Food bill to rise by £750 per year

debbym

:eek:
I was watching Daily Politics on BBC 2 yesterday lunchtime and they had a piece on the price rises on food (backed up by an interview with someone called Martin Lewis:money: ). According to the supermarkets price rises are ony 2-3% but according to the bank of england food prices for the average family (whatever that is) will be up by £750 a year - or around £15 per month. Anyone else worried by this and how are you guys going to effectively cut your food budgets by another 3% this year?

Lillibet_2

debbym wrote: »

:eek:
I was watching Daily Politics on BBC 2 yesterday lunchtime and they had a piece on the price rises on food (backed up by an interview with someone called Martin Lewis:money: ). According to the supermarkets price rises are ony 2-3% but according to the bank of england food prices for the average family (whatever that is) will be up by £750 a year - or around £15 per month. Anyone else worried by this and how are you guys going to effectively cut your food budgets by another 3% this year?

£15 a month equals a rise of £180 per year, not £750 Do you mean food bills will be up to a total of £750 per year?

If so, then to be honest £750 for a family, assuming 2 adults 2 children & maybe a pet, for the average family who doesn't have chickens in their back gardens & buys ready made bread rather than has a bread maker & buys the odd ready meal & isn't totally stringent about using up leftovers actually sounds pretty damn good to me. I already spend more than that per annum on 2 adults & one child & do live OS!. Especially reasonable given the rising popularity & cost of organic produce. Of course, £15 a month is a lot if you don't have it in the first place, but personally I'm far more worried about the rising cost of gas & electric!

What do others think & how do you deal with these sorts of annual prices rises in your budget if you pay rise doesn't match? Do you sacle back elsewhere or do you save less or subsidise yoru livng expense out fo savings? Am interested to know;).

Penelope_Penguin

Lillibet wrote: »

£15 a month equals a rise of £180 per year, not £750

But £15/week is approx £750/year

Penny. x

debbym

Thanks for that I meant a week - 2 hours of sleep and a 1 week old newborn along with 2 other kids - not a good combo:o

bellaquidsin

:rolleyes: I heard on the radio last September that food prices were set to rise 30% by Christmas. We all know that they DID go up but I can't say by how much as I immediatley set about cutting my costs. I had too, DH is due to retire next year, so now isn't the time to be increasing our living costs. By being really frugal, I was fairly OS anyway, I have probably reduced my spend by 30% over that period, much to the amazement of friends and family.

I had a generous amount of housekeeping money to play with but if prices rise much more I shall be running to stand still and my heart goes out to those of you on very low incomes who must be absolutely crippled by these price increases.

Oh well, back to the soup making, bread making, stetching portions or bulking out with cheaper ingredients or if all else fails just doing without. It's all such hard work though isn't it? Just when DH thought his life was going to turn into one long holiday. Well, his might, but if he wants to see me, he'll have to make an appointment - in the kitchen.:rolleyes:

Bella

debbym

It's not just the prices on the shelves that are going up either. We decided to treat ourselves to some chicken breasts since Morrisons had them on BOGOF. Last year about £5.99 for 4 chicken breasts - this time same price but only 3 - or less weight for same money - a sneaky price rise weight for weight of about 25% :rolleyes:

lil_me

We started cutting back last year and have done more so this year. It's the basics that have flew up. Saying that I was talking to a friend and before the 'value 9p beans' etc started food prices were higher. Some say we've had it easy being able to choose much cheaper options for so long.

BOGOFs and half price offers I am always wary of, I never take them as 'just a bargain' because regularly you see things like 'half price chicken breasts' which work out at £7 a kilo, they were never £14 a kilo! I'm always very careful when looking at things on offer because of things like that. Some people would just throw it in the basket thinking it was a great offer.

Agree the worries of other bills such as utilities and housing costs are also hugely worrying, much more so than food costs as I know if needs be I can probably reduce the grocery spending further, ok we wouldn't be eating exactly as we like to but I could change it if required.

Rowan9

Yes, it's more the gas and electricity I'm worried about as there is less you can do about that.
Food-wise ...going to continue cooking from scratch and buying cheaper range as long as the product is ok. Stretching food out too - handful of oatmeal in mince, serving extra veg etc. I've also started watering down milk as was suggested on another thread (don't have any young kids) and haven't noticed a difference at all - and that was watering semi-skimmed.

I really feel for people on a low income and who haven't learned about home cooking. I would like to see govt initiatives with basic cookery and health classes, free in the community. This could be a great link with Jamie etc's programmes. I used to teach Adult Literacy and know that there are many people who struggle to read the contents of a can and who go by pictures, so would never be able to make a guess at healthy products by ingredients. If people were taught basic cookery, I'm sure this would help. But it does have to sound appealing!

jcr16

i'm not too worried , because i think it will make me more savvy. as i will know i will have to be.

we have decied anyway we are only gonna be buying organic chicken , sausages with a meat content of 80% or more and loads more veg and fruit.
#
i make most meals from scratch. it might me we just have a small portion .

my hubby has just had another pay rise , but we are still gonna stick to same food budget. as i know in it i have alot of rrom from improvement.

i do worry more about elec and gas. but we do get a good staff discount on both these as hubby works for company. however we are still careful.

Uniscots97

I signed up to valuedopinions and earn vouchers (Tesco in my case) and use these towards my shopping as I was concerned about food prices rising but my wages staying static. I try (generally) not to shop in Tesco for meat, fruit and veg (prefer Aldi for those as its cheaper) but the vouchers help and last year using vouchers it was equivalent to a month's free shopping for me.

Frugalmum_2

I've noticed the price of everything rising lately and it seems to be on a weekly basis.

I try not to go into shops unless I really have to and buy my fruit and veg from the local market - what would have cost me around £10 in Morrisons was £3.50 off the market and I never liked the quality of Morrisons fruit & veg anyway. That's a huge saving for me in just a week - needless to say I don't shop in Morrisons anymore.

I've become very OS and make everything from scratch and use local butchers, markets for my shopping now. I'm making door curtains, draught excluders, knitting socks and blankets from wool that's been in the cupboard for over a year, and I think it's great, my family think I'm a bit nuts but at least I don't have any debt and know my bills are paid without having to rely on plastic (which I don't have anyway).

Long live OS!