My husband is on a good wage, but after us getting in about 100k debt, and actually paying it off we are very careful with our money. We have 2 premises and employ 12 people, one shop is now closed 4 days a week and we only open on Fri to Sun. We had to let go of 3 people because they wanted more hours not less, we simply just couldn't afford to keep them on. We've increased our prices as goods are a higher price every week and this week has been so quiet. Our electricity bill has gone up to £1200 a month (was £500). I honestly don't know how small businesses will cope. There will be literally no money coming into the economy, people are buying just the bare essentials and you can't blame them.
The Winter of Discontent #3 Food, energy, transport, jobs, housing, cost of living etc
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It really upsets me that so many hard worked businesses and jobs are going to go to the wall.
Remember, never let them convince this was because of Covid or the war in Ukraine/Russia. This gross mismanagement and movement towards stakeholder (corporate) global governance has been going on for well over a decade.
Remember, never let them convince this was because of Covid or the war in Ukraine/Russia. This gross mismanagement and movement towards stakeholder (corporate) global governance has been going on for well over a decade.
Not directed at you, as you are just the messenger, but where the hell do you get 4.35 per 250 every calender month.
I thought that too, I'd love to know what accounts get around 1.5% interest, mine are 0% and 0.05%
No it's far more than that. 4.35 per month means 52.20 per year on a deposit of 250.
Unless I misunderstood the full thing, the above is never going to happen.
I always get confused with bank interest
it's 20.88%Looking at buying a whole chicken in my online food shop. £7.25 for free range, £4 for standard. Am I right in saying the free range ones won’t have been outside considering chickens are often only a couple of months old when slaughtered and the bird flu means they have been inside since November? Normally I’d just buy the expensive one but times are changing and I’m questioning everything
I have two free-range farms right near me. Although they are now mostly in their absolutely huge sheds they do have a kind of large polytunnel run so they can still roam a little just not as much. obviously, not all will be like this.
They get more space, 13 chickens per sqm and have to have access to an outdoor run for half their life.
I think most places just have a cover over the run at the moment so they can still get out.
I think organic is less chickens per sqm and 2/3 of their life outdoors.
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Sorry if this sounds stupid, but to the people who are starting a little stockpile of extra food things I have a few questions. What are you doing it for? Is it because we won’t be able to buy certain things through shortages, or are you stocking up because things will be so expensive we can’t buy them?
Also, what sort of things are you stocking? What will get super pricey or hard to come by in the coming months?
Thank you
Also, what sort of things are you stocking? What will get super pricey or hard to come by in the coming months?
Thank you
First guess, anything involving wheat or maize, there's been several years of bad crops, national stocks are somewhat depleted, and China (one of the worst affected) has got their orders in already, partly in anticipation of another crap harvest but also to try and replenish their national and regional stores (as well as telling their people to keep something in the cupboard though that one seems more of an admission of how badly they screwed up on their covid lockdowns).Sorry if this sounds stupid, but to the people who are starting a little stockpile of extra food things I have a few questions. What are you doing it for? Is it because we won’t be able to buy certain things through shortages, or are you stocking up because things will be so expensive we can’t buy them?
Also, what sort of things are you stocking? What will get super pricey or hard to come by in the coming months?
Thank you
Next, anything involving high food mileage especially anything that needs shipping halfway across the world.
And some (further!) guesswork
So basically all yummy thingsFirst guess, anything involving wheat or maize, there's been several years of bad crops, national stocks are somewhat depleted, and China (one of the worst affected) has got their orders in already, partly in anticipation of another crap harvest but also to try and replenish their national and regional stores (as well as telling their people to keep something in the cupboard though that one seems more of an admission of how badly they screwed up on their covid lockdowns).
Next, anything involving high food mileage especially anything that needs shipping halfway across the world.
And some (further!) guesswork
off to the shops to fill my garage with pasta and crumpets.I'm not stockpiling, but still checking out that I have what I need available, which has been a bit of a challenge.Sorry if this sounds stupid, but to the people who are starting a little stockpile of extra food things I have a few questions. What are you doing it for? Is it because we won’t be able to buy certain things through shortages, or are you stocking up because things will be so expensive we can’t buy them?
Also, what sort of things are you stocking? What will get super pricey or hard to come by in the coming months?
Thank you
Wheat is a big one for most - Germany produces enough wheat to cover the German population, so in theory, there shouldn't be a shortage of flour. But think about where wheat is - everywhere. And many countries are dependent on getting wheat from Russia or Ukraine. From Russia, they won't and can't buy, and the Ukrainian crop...well, I personally doubt that the poor Ukrainians will be able to sow and harvest as normal this year. Many companies produce pasta, cookies, etc, and already report that they have problems getting ingredients. It's basically too late for this year already to sow more and then wait for the crops... same for sunflowers. Typically they'll sow in April in Ukraine, but I don't see that happening this year, which will mean that an entire year of sunflower harvest from one of the biggest producing countries will be lost.
And yes, plus 1 on the comment above those items with large food miles will increase in price, I totally believe that.
I've got a small backup of things in case I can't afford it due to cost of living.Sorry if this sounds stupid, but to the people who are starting a little stockpile of extra food things I have a few questions. What are you doing it for? Is it because we won’t be able to buy certain things through shortages, or are you stocking up because things will be so expensive we can’t buy them?
Also, what sort of things are you stocking? What will get super pricey or hard to come by in the coming months?
Thank you
I already eat one meal a day, occasionally two. I practice fasting, so eating less isn't a problem to me, and has saved me a bit of money anyway. I can live off eggs, spinach, mushrooms, chicken, bacon, butter. I do like fish too. I don't understand how we live on an island, yet so many people don't eat seafood. We ship a lot of seafood off to Japan, China etc.
The items you mentioned are all tasty, and that wouldn't be a hardship at all. I think it becomes hard if you had to eat stuff that you weren't particularly keen on.
I think tinned beans are always great. Mix them up in a pan with tinned tomatoes, some chopped garlic (or pre-prepared chopped garlic) and some powdered tumeric. Only takes a short time to cook on the stove, and tasty too. Even some scrambled eggs, spinach, and mushrooms are a nice and simple meal.
1) Staples that we eat a lot of and can store that may not be so easy to come by in futureSorry if this sounds stupid, but to the people who are starting a little stockpile of extra food things I have a few questions. What are you doing it for? Is it because we won’t be able to buy certain things through shortages, or are you stocking up because things will be so expensive we can’t buy them?
Also, what sort of things are you stocking? What will get super pricey or hard to come by in the coming months?
Thank you
2) Long life canned or dried foods that we can use to stretch budgets in particularly expensive months
All food is going to become more expensive because there’s a shortage of grain (including animal feed) and fertiliser (for crops). Sunflower oil is mainly from Ukraine too…
Not a stupid question at all i think the answer can vary depending where you live and size of household.Sorry if this sounds stupid, but to the people who are starting a little stockpile of extra food things I have a few questions. What are you doing it for? Is it because we won’t be able to buy certain things through shortages, or are you stocking up because things will be so expensive we can’t buy them?
Also, what sort of things are you stocking? What will get super pricey or hard to come by in the coming months?
Thank you
I'm not panic buying im carefully trying to build up 1 month supply of long life pantry and non food items so the things that have along shelf life.
If I had the money and space I would go for 3months.
2020 taught me that the just in time delivery system In the UK
. Supermarkets is very vunerable to lots of events especially if people panic buy.Over the last 18months even covid aside we have seen some pretty extreme weather parts of Scotland and the North had no power for a week.
Even parts down south lost power 3 days in latest storm.
Even pre Ukraine theres been issued with durum wheat crops which are used to make pasta
Pasta is one thing I have stocked up on recently quite heavily with few jars of sauce too as instant cheap meal .
Also read potatoes poor harvest so you may want to buy
Couple tins potatoes these unfortunately don't go well in mash tried this last week but saw someone say they are nice fried so might try that next time.
Frozen potatoes if you have freezer space
Dried packet mix for emergency ad with tin corn beef you can make corn beef hash or add to casserole.
The war Ukraine / Russia i think will increase costs if cooking oils especially sunflower oil.
Also anything that involves wheat so think cost of bread will go up.
Flour us tricky one stockpile as short dated around 6months so always have a few bags in.
For me that would be
1 bag self raising_ cakes
1 bag plain make pancakes and biscuits
Bread flour and packets yeast. Make bread and pizza base.
1 vanilla extract
1 bag caster sugar
1 box cocoa powder
Baking powder
This is great combo but trick is just watch those dates and ensure you use up before goes out of date.
Home baking can be fab for treats dreaded week before pay day.
You can also freeze flour and yeast.
Some of the bread mixes are so cheap and easy just add water.
I guess sugar and anything that contains sugar has long shelf life so syrups / treacle.
Milk seeks be issue lately and I have resorted to freezing some milk as often one we buy is out of stock.
Buying few long life semi milk which will drink in coffee if emergency but find handy in cooking so any recipe that requires milk like pancakes/ leek and potato soup as its 59p a carton.
My very small stockpile includes
Herbs and spices stock pots
Condiments
Jam/ Nutella
Pasta
Pasta sauces
Noodles
Coffee
Sugar
Squash
Cereal
Flour
Tinned soups
Tinned curry's
Tinned veg and lentils/ beans
Dried lentils and rice
Tinnned tomatoes /tomato puree and pasta taste i use a lot when cooking from scratch
Packet mixes so whatever meat i find reduced or on offer I can make something quick and easy.
So we covered war we covered crops.
We covered covid I had covid last week and couldn't go supermarket at all so was glad we were well stocked as I had batch cooked and frozen lots of meals start of march.
The other 2 big ones which I think most overlook but are relevant.
Sudden job losses look at poor p& o workers.
My husband lost his job once was long time ago but I remember how awful it was and how we had 60 quid to last the month on food.
Also January we were hit with huge tax bill so I was glad I bulk brought and froze reductions from over Christmas having back stock really does help if you suddenly struggling.
Last but not least our delusional government will deny this.
Brexit and delays In transportation of goods.
We get quite a bit from Europe.
July biometric testing gets brought it and knowing how uk prepare for nothing this will cause chaos and delays at ports which may lead to so shortages.
We trying to grow as much as we can at all and garden this year as forsee the issues maybe won't be on the long life items up above that I mention so short term fresh.
So just ensure you have mix dried/ tinned / frozen fruits just in case.
Same with veg we actually use more frozen veg than fresh.
Don't use Tinned much.
Mostly its salad items and fruits we like to buy fresh so have so backup.
You can buy herbs in jars or frozen too. As well as dried.
We only run 1 car so I struggle carry heavy stuff so try bulk shop heavy long life stuff in the car and just shop locally for fresh and reduced seems be system working well for us right now.
We only have morrisions as big main 4 locally and find tesco and Asda is much cheaper but further away..
We do have aldi lidls and Iceland locally.
Don't have home bargains or poundland locally but we do have savers, one below and b&m/wilkos.
Farmfoods and asda is a distance.
Waitriose is miles away i like to go there every few months for treat shops same with m&s.
We are a family of 6 my kids never stop eating so we get through a lot faster so some bulk buying makes sense for us.
We can't really beat the price rises that much as we don't have space to buy 6months to a years worth.
I did maybe save 30p on nuttoka aldi and brought several jars then once ran out realised had gone up by 10p.
But small savings here and there add up I guess.
The only way I can keep groceries manageable right now is shopping in several different shops knowing whats cheapest in each shop.
Also buying value and planning meals around reductions and offers.
A good rule i find is buy most commonly used items in 3s like ketchup/ squash/ Coffee / sugar.
As 1 for now 1 for later and 3rd just incase cant get out or not in stock.
Keeping inventory of 3 of everything seems work well with some items.
Bog roll we use a roll a day not sure if the kids eat it.
So typical month we need least 30 rolls.
Taken to buying cheaper roll post office abd Iceland do 4 rolls for £1.
So next week on pay day will buy 10 packs for £10 will give me 40rolls.
Dog food I know cheapest place for ceaser is one below 59p each.
My dog loves pedigree rodeo twist chews they often £1 in pounds shop.
But aldi do their own version for 59p.
I'm constantly looking for cheaper shops some we try and hate.
Others work out.
Most people go for what they know, hence flour and pasta running low here. When we were at Aldi last time and they were out of almost everything that we use as the "main" filling ingredient in a meal, I bought polenta flour and semolina, of which they still had a lot. both can be used in multiple ways, I like them anyway and stored in an airtight container, they last a long time and are also pretty cheap. Won't help my flour situation much for bread baking, but I'll try to get flour each time I go into a shop.
Was able to get a kilo of rice yesterday, but still no flour at all. Glad I have my one bag (one kilo) and a bit from the last bag. since I bake so often, I go through it rather quickly.
Thanks to Covid I also bought milk powder from Amazon last year, fo the case that we either cannot go shopping and run out (grocery deliveries aren't really a thing here) or if the stores are again out of hit, which they almost were in 2020 for a few weeks. It doesn't quite taste the same as the fresh milk I typically get, it's a bit sweeter (like the shelf-stable stuff), but I'm not complaining, it's a very good option. Plus, you can use it in baking too, for cakes, etc. Gives it a little extra flavor boost, as it has a high fat content, so it definitely won't go bad on me.
Was able to get a kilo of rice yesterday, but still no flour at all. Glad I have my one bag (one kilo) and a bit from the last bag. since I bake so often, I go through it rather quickly.
Thanks to Covid I also bought milk powder from Amazon last year, fo the case that we either cannot go shopping and run out (grocery deliveries aren't really a thing here) or if the stores are again out of hit, which they almost were in 2020 for a few weeks. It doesn't quite taste the same as the fresh milk I typically get, it's a bit sweeter (like the shelf-stable stuff), but I'm not complaining, it's a very good option. Plus, you can use it in baking too, for cakes, etc. Gives it a little extra flavor boost, as it has a high fat content, so it definitely won't go bad on me.
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