We in the UK would not fight for a loaf of bread

homelessskilledworker

Or would we?

I was in Tesco's yesterday for my sins and had a quick glance at the reduction counter where food stuffs are approaching their sell by date or just look a bit dodgy. I think for the last decade now that most people don't find food all that expensive, for the variety we get and the volume I think we do all right when you compare life in the past, not all that many people were interested in the reduced stuff.

But there have been times in the past where people have lined up for hours waiting to get 3 sausages or a loaf of bread, the 2nd world war for example and rationing. Two hundred years ago men were sent to the colonys in Australia for stealing a chicken, today an overweight chav on welfare can pick one up that has also been cooked for him or her for less than a fiver. Given the right circumstances people will part with all their money and will do desperate things in order to eat, it is just that they do not have to these days.

Now take a look at housing today, complete different kettle of fish. Even I can remember a time when you just need an ok ish type of job to be able to afford a decent home. But today you can have a skilled job along with your partner and it is close on impossible to be able to afford anything, WHY IS THIS!!.

I have not come up with a complete answer, I suspect it is a few things combined, but what I am pretty certain about is that it is all more or less controlled by ********.
So much money has been loaned to the masses that Banks/Government will do anything in order to make sure that property prices do not fall, if that happens people start walking away from their debts.

It does not matter that more people are living in smaller places, that the next generation can not afford to buy property, what matters to those THAT REALLY RUN THE UK is that they fill their pockets. Banks can all but fail and be bailed out and still they look down their noses at you when you apply for a mortgage.

The release of land is tightly controlled, immigration is still rife no matter what the politicians tell you, so property demand is kept high as well as fear being installed into our already hard up average workers who might be cheeky enough to ask for a wage rise.

Something will give eventually, but what we are seeing now is anything but market forces(which I could live with), the people with the power to feed us are making us fight in desperation for the crumbs they are throwing us.

Today you might not have to worry about paying for your loaf of bread, for now!

whatyadoinsucka

maybe you should read all the buy gold and buy silver threads
that case when world famine is about to wipe you out, you can grin smugly and lick your gold bar

Cleaver

If you were trying to cut costs you would just make your own bread rather than getting bread from the reduced bit.

Callie22

Cleaver wrote: »

If you were trying to cut costs you would just make your own bread rather than getting bread from the reduced bit.

That's not true. Most supermarkets sell bread as a loss-leader to start with, and I've often seen loaves reduced to 10/20p - I was recently in my local Asda and they had loaves reduced to 5p each. Coming from a family of bakers, I know that flour is relatively expensive and has become even more so in the past five years, as have utilities. It's a heck of a lot cheaper to buy a 10p reduced loaf (although it's rubbish bread) than it is to buy flour and pay for the gas/electricity to bake it. Home cooking is becoming something of a luxury ...

Graham_Devon

Callie22 wrote: »

That's not true. Most supermarkets sell bread as a loss-leader to start with, and I've often seen loaves reduced to 10/20p - I was recently in my local Asda and they had loaves reduced to 5p each. Coming from a family of bakers, I know that flour is relatively expensive and has become even more so in the past five years, as have utilities. It's a heck of a lot cheaper to buy a 10p reduced loaf (although it's rubbish bread) than it is to buy flour and pay for the gas/electricity to bake it. Home cooking is becoming something of a luxury ...

I saw someone saying the same sort of thing on TV about baking your own bread and the costs associated often being more than just buying a loaf of Hovis.

Also Ice Cream was quite expensive, and Grow Your Own is apparently going to become increasing not worth it in finance terms.

ILW

Graham_Devon wrote: »

Also Ice Cream was quite expensive, and Grow Your Own is apparently going to become increasing not worth it in finance terms.

I never knew you could grow your own ice cream.

Blacklight

Here we go again... window licking dog eaters with tin foil headgear by page 4.

crazyguy

ILW wrote: »

I never knew you could grow your own ice cream.

Have you never seen one of these then,

Going4TheDream

Graham_Devon wrote: »

Iand Grow Your Own is apparently going to become increasing not worth it in finance terms.

The taste of home grown veg far out weighs the stuff sold in most supermarkets and markets though, that and the fact you can grow the stuff without the chemicals is a price worth paying in itself

Generali

ILW wrote: »

I never knew you could grow your own ice cream.

You'd be amazed how good it is. It's tricky to grow mind you and highly seasonal of course. That's why they started freezing it in the first place so it would keep longer.

A fruiting Raspberry Ripple in is a sight to behold. The Neapolitan in full flower is one of nature's marvels.

King James Bible, Genesis 2, 8-9:

8 The LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there He put the man whom He had formed. 9 And out of the ground the LORD God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, especially the ice cream tree.

Cleaver

Callie22 wrote: »

That's not true. Most supermarkets sell bread as a loss-leader to start with, and I've often seen loaves reduced to 10/20p - I was recently in my local Asda and they had loaves reduced to 5p each. Coming from a family of bakers, I know that flour is relatively expensive and has become even more so in the past five years, as have utilities. It's a heck of a lot cheaper to buy a 10p reduced loaf (although it's rubbish bread) than it is to buy flour and pay for the gas/electricity to bake it. Home cooking is becoming something of a luxury ...

Hmmm. I'm going to offer a slightly different view on this!

Let's say you need a loaf of bread every week, so we look at a 6 week period. I think it'd be cheaper to make your bread at home, so long as you use your oven cleverley and bake the bread whilst you cook other stuff (which is what I normally do). The chances of your supermarket having reduced bread each week is slim, so I think you'd end up maybe buying the full price bread maybe half the time or even more. You'd also maybe end up possibly throwing a lot of the going out of date supermarket stuff away.

With this in mind I think the prices might be comparable I think, or possible less to home bake. I take your point though. And if you're talking about those 22p smartprice loaves that are made out of sawdust and glue then I obviously agree with you, it's cheaper than making your own!

Bread isn't possibly the best example, but when you come on to things like pies, pizzas, ready made chips, any sauces or pretty much anything else in a packet, jar or ready made you're prety much always cheaper to make your own.