Cost Of Food Set To Soar

Butterfly_Brain

Popperwell wrote: »

CTC,
I don't have a Kindle but downloaded it to the PC

Agree about the vegetables but being single the veg I buy lasts ages and sometimes after so long I have to get rid of what I have not used. My worst buy and what often gets wasted is salad items which often costs more than root vegetables.

CNM,
There are some stock of free cook books but they sometimes take some finding and they can be there one minute and disappear the next so you need to be there at the right moment. Glad you did not have to pay too much.

Throw veg away :eek: why not prep it when you buy it and freeze in meal sized portions. Easier on the pocket and time saving

Liz3yy

It's not just herbs, a lot of so called value items are no longer cheap and in some cases cost more than the standard range. Toilet roll and tin foil are over double the cost they used to be in Tesco, and their value butter is the same price as normal, bizarre

Popperwell

Butterfly_Brain wrote: »

Throw veg away :eek: why not prep it when you buy it and freeze in meal sized portions. Easier on the pocket and time saving

I'm not bad at using up traditional veg but I never seem to manage to get through lettuce or spinach.

Probably because I eat less/portions are smaller or like today I don't feel that hungry but I know I will have to eat something and I plan to do a meal and often end up with a sandwich or just buniing something in the slow cooker.

My intentions are good and to try to eat well and have a variety of food but with the limited income, fear of the future and still accepting the loss of Mum, whilst in many ways I am coping and doing well, it all adds up.

But I know others have or will be in a similar situation sooner or later or are looking after someone dear, few of us can say they have an untroubled life. Sorry I have gone off topic.

Really all I waste is salad items and it is usually only the lettuce sometimes a little fruit but with that I can usually add it to cereal or if I have a dessert with custard or something.

I think salad is more difficult to save.

I have lost some of the joy/reason for bothering. I do hope it will come back eventually.

GreyQueen

steerpike wrote: »

Prices going up across the board - I'm no economist but I don't understand the immediate price hike on lots of things as a result of the poor harvest surely the wheat doesn't come off the field to be whizzed through processing and onto the supermarket shelves within a couple of weeks? The stuff that is currently on the shelves (biscuits etc) aren't these likely to have been made from last years harvest?

I was listening to a food industry expert on Radio 4 a few weeks ago in a discussion on how higher prices in the world's commodity markets feed through into higher grocery prices. He said that the store price increases would come throught 6-9 months after the commodity increases.

That doesn't seem to be happening, does it? Which makes me wonder if there is some opportunitstic price-hiking going on.

I would expect that potatoes will be expensive as it has been a very poor year with a lot of blight about, and this will impact on processed goods as well, as potato starch turns up in the darndest of places. Pringles (an occasional treat chez moi) used to be widely -available at the £1- £1.25 mark and now they seem to be wanting £2.50 for a tube of them. They'll have a long wait before I crank my purse that far open, frankly.

Helen2k8

:grouphug: popperwell

I do know what you mean about salad - good intentions then just not "fancying" it. If you see those "living salads" I actually find them decent value for money - as if you "don't fancy" any more salad for long enough they can regrow!

When I'm feeling organised I chop, blanch and freeze a whole cabbage in portions. And then I can ignore it in the freezer for twice as long! I tried that with spinach but it was only fit for stirring into sauces.

In any case, I reckon it's now too cold for salads. Nice hearty stews and soups now

COOLTRIKERCHICK

GreyQueen..

re- pringles

This could be the pre- offer price, practically every supermarket will have christmas so called 'offers' on pringles..

bogof's half price etc... so I dont think you will have to wait long before they are back to normal prices

COOLTRIKERCHICK

zcrat41 wrote: »

True - I'd forgotten about the European imports. I'd still not trust their welfare levels though!

me neither, TBH iI think the new regulations still dont go far enough

katep23 wrote: »

CTC, I have seen smallholders selling a side of pork for anywhere from £90 (british lop, think it is small-ish) to £200 (certified organic) so there doesn't seem to be a standard price.

£4 - £5 per kg would be a great price (I would happily buy a half at that price) but it depends if you can afford to sell it for that.

6kg might be feasible - at 20kg a side would be £120 or at 25kg it would be £150. The kind of person who buys from you is most likely going to compare prices against a butcher rather than a supermarket.

We are not organic... we are basically happy free range pggies who are spoilt and have their bellies scratched, and have the freedom to snout/root around roll around in the mud, and get loads of love and smooths from the regular users of the public foot path that runs right through our land...

I darnt tell half of them where they will end up:cool: as I might have a demonstration on my hands:rotfl: ( the other half knew straight from the begining)

thriftwizard

I paid £80 for half a pig from a smallholding friend lately, and it's superb. I might have got the same amount of meat for less from the supermarket, but it couldn't hold a candle to the quality and the fact that I know these pigs too were happy, healthy, outdoor pigs. And as the supermarket meat would have "lost" most of its fat, I couldn't make lard from it even if I'd wanted to, so overall I think I got a good bargain!

suzybloo

Just reading back the posts and find the post about the 'dodgy veg' heartening. Hubby works in agriculture and is in and out of many farms, wherever he can he brings back carrierbags full of carrots, turnips and potatoes that are actually classed as 'brock' ie animal feed. They are the most unsightly, sometimes scabbiest things but they have more taste than the shop bought ones. I remember admitting this out loud at work - and wished the ground would swallow me up when I had realised what I had said - everyone was aghast that we would use 'animal feed' - certainly wouldnt turn our noses up at it! By the way just an idea but if anyone has an animal wholesalers nearby try having a look at the cost of a net of carrots etc for horses - you can sometimes get a whole net for a couple of pounds.

Popperwell

Helen2k8 wrote: »

:grouphug: popperwell

I do know what you mean about salad - good intentions then just not "fancying" it. If you see those "living salads" I actually find them decent value for money - as if you "don't fancy" any more salad for long enough they can regrow!

When I'm feeling organised I chop, blanch and freeze a whole cabbage in portions. And then I can ignore it in the freezer for twice as long! I tried that with spinach but it was only fit for stirring into sauces.

In any case, I reckon it's now too cold for salads. Nice hearty stews and soups now

Thank you Helen,
Much appreciated. I should go for warm food(soups, stews, casseroles etc...)then I get concerned about the cost of cooking items(my slow cooker has never been so useful and done so often)Some items I quite fancy I avoid buying to avoid using a larger oven.

I wonder if using the oven part of a combi microwave is cheaper because it is smaller. I do tend to use the microwave where possible.

Annoyingly, I purchased a new electric oven a year before Mum took ill with cancer and then lost her after we had put up with a cooker that should have been replaced ages ago and now here I am trying to avoid using it.

I have also invested in a small Forman grill and have a halogen oven still to use but I am glad I have them as I have alternative ways to cook that may be less energy hungry and if something fails I can fall back on another gadget. I also have to help prepare vegetables a small electric chopper but also a manual processor, a nicer dicer I may make more use of(probably easier than using a knife)

I have a lovely Kenwood processor which may be useful and I won't sell it as it could be of use and was a bargain but being single much as I love HM bread/cakes I don't think I could make them any cheaper than often what is available in the SM.

Many items were purchased whilst Mum was alive and whilst possible not sure that I could in the future.

Recently even with food rising in price I can do a reasonable casserole/stew/soup quite cheaply...lately I have managed to get a few meals out of a bag containing a turnip, onions, carrots and parsnip for £1. What can be a problem is affording meat to add to it.