To think this increase in cost is going to break me?

Tesco's pre-tax profit was £2.3bn in 2024, on which they paid £525 million in taxes. So they had a profit after tax of £1.8billion on sales of £68.2bn. That's about 2% of turnover.

That's really not a high margin.

They also employ 330,000 employees.

I know you expect 'big business' to subsidise everyone in the UK, but if they don't make any profit there's really no reason for them to operate.

Both Aldi and Lidl are now similar to the major supermarkets, taking quality into consideration. The one that shocks me, not having used it much over the last couple of years, is Morrisons which had become ridiculously expensive while at the same time having massive gaps in stock.

Agreed.

It’s not just the supermarkets though. I’ve been banging on about this since the budget. I think it’s bad at the moment and I really notice it in my weekly shop.

But I think it’s about to get worse. I’m a farmer. Produce something most people put in their baskets weekly. Lots of farmers now have contracts where if our costs go up (or down) what we get paid goes up (or down). A guaranteed profit margin if you will.

The minimum wage increase is having a huge impact on us. As is the NI contributions. Add in the water, electric and feed increases and it’s looking big. It’s the farmers, the packers, the warehouse staff, the supermarket cleaners - all these increases are adding up.

Agreed, I had an allotment several years ago and it was a good hobby, but definitely not cheap 👍

I found out recently our energy costs are the highest in Europe.

In America food shopping has risen greatly too.

M&S can be cheaper than Tesco I discovered. We buy most things from Lidl.

Re saving money by growing your own, I grow my own veg. There is no way it is cheaper by the time you count in compost, equipment (netting, fleece, gloves, etc). I do make my own compost (but still have to buy lots), I save seed when possible, make my own comfrey tea feed, recycle/reuse as much as I can - but it is still expensive. I do it because I enjoy it (even if it's hard work), it's good for my physical and mental health, the produce tastes better, I know how it has been grown etc but it does not save me money!

Is that for 1 litre? Pretty sure the £2.20 price is for the 2 litre pack. Could be wrong though.

From concentrate is £1.75 a litre and not from concentrate is £2.25 for Ocado's own brand and Marks and Spencer's freshly squeezed is £3.50 a litre.

I know when I’ve been abroad I’ve been shocked at the prices of food. In various countries. It does seem like the gap is closing though.

I'll respond - as I can see you've already quoted me once, and then again commented again with an @ 🙄

My point was that I don't have more than £393.45pmth left once everything is paid for. Which would be the amount I would also receive as an over 25yr old lone adult.

I'm sure you no doubt wish to tell me how much you disagree with that. But it's a basic maths fact nothing more.

I swapped to one of the cheap shops a couple of years ago. At first I was frustrated with the lesser choice but after a few weeks I was happier because a shopping trip took 30 minutes rather than an hour.

Vote with your feet. Some of the bigger supermarkets are taking the absolute piss with their prices.

If you can't save money shopping at Aldi or Lidl then you are probably putting too many branded items in your trolley.

I don't eat meat, either. You have no idea what animal you are actually getting. I stopped eating meat 15 years ago, when there were rumours that horse meat was getting into the food chain. I quit eating fish when I heard rumours that the tuna were eating humans who had died in a Tsunami.

So poor people would pay far higher tax than rich people.

It's the same all over Europe. France, Germany, Ireland... are all in shit street too!

Although to be fair, tescos are still predicting a £2.9bn profit this year. I’m not convinced they have to pass on the NI rise to customers.

More likely to increase obesity as cheap pizza is cheaper than cooking a healthy meal from scratch.

My BMI is high it's majority muscle, DH's is very much muscle BMI is a waste of time!

OP go veggie it's rightly the rising cost of meat and processed food.

We are going to grow veg this year and I can't wait.

I collect prices of fruit and veg each month. The price of a cucumber in the three supermarkets I monitor has not increased in the last year. Carrots, on the other hand.....

The supermarkets have to fork out for the employers' NI rise. Of course, they are going to have to put their prices up. This is what we voted for.

Blimey.

Oh and sorry not to labour the point- but orange juice has gone up in price as oranges have gone up in price because failed /falling crops last couple of years. telling people to just buy oranges and make their own juice assumes -bizarrely- that the rise in the price of juice isn’t linked to the price of the only ingredient.

olive oil prices are still suffering from the fires across the med a couple of summers ago that took our olive farms.

a lot of the fruit and veg in our shops comes from Spain, but the floods we saw recently have damaged a lot of farming areas. If our fruit and veg has to travel further to get to us, it’ll be more expensive.

@Poppyseeds79 you clearly have no clue what you're talking about.

There's 40 servings in a tub of Birds custard powder for £1.90. Plus add in the price of milk and it still comes nowhere near £2.40.

@Meadowfinch I buy wholesale organic whole foods and EVERYTHING is at least 30% up. You have luxury beliefs.

I was just saying to dh yesterday that I've noticed that the weekly shops I've done since after the Christmas break have been around £100 or so, which is definitely more expensive than before Christmas. We did a shop today which wasn't a full shop and didn't include meat (no alcohol either) and this was £85, which surprised me. This was in Aldi too.