Food has become so expensive. How is it sustainable?

[Prunnhilda]

I've noticed a real change in the past couple of weeks: everything seems to have gone up by 10 or 15%, suddenly. (Except junk food, which is always on special offer, naturally )

We can't go on being blasé about nipping into the supermarket for a few bits and pieces. What foods are you cutting back on to save money?

Go to 'ethnic' shops to get stuff like beans, or failing that, if you shop in a huge supermanrket, go to that section where things like chick peas are half the price.

A nicxe chicken goes far. Spend say, 7 quid on a free range.

Roast chicken
Chicken sandwiches
Chicken in a salad
Boil up bones for stock, add veggies and scotch broth mix and shredded chicken.

I'm not skint but Ii priode myself on not wasting.

Speaking of pork ribs, and you can make an amazing pasta sauce (from Puglia I think) with pork ribs, onions and tomatoes.

I always shopped around but now I need to. Lidl have 50p aubergines at the moment and potatoes for around 60p. I'll cook up big batches of pasta sauce and lentil, potato and aubergine curry and freeze it. I always buy very little meat but I'm doing veggie food most of the time now. I'm also making more cheese sarnies, hummus and grated carrot pitta etc. Homemade coleslaw type salad and potato salad will be on the weekend menu.

Best recipe ever

Mince garlic and ginger.
Add honey, mustard, soy sauce, tomato sauce and /or chilli sauce and 5 spice powder. Mix up and coat ribs. Marinate for a few hours, then roast or grill, basting occasionally.

Serve with steamed rice and stirfry or leave out the 5 spice and do American style with cornbread and homemade coleslaw.

Yes- I try to buy meat that is reduced, and cook huge vats of casserole, pasta sauce, curry etc and freeze that evening, but I am lucky that I have a large freezer, and can save this way.

Franca - what's that pork rib sauce called? (We have a freezer full of reduced pork ribs...)

I bought one baking potato yesterday for dd3 who especially requested it ( i didnt buy a bag as I keep throwing half of them out when they sprout roots)...one potato = 63p...!!!

Interestingly the proportion of average family income spent on food has fallen substantially over the past 50 years. So maybe we've had it artificially low for a while?

I appreciate this is of course no comfort at all when struggling to stretch the budget.

You basically gently fry the ribs in olive oil with 2 clovers of garlic (or more if you like)

Then you add tin tomatoes or passata and salt. Let it gently simmer for at least 1 hr. (the more it cooks the better)

My dh (who works in food security) says on average in UK, 10% of disposable income goes on food.
In the SE Asian country I am in now it's about 70-90%.

Puts it into perspective eh?

Drop, why are you throwing them out?
Take out the eyes!
If you buy as one offs like that, of course it will cost.
Madness!

AxisofEvil, yes, same here in Italy. Movements like Slow Food are worried about these changes, and that the quality of food eaten by families is deteriorating (together with the ability to cook, which was a distinctive aspect of Italian culture... again a sign of emancipation if you like, but loosing a connection with traditional food is a cultural loss too, iyswim)

I would dearly love to know how to get more than one nights dinner out of a large chicken. We're a family of five and yes, we might get a sandwich later on from leftovers, theres no way i could stretch it to another meal for everyone.

10% seems very low to me, moondog.

I may invest in a ledger to get on top of this.

Really?
We are four big eaters and it will do for us for at least two meals.
Maybe everyone is having too much to start with?

I recall my grandparents' Sunday lunches.
A very small roast, a few paper thin slices for each person (never seconds) then the rest eked out over the week.

We manage a meal from a chicken, pick the carcass of good bits for risotto, then stock. I couldn't go further than that tbh!

1 average size chicken doesn't last long here. We eat a lot!

He is adamant Prunn that that's the average!

Gosh that's a little Moondog. No, my grandmothers used to cook a huge amount of (delicious) food.

Use your chicken carcass to make stock then make delicious onion soup the next day with it. Cheap and yummy..especially with french bread slices toasted with cheese...

We may eat a lot, but i don't think so. I like to put a good sized dinner in front of Manshape as he's out doing manual work and works up a big appetitte. DS2 is six and has hollow legs, DD is almost three and not far behind him. But a whole chicken wouldn't last long here.

My take on most recipes (for money saving and health reasons) is to double the veg /pulses and halve the meat.
Try Gill Holcombes book 'How to feed your whole family a healthy balanced diet with very little money'...... for some good inexpensive menu plans.

Fair enough for people who have physical jobs.
Most of us just eat too much though and get bogged down in too much choice.
Entire supermarket aisles filled with yoghurt and only yoghurt. How many varaitions does one need on fruit and milk ffs?