How 99p breakfast is helping a struggling Sheffield community

The cost of living crisis has been a problem affecting millions of people. Spiraling food and fuel prices have put increasing pressure on household finances. BBC News headed to a coffee shop trying to help people beat the crisis to find out the real effects.

“We don’t make money, we just get by,” says Nadine Grant.

She co-owns the Tastee cafe in Gleadless, a working-class suburb of Sheffield.

As the cost of living crisis began to bite, Nadine and co-owner Alex Rowbotham did the opposite of what was expected; they introduced a discount offer.

Their small breakfast – a piece of bacon, a sausage, a fried egg plus beans and tomatoes – cost £3.50.

They reduced the price to 99 lei to try to give people hot food at a price they could afford.

Despite bills and stock costs rising, Nadine, who has owned the business for seven years, was keen to keep the bargain.

I ordered one and asked her to tell me about the challenges she faces.

“We sell about 100 eggs a day.

“They went crazy, they almost doubled the price,” she says, leaning against the top of the fridge full of treats.

Her mortgage is now £900 a month, up from £300 last year, and she admits she is finding it hard to cut costs on cafe food.

“There is nothing to cut back on. Customers immediately know what you know,” she says.

Co-owner Alex stands behind her, taking an order from their JustEat computer to the sizzling counter.

Breakfast is placed on the green tablecloth on one of the two tables in the cafe as we talk.

Life has been hard for him lately and he feels affected.

He is the sole breadwinner in his family, desperate to give his children, aged five and 18 months, “the happiest life possible”.

But he tells me that a “stupid mistake” when he was 17, involving financing an expensive car, left him with a poor credit score.

“I’m still feeling the effects of it now. It means only my wife is on the mortgage.

“We’re asking for top-up benefits,” explains the 33-year-old.

“Life is stressful, we live month to month.”

He’s cooked a lot of cut-price breakfasts over the past two years—so many that he’s lost count.

“99p value?” he laughs as I run my knife around the now clean plate.

“Old people like it, it’s enough for them.”

Trams pass the cafe every six minutes, but passing trade at their three-shop parade is minimal.

Much of their business is done through delivery apps, but they’ve seen a huge impact from offers on rival platforms almost wiping out their orders in occasional weeks.

While Nadine leaves to see her daughter, Paul Jones arrives here to deliver the meat for the business.

Dressed in blue overalls, he disappears into the back room with an armful of white boxes.

He has seen the effect of the cost of living crisis, but believes things seem to be stabilizing.

“Last year was terrible. Every time we had a sausage delivery it went up by 50p.

“All of this is passed on to the customer.

“Since then, some of the companies we supplied to have collapsed.”

It was a quiet morning.

The first customers are Jenny and her husband – who order number one – a full English breakfast with toast.

They stand by the open door, her cane resting on the windowsill.

“Normally I follow the election, but not this year,” Jenny says, her face scowling.

“Everyone promises you one thing and no one keeps it.”

She will vote, “because if you don’t, you don’t have a voice.”

They used to go out for breakfast three or four times a week after she retired a few years ago.

Now the cost of living has reduced that to once a week. “Their treatment time,” she says.

As she piles her fork full of beans, I ask her what she wants from the next government.

“Not to make empty promises.

“Without asking for more money, we know there’s nothing left and we don’t know where it went. It’s a take care of yourself world at the moment,” she adds.

Bricklayers Tom Green and David Hunter have just arrived in their van, the pair ordering scrambled eggs and chips after a morning on a building site.

David says he is “lucky” because he earns a “decent salary”. Work has also been busy, completely, he adds.

But he knows it was hard for others.

“Everybody else’s business has slowed down because people can’t afford to buy houses.

“Brick prices have dropped, which affects everyone,” he says.

He noticed supermarket prices rising and inflation falling – where you get less of a product for the same price.

“I worry about lower income people. Younger families with children. I’m a single guy on one income, I’m not that bad,” says Tom, 30.

Back at the grill, Alex admits he doesn’t know his MP or who is standing in the upcoming Sheffield South East election.

He believes that politicians are “unrelatable” and cannot be trusted to tell the truth.

But he has known he wanted change in the education system since he was at school 20 years ago, following his own costly mistakes as a teenager.

“I wish money skills were taught in school,” he says, after his credit mess keeps him up at night.

Since then, he went to college to study accounting.

The lunch rush is starting to pick up and it’s clear that people would rather eat their sandwiches than talk politics.

I hand the empty plate back to Alex, who is now lining up his orders.

“I wouldn’t mind five years of super hard times, but I wouldn’t trust them to be just a few years,” he says.

“Whoever gets in will put the country into huge debt again and then be voted out.”

Full list of candidates who are in Sheffield South East:

Caroline Kampila – conservative

Jack Carrington – Independent

Matthew Leese – Social Democratic Party

Muzafar Rahman – Workers Party

Sophie Thornton – Liberal Democrat