Food I And What It's A Know Between Fuel Choice Like Families Redmond: Caitriona Face

Tue, 22 Feb, 2022 - 12:30

Caitriona Redmond

When you’re on a tight budget you juggle your money from one crisis to the next. You allocate set amounts for rent or mortgage, energy, household bills, and then food. These are fixed amounts and rarely deviate from week to week.

The grocery budget is far more flexible and when you have more money you eat well and buy more treats and when you have less, well it’s obvious what happens. This is universal to everyone, no matter what their income.

Energy (light and heat) is the perfect example of a fixed cost that has made a drastic difference to that tight budget.

When energy bills started arriving in letterboxes and inboxes over the past couple of weeks there was a collective shock across Ireland. We all knew that prices had gone up but the effect of price increases announced before Christmas were only showing up in the most recent bills. There has been a rash of helpful advice including to ‘shop around’ and top tips on how to reduce your energy bills. Both of which do not address the issue at hand; a more expensive energy bill that has to be paid.

You’ve consumed the energy and much like a meal in a restaurant that’s been eaten and enjoyed, you now have to pay it. Where is that money going to come from? The ‘flexible’ food budget, that’s where.

As I write, I can feel the anxiety rising in my chest like bile. Feeding my family; making sure they are warm and having a roof over our heads is sacrosanct. These choices are like earthquakes shaking the foundations of family life. When you have so little control over your budget; the rent/mortgage and the energy bill, the grocery budget is the one place where you still feel in control. But, if you don’t have enough money to feed the family well then it feels like life is out of control.

I know. I have been there.

Compounding this stress of having to cut the grocery budget to pay for essential bills which have increased is difficult enough. However, there has also been an increase in the cost of our groceries as prices at the checkout have slowly risen since last summer on many items. These all add up.

If I spent €100 a week on groceries for my family of 4 last year, this year I can expect to pay at least €115 for exactly the same amount of shopping and possibly more.

Bare cupboards are going to be a lot more common this year also families try to balance rising energy and grocery costs.

To save money so that you can pay your essential bills you take a look at what you are spending your money on. The first thing to go is meat; it’s always meat. It’s probably the most expensive part of a tight shopping bill. Cut back to eating meat three times a week (or give up altogether). You bulk up the rest with eggs and beans. Cooking from scratch is better for your diet but not for your energy bill; it also requires your time and skill resources to prepare and cook.

For fruit and vegetables, you’re probably already picking up all the special buys for 49/50c in the supermarket every week. A TD suggested that you should shop around the supermarkets for the best value on the radio the other day and you nearly threw something at the radio in fury. When time and money are tight, you go to one supermarket. You don’t move from shop to shop because you have little precious time as it is, nor do you have fuel to burn.

Once the kids have a roof over their heads, are warm, well-fed, and loved, then your job is done, they say.

That’s not a job. That’s a delicate balancing act.

As a parent, you will do anything you can to make sure that the kids never go hungry or feel the cold, so much so that you probably feel the cold and the hunger more yourself.

Will the Government’s energy rebate and cost of living measures help those who are pinching their food budget? Ultimately because those on a tight budget have less cushion against the price increases in energy (fuel, heating, and electricity) along with supermarket increases, the answer is that it’s not enough.

I don’t have the answers. I do know what it’s like; what the juggle feels like and how that rising anxiety feels when you are caught by an unexpected charity day in school or somebody needs to go to the doctor or the list goes on. Sometimes there is a small comfort in knowing that you are not on your own, that there is solidarity out there between others who are stuck in similar situations. This small comfort is not enough. In the months ahead there will be families crying out in despair because the small amount of disposable income they have is being swallowed by inflationary increases. I’m afraid to say that despite the days getting brighter in the weeks ahead, I think there will be dark days ahead for many families.

Caitriona Redmond is a food writer