Trying really hard to OS but the prices keep going up

cupid_s

I'm glad we've been allocated an allotment for this year. I cannot believe food price increases.

However I've noticed that the finest ranges don't seem to be increasing price as much. I only buy tesco finest butter with sea salt crystals. Costs £1.02 and has done for as many months as I can remember. But now the value butter is 85p! I'm sure I remember it being about 62p not long ago.

I've noticed this with a few other things - value things going up disproportionally to the standard and finest ranges. So yet again it's those on a low budget that really notice the difference.

juliettet

I have been hovering about OS for 6 months now and I can honestly say lots of threads and ideas have helped me in mainly two ways. Firstly (although I have a long way to go) i am now thinking before I just jump in and buy without caring, anything I fancied. After aquiring a huge overdraft and still thinking it was not my fault I then put a lot of purchases on a credit card. I still have a good third to pay back but realise that I am responsible. Thanks to OS I now also make & bake most of my food and am very aware of the value of a pound. What I find difficult is that my food budget will have to increase and I have little control over the price of staples. I really worry how families manage as I find it hard enough just with me in the week and an OH at weekends.

pebbles88

Hi everyone,

in regards to the sales of seeds going up i can agree. things are getting tighter and tighter, last week i went and bought several packs of seeds and they are all now happily starting to grow on my windowledges!

i have, tomatoes, cucumbers, salad leaves, spring onions, chillis, chives, lollo rosso, courgettes and strawbs.

the gov keep whining on at everyone to eat 5 a day but it is getting financially impossible! cant see then doing anything to stop the price rises though can you! :rolleyes:

Uniscots97

If there isn't such a thing that already exists, I can see there being a crop-swap site springing up (no pun intended) where if someone has grown a lot of tomatoes say they could swap some of them for potatoes, strawberries, cucumbers etc.

Bargain_Rzl

Unfortunately I'm not able to grow anything myself - I've got no outside space at all as is the case for many people in London. I don't even have any suitable window sills.

However I have been hatching a joint venture with a colleague who has just been given an allotment. When it comes to harvest time, I am going to cook it all up into stuff for his freezer - in exchange for a share of the crop for myself

Stephen_Leak

Bargain_Rzl wrote: »

However I have been hatching a joint venture with a colleague who has just been given an allotment. When it comes to harvest time, I am going to cook it all up into stuff for his freezer - in exchange for a share of the crop for myself

It's not what you know, it's who you know.

PS. Will this include Camberwell Carrots? I am sorry, but I just couldn't resist that one.

Uniscots97

Bargain_Rzl wrote: »

Unfortunately I'm not able to grow anything myself - I've got no outside space at all as is the case for many people in London. I don't even have any suitable window sills.

However I have been hatching a joint venture with a colleague who has just been given an allotment. When it comes to harvest time, I am going to cook it all up into stuff for his freezer - in exchange for a share of the crop for myself

When I lived in London I had the same problem too but still managed to grow tomatoes and herbs indoors next to a sunny window (ours were at the end of the dining table!). Would this be an option for you?

pebbles88

unixgirluk wrote: »

If there isn't such a thing that already exists, I can see there being a crop-swap site springing up (no pun intended) where if someone has grown a lot of tomatoes say they could swap some of them for potatoes, strawberries, cucumbers etc.

What a fab idea!, i have never heard of one though. i can picture it now - vegcycle!

moanymoany

cupid_s wrote: »

I'm glad we've been allocated an allotment for this year. I cannot believe food price increases.

However I've noticed that the finest ranges don't seem to be increasing price as much. I only buy tesco finest butter with sea salt crystals. Costs £1.02 and has done for as many months as I can remember. But now the value butter is 85p! I'm sure I remember it being about 62p not long ago.

I've noticed this with a few other things - value things going up disproportionally to the standard and finest ranges. So yet again it's those on a low budget that really notice the difference.

I've given what you've said some thought because I have noticed the same thing. I think it is because the profit margin on value products is low, so when world prices rise they cannot absorb them. Finest products have much bigger profit margins and so can absorb the rises more easily.

It was the value butter price rise which was the first time I noticed the price rises that have now spread to most staple foods. Because of our mixed diets we don't rely so heavily on staples as many other poor countries. On the BBC website I read in one article that we eat a fifth of the bread we ate fifty years ago. I bet it would be the same for potatoes, I remember these two items providing the main part of the meals I ate as a child. When potato crops were bad we had bread with our school dinners.

However, I did see a woman - introduced as a single mother living on a low income - interviewed on how increased fuel prices would affect her. She said that she and her children would have to stop eating their favourite brands and have to start eating some of the more inferior supermarket brands. :rolleyes:

ceridwen

Bargain_Rzl wrote: »

Unfortunately I'm not able to grow anything myself - I've got no outside space at all as is the case for many people in London. I don't even have any suitable window sills.

However I have been hatching a joint venture with a colleague who has just been given an allotment. When it comes to harvest time, I am going to cook it all up into stuff for his freezer - in exchange for a share of the crop for myself

Would this help:

www.motherearthnews.com/Do-It-Yourself/2001-12-01/Multipurpose-Growlight-Bookcase.aspx



and don't forget seedsaving once you get started (it's a long story as to why we would all be well advised to start saving our own seeds and I won't start going on about the firm/s concerned). Suffice it to say:

http://www.primalseeds.org/seedsaving.htm