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???

Once everything is in place, it's a case of watering when get in from work and feeding now and then. Sometimes a bit weeding at the weekend and or a of bug & slug removal! Most plants once big enough will survive a slug attack, as long as not hundreds of the rascals.

So in the summer, main growing season, out in the evening sunshine, glass of wine in hand and watering away is actually quite a nice way to decompress :-) Even if just grow tomatoes it saves a fair bit when they're like £2 for a pack of six on the vine and when get a glut in Aug/Sept, tom soup or sauce home made, loverly.

It’s quite something, isn’t it!?

zits mind boggling

https://www.sustainablefoodplaces.org/blogs/may24-peril-facing-britains-fruit-and-veg/

We only grow just over 50% of our own veg and even less in fruit. So you must be seeing things in season at Aldi? Have a look at the source once winter arrives and see how much UK stuff is in the shops in January.

Where? Six medium eggs in Spar(expensive) were £1.99. A dozen in Lidl£2.90 first were none caged chicken eggs.

So you chose lentils which have a much lower level than say Brazil nuts, cheese, or sesame seeds which have twice the level of most meats.

Not £10. But what used to be a dozen eggs is now only 10 eggs.

That’s what you got from my post!

I’m sure you wouldn’t dream of it but your response makes it seem like you skim read this forum desperately looking for people to snipe at. Poor you.

Very sure they weren’t doing scan and shop because, for one of those guys, I was next on to the till so I had to get the lady over because they had left without paying.

@Loloblue - I know!! It’s one thing being desperate for food it’s another thing to be nicking to decorate your house and give flowers to your friends!!

Shoplifting doesn’t seem like a covert thing anymore.

From a minority of suppliers. So just get the under £3 a dozen mixed free range eggs that are available in all supermarkets from Aldi/Lidl to M&S/Waitrose.

A very interesting thread,despite the bickering. Like many others we have massively reduced our meat intake and upped our in take of veggies and pulses. DH and I sometimes just have a sandwich for tea. I make a lot of soup and dhal. It's also easy to make natural yoghurt, and even butter is simple and cheap if you get yellow sticker cream.

Off the food topic we save a lot by not buying commercial cleaning products. Can clean most things with vinegar,lemon, bicarb and use old rags instead of expensive cloths and wipes. Much better for the environment too. Similarly,use herbal or natural remedies for minor ailments,colds and sniffles and you will save a lot on over the counter products. I make my own skin cream,face packs,body scrubs etc from household products.

Do you only maid enoygh for one meal every time you cook? Because theres your problem….

Tesco has over 3000 stores in the UK, and covers over 11 million transactions every day. Their annual profit is less than £1 for every transaction, averaged. How much do you think would be “fair”?

£69.5 million was paid to shareholders of several major rail franchises between 2022-23, and ROSCOs paid out nearly £1 billion in dividends in 2020-21 alone.

According to analysis by The Telegraph of Office of Rail and Road data, private operators paid out just under £58 million in dividends to their shareholders in the 12 months leading up to March 2023 This money was directly paid to shareholders from the substantial government aid, which was given to keep the trains running

Between them, private sector train operators paid £246 million in dividends to their shareholders for the year ending March 2024. This is the highest figure since 2018-19, and a total of £1.8 billion was paid out between 2016 and March 2024, according to RMT

I've just come back to this thread to post, because I've just read the Bank of England have previously warned that net zero taxes on food packaging are pushing up food prices and are likely to carry on till the end of the year.

So the fuckwit Miliband is at it again. Not only is he pushing energy prices up extortionately, meaning our businesses are paying energy costs among the highest in the world, which affects everything; not only is he shutting down and throwing away our natural energy resources in the North Sea; now he is pushing up food prices more with his largely unreported food packaging taxes. This for a country that contributes less than 1% (0.8%) of the world's carbon emissions. It means nothing., it is futile.

(Oh, and last week he was meddling in people's funerals from a Net Zero perspective, so costs there will be going through the roof too).

Starmer is too weak politically to get rid of him, so the whole country is going to hell in a handcart because Starmer can't grow a backbone.

So there are some whole new reasons why food is going up at such a frightening rate. 😞

Yes but without all those changes food would get even more expensive as those changes are an attempt to slow our impact on the environment which is causing problems with food production.

There are a lot of things that are currently affecting the cost of food production, many of them inflicted by this government - taxes on farmers, enormous solar farms being imposed on farming land, increases in employers' NI, energy costs raised due to net zero policies, food packaging costs ditto to name but a few. i agree food production is very important, but not it seems to this government. These costs and problems aren't in the future and hypothetical, they are very real and they are here and now. Hence the necessity for this thread and people's bewilderment as to what is going on.

You do all this before or after work

It strikes me so many families are time poor . By the time they get in from work prepare a meal, clear away, check on the kids homework, get their stuff ready for the next day. Get them washed, pyjamas on, in bed, read a story they're pretty much done in.

I remember cleaning and ironing until midnight sometimes. I was young when I had my children. My kids were mid thirties before they started families. It's harder as you get older I've realised.

We've found we are eating a better variety of food now as we have had to add lots of extra pulses and veg into our meals.

I'm afraid I'm a fan of a mumsnet chicken. I roasted one on Monday, it fed 4 of us with potatoes, veg and gravy. Then the left overs fed 4 with loads of veg and noodles the following evening. Thats 4 adult portions.

With minced beef, I add all the usual, then remove some to freezer for a future date.

We make soup in big batches, it really is very cheap and easy to make. This week's was roasted butternut squash, carrots, sweet potatoes, onions, garlic, Celery and ginger. All roasted together, then add stock and I put some cottage cheese in i had left over. There's easily portions. Serve with bread and a sprinkle of cheese.

For those with hungry kids, a big batch of soup has been my saviour many times. Give them some when they come home from school. Healthy and stops them eating their way through all the cereal and snacks.

But what I find interesting, in all of this, is how much do people think we should pay for a 500g pack of minced beef? Because £5 works out at 4 very generous portions. 6 if you add veg, lentils etc. So with pasta or potatoes, its still a cheap meal? Certainly better than the pizza being quoted at £5.

It's not going to be popular, but perhaps the rising costs of easy meals means we all have to make somethings from scratch, which usually means less added crap. And the health implications must be better?

Whilst reading this thread I did take a break to do my weekly on line shop at Tesco. £70. Which is pretty much what it has been for ages. I didn't buy beef as I have 2 lots on the freezer from other times. But I did buy pork mince and a chicken, eggs and butter. Greek yogurt, veg, fruit and all the items mentioned by pp. Personally, I think it's reasonable, it just takes a bit more thought than bunging ready made meals in the basket.

Most people buy barn raised chicken. Free range organic is financially prohibitive.

Thanks for the soup inspiration. I have all of that veg, so I’ll be cooking that tomorrow. Much as the crazy food prices drive me nuts, I agree with you that it may result in many people eating more home cooked meals. Although, with energy prices, some people may no be able to afford to cook. I think something like a million people don’t even own a fridge.

Yes,I know.
That's the point.

Instead of eating a small portion of well raised chicken full of nutrients , they eat masses of cheap chicken pumped full of chemicals and antibiotics that's had a miserable life.

Of course if your chicken is £15 you are going to use every last scrap of it

@Wilfulignoranceabounds you're welcome. Its really delicious. I tend to make at least 1 soup a week when its colder to use up veg. The next one is likely to be leek and potato, but I also have minestrone in mind, thanks to this thread. And potentially a chicken and sweetcorn chowder.
Agree re cooking/fuel. I love a good afternoon spent batch cooking, so have got pretty good at minimising use of oven/hob and even cooking utensils to save washing up. But it's reslly hard if you dont have a fridge or access to an oven. Perhaps it's also a wake up call to help those less fortunate, when we can.

Also, I forgot to add on my first post, there's no shame in simple meals. Beans on toast, soup, baked potatoes, porridge are all good, filling, cheap meals. I'd forgotten the joy of a jacket potato until recently.

I usually make soups when it gets colder, too, but I tend to bung stuff into the Instant Pot mostly. I don’t think I’ve ever roasted veg to make soup. I can imagine it really ramps up the flavour though.