The falling £?

How are you affected by the falling pound?
This was a question on a TV programme this morning while I was washing up after breakfast.

I must admit that I did smile to myself as I heard the people discussing this topic.

Like many people who write blogs, I live incredibly simply.
Yesterday, after looking at our budget for the week and inside our food cupboard, we planned our meals for the week.

. Mushroom risotto - needing to buy just a punnet of mushrooms
. Carrot dal with flatbreads - need to buy 6 carrots
. Smoky bean hotpot - need to buy a tin of kidney beans
. Chickpea curry - need to buy 2 tins of chick peas
. Veg chilli - needs a tin of kidney beans and  a tin of tomatoes
. Pasta carbonara - needs GF pasta and a ready-to-use sauce * this is an easy meal for a very long day out

Man Wonderful chose to shop at the supermarket yesterday where he would get the best voucher deal: by spending £10 he would get a bonus of 500 points; so this is the supermarket where he chose to shop.
We are not loyal to a particular shop, as we can reach Tesco, Sainsbury's, ASDA, Lidl and Coop from where we live easily - and we have to use the car due to my disability.
Instead, we are loyal to our pockets!

If we have a voucher for Quorn somewhere and we need it - we shop there that week.

My 'store cupboard' these days is teeny, as is my fridge/freezer.
I always have a bag of chick pea flour in the cupboard for a quick flatbread to go with a soup, bag of onions and a head of garlic.
In the freezer I have my add-to bag*, and usually a half bag of veggy mince or half a dinner ready to re-heat or bulk up.
In my fridge I usually have  finger or two of fresh ginger and a head of celery (if this starts to show signs of getting floppy, it gets chopped and added to the add-to bag).

We put pennies away every.single.day.

We save throughout the year for Christmas and plan, and stick to our budget.
If I sell something on eBay, I use the PayPal money to buy something from our 'need' list or 'Christmas' or 'Birthday' list (these are for other people, I hasten to add: usually the children or grandchildren). The 'need' list could be to replace something we have broken, or would be useful around the pad.

So.

How are we going to be affected by the falling pound?

We have discussed this.
. Maybe we won't be able to afford to go abroad on holiday.
. Possibly we will go back to eating totally vegetarian (we eat meat once a week)
. Probably we will eat food just from the UK, which will mean having fewer food choices, but eating seasonally - which is what used to happen before the easy/cheap import of other foods.

How do you think the falling pound might affect you?




Comments

  1. Although the GBP is lower at present, its coming back up from its latest low. the news only print doom and gloom lately. There will be frothiness for a while until the PM, gets right down to what is happening with Brexit. It will be heavy swings, up, down. Prudent people will be saving now for when we do leave the EU, better to cushion yourself and be pleasantly surprised than be ill prepared.

    Like you have written the best thing everyone can do, is if you have to have a holiday, take it in the UK. Seek out to buy Brittish food first, only buy from another country if you have to. Ditch the supermarket for the greengrocers. When in Cornwall recently, on the sunday, we went to Par Market World (I think that is what it is called), we bought so much fruit and veg not long before they shut and it was an absolute BARGAIN.

    We used to only eat meat at weekends, but we somehow got out of that habit and just dont eat meat now. Our shopping bill is so much smaller, since we went to weekend meat eating and now to none.

    A very thought provoking post. Thank you.

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  2. Generally pretty similarly. Our meat is all British in any case - we never buy foreign meat or poultry at all as the welfare standards aren't as reliable. We also buy quite a lot of our meat directly from the producer. As much veg as possible comes from the UK also - things like potatoes, onions etc I can NEVER understand why people buy these imported from overseas - we grow them so well! Fruit is trickier - I'm a bit choosy about apples, for example, so sometimes those will be from either New Zealand or South Africa. Soft fruit we only eat in season. Citrus and bananas are the main sticking point there - sadly there's not a great likelihood of managing to buy UK grown of either regularly unless global warming REALLY kicks in!
    The going abroad on holiday thing doesn't worry us - again we currently choose to holiday in the UK anyway. We might do the occasional long weekend somewhere else but it wouldn't stop us doing that.
    Really interesting post though!

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  3. I have been thinking the same over the weekend. We are on such a low income anyway it's hard to contemplate. We both work very hard for a our little breaks away (nothing fancy or exotic). We neither smoke nor drink. We don't have a car. Our few days away here and there are the one time we get to spend any significant time together due to our opposing work shifts. Not being able to afford them would affect our wellbeing significantly. BUT we can manage if we have to and we will do without them if we have to.

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  4. It doesn't bother me, can't go abroad and don't feel the need to, no passport. Whatever happens I know I will manage.

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  5. Oh and as we are a vegetarian and a vegan we don't eat meat anyway!

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  6. I'm British but work in Geneva, Switzerland and live in France so changes in the exchange rates have a BIG effect for me. My mortgage (on my home in France) is in Swiss francs because the French banks give you a better interest rate as they want the SWF. So far I have been lucky because when the you-know-what hits the proverbial fan the Swiss franc goes up, making things better for me. My son is getting married next year so his (Swiss) girlfriend is off to London this weekend looking for wedding dresses because it is financially advantageous to do so at the moment with the pound dropping against the SWF. It is swings and roundabouts in many ways but I do believe things will get more expensive in the UK when Brexit goes through. My OH is an economist and told me the UK losing tariff-free access to the rest of the EU would put UK prices up considerably because 50% of our trade is with the EU. I believe him actually, but of course no-one really knows until and when it happens. I hope things work out though because I believe it is a once-in-a-lifetime chance. If was an expat living on a UK pension (say in Spain or France) I would be VERY worried however. Love your blog by the way - I'm a newbie. Anna

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