Food is not expensive

[ragandbonewoman]

That is it really. I suppose I’m curious as to whether people agree or disagree with me. This follows a conversation I’ve just had with a friend where we disagreed on this point, but it’s something I’ve really noticed as things (life, not just food) have become more expensive. Lots and lots of people complaining that food is “so expensive” We are actually in the fortunate position of being able to spend less than the majority of the rest of the world (relative to our income) to follow a healthy diet.

Yes food has gone up. But (and I admit this is an anecdotal observation) food waste is prolific. I think we need to change our outlook. We should be prepared to pay more, especially for meat, to ensure that suppliers, farmers, animal welfare, are all getting a fair deal. I’ve always found it ridiculous that you can buy a whole chicken for £5! How?! And then people readily admit they throw half of it away.

Is this unreasonable? Food is important. People on the absolute breadline might have little choice, but for those that can take a little slack from elsewhere, they should. And stop complaining that you can’t get a tin of beans for 9p anymore! Stop throwing food in the bin because you feel like eating something else. Or AIBU?

I agree that food is cheap. It only feels expensive because we got so used to eating everything our heart desires (and lots of it). Since I started growing my own vegetables and seeing how much work and money it takes (on watering, compost, fertiliser) I find vegetables in the supermarket cheap. Someone said that the fact that food is more expensive in other countries is compensated by the fact that bills and rent are cheaper, but the truth is that despite paying cheaper bills and rent, people still can’t afford to eat half of the things we eat here.

Before I moved to this country I could very rarely afford to buy food items which we now buy every day such as bananas, yogurt or tinned tuna. It was even worse when I was growing up. Eating a simple diet is very cheap in this country

Fresh food doesn’t have to be expensive if you buy food that is in season and buy in bulk etc, but I think a big issue is most people are time poor, most households don’t include a non-working adult who has the time and capacity to go around different shops to find the best value, plan a meal based on the available in-season food and then cook that meal completely from scratch every day. Convenience food is expensive, as is non-seasonal imported food or pre-packaged food which most working adults will want to include in their food shopping.

You sound really out of touch, and are too rich to relate to your own ‘friend’

I agree with you op. I have family in other countries and grew up partly there too and I always maintain that food in this country is dirt cheap. I roll my eyes when people complain about that. There are SO many places to shop with each competing with each other, deals galore, yellow stickers - no sense of reality of how easy and good people have it here.
Theres even places like Poundland for detergents and stuff - doesn’t exist in other countries.

As op said you can buy a whole chicken for 5 pounds. If you don’t know that’s cheap and can make a few meals then you just don’t know how to cook I guess.

You don't need to have a non-working adult in the house. I'm a single parent working full time but I prioritise feeding my children decent quality, higher welfare, local, seasonal food within my budget instead of going to the pub, watching tv every night or undertaking additional hobbies. We are so used to having hours of free time these days outside of the working day partly because of convenience food, take aways, modern food supply chains that most people put no real time and energy into what they eat. Obviously if you'd rather not think about what you eat you don't have to, but to think that you need to give up work to eat properly is ridiculous!

Food in the UK is still very cheap compared to other countries. And very, very available and convenient.

I remember travelling in the US while pregnant and trying to drink milk, eat an orange and have some cheese everyday. All things I could get at a Tesco Metro for under £1.50 or at an M&S Food for under £2, but difficult to find in the US and tended to be huge quantities at high prices.

I could fill the freezer in Iceland and feed my family absolute shit for a lot less than it costs to make good, healthy meals from scratch

You could probably do it for about the same, given the time an thought. Most people just don't consider it a priority.

Food that is healthy, nutritious and delicious is expensive. Bad food is cheap; I could do a cheap monthly food shop in Iceland if I wanted it not to be expensive.

Unfortunately even that might be on the dear end for those who are not as financially fortunate or having difficulties

I was in a local river town today that a few years ago you couldn’t get a table in the spoons on a Saturday and chip shop would be queuing round the block .

Today , was relatively quiet for a summers weekend . There wasn’t a sole in the chip shop and spoons was really quiet . There’s an indoor area on the side that’s really sunny and usually packed out , that was almost empty .

People are definitely not spending money in pubs and restaurants like they used too . I feel like Just Eat are busier than ever though .

my household certainly couldn’t run on a single wage

Mine has always had to for reasons beyond my control. And that doesn't involve me sitting at home on my arse all day. I've just got really good at pulling my horns in. I can see around me, every day, people complaining that they can't afford this or that, and yet spend money on all sorts of unnecessary stuff I couldn't dream of affording. Yet I live and breathe.

I'm not talking about people in genuine hard straits. There are some, obviously.
But there are a lot of people who could learn to budget better and stop spending on luxuries they can't afford.

I'm not sure I agree that good food is expensive in this country. Some things are expensive, like good quality meat and fish. But the basics that I feed my family - things like carrots, broccoli, sweetcorn and other veg, apples, bananas, oranges, milk, bread - have gone up in price, yes, but are still relatively cheap.

i would hate that - so time consuming

But a good way to save money. If you really need to.

I think basics are inexpensive. Like bread and milk. Fruit amd veg are definitely dearer if you want variety and good quality.

As op said you can buy a whole chicken for 5 pounds. If you don’t know that’s cheap and can make a few meals then you just don’t know how to cook I guess

Yeah. Easier to order in I suppose.

My daughters just become a bit obsessed with Oliver!, so maybe that’s why this has come to mind: “If you don’t mind having to like or lump it, it’s a fine life” 🤣

i get it, the point of the OPs post - and a lot of PP’s - is that we’re all just a bunch of spoiled yuppies now with no sense of the value of money and with
an unfounded taste for things outside of our means. We’re too lazy to learn how to cook, we think having a career is more important than looking after families (feel like there’s a slightly heavier burden on women here), and the country’s just generally going to the dogs because of it.

I’d counter all of that with the following;

• life was far from perfect 50/60 years ago. There was more of a discrepancy between the health of the richest and poorest in society, women weren’t given the same opportunities as men and many found themselves trapped in a domestic role they hated
• A lot of people feel cheated by their quality of life now for what they’re putting in. Two salaries, no time with your kids, expensive childcare, worse quality food often designed to make you over-eat and become obese, high fuel costs and a society that’s less than conducive to good mental health. A lot of people don’t feel that they’re getting value for for the money they’re paying for their lifestyles.
• apart from just telling people to read a cookbook and stop buying avocados, what do you actually suggest they do? Do you really think that a bunch of people in the 80s and 90s decided they were just too good for all that housework stuff and went and got pointless jobs instead? This change in society has been engineered and driven by governments, because it’s better for them to have as many people working and spending their wages on stuff as possible. It’s called capitalism, and it generally rules the western world.

Of course there’s a way to live as cheaply as our great grandmothers managed to…it’s called having a completely different set of circumstances, expectations…and probably having a time machine to go back to a less materialistic society. The fact of the matter is people have done what was asked of them in this day and age - got an education, got jobs, work the hours, keep the population going, buy the stuff they’re brainwashed to want, contribute to their pensions, pay their (ridiculous) income tax and house prices…..and are still faced with this attitude that you should be running a household to the same standard as a full-time housewife/ husband. If you can’t because of lack of time, skills etc….you have to cut corners and/or spend more. And that is what pisses people off. Why, in this day and age, when theyve given up so much home life, sanity, disposable income, child-bearing years, does everything still feel so expensive?

i think my point is, relating back to the OP’s initial question of why people think food is so expensive…it’s because they just do, and it’s likely not their fault. There really isn’t any point in telling them they’re wrong, or about how other generations managed it…it’s irrelevant. It would be much more constructive to look at why they feel that way, whilst giving them the credit of being just as caring, just as intelligent, just as hardworking as generations gone by.

You realise that you have a fairly high income? How is that relevant for someone on let's say NMW or people who are on the breadline because of disabilities, caring responsibilities etc and cannot work?

Also, how old are the DC? Do you have teens? Any idea how much food they demolish?

This with bells on. I’m a farmer and was doing a little talk with our local village primary school. Bear in mind it’s rural. Only a handful of year 6’s knew what a combine was. I was horrified, I thought you might have got that in inner city London, not rural counties.

Something is going wrong somewhere though - what is at £170 a ton to the farmer which is lower than a decade ago.

We as a society are just not prepared to pay for the standards we want. We have to fulfill loads of animal welfare regulations, quite rightly. But then the supermarkets just import cheaper from countries that don’t have the same regulations or wage costs that we do. For many shoppers when faced with an egg from the UK that’s more expensive than a Ukrainian or cage Egg a lot of people will by the latter.

I disagree, it’s the other way round. Processed foods are hugely expensive, the basics aren’t. We shouldn’t be eating masses of processed foods, take aways, sugar laden coffees out or a lot of meat.

Also cooking healthily doesn’t need to take a lot of time.2 full time workers in our house and we manage to cook from scratch easily.

This !

Yes I’ve had to feed my family in the US and France for several weeks at a time in different areas and both were far harder to feed a family cheaply and healthily in. In France everything seems ££££ and in the US the healthier stuff definitely is and harder to find.

It’s housing that’s draining the coffers. In 1960 the average rent was 18% of income expenditure. Now for people on a low wage it’s 59%.

Similarly the cost of electricity/gas takes a big chunk of wages which wasn’t a big cost in the days when we had no central heating and used far fewer electric appliances.

But the Daily Mail convinces the people that poverty is caused by buying TVs and coffee. 🙄

I eat like that now that my picky kids have turned into self sufficient adults, and it's super cheap and about as healthy as you can get.

Tinned beans, tomatoes and fish (incl. oily fish)
Frozen fish, berries and veggies.
Bulk dried whole grains, seeds, pulses, nuts.
A bucket of plain Greek yoghurt from Aldi.
Pickled/preserved veg (olives, sundried tomatoes etc) from Aldi.
Tofu.
Whatever fruit and veg is in season and cheap (and I'll buy lots, then cook and freeze it).

I splurge on higher quality food when I feel like it and can afford it (and usually bought in bulk and/or when reduced); salmon, coffee/tea, free range eggs, 'posh' nuts and olive oil.

It is true that as a % of income it’s way lower than when I was a child. The variety was just not there either and the expectation of trying fancy stuff. I do think the last couple of decades of very cheap food gave us an expectation. Twenty years ago I bought almost everything organic including a lot of meat and my bill was £50 a week. I’m thinking about the amount of food either. There were zero snacks when I was a kid, no eating between meals. Almost no one was overweight then either so there is also the amount bought.

I've never known ginger to reduce in price, it's the same all year round, expensive!

But I think people do spend money on things they don’t need. I look around and you’d be surprised at the incomes with car loans for expensive cars, expensive phones for all the family from a young age, holidays every year, regular take aways and coffees, frequent new clothes, gadgets nails etc.

We as a family couldn’t and wouldn’t waste money on most of it. It’s not necessary.In 1960 families weren’t spending on any of that. You can’t have it all. It isn’t good for the environment or our health or pockets. I grew up in the 70s and 80s with a dad on a good wage and a mum on a minimum wage. We had an old second hand car, never ate out or had take aways, went on holiday but not every year and cheaply,obviously no phones or gadgets etc but ate well with limited meat.Bar phones and travelling my kids have had the same.

It’s cheap all year round. A thumb of ginger is next to nothing.