Where do they get these numbers from?

[Workingman]

The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation claim that retired over-50s are spending £60 per week less on food - some 48% of them.

Yes, that's a cut OF £60 per week (£8.60 per day). not a cut TO £60 per week.

Come on, please! Who are these people and how much are they STILL spending on food?

I am an over-50 and retired and I have never spent anywhere near £60 a week on food, except on special occasions - not even a relative amount accounting for inflation. They must have been dining out or getting in the most expensive takeaways every day to be able to CUT out £60 of their spend. They are certainly not poor, as the IFS and JRF are trying to make out.

What really bugs me is that journalists never question these numbers, they just trot them out as facts.

[cromwell]

Dunno about the IFS but the Joseph Rowntree foundation should be renamed the Josef Stalin foundation.
They have an agenda, let's say.

[Workingman]

Noo, surely not.

I wonder who the people were in their surveys?

Not me nor Cheryl and Elsie down the road nor those in the terraced housing of Harehills, Burley or Middleton. We can't afford £60 a week on food never mind cutting back by £60.

To be clear, we are not food poor, we just know how to shop.

[Kaz]

Sounds like nonsense to me We have started to use Tesco a bit, instead of Sainsbury's, but at most that probably saves us about a tenner!