What is going on with food prices??

[londongirl12]

A 500g packet of mince in Aldi is now over £5!! What on earth is going on???

I don't think vegetarianism is being "aggressively promoted". Where are you seeing this?

I just checked the Tesco website and the cheapest tinned soup is 55p for 400g, Tesco own brand starts at 63p and Heinz is £1.30.
I think a lot of this thread is doom mongering and unrealistic expectations.

Tofu has roughly the same amount of methionine but much less phenylalanine for example. So either way you have to eat a lot or you'd be deficient on one thing or another.

Yes, in reality people don't eat like this. No one really counts their intake of nutrients, unless it's an obsession. I only had to count because of my DC and it was eye-opening.

Yes I can’t believe the increase of the price of mince! My dc love it so I tend to bulk it up with lentils, diced mushrooms or quorn mince if it’s for a shepherds pie or bolognese and batch cook it.

$9 For 500g mince at Aldi in Australia.
Don't get me started on the price of eggs 😂

What are smash burgers?

The prices are ridiculous. I can’t afford to eat meat anymore but make sure my dc eat it daily. God knows how much the food bill would be if I was cooking for 2 adults,2 dc.

Try some swaps.
Chicken mince 500g £2.49 in Tesco, maybe slightly less in Lidl.
My DD make some lovely meatballs with chicken mince yesterday. She added some fresh herbs, some frozen petit pois, loads of garlic and Grana Padano cheese to the mince and served with home made tomato sauce and spaghetti
I also use chicken mince to make koftas.
We don’t like turkey mince however, as it’s drier and doesn’t smell too good when cooking.

Thin ones. I think the idea is thicker ones ‘smashed’ thin but you get them ‘pre-smashed’

Sorry forgot to quote, in response to what are smash burgers?

Tesco own brand chocolate is over £2.00. I swear it was less than a £1 last year.

Allotments where I live have a massive waiting list so you are highly unlikely to get one - and agree they need a lot of work and at least some money for tools, seeds, a greenhouse if you want to grow anything tender - I doubt you save much money unless you have a lot of land and no way of increasing your paid hours (as you need to factor in the cost of your time on the allotment).

We have had to buy our previous three weekly food shops using a combination of Klarna and Clearpay.

Our shop is costing us over £250 a week (multiple children, some with additional medical items needed).
We almost can’t afford to live.

I agree. I tend to only buy now if in B&M or One Beyond as Tesco is stupid. I regularly bought chocolate as a treat.

@NotEnoughKnittingTime Chocolate is expensive due to a "perfect storm" of factors including a historic shortage of cocoa beans caused by extreme weather events like El Niño, diseases affecting cacao trees, and changing rainfall patterns due to climate change in key growing regions like West Africa. Not to mention that the current crop of cocoa trees are aging giving lower yields and other ingredients are increasing in price too. All the supply-side issues, coupled with rising demand in markets that haven't historically been big chocolate buyers, have driven cocoa prices to all-time highs and businesses have passed on those price hikes to us the consumers.

@Foolsgold74 Get thee along to Sainsburys if you can - bag of Twirl bites 97p - also giant chocolate buttons of various sorts

I may have stocked up.

I have switched to a mix or fresh pork mince and frozen beef mince - I'm not keen on the grittier texture of frozen mince on its own so this works well for me and pork mince is half the price or less.

I'm buying less chicken mostly because I have been getting more and more 'woody chicken' when I buy breasts - I can cope with it - I tend to chop if finely and marinate it which helps a bit, but it's definitely on the rise. I should probably move to legs/thighs which I don't think have the same issue.

I'm shocked by the increase in veg price - carrots are way up in price and cauliflower/broccoli is expensive now. I understand why and being a failed vegetable gardener (I'm getting better slowly) has made me understand how much soil health and the weather matters to growing food.

I used to have an allotment, but those are hard to get these days. But at home, things like new potatoes can be grown well in potato sacks, main crop (big spuds like King Edwards) need to be in the ground ideally. Spuds tho can be superb yeld and will last absolutely ages if left in soil and in the dark and cool (sunlight makes potatoes go green). I used to still be eating my King Edwards for Xmas dinner even tho they finished growing around Sept.

Courgettes, peppers, toms, lettuce, cucumber, beans (with a climbing frame or poles) onion, beetroots can all be grown very easily in pots, just have to make sure watered and fed enough throughout the season. I tried once, when gave up allotment, to grow corn on the cob in pots. They grew fab, they were awful to eat!

I'd recommend just having a go at couple of your fav's and see how you get on. If enjoy it, try more things next year, it is good fun tho!! Oh, and saving money, vegetable seeds are often cheap this time of year as season ending, as is a lot of gardening things.

I remember hearing on tv years ago that baked beans on wholemeal time good bread has as much protein as steak. People eat far too much meat and it's costing a lot in so many ways.

We’re not high earners, pretty mid level and have always been reasonably comfortable. I’ve been lucky enough to never have to budget the food shop before. I’ve always wrote a list and then bought what I need. However, I’ve found myself having to account for everything and add ‘cheap’ meals into the weekly list now otherwise the price is out of control. This is buying the same stuff I always do. I’ve had to make a lot of swaps but I find Aldi is almost the same price as other supermarkets and the quality is shit.

I tried an Asda shop the other day and I hate the yellow packaging as I found it really demoralising. I feel sorry for the people who were living on the breadline before. We’ve really had to tighten our belts and I don’t know how we’d survive if we could barely survive before.

And the reductions aren't really reductions as they used to be.

Buy meat in bulk from British butchers if you have space in your freezer. Much cheaper and tastier

😂 we have been on a waiting list for almost 7 years. No chance.

I think we all need to hit the reset button on how we get food, and make some drastic changes.

I have never been able to keep a plant alone, but this year I had someone make me a 3mx 75cm trough against a wall in my garden with good sunlight and I have never looked back. Our climate is now brilliant for growing things. It was piss easy. I've not bought tomatoes for 4 months, green peppers, loads of herbs and I now have to go cull them and freeze them for the winter. All sprung from cheapo starting plants from the local garden centre. Next year I'll expand on it. All I had to do was water it.

Secondly, we all need to shop a bit smarter. Go to the cheaper places. See if there are any local farm shops near you. Buy the best quality you can, for the money you have. Just because it is a premium supermarket, it doesn't mean the food is better. I've spent years comparing Aldi, Lidl, M&S, Waitrose etc. and I would nevere buy certain things form the last 2. If you buy ready meals, then of course, M&S are going to have nice ones, but if you cook from scratch, you are wasting your money there.

We have absorbed the price rises but we now have far less disposable income. We don't eat at restaurants or cafes as much as we used to. I have cut down on clothes and beauty products. I don't get my eyebrows done anymore. I don't have a gym membership. We can pay our bills and eat and have the occasional treat but now so much of our income is going on the basics.

You can quote reasons for higher prices till you're blue in the face. The fact is that supermarkets are recording record profits and are absolutely shafting us. They want us to believe it's because of brexit, Ukraine etc etc etc but they are making huge profits while most of the public is struggling