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

My food bill has gone down by using my food cupboard supplies and also always cooking from scratch.
Mince can be stretched by adding red split lentils. They add nutrition but make the meal more filling. 450g mince with lentils and turned in a bolognaise source I can easily make it do 3 meals for 4 people each time. If you are savvy with your ingredients you can make them go much further.
Yoghurt is easy to make at home and cheap. I can but a litre bottle of whole milk and add some whole milk powder and live yoghurt to it and can make a lovely natural Greek style yoghurt.
Also making things from scratch doesn't need to take hourse. Batch cook some basic ingredients for quick easy starter prep for an alternative meal.

Definitely noticed a big jump in a couple of things I buy regularly - like juice

I’ve noticed a big difference. Shrinkflation is stealthily increasing, too. I’m sure that there used to be 5 bars some boxes of bars I buy. Now there are 4.

Exactly the same here. DD has ASD & ARFID and has the same breakfast every day, same lunches and then the same for dinner, every single day. Naturally there's some things that can only be got from one place and some things from others. Nightmare! Price wise though it's going up every single week

Yes I thought it was me! I thought perhaps I'd made a mistake.

I used to keenly listen to Nick Ferrari's Checkout Checkup every Friday morning (they buy the same branded items from a supermarket every week and it got to the stage where the increases were so ridiculous that I think that's why it suddenly quietly disappeared

Yes! I tend to shop around! Yesterday I used Iceland - A weeks shopping for a family of 5 (One adult will be away) and 2nd adult (Me) had a gastric sleeve, 7 months ago: £240.

I tried removing items we didn't necessarily need and that just confused me because I'm thinking how did we end up in age where we have to compromise on food shopping!?

I'm single and spend about £30 a week in Lidl. God knows what you're buying.

Foods going up but benefits aren’t. Why?

Price of Kerrygold butter has gone insane, same as kitchen roll

No, not noticed anything really increased , but then our processed foods are few and far between - scratch cook

Yes olive oil is through the roof, but swap for cold pressed rape oil ( if not allergic ) its much better for you then olive oil , has a higher smoking point and doesn't have the air miles

Use frozen berries , especially this time of year and only eat fruit and veg that's in season

Don't be embarrassed picking up Yellow sticker meat and fish, get it home and freeze it - Ive a freezer stuffed with joints I bought over christmas and new year

I just did a big shop, first one I have done since pre Christmas - £79 , lidl, included a case of Guinness and two weeks supply of dog food, washing powder and some cleaning products and toiletries , and now all I will need till next week is milk and perhaps more fresh veg - that's for 3 adults

The only "processed ' item was cheese triangles

How old are your children? Easy to have a small budget when they are small, it's a bit different when you are feeding two adults and three teens.

Are you big drinkers? I have 2 adults, 3 kids and we spend £100-£120 a week. We don’t drink and are vegetarian though. I can’t contemplate spending £240 unless it includes catering for a party!

It's also ultra-processed. I don't mean to harp on about that in every post, but so much of what we consume is really bad for us. Rapeseed - unless cold pressed - is usually deodorised, dyed and treated/extracted with solvents.

Just went to my Sainsbury's Local for a 2-pint bottle of milk - it's always a bit more expensive than the big store, but the one I normally get used to be £1.85 and is now £2.

Switch to rapeseed oil. It's about 1/3 of the price of olive oil.

I agree. It’s not from this year, though, it’s been over the last few years - since Covid/Brexit started I think. We’ve cut back massively as a family. We shop mainly in Aldi and have dropped meat to eat a mainly vegan diet. One of my sons is autistic so he eats meat (mostly chicken) at every meal. I resent the fact that I’m getting older, working more and actually earning more money but it’s going on the ever-increasing basics so we are never really getting anywhere financially.

i did write to my Labour MP about food prices (pre election) but he only replied regarding their planned implementation of free school breakfast. I’m in the Labour Party and always vote for them but I really feel like shaking KS and insisting that he starts taxing the hell out of billionaires and using that money to offset fuel and food bills for ordinary people.

Yes I’ve noticed this. I only ever shop at Tesco (express) as I’m practically next door to one but I’ve noticed the cheaper items that were often on clubcard offer now have no discount or have gone completely.

eg: biscuits. Used to be either Oreo’s or Jaffa cakes or choc digestives on cc offer. No offers yesterday, had to pay 50% more.

Squash: ditto. Normally something on offer. Nothing now, again +50%

Tesco magnum copies: £1.60 for 3. Now not available, genuine ones only @£3. Tesco peas (£1.40) now gone. Birds Eye only @ £2.80. Cheap razors have gone too, fancy Gillette ones only now at £4. Only herbal tea in stock: Pukka at £4.50.

No wonder their profits are now multi billion per year….

Yes, we couldn't even get proper greek yogurt in Tesco for ages, I started making my own but it takes eons so now it's back I just try to ignore the price at the checkout.

@LazyArsedMagician maybe you mean plain/greek yoghurt and orange juice etc, but yoghurts and drinks like squash are usually ultra-processed these days unfortunately.

I think the majority of foods that people are mentioning on this thread are processed.

@thestudio is right - the big price rises are in ultra processed foods

That's not what I've noticed at all, unless you're talking about takeaway foods rather than supermarket? Meat and drinks, and fewer deals on things like yoghurts is where I've noticed the biggest increases.

Yes I have.

I have three teenage boys. Our weekly shop is about £150 a week. And that's without buying extras, other than a pack of five doughnuts (which were £1 up until last year and are now £1.50).

A pack of beef mince is over £6 now. A cheap pack of sausages is about £3. Last year I started getting some of those microwave treacle sponges - 2 in a pack, they were 99p. Now they're £1.85.

I am actively trying to cut down on the meat we eat, the problem being catering for five people with different likes. I can't even replace with fish, which I would like to, as it's extortionate. To make a fish pie big enough for all of us cost me £12 just for three packs of frozen fish. Not in a fish pie, I'd have to bulk out even more as fish is so low calorie.

@BrightYellowDaffodil is right - the big price rises are in ultra processed foods.

maybe we he one good thing that will come out of this profiteering is that people will be forced away from UPFs.

Food culture /fashion has moved on and so many more ingredients are available now - it’s much easier to cook quick delicious food from scratch now. It’s not a question of ‘buy ready meals’ vs ‘make a steak and kidney pie from scratch’ any more.

I noticed that as they have taken all the Christmas deal prices off they've added an extra 10p+ to half the things I buy regularly!

@ParsnipPuree I'd be checking your receipt, it should be less than half of that.

Overall inflation went from 2.6 to 2.5 because of other items not food. Food inflation was 2% in December, up 0.5% from November.

I've definitely noticed prices rising and it's only going to get worse as the NI increase is passed on as well as additional costs for recycling reforms and the rise in NMW.