Inflation in the UK is at an all time high, and the price of food is part and parcel of this trend.
The 10 year trend in inflation for selected good groups looks like this:
You can see that the following types of food have the highest rates of inflation:
- Oils and Fats
- Fish
- Fruit
- Sugary treats
- Mineral water and soft drinks...
While food makes up a relatively small proportion of the average weekly budget, I think it's still worth achieving some level of self-sufficiency in a variety of foods..... while the impact of inflation may seem relatively small on relatively cheap items if the prices of everything else is increasing, it will mean less, relatively, to spend on food, and so one needs to put food inflation into a wider context.
And, simply, it's food - it's the most essential item one buys!
By luck I'm off to a good start....
I didn't expect my olive oil harvest to be the best investment to protect me from the cost of living crisis. OK maybe it's not fair comparing my olive harvest in Portugal with the increase in fats in general in the UK, but nonetheless it's good to know that I've got sufficient trees to provide me with 30-40 litres of olive oil, even in a bad year I reckon.
And that's tradable.
I'm also off to a good start with Fruit - having planted a dozen new fruit trees this year, and having half a dozen already fruiting - i mean one needs more than just fruit, but it's a pretty decent contribution to one's vitamin intake and calories for not a lot of effort either, and fruit here is easy to preserve by drying in the hot summer months.
And as to water, well I get that from a local spring - so it's free, the only downside being that I need a car to get there, although I guess in extreme circumstances I could make the 10K round trip once a week by bike.
Sugary treats is simple - just don't eat them. If I want sweet, I can always get some bees.
Not a lot I can do about fish TBH!
Still, four out of five ain't bad.
Not growing my own veg, yet...
Obviously the main thing I can grow myself is vegetables, but I'm actually choosing NOT to do that this year. I've done it before, I know the drill, it's easy enough, but I just don't have the time as I'm not living on the land yet and I don't have irrigation set up.
Even though in terms of saving money growing one's veg isn't worth it compared to market rates, it's still something I want to do, i enjoy it.
Another factor holding me back is the the other work I'm doing on the land - growing veg would just be more of the same, and i'm not up for that right now.
But year by year I'll get there - gradually inflation-proofing my food supply by growing more and more myself and weaning myself off the edible food like substances!
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