latest prices increase on food how will it effect your food budgeting ?

Hardup_Hester

I have to admit, I'm beginning to panic, my utility bills & council tax went up at the beginning of the year, by about 25%, my wages went up less than 2%.
Mortgages are now rising again because of the sub prime & with food prices going up it's turning into a nightmare. Hubby has worked for a few weeks, but has nothing else now for a few months. I have a lodger, but only short term. I have some money saved, but it won't go far, we treated ourselves to a night away last weekend, but I'm now beginning to wish we hadn't, it cost £40 and it's the only holiday we've had this year, but maybe we should have saved that money too.
I've cut my milk order down by half & I water it down. I make my own bread, I shop at the local butcher as he is cheaper than Tesco. I don't buy organic food, but I'm planning on growing some of my own veg next year. But I do worry how much more I can cut down by.
Once all the regular payment go out we're left with £93 a month this has to cover everything else. Most months it is only my ebay/amazon sales that keep us afloat, but once I've finished decluttering there will be no more from that source.

Waxy_Bean

I read in yesterday's evening standard that Asda were going to try to absorb as much of the wholesale price increases into their margins as possible to reduce the impact on the final consumer price- this is to protect their market share. Not sure if this will actually happen though!

ceridwen

:money: :money: :money: :money: :money: :money:

Hardup_Hester wrote: »

I have to admit, I'm beginning to panic, my utility bills & council tax went up at the beginning of the year, by about 25%, my wages went up less than 2%.
Mortgages are now rising again because of the sub prime & with food prices going up it's turning into a nightmare. Hubby has worked for a few weeks, but has nothing else now for a few months. I have a lodger, but only short term. I have some money saved, but it won't go far, we treated ourselves to a night away last weekend, but I'm now beginning to wish we hadn't, it cost £40 and it's the only holiday we've had this year, but maybe we should have saved that money too.
I've cut my milk order down by half & I water it down. I make my own bread, I shop at the local butcher as he is cheaper than Tesco. I don't buy organic food, but I'm planning on growing some of my own veg next year. But I do worry how much more I can cut down by.
Once all the regular payment go out we're left with £93 a month this has to cover everything else. Most months it is only my ebay/amazon sales that keep us afloat, but once I've finished decluttering there will be no more from that source.

Gawd... is there any way we can help on that Hester - like maybe if you posted your S.O.A. there might possibly be some suggestions we could usefully make. Quickie thought - have I asked you before whether you have investigated whether you can get a discount with Council Tax bill?

On another note - "the personal is political" to quote a phrase.... and I am wondering if there is any way forward here with this as a group. So many of us are worrying that either food expenses will eat into other stuff on the one hand (like money destined for other things - or the freedom to cut back the amount of time we spend earning money) - or, on the other hand, having no room to manoeuvre in the first place.

And - as Hester has pointed out - this comes on top of rising utility and Council tax bills.

Hey MSE Martin - are you listening? Any thoughts on this? - as in making it your next campaign after the banking charges one. Just think of it as an even worthier one - as banking charges are basically our own fault (though the level of them is set much too high by the banks). Food prices, on the other hand, are non-negotiable expenses.

My feeling is that I dont want to go down any route that would further disadvantage small foodgrowers and those foreign workers who dont have the benefit of being in some sort of "fair trade" scheme - but there must still be some room to move on this one somewhere - bearing these parameters in mind.

Anyone got any thoughts on this?

tiff

Went to Tesco this afternoon to get some pasta, the 3kg bags that were £1 are now £1.48! I was shocked.

MRSMCAWBER

Hi there - great topic...

Just wanted to pick up on what Cheerfulness was saying...

I started doing Dbelles challenge...feeding me n hubby on £60 - well 80 euros for 4 weeks.. It started off as a bit of an experiment, but im now hooked... firstly i will say that i have several advantages - being in Germany, where food can be so much cheaper, I dont go out to work, and at present i have no children, so there are no demands on my time... thus freeing me up to spend more time cooking if need be....

Anyway, i really do believe that it has lead to a healthier diet for both of us.. i have always cooked mainly from scratch, but now im using more sensible portions, and getting the ratio between , protein, carbs, veg etc... As a result i have lost 13lb in 4 weeks - with no real effort.... and as cheerfulness said... a lot of it is down to much simpler meals.... toad in the hole, chicken dinners, pork, veg and barley pie ,casseroles etc

At the moment im cutting back through choice,as i Know the housekeeping i get for food is stupid.. so the rest of it will be put away to build a nest egg, although reading the posts on this thread some of it may be saved towards subsidising our shoping when we get back to the UK...

I think there is only so far that you can cut back... when people are allready working to a strict budget - there aren't many changes that can be made... and i can't believe that a 30% rise is being predicted....

Heck i had better stop rambling:o sorry

COOLTRIKERCHICK

ceridwen wrote: »

:money: :money: :money: :money: :money: :money:




Gawd... is there any way we can help on that Hester - like maybe if you posted your S.O.A. there might possibly be some suggestions we could usefully make. Quickie thought - have I asked you before whether you have investigated whether you can get a discount with Council Tax bill?

On another note - "the personal is political" to quote a phrase.... and I am wondering if there is any way forward here with this as a group. So many of us are worrying that either food expenses will eat into other stuff on the one hand (like money destined for other things - or the freedom to cut back the amount of time we spend earning money) - or, on the other hand, having no room to manoeuvre in the first place.

And - as Hester has pointed out - this comes on top of rising utility and Council tax bills.

Hey MSE Martin - are you listening? Any thoughts on this? - as in making it your next campaign after the banking charges one. Just think of it as an even worthier one - as banking charges are basically our own fault (though the level of them is set much too high by the banks). Food prices, on the other hand, are non-negotiable expenses.

My feeling is that I dont want to go down any route that would further disadvantage small foodgrowers and those foreign workers who dont have the benefit of being in some sort of "fair trade" scheme - but there must still be some room to move on this one somewhere - bearing these parameters in mind.

Anyone got any thoughts on this?

at the end of the day...supermarkets .....retailers...etc are not being unlawful...... they can charge what they like....as at the end of the day ...we do have the choice to buy or not to buy.....and they can increase their prices when ever they want...

we all know prices go up.....but what is happening... all the staples are going up by quite a large jump....

i have heard of this type of thing happening in foreign countries ...are the hikes are alot higher than we have been having..... and they were poor countries to start wtih....

maybe in reality.. the supermarkets have given us a false value to food items.... and we have got soo used to cheap food....

i am sure going back a few years.... ( well quite alot actually ) that the percentage spend on food was alot higher than what we spend today..... it would be nice to find out the % of our income is spend on food today... and lets say 60 years ago....

maybe the likes of tescos asda.. which are into mortgaes etc... are also cought up in this usa... thing.... and need to claw back some money.....( prob not... not me barking up the wrong tree)

i am just panicking about how high veg will go, and if there is also going to be more increases in the stable items....

calleyw

it will effect me as I have £100 a month to feed both my husband and me. Looks like I will scouring the supermarket for more yellow stickies to feed me and husband.

Food prices in this country overall are very cheap. And there is no getting away from how some of the live stock is treated because people want cheap food. The supermarket are ever driving down prices and corners are cut.
In my local area a 25Kg bag of spuds is £7.99:eek: a couple of years ago they would have been a fiver.

Yours


Calley

daphne_descends

This is like a wake up call for me and OH to sort out our food bill (again). When I joined this site and found the OS forum it was like heaven! But throughout my pregnancy we've got less and less OS, I've gone off so much of the food we used to eat, meal planning became a distant memory as I couldn't think ahead and the budget has edged upwards slowly ever since. At our best we were spending about £35 on food - and I still thought we had room to improve. Currently it's at about £50 to £60. Which is crazy. Not sustainable on it's own. Add to this we are moving to a new house with a higher rent (but worth it) and of course my salary finishes and maternity pay begins...

I don't expect to get back on the wagon properly the second the baby is born, I've got to give myself some slack there but I DO have to get back on at some point soon.


CTC that's a good point, about the supermarkets and mortgages, if they have an interest in some of the unpaid debt from the USA it would certainly be part of an explanation for rising prices. Minimising their losses?

Let's hope it doesn't last long.

ivyleaf

I suppose even though things are going up, at least most of us will still be able to shop around (depending on our circumstances of course), which should help a little - I can't help wondering how on earth I'd have coped in the "old days" when food cost exactly the same no matter where you were buying it. I understand it's relatively recently that food shops became allowed to reduce their prices to attract customers, I think it was in the 1960s. (Okay, that's not recent for a lot of us but as I'm coming up to 54 it seems like yesterday!:rolleyes: )

Sorry if a bit off-topic but I thought it was an interesting point to mention in passing....

ceridwen

Hi CoolTrikerChick

Whilst I follow the point that food is (well - was a few months ago!) cheaper in real terms than a couple of decades ago (in 1989 for instance - a roasting chicken was £2.50, large tin baked beans £0.58, 1lb brown rice £0.52, 2 fillets mackerel £1.50, 1 lb onions 20p - source "How to feed your family for £4 a day" - though note I think she is quoting London prices).

Nevertheless - the bigger picture needs to be taken into account here. House prices, for instance, cost one heck of a lot more in real terms than they used to (fine for those like myself - mortgage paid off - but not for those starting out). Council tax bills, as I recall, were much lower. Fuel prices were lower. So - yes - we are spending less on food in real terms - but all sorts of other necessities are costing a lot more. This only takes into account everyday-type necessities - the picture worsens if every necessity is taken into account (eg time was when one could rely on the NHS providing free/cheap medical care - but now one has to try IF possible to make provision for one's own healthcare - private health care insurance or savings in case one has to go abroad for an operation).

The figure that comes to my mind on other necessities is that I can recall starter homes (ie 2 bedroom terrace houses) costing £8,500 at a time when I was earning (as per usual! a low salary) £2,800pa (ie approx 3 times my money). I decided to wait till I was on better money - rather than pushing like mad to get one then - if I was still waiting now I would have to be earning MUCH more than National Average Salary (25k approx) to get one now even in a cheaper area of the country.