we normally pay.

Yea mine is £50-60 for me

It used to be £40 at Aldi or £60 for a really nice "treat" shop at Sainsburys

And yet, fresh produce is still cheaper in the UK than much of Europe, even though plenty of it comes from there!

And I say that as someone who lives part of the year in France. Uk retailers are always cheaper for most fresh produce. The difference is that in France local markets and shops still exist, and people use them,a nod the supermarkets will often have higher quality produce. Almost no one buys fruit and veg from anywhere but a supermarket in the UK. Which is a shame, and perpetuates the wastefulness of year-round availability of things that shouldn’t really be available year round, and a race to the bottom on price and quality.

Fresh fruit and veg will be more expensive right now in Europe. We are enteting what is known as the "hungry gap". Over wintered veg and fruit has run out and new season stuff is not yet ready. So you are buyiny improred things from sunnier climes or stuff grown in greenhouses with bigger energy costs or account for.

I'd be really interested in how much Someone who buys cheap upf food for their family spends in a week.
I can't imagine how it's so much less expensive than making cheap fresh meals.
I cant justify buying ready meals as I think it's cheaper to make food from scratch, and of course, so much healthier.
I appreciate that I never shop in Iceland though.

@NC03 when I was at uni I could shop for £20 a week, back in 2017.

Now I'm lucky if £20 a week covers my meat and veg! Granted I used Waitrose because the essentials are all cheaper than Sainsbury's, but it's the extras you need for a good diet - proper bread, Greek yoghurt, fruit, that winds me up

A lot of places in America are fresh food deserts. They literally do not have fresh produce in their supermarkets because of the climates in that area and everything is shipped in.

Their idea of frugal eating is based on a totally different food culture

Exactly
Yes I could make it cheaper but I don't want to eat like that forever and my wage isn't changing. Also have health issues so I use prepped stuff like bagged salad, steam bags of veg etc

@NC03 I don't even think I go that extravagant. Maybe the most I treat myself to is some breaded chicken to shake up my lunch times a bit

I get 5 Gusto one person meals for £37 per week. The portions are huge so I can make 7 meals out of that. The £13 left easily does me breakfast and lunch. If I wasn't doing Gusto I could do a lot less than £50 a week - what are you buying?

Op you have a point on the increase on the cost of food however it would have been sensible not to use ridiculous hyperbole to make your point. Everyone knows you don’t get packs of ham for 20 p anywhere, now sure you might have found some in the yellow sticker section, about to go off, but it clearly didn’t fit into the point uou were making.

and that’s why sensible discussions go wrong. Uou start off making daft comments, and it ends up everyone giving it you what?

@helpfulperson
Toilet rolls, washing up liquid, tea, coffee, bin bags, bleach, replacement sponge/cloths, ketchup, mayo, some pickle for sandwiches, some fruit for snacks...
I include everything in my food shop except laundry powder as I buy a huge thing of it elsewhere

Any veg out of season is expensive. Peppers have always been pricer.

I stick with bag of carrots 15p in tesco last week and spring greens 70p for massive bundle.

All good has gone up in process though. Even the biscuits.

I first asked this question at 16:45.

Not even 3 hours ago, let alone "all day".

Not bothered by it, just interested in why you think 60p is too much.

But you obviously haven't got a decent answer so have had to resort to a weird pass/aggressive bollocks.

You keep going on about peppers OP. They're not hard to grow yannom

@helpfulperson my shopping this week was:

4x tinned tomatoes (I will use all four across the week, easily)
1 x tomato puree
1 x avocado
4 x apples
1kg carrots (will use these all in a week/10 days)
1x cauliflower
4x large potatoes
1x broccoli
2x Romano peppers
1x lettuce
1x pineapple
600g strawberries (will smash these across 2/3 breakfasts)
3x sweet potatoes
2x seedless grapes (they were on offer and I will freeze one lot for snacks)
1x raspberries
2 pints milk
500g Greek yogurt (the real stuff, not Greek style)
500g beef mince
1 x chicken fillets
1 x frozen peas
1 x low cal chocolate ice cream (not necessarily needed but I fancied it because I'm due on this week)
500g pasta

Peppers have always been expensive. I remember as a student I grumbled to my rather wealthier flat mate that they cost 60-70p each in the local Morrisons. He thought I was ridiculous and that was 2006.

I don’t disagree though. Food costs generally have gone up a lot and few of us have the time and skill to cook nutritious food cheaply. As someone else has said, a chicken casserole made with less exotic veg like swede, carrot and potato and lentils is nutritious and good value - but let’s face it processed junk takes a lot less time and effort and people are knackered, busy and probably don’t want to pay the energy costs of cooking a big casserole.