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

@Elise72 ah the days of a whole cucumber being under 50p

Yep. Spent £90 in Lidl for 2 people last week! That includes lunches but still. Used to be £60.
Recently noticed lurpack butter and halloumi have gone from 250g to 200/225g

But neither of those increases have happened yet and wont be happening until April so that doesn't explain the current increases at all.

These price increases are a direct result of the increases in minimum wage and NI. This is a consequence of the last budget. And from what I have read today, everyone expected inflation to either stay stable or rise slightly, so I don't think the drop is as a consequence of Mrs Reeves' masterful economic nous.

YANBU it's really worrying but prices just seem to continue rising.

Since 1/1/25 I’ve noticed that meat has come down in price*, seasonal fruit/veg is more affordable and baked goods, flour and oats have some good offers.

The only way to keep prices reasonable is to know the products you are loyal to for quality or good value and stock up when they’re on offer. Otherwise it’s supermarket own brand until they come on offer again.
For example I will buy the family Pantene shampoo only when it’s under €10 a litre (so 250ml for €2.50 etc.)

*About September last year meat was shockingly expensive. I could only afford sausage or meatloaf style dishes on our “roast dinner” evenings.

Yes I can't afford Cadburys anymore and was shocked this week at the price of kitchen spray!

I noticed that nipping in for a few bits I’d forgotten seemed more expensive than normal.

3 weeks ago I noticed 4 flake ice creams in Asda had gone up to £6.60!!! A year ago they were £3 and only recently they were £4.75. I refused to buy them at that price let alone £6.60. We can do without those!

I did a top up Lidl shop and it was £70!!!! Back to Aldi I go!

Yeah, me too.

What a load of nonsense.... Tesco et al never used to make these sorts of profits, despite huge sales, profits have soared post Covid.,,Tesco pre tax profit in 2018 was £1.2 billion.

In 2016 it was less than £200m... yet still the world continued to spin.

As for pension funds? UK funds tend not to invest in UK companies and in any case, the amount invested in retail/food would be tiny.

You re defending the indefensible.

I know this is slightly not the point, but i found an old Morrisons receipt from 2016. It was interesting seeing an 8 year difference!

@Topseyt123 this is £22 for 5l from Ocado it’s not as tasty as olive oil but it’s better for cooking at higher temperatures and supposedly healthier, bulk buying like this makes much cheaper

Yes, there’s only me here, and I eat very little, but the costs are still going up. 🤷‍♀️

An extra £20ish a week here... Feel like the prices were put up to cash in on xmas and just havent come back down

I haven't noticed much of a price increase this year.

But I have changed how I shop and menu Plan. I now ingredient shop and have done for the last few years. So I now shop weekly for basic bread, milk and fresh fruit and veg and then fill in items for the next week menu and spend around £800 per month for 5 adults. This is spread across Asda, Tesco and Costco. And an occasional Iceland shop.

Although I now spend more a month the youngest child is nearly 16 and has grown massively and now goes to the gym 5 days a week. So we have had a the double whammy of price increases at the same time as children getting older and eating more.

I definitely agree that Aldi and Lidl aren’t really cheaper than other supermarkets anymore, in fact branded items are often dearer than the other supermarkets.

As a few others have said, olive oil has gone up drastically. I was in Lidl on Monday and it’s nearly double the price of the last bottle I bought. I only went in to get a few things and it came to £38. A similar shop a few months ago, would have been less than £30!

Tesco operates on a 4% margin - they make £2.2 Bn profit from £68bn of sales. They also employ a lot of people and pay a lot of tax.

4% margin is not profiteering. Shareholders (a lot of which are UK pension funds investing yours and my pension pots) are entitled to a return on their capital.

If you shop at Tesco it’s worth applying for club card ‘plus’ - I discovered it at the end of last year. £8 a month but you get 20% off two shops per month to a max of £20 each time. If you regularly do £100/£120 shops then put all the non-perishables into the two weeks you’re using the vouchers, to make those the 2 most expensive weeks of the month and make the interim 2 shops for just fresh (or shop elsewhere). That’s saving me £32 a month. Plus you get 10% off all the Fred and Flo baby products all the time with it.

I think it depends on the shop. I just got some great bargains in coop this morning, but rarely see a yellow sticker in Tesco these days.

I spot a bot..food prices have gone up significantly over the last 3 years..multiple reasons..but not over the last 15 days....

Yes definitely. Spending close to £90/100 each visit.

I've noticed that when they discount short-date stuff, it isn't that much of a discount anymore.
But they still throw it away when it doesn't sell.
And it is millions of pounds a year...

Yes, it's really annoying, what happened there? Every time I put one in the basket I feel like I'm being robbed.

Yes! I noticed it in tesco a few days ago. I went in to buy a tray of cubed beef and it was £7.15!
Friends and family have noticed too.