BBC: " Family food shop up '£15 a week'"

WTF?_2

So much for inflation being low (2.5% I believe is what the govt is telling us):

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7362676.stm

The highest food costs since 1945 have added £15 to a weekly supermarket shop for a family of four in the UK, new research suggests.
Comparison website MySupermarket.co.uk says a basket of 24 staple items including tea bags, milk and eggs costs 15% more than it did 12 months ago.
..
COST OF FOOD
White loaf at Sainsbury's and Tesco: 65p - up 20%
Butter: 94p - up 62%
English mild cheddar: £1.52 - up 26%
Garden peas at Tesco: £1.79 - up 63%
Basmati white rice: £1.45 - up 61%

Source: MySupermarket.co.uk

Glad to see that people's concerns about price increases are mainstream news at last. Anyone who shops for food can't have failed to notice that the price increases in recent times have been shocking.

Now, to get through the message that the 'lower interest rates' which the in-debt section of the population is craving means even higher prices.

BenL

This bbc article doesn't include all those essentials though like the government figures do.

No ipods, flat screen Tv's, cd's dvd's, digital cameras.

All essentials that are falling in price. keep the figure nice and low.

MrDT

!!!!!!? wrote: »

Now, to get through the message that the 'lower interest rates' which the in-debt section of the population is craving means even higher prices.

Oh my, quite a task that!

them - "Lower interest rates mean I now save £25 a month on my mortgage!!! I am clearly £300 a year better off everything is great!!!"

me - "But your grocery shop costs you £800 a year more than it did due to inflation. Low interest rates cause higher inflation. You're way worse off than you were previously"

them - "DUH! What's wrong with you? Are you an idiot? I already TOLD you, my mortgage is cheaper now cos the BoE dropped the base rate, I'm saving £300 a year, what are you deaf??"

me -

barrymoney

I stopped buying cheese, just seems crazy prices, I'll change what I eat. If nobody bought it, they might re-think
Value bread + rice still seem ok price-wise, but you really have to get the most basic own brand.

ianmr65

Morrisons is the cheapest non discounter, bogofs, special offers and so forth and aldi are great for non food, and preserved meat, and frozen.

I'm holding my supermarket spend to about £80 a week using them.

WTF?_2

That's the thing though - I believe it's factored into the official inflation figures that you will just cut back and buy cheaper/lower quality stuff if prices go up. So according to the government, there's been no inflation.

The really ironic thing is that the main driver of these prices is NOT a real shortage of food per se. It's because investors have spotted an asset bubble where they can plough the new money inflated into the system by central banks.

If you get new money coming into a system without an increase in productivity this always happens. The money has to go somewhere and with interest rates being slashed in the West it isn't going to be the bank. The resulting price increases are a sure symptom that monetary inflation has happened.

The last asset bubble was housing. This time it's soft commodities (food) and also energy. Strangely, people aren't quite as c0ck-a-hoop about their weekly shopping increasing in price as they were about housing getting unaffordably expensive. :cool:

ianmr65

!!!!!!? wrote: »

That's the thing though - I believe it's factored into the official inflation figures that you will just cut back and buy cheaper/lower quality stuff if prices go up. So according to the government, there's been no inflation.

The really ironic thing is that the main driver of these prices is NOT a real shortage of food per se. It's because investors have spotted an asset bubble where they can plough the new money inflated into the system by central banks.

If you get new money coming into a system without an increase in productivity this always happens. The money has to go somewhere and with interest rates being slashed in the West it isn't going to be the bank. The resulting price increases are a sure symptom that monetary inflation has happened.

The last asset bubble was housing. This time it's soft commodities (food) and also energy. Strangely, people aren't quite as c0ck-a-hoop about their weekly shopping increasing in price as they were about housing getting unaffordably expensive. :cool:

Indeed M5 Money supply in circulation has doubled. And the oild and energy bubbles are also growing. Ironically, though oil is getting harder to find countries like iceland are throwing up hydro electric power stations at a rate of knots, to take advantage of the bubble, and old coal mines are being re-opened elsewhere. So closing our entire coal mining industry down seems somewhat previous if you ask me.

All in all the UK is stuck between a rock, and a hard place. Outside the euro, impacted by the US turmoil. Finance and poperty sector on it's knees. Over administarted, shafted at every turn by the EU, riddled with red - tape. No manufacturing, and all our big institutions, owned by europeans, chinese, or mainly amercicans.

Airstrip one, or the 51st state before too long i recon.

melancholly

i'm not disagreeing with the comments at all, but there are plenty of people on the OS board who would choke at the idea of spending £100 a week on groceries for a family of 4!

LillyJ

I buy stuff that I can make in my slow cooker, like dried peas and lentils, barley, root vegetables, etc. I also buy stuff like pudding rice to make rice pudding from rather than buying tins (can also do that in the slow cooker). I buy own brand everything cos I can't tell the difference.
I find I can get the weekly shop quite cheaply this way, and we don't ever buy lunches or snacks out. We don't really do it this way to be cheap, it just works out like that. I think bread is the only thing I have actually noticed but I am sure other stuff has creeped up.
The only thing I have started buying in cheaper versions is fish. I used to buy refridgerated fish fillets but they are ridiculous now, and so I buy really cheap frozen filllets (about 6 for £1.50) which are lovely baked with chili and garlic in a foil parcel, or made in to a curry.

If I bought stuff like curry in a jar, or pasta sauce I am sure my costs would go up but I believe in making stuff from scratch. and no I do not stay at home all day cooking!

Phirefly

barrymoney wrote: »

I stopped buying cheese

*fans self* Perish the thought. I'd work the streets of St. Annes if I ever got to the point where I couldn't afford cheese.

jembie

LillyJ wrote: »

I buy own brand everything cos I can't tell the difference.

Own brand bread is disgusting. I always bought the 28p Sainsburys bread but in recent months it has started to have a horrid taste and go stale very quickly so I have started to buy Kingsmill because it stays soft longer and always tastes fresh

If I bought stuff like curry in a jar, or pasta sauce I am sure my costs would go up but I believe in making stuff from scratch. and no I do not stay at home all day cooking!

This is something I have still never grasped. I paid £1 for a jar of pasta sauce yesterday that will feed the 3 of us twice. Yet surely If I had to buy all the ingredients to make my own it would cost more than £1. Plus it would never taste as good as the jarred sauce. Stuff I make from scratch tastes so bland :rolleyes: