Anyone else noticing a drastic increase in their food shop costs already this year?

My cat's food - Felix pouches have suddenly reduced from 100gm to 85, which I was shocked about. The cats have been having them for over 10 years! I ordered 2 boxes yesterday x 100gms and saw it had been 'substituted' overnight for exact same product but now 85 gms. Yes everything is suddenly so expensive.

No, if anything my bills have gone down slightly. Prices rose most sharply early last year and have stayed level or even fallen slightly since then.

Chocolate oranges are always a wild card, though. They frequently go up to a ridiculous £3.59, but are then down to £1.50 (occasionally £1) in the run-up to Christmas. I always assumed they were deliberately inflated to a ludicrous price throughout the year to make the Christmas 'offer' price look like an amazing bargain. Do many people even think to buy chocolate oranges other than at Christmas? Schloer is similar.

We really like Yeo Valley butter - which I realise is a luxury choice; but some of the cheaper own-brands are nasty.

It used to be £2.75 for a 500g tub not all that long ago. It went up to £3, then £3.60. Last week, I actually audibly gasped to see it on the shelf in Asda for £4.75. Oh, and it went down to 400g a few months ago, with (unsurprisingly) not a word said.

Do you have Aldi and Lidl over there?

We used to buy Lidl cheap own-brand double thickness toilet rolls - decent quality and lasted ages. They changed very recently to much shorter rolls and much less soft paper. No announcement or price reduction to be seen.

The problem is that the prices very rarely come down when the harvests/other circumstances are very good.

It does seem a bit like heads we win, tails you lose.

Yes, but I live in Europe, it’s mondial caused by global warming and shortages, not only in the UK.
Wait for Easter and the price of chocolate, there is a huge shortage of cocoa.

https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/inflationandpriceindices/bulletins/consumerpriceinflation/december2024

2% annual overall food inflation reported by the ONS today.

This month’s figure will be interesting when it’s published next month. I’ve certainly seen a few price jumps since the start of the year.

For our family of five (kids 11, 8, 6) we spend around £125/week in Aldi, and then another £25 top up usually. This is fresh produce rather than convenience, with the odd frozen Kiev thrown in the basket because they enjoy them
occasionally. If I buy alcohol then I pay separately for that.

It is creeping up though. Around 18 months ago the same basket would’ve been around £100.

We are being totally ripped off in the UK and something has to change.

I have noticed price rises on a lot of things I buy regularly, a steady increase since Covid. I’m now on a fixed income and it really worries me that the money is going to have to stretch further and further. I adore my pets, but when they die I won’t be able to have more as the food is getting unaffordable, never mind vets bills etc. we have fewer and fewer treats now, branded items are going, and we already have most things from scratch. Food and contact allergies mean we are somewhat limited in some of the choices we have, too.

The price of courgettes is extortionate, considering they grow like weeds.
£2 for 2. and £2.50 for 2 organic.

Snap we are 2 adults 3 dcs 2 years ago weekly shop was about 160 now we're lucky if its below 250 and that's not buying loads of luxury items that's bog standard stuff for meals and a few snacks items for the weekend for movie night. And that's also with club card discount plus extra 10% with premium club card off today I went to top up at Tesco after doing a proper shop at aldi for a change. The top ups of stuff we can't get at aldi was 114 quid!!!! Aldi shop was 116 so still 230 plus the extra petrol might as well just shop at Tesco and get everything there in kne place.

Still annoys me that Pringles used to be a pound and bachelors supernoodles were once 45p or 3 for a £1, now they are over 85p each

Went shopping at Aldi the other day and half the prices have gone up AGAIN. It's no longer a cheap shop especially as I can remember the old prices so it really pains me to pay more for the same thing. Greedy buggers.

It's winter and unless you eat very seasonal food then it's a price hike. TBH even if you eat seasonally, it's all going up

Lurpak 8.75 in Tesco own type just over 2.00 how is this right someone is taking the piss and advantage of us in the horrible situation. Same ingredients.

I've noticed a big jump in prices since New Year. I guess the supermarkets have got to make up for all the pre Christmas discounting.

I do something I jokingly call "The PTA price index". I keep a note of prices of a few things like the Terry's chocolate orange. Three years ago they were reliable on sale for £1. Now they are £2 without any special offer. Bags of chocolates jumped from £1.25 in June 2023 to £1.50 in June 2024 and £1.75 in January 2025. Bags of sherbert lemons were 75p four years ago and are £1.35 now.

@Meadowfinch I didn't know about the tomato puree import issue but Tesco have stopped selling cheap tomato puree and replaced it with tomato paste. Not sure on the equivalency. Thank you for the tip.

Last time a went round Sainsbury's most of the things I buy, with a few exceptions, were the same price or more as M&S so now I get everything bar cleaning products in M&S. Same price but much better quality and keeps longer.

In boots today L’Oréal shampoo I used to pay 2.00 then 4 for is now 8 each I know boots can be expensive but u can buy Persil liquid for less. Absolutely disgusting prices.

This has been annoying me since the pandemic.
Interesting to see there is a similar trend in the US.
During the, supposedly, toilet paper shortage which actually never happened, the brand Andrex (only one we ever used in our home) first started making the toilet rolls ever so slightly shorter in width.
After a while, they became thinner because the length of paper on the roll got shorter. Then the inner tube got wider. The price, also, gradually increased.
I really disliked their dishonesty.
I haven't bought a single Andrex toilet paper pack for years now and switched to a different brand.

Yes, I've noticed stuff leaping up in price as well. At one time, things went up by the odd 5p here and there. Now they bang 75p on a single item without a second thought. This has happened to biscuits, they've nearly doubled in price.

I heard it's been bad in the US.

American here. Prices escalating here, too. And I am so angry about our toilet paper, which I think you call toilet roll? I opened a new package of a brand I’ve used for years, same price, and noticed that the inner cardboard tube has a bigger diameter now, so they can sell less paper! A lot of packages are getting smaller while prices are the same.

Tesco’s prices definitely gone up since the year started. 24 Tesco meatballs were £4.60 now £5! Tesco Butter is up 20p..