Memories of cost of living in the late 90s, early 2000s

I agree, £150 for a family of 4 in the 90s doesn't sound right. I was spenfing £60-£80 for a full weekly shop (cooking from scratch, plus other consumables, etc) in the mid 00's.

Wow, are you sure you're not remembering wrongly?
I moved out in 2001, and I used to spend about £30-50 for 2 of us for 10 days food shopping.
I had my eldest in 2004, and nappies were about £3-4 I think, baby milk was definitely £6-8 at the time, depending on brand. I was a single parent, and would generally spend £30-40 a week on food for us both.

I was at school but remember food being so cheap back then. I could go clubbing on £10 & get myself a drink, bus home, cloakroom & chips!

Food is definitely cheaper now relatively when you look back at what things did actually cost. Electrical goods were also much more expensive. And yes, clothes are cheaper now, but the problem is that wages (generally) have stagnated so everything seems to cost more. Housing though, which is the biggest expense, is much more, along with the eye-watering cost of a car.

That can’t be right about the food shop. That’s more like prices now.

My dc were born late nineties, and I remember having to manage budgets carefully as well.

The Nectar card was fairly new then and once you’d saved enough points, gave you a £2.50 voucher. However, in Adams (children’s clothes shop), it was worth £5 so I used it for school uniforms etc.

Sales only happened twice a year. The Next sale was a huge event, and people saved money for it, and queued at 6am in the morning to get the best items.

The NCT used to organise sales where you got a percentage of what was sold. They were very popular as a way of getting cheap
baby and children clothing, plus getting a bit if extra income.

Everyone with young kids did caravan holidays in Cornwall.

Don’t remember nursery fees actual
costs, but have some vague recollection that after fees were paid, transport costs to work etc , there wasn’t much left over (so opted to be a sahm, which I wanted to do anyway).

I think the nursery costs are probably accurate as my children were born 2007 and 2009 and it was £2k per month for both of them. I never had a food bill that high in the 90s though. I shopped at Sainsbury’s in the 90s (there was one at the end of the road) and a £150 shop would have been huge. I don’t even spend that now.

£150 for a food shop are you sure? In 1994?

I think we would spend about £40?

Life stages probably played a part. I was 18-21 and everything felt really cheap compared to now. I could get 10 cigs for £2, could go out clubbing with £20 and it was more than enough to get hammered, get chips, and get a taxi home. I was able to buy new clothes regularly from the likes of Top Shop, Miss Selfridge, C&A, H&M.