Is food getting too expensive?

[Hindsight]

Sorry about getting bogged down in spuds, but the point is food is cheap if you buy the raw ingredients and prepare them from scratch instead of taking the ready-made option.

That is all that need be said. A simple clear message. And raw fruit is cheap as well and readily available - but just listening to the radio news and a fella talking about the food report saying must make fruit and veg more accessible and available I wondered exactly which planet he is on. In supermarkets a Cauli is 80 pence. Potatoes are 50 pence a Kg. But when I look at folks shopping trolley it ( and mine to an extent) is loaded with prepared foods - cakes, pasties, etc. Hey ho the debate will continue for years.

 

[kiwi pom]

There is no need for anyone to starve when a 20kg bag of spuds is £10. We use roughly a bag a month for our family (2 adults 3 under 10s) so 33p/day plus whatever meat and veg along with it. Mrs yin will always buy whole chickens etc which is cheaper than buying already prepared fillets, thighs/drumsticks etc.
The problem of perceived food poverty is due to the fact that people don't want to prepare food from scratch, so have to pay extra for the supermarkets to prepare it for them.

Not really picking on you but what would you do if Mrs Yin wasn't buying the food?
Lots of threads like this, I always wonder how many of the posters buy and prepare all the food for the family and look after the household?
That's not to say there aren't lazy buggers that don't know how to budget out there but life isn't exactly plain sailing for a lot of folk.

 

[le bon paysan]

That is all that need be said. A simple clear message. And raw fruit is cheap as well and readily available - but just listening to the radio news and a fella talking about the food report saying must make fruit and veg more accessible and available I wondered exactly which planet he is on. In supermarkets a Cauli is 80 pence. Potatoes are 50 pence a Kg. But when I look at folks shopping trolley it ( and mine to an extent) is loaded with prepared foods - cakes, pasties, etc. Hey ho the debate will continue for years.

And near half the trolley is made up of cleaning , washing and air fragrance products.

 

[bobk]

And near half the trolley is made up of cleaning , washing and air fragrance products.

In france ?

 

[le bon paysan]

In france ?

Not so much. Partly because Food and Wine are the priority, and probably dearer than the UK? Much more outside lifestyle, second kitchen/ BBQ area which is down to climate . But rent and house prices are still comparatively low compared to UK this is a huge factor.

 

[wanton dwarf]

Some should read this.

Private Site

No offence but this is all rubbish.

I've lived amongst people like this - many are drug addicts and will never work. To the extent they will have a child to get a free place to live and then abuse the child.

 

[arcobob]

Yes, maybe some are lazy but I think it's more to do with a lack of education and little drive to better themselves due to that lack. I'm not having a downer on the disadvantaged just pointing out the obvious.

Many lack education, not because it was not available but they were too lazy to grasp it. They are still lazy and still bleating.

 

[bobk]

Many lack education, not because it was not available but they were too lazy to grasp it. They are still lazy and still bleating.

And vote Labour .

 

[arcobob]

And vote Labour .

I am not sure why. Boris is now looking for their vote.

 

[bobk]

Not so much. Partly because Food and Wine are the priority, and probably dearer than the UK? Much more outside lifestyle, second kitchen/ BBQ area which is down to climate . But rent and house prices are still comparatively low compared to UK this is a huge factor.

I see little difference in prices , except wine , house prices and rent are lower because there's less people and less work

 

[DrWazzock]

The 'bag of spuds is cheap' always gets trotted out. It is easy for farmers to think like that. For millions of people, living on their own, in a flat on the 12th floor, with the nearest bag of spuds 5 bus changes away, it's about as relevant as saying go catch a fish.

Haven’t people heard of trollies?

 

[arcobob]

Haven’t people heard of trollies?

Did you mean trawlers?

 

[DrWazzock]

I could live well on £20 a week. Porridge and potatoes. You don’t even need fruit and veg if you eat potatoes and oats.

 

[le bon paysan]

I see little difference in prices , except wine , house prices and rent are lower because there's less people and less work

I'm surprised , rob says foods dearer here.
No, don't agree on house prices. Unless in major cities, it's much cheaper and that comes down to land prices and that comes down to the tax regime.

 

[Charlie Gill]

No offence but this is all rubbish.

I've lived amongst people like this - many are drug addicts and will never work. To the extent they will have a child to get a free place to live and then abuse the child.

That's a whopping big tar brush you've got there!

 

[DrWazzock]

Did you mean trawlers?

A trolley for moving a bag of spuds to the 12th floor. My gran retired to a bungalow a mile out of town, had no car but moved all her groceries by trolley.

 

[arcobob]

I read a report where food banks were saying that peple were not uplifting bags of spuds but preferred ready meals. These people are not altogether stupid but the people who are feeding them most certainly are.

 

[Charlie Gill]

I could live well on £20 a week. Porridge and potatoes. You don’t even need fruit and veg if you eat potatoes and oats.

Live or survive?

 

[wanton dwarf]

That's a whopping big tar brush you've got there!

Really ? do tell.

I've lived amongst benefit scourgers for 10+ years.

50% of those living in low rental properties are decent people, usually in transition in life for one reason or another - divorce, trying to buy in an area/immigrants or have lost their job/property due to misfortune. The other 50% were addicts, usually with a child. In one case the "Woman" refused to teach the child to speak and sold drugs.

The addicts make everyone else's life hell .. they get to live for free, you have to pay for what they are ruining.

Ever seen a property left full of goods paid for by the tax payer and then dumped as rubbish by the landlord ? Or how about a woman with a child going regularly to the off license for bags of liquour - so addicted they are thin with the drinking ? Or how about a young man high on Ketamine locked inside with a baby whilst the Police & the childs mother are outside trying to break in ? The property had holes in the walls where the man couldn't control his violent out bursts. All night drugs parties, getting spat on, getting things thrown at you by druggies ? Waste overflowing from bins and the council refusing to take the waste because it's overflowing ? Or how about a property rented out to a disabled man, who couldn't control his bladder, the property reeking of human pee ? The solution ? Move the disabled man onto the next property, remove the reeking carpets outside the property for months and let everyone else suffer.

 

[DrWazzock]

Fruit, veg, salad etc is a non essential luxury. Navvies didn’t buy bagged salad leaves. Look back to what folk ate in industrial towns last century. My great grandfather set up a business in Glasgow gathering up all the cows heads from slaughterhouses and rendered them down to make pies. That’s what ship yard workers ate.