People eating pet food

[SammySawdust]

According to the BBC some people are eating pet food due to the COL crisis. Really? Am I hopelessly out of touch? Why would anyone do that?

I tried a cheese dreamie out of interest once. No thanks, the cats can have them all.

Sounds like bollocks- although I accept it is safe to eat - a bag of pasta and some tinned tomatoes is cheaper than a box of aldi cat food so it's a daft choice to make, if true.

Yeah nobody’s going out and buying dog food vs a cheapo tin of beans or meatballs or something. Maybe if they are desperate and have a tin in or stole it as something closest to the checkout or out of a food bank basket.

Pet food and having a pet is so expensive. I couldn't justify it. I keep plants instead.

Most people on here are missing the point. I know some people have said this, but it's worth saying it again.

People don't calculate the cost of something and then go out and buy it based on affordability. People sometimes eat stuff JUST BECAUSE IT'S THERE IN THE CUPBOARD. If you have enough money you can draw up nice lists of how to make the most of your money with optimum nutrition etc. etc. but being poor is not like that. A lot of the time you feel stressed and miserable and sometimes unwilling or unable to make sensible decisions because you are simply hungry

Also, yes it is cheaper to buy potatoes from Aldi. But you have to get to Aldi. You need a car or time and the bus fare. And then you need a saucepan, and a cooker and ,again, time and good enough mental health to make good decisions.

MN proves time and again how middle class it is.

Then what are they going to feed their pets?

I’d feed them before me, if money and food is that tight, the priority is children, then pets, you’re last, surely?

Nope, I don’t believe it.

I'm calling BS too.

I've survived on next to no money. I recall the council estate's "Dodgy Dave" helping me out by jamming a cut piece of Aerial wiring into the electricity meter bypassing the emergency credit cut off (and risking killing myself or burning the whole street down) because I couldn't afford the £5 top up before my dole came in.
I'd have maybe £15 a week for food after the bailiffs took their cut. I'd buy a bag of cheap potatoes, a bag of frozen chicken breasts, a pack of chopped tomatoes, a large bag of pasta (maybe 30p for a kg) and whatever else was dirt cheap like multipacks of noodles. Pennies per meal. No butter or cheese of course, cos I wasn't that fancy, but I still managed to eat, even if it was shite. But I never ate my cat food.

These days there are food banks. There are emergency loans. People have phones and can actually make calls to find help. They have Internet access to sign up for extra assistance. Poverty is different now.

I run a food bank. I think this scenario would be very unlikely, even among the most desperate of the people we serve (and we stock pet food sometimes, so we have had awkward conversations about how to ensure people weren't taking it as human food, misunderstanding what it was for various reasons, or taking it just because it was there). I can sort of imagine someone in a "bare cupboards" scenario trying a tin of dog food but it seems quite unlikely to me. And I deal with people in some very dire straits.

@MugginsOverEre
I think you are a bit out if touch tbh.
On UC, my food budget is in 2022 is still £15 a week. It's not a voluntary number either, I absolutely cannot go over that.
Foodbanks aren't a good thing either.

I've eaten Brekkies before, on a date. They weren't terrible but I was expecting them to be saltier so I found them bland. Likewise starch packing peanuts.

Jesus Christ, on a DARE. Not on a date!

😂

Not going to lie, I did think, hmm, what sort of dates do they go on?

But I also just accepted it rather than thinking it’d be a typo 😂😂😂

Normal dates! I've only ever gone on normal dates without pet food!

I had to read that twice as well. I was like wow wonder what the bloke thought of that, 😂

Perhaps they (could be the journalist) read Any Human Heart by William Boyd and took inspiration. The protagonist starts eating dog food in his old age in the 70/80s after falling on hard times.

You're quite right, it was actually fortnight. Dole was paid every two weeks.

BBC seems to challenge itself daily to come up with a far fetched COL story.

It’s probably an office challenge by now to see who can push it further

Lots feel the same. Which is how come there's plenty pet food in the cupboard and not much else. If you've too much month left at the end of the money, do you eat it or starve? I knew someone who ran out before payday, she had a bus pass so went to her mum's to scrounge a loo roll, fed the cat steak because that was the only meat in the flat and ate the remaining food herself. Not sensible to feed a cat steak, it's expensive, but what do you do when there's nothing else? Can totally see it happening the other way around.

Same with the candles to heat food and head torches for light. It's not people going out to buy these things as an economy drive. It's running out of money, eating cold tinned food or warming it a bit with that candle from the back of the cupboard. No money left and only £1 left on the electric meter so saving it for the microwave and walking around with the head torches on.

Good quality dog food is expensive!
My dog gets human grade chicken which is cheaper than some dog food.
Dog food like Butternut Box is basically human grade meats but expensive.

Well I'm glad it's not just me who thinks this is utterly bizarre. It makes no sense when there are numerous cheaper (and nicer!) alternatives.

A chap I met - Very clean and well scrubbed, in his Sixties told us he lives in a tent- Through choice?!
He said being homeless in Bristol is “ Easy” compared to London.
so say lots of foodbanks and charities that do meals.
I thought of him last night, though, in that freezing fog.

Absolutely agree