The cost of food

[sidevalve]

Mod. Edit: This post and next few moved from General Chat to form new thread.

We recently listened to a program which was saying how expensive it was to eat these days.
Well we had a full roast dinner [for two] for under £4 pounds. Pork - slab at about £8.50 cuts into four and freezes. Roast potatoes - nothing special but nice, cauliflower cheese [we like it - made at home] and broccoli . Nothing amazing but simple home cooked food - made a good meal no waste no excess. So where do these people get their facts from ?

 

[Frizz1974]

I can tell you that it costs me $200 a week to feed us & we don't eat extravagantly.

It's often more like $250.

 

[Morning Glory]

I can tell you that it costs me $200 a week to feed us & we don't eat extravagantly.

It's often more like $250.

That's about £112 pounds a week. I probably spend around that for this family of 4 adults. I could do it for less if I put my mind to it. But - the fact is that the cost of food in the UK has gone up recently.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/nov/14/rising-uk-food-prices-inflation
https://www.theguardian.com/busines...-surge-uk-inflation-may-have-peaked-3-percent

 

[Yorky]

That's about £112 pounds a week. I probably spend around that for this family of 4 adults.

My OAP is £116.00/week and will never increase because of where I live. Luckily, it only costs me £110.00/week to feed us and buy my beer. I fritter away the rest.

 

[Morning Glory]

My OAP is £116.00/week and will never increase because of where I live. Luckily, it only costs me £110.00/week to feed us and buy my beer. I fritter away the rest.

I imagine that in general, food is much cheaper in Thailand than here, unless you buy imports. Are the beers cheaper too?

 

[Yorky]

I would guess that on average seasonal food is about half the price of UK. These are roughly the current prices in the sticks:

http://lifeinsurin.com/living.html

As with every country the prices are higher in the metropolis.

However, imports are generally more than double UK prices - I paid £3.50 for 200 gms of frozen haddock last week (which will no doubt be 120 gms after defrosting).

Rice is cheap!
.

 

[Morning Glory]

I would guess that on average seasonal food is about half the price of UK. These are roughly the current prices in the sticks:

http://lifeinsurin.com/living.html

As with every country the prices are higher in the metropolis.

However, imports are generally more than double UK prices - I paid £3.50 for 200 gms of frozen haddock last week (which will no doubt be 120 gms after defrosting).

Rice is cheap!
.

Ok - so it seems that 1 Bht is £.023. so 10 Bht = 23p

So a 600 Bht case of beer would be about £13.80? Is that right? How many beers in a case?

 

[GadgetGuy]

I can tell you that it costs me $200 a week to feed us & we don't eat extravagantly.

It's often more like $250.

Last week, I went shopping, mainly because I was out of some things. After getting just the basic things, I spent about $134 & change! That was just for the basic things!! No extravagances. Food DOES cost a lot in this day & age!!!

 

[Francesca]

Sincé we both are professionals who travel quite a bit for business, I have noticed it is cheaper to eat out lunches which cost ( in Spain ) for a 3 course meal of choice ( offered 5 or 6 selections of starters and 4 or 5 mains + café & wine or a beer or beverage ) :

Classic Regional Spanish: 9 - 12 Euros
Trattoria Laboral Lunch Monday - Friday: 10 - 15 Euros
Italian Regional: 16 - 25 Euros
Ethnic Cuisines: More or less, 10 - 15 Euros
Power Business Lunch - 18 - 35 Euros
1 Michelin - 35 - 40 Euros
Tapas + Beverage: 6 - 10 Euros ( House Gratis Tapa per drink including sparkling wáter )
Baguette sándwich + Beverage: 3 - 7 Euros per person

If we are not travelling, and I am at home working on Fridays and Mondays, we usually have a quiet lunch at home or go up to our parents or daughter in laws at the weekends, at least twice a month ..

 

[Yorky]

Ok - so it seems that 1 Bht is £.023. so 10 Bht = 23p
So a 600 Bht case of beer would be about £13.80? Is that right? How many beers in a case?

12 x 640 ml bottles in a case, around 5% abv.

 

[Morning Glory]

12 x 640 ml bottles in a case, around 5% abv.

Just over a quid each then? Not bad - but that is more than I thought it would be. My partner pays £5 for 4 x 500 ml can of 8.5% lager, so that seems as good a deal. Am I working this out right or have I got a decimal point in the wrong place?!

 

[Yorky]

Just over a quid each then? Not bad - but that is more than I thought it would be. My partner pays £5 for 4 x 500 ml can of 8.5% lager, so that seems as good a deal. Am I working this out right or have I got a decimal point in the wrong place?!

Yes. I buy the cheaper (it all tastes crap anyway) which works out almost a quid/pint.

 

[epicuric]

Mod. Edit: This post and next few moved from General Chat to form new thread.

We recently listened to a program which was saying how expensive it was to eat these days.
Well we had a full roast dinner [for two] for under £4 pounds. Pork - slab at about £8.50 cuts into four and freezes. Roast potatoes - nothing special but nice, cauliflower cheese [we like it - made at home] and broccoli . Nothing amazing but simple home cooked food - made a good meal no waste no excess. So where do these people get their facts from ?

Food is not expensive, at least not here in the UK. The problem is that people increasingly buy cr*p they don't need due to the pressures of advertising, habit, peer group pressure from childhood etc. You only have to take a look at supermarket checkouts, laden with cakes, crisps, doughnuts, biscuits, bottles of sugary soft drinks, confectionery etc. The actual proportion of real food - meat, fish, vegetables, salad is low by comparison, but the perception is that the 'food' bill is expensive because of all the added cr*p. An unfortunate consequence of this is that when budgets are tight it is not the Coke or the dunkin doughnuts that get squeezed - it's the real food elements, hence the proliferation of cheap meat, produced in appalling conditions, and fruit and veg that has been genetically modified and chemically treated to maximise it's yield and prolong it's shelf life. On top of this, sadly, many people are either too lazy ("I simply don't have the time") or lack the basic skills to prepare meals from scratch, so rely on pre prepared foods that are both expensive and nutritionally unbalanced. This is why "food is expensive". It should also give some clues as to why there is an obesity crisis in developed nations.

 

[Yorky]

My wife bought green oak lettuce, fresh red chillis, coriander leaf and tomatoes from the market on Monday. Today she's gone to the supermarket for Cheddar cheese, cauliflower, potatoes, cat food and washing up liquid. She may come back with a snack also.

[Edit: she did arrive back with a small snack, a tee shirt and no Cheddar cheese! (they wanted over £ 18.00/kg for it!)]

 

[Yorky]

Food is not expensive, at least not here in the UK. The problem is that people increasingly buy cr*p they don't need due to the pressures of advertising, habit, peer group pressure from childhood etc.

Living in a non-developed nation we have minimal pressure from those that you list. However, in the last 20 years fast food outlets (KFC, McDonald's, Pizza Hut, Burger King, etc) have become more prevalent even here in the sticks and it has been very obvious to me that kids are definitely becoming "fatter" than they were when I first arrived.