I have two observations to make about a recent trip to a local supermarket.

For some time I’ve suspected that the price of bread has gone up, but today I am certain. I know that last year I was often paying around 1 Euro for a loaf of bread, depending on the type.

Here is the price that greeted me today:

Now, while the price of bread may be going up, the milk-producing farmers are complaining that they are not getting enough for a pint - sorry, litre - of milk. So they have gone on strike and are not supplying the dairies that in turn supply the supermarkets.

So there is a shortage of normal quality milk. The more expensive brands are still in stock, but this is what the normal milk area looked like today:

There’s none left! Apparently the strike ended today, so I shall be hoping to see a new delivery soon.

What was particularly interesting was that it was a discounter that made the first move to increase the amount paid to farmers for their milk. But at first the strike continued anyway. Now the price for the consumer is set to go back down again, leaving us with the threat of new strikes.

All of which leaves me wondering: when will we be able to buy milk again, and what we will have to pay for it?

A while ago I was invited to a group on Facebook called “On May 15, 2008, everybody needs to go out and panic buy carrots” - a group with over 200,000 members!

I wondered how many people would actually go out and do this and kept a keen eye on the BBC News website today.

I’m sad to say that the idea doesn’t seem to have spread to my part of Germany. I went to my local supermarket this afternoon, but there were still plenty of carrots in stock and I didn’t see anyone buying any either.

The idea shows the power of so-called social networking sites: there are surely not many groups online with that many members.  But although Germany does have such sites, they do not yet seem to command the power over the people that they do in English-language countries.

When I read this article in “Die Welt”, it made me think about food rationing during the Second World War in England, with everything planned down to the last ounce how much a person needed to live on every week.

Now a German politician has done the same sort of calculations for the long-term unemployed to show that the benefits they receive are sufficient to live on.

Germany had to have very good unemployment conditions - provided you were actually looking for work and had paid into the benefits scheme previously, then you could reckon with a certain amount of income.  These days, even if you have been paying into the scheme for all of your working life, you only receive two years of “normal” unemployment benefits - after that you are reliant on the “Hartz IV”.

Hartz IV has been calculated based on the minimum that a person needs to live on, and if you have savings above a certain amount then you will be expected to use these up first.

Anyway, back to the menu.  Here is how to live on 4EUR per day:

Breakfast
2 rolls
jam
1 slice of cheese
1 apple
1 glass of fruit juice
2 cups of tea

Lunch
1 Bratwurst with Sauerkraut and mashed potato

An evening meal is not mentioned in the article, but this should give some idea of the scope of the menu.  Apparently it has been calculated using current supermarket prices and effectively means 128EUR per Month.

I think the problem is that the calculation does not take into account the number of people living in a household.  Just being married with one child means that you can buy larger amounts of food without the waste that may occur if you are a single person, so in the end the amount you spend per person can work out less.

When I calculate the food budget for large events (eg. Scout camps) I work on 5EUR per person per day, because I know that with bulk buying (eg. for 20 people) that is the sort of amount that I will be spending - based on experience.

But is the same true for a single, unemployed person?  Is 138EUR per month enough to live on?