Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

badmemory

Sometimes I wonder if the supermarkets aren't having fun with us.  Not that I find it much fun.  A week ago one had no eggs, not even a cracked one like they had a month ago, another had almost a third of their fruit & veg shelves completely empty.  Then there was Tesco last week had 4 rows of fridges out of commission due to a problem, so no milk yogurt cheese, ready meals etc.  Funnily enough they had lots of their very expensive cheeses on another shelf & their own very expensive range of ready meals.  I think it is more to do with fighting with suppliers & keeping the suppliers prices down than actually supply issues.

foxgloves

@badmemory - I think it's a range of issues including the war in Ukraine, poor weather in southern Europe & Morocco, Brexit, insufficent workforce in certain parts of the chain,  the cost of heating those massive greenhouses with energy prices being so horrendous & also supermarkets endless insistence on paying producers as little as possible being a factor in suppliers going out of business, so fewer UK famers. I was reading this week about a farmer in the south east (Kent, I think) who grew cucumbers for a supermarket. Obviously the UK is a northern hemisphere country so too cold for growing cukes in unheated greenhouses unless it's summer. Supermarket customers want them all year round, which means, as this farmer explained, that he HAS to be paid more per cucumber to cover the costs of growing them now that energy bills have rocketed. The supermarket involved said they wouldn't pay that, so went abroad for their supplies....where they have now run into the weather problem affecting North Africa & Spain. The choices are thus 1) We don't routinely expect to buy cucumbers in winter 2) We pay a lot more for UK/Dutch ones to reflect increased growing costs or 3) We take our chances on Mother Nature & hope there will always be a good supply to source from abroad. I suppose it does serve as a reminder that the UK is far from self-sufficient for food & that many foods are seasonal.
I agree that there are gaps now on every supermarket visit.
F

Makingabobor2

Your comments are always so well thought out FG and such a joy to read and I find myself agreeing with so much that you say. My DH is most upset about the cucumber thing, he likes it in his sandwiches for work and I can't find any locally at the moment. 

badmemory

The supermarkets are doing to farmers what M & S did to UK clothes manufacturers 50 years ago.  They also want/wanted higher standards from UK manu than they tolerated from abroad.  Nothing ever changes & we just land up having to deal with the fallout.

Tescodealqueen

Chatting to other half and he commented on his grandmothers adage if it’s not growing in the allotment today we are not having it

marionmgcars

Love the socks,  makes a great gift.  

Suffolk_lass

Tescodealqueen said:

Chatting to other half and he commented on his grandmothers adage if it’s not growing in the allotment today we are not having it

This might be us too. Eating what is seasonal, if not grown ourselves

Sun_Addict

Our local greengrocer is proudly promoting the fact she has ample stocks of fruit and veg in particular cucumbers, tomatoes and peppers. Not cheap though which makes you wonder if it’s partly to do with supermarkets not being prepared to pay higher prices temporarily. Maybe it’s time to go back to eating what’s in season and grow our own if we can. 

scandimore

Love the socks foxgloves, you are very talented.

Re: veg, yes I think we're all expecting to buy whatever we want all year round and perhaps these reminders are no bad thing. I didn't grow much last year as had no access to the garden thanks to building works, but am going for it again this year. I have never had any luck with peppers though. Aubergines, cucumbers, tomatoes all ok, peppers and chillis immediately attacked by pesky aphid types and soil pests which just keep coming back. Even when all indoors! 

I've been making my own yoghurt recently, first by pasteurising milk myself or by using long life milk (don't have to heat and cool it first so much quicker) mixed with some yoghurt - I think its 1 litre of milk to 125g yoghurt. Then into the yoghurt maker for 8-10 hours and it's done. I imagine you don't even need a yoghurt maker if you have a warm spot like an airing cupboard. You can then save some of that yoghurt for the next batch and so on, replacing from scratch every few batches. Current fave is lemon curd mixed in. It's really yummy and probably less than £1 per litre. Apparently it also makes soft cheese but I've not tried that yet.

Blackcats

Lovely socks.

interesting comments on fresh produce.  

I couldn't get a cucumber this week and at first I felt a bit disappointed about that but then I asked myself did I want a cucumber or did I need a cucumber?  I didn't really need one but I would have liked one for sandwiches, salad etc but I'm doing ok without one.  However if all salad ingredients become unavailable or too expensive then I'll have to tweak my meal plan and not have salad.  I'll be fine for a while but will miss having salad.  MrBC, on the other hand, will be delighted as he is a salad dodger extraordinaire!