Are your food bills rising?

I have become a "brand tart" and go with what is on offer (after checking the small print of course).

And more what I would call store cupboard meals (things with lentils, tinned toms, beans etc) to cut down the meat bills. I also bought us another freezer so we can take advantage of the frozen offers. Of late thats been on Quorn so we have tons of veggie meals ahead!

Can't believe the cost of loo rolls and am disheartened by cleaning costs, so have decided to give up cleaning

That was good, v. interesting.

We have always meal planned on a weekly basis but what we tried in November (December is always a bust with christmas and birthdays) and it really worked was to do a HUGE monthly shop of storecupboard items which included things like pasta, pasta sauce, beans, tinned toms, sweetcorn, chickpeas,cereal, condiments,coffee, household stuff, pet food etc. Because we were buying in bulk, we saved quite a lot. Then, we just did a small weekly shop for meat, fruit and veg, milk and bread each week. This worked very well as we were only going to the supermarket with a very specific list each week and knew that the back-up stuff to cobble together something edible was already there.
Also lots of home-made soups, freezing and re-using leftovers, slow cooking and no "luxuires" such as biscuits, crisps etc.

I totally agree with all the other postings.

I have noticed a rise in prices over the past 18 months but a very definate rise over the past 6.

I have dropped "a brand", eat less meat, use more leftovers, and dramatically reduced wine intake.

I've definitely noticed the rise in cost at the till. I spent £36 on Sundays shop and didn't have any meat or fish, just some (12) sausages. There were no extras except for a cheap pack of jam rolls for Ds's lunch box. Got fruit and only mushrooms and onions veg wise in that, so I'm not sure where the money went tbh.

Yes. We eat less meat now and have "down labelled" on most products. I tend to buy products on offer, but check out more carefully what the offer is. I don't consider a 20 pence saving on an 80 pence plus item a good deal. Also cut back on the type of food we buy, e.g. biscuits are now usually custard creams etc.

I signed up to the co-op card, so when I need to pop to the local shop it is making money for me so to speak.

We have definitely noticed the rise.

I spend £120-£140 a fortnight at Asda then about £30 a week at morrisons for a family of 6 and a dog and cat. I have 3 in nappies although I only buy for 1 and the youngest is not on solids yet.

I made good use of the Asda voucher books at Christmas and we currently hsve huge boxes of loo roll, wash powder and steaks to use.

I have also started meal planning which stops me nipping to the shop for something for tea and splurging. I try to only buy meat on offer to freeze and dp only buys coffee when it is on offer.

With this new fuel increase it will only get worse as well

also i have noticed that when things are 'on offer buy 2 for 2.50' they price 1 of them at 1.99 (when they are not on offer 1 of them is usually only 1.39 so there is actually very little saving on buying 2. i have noticed this a lot lately -

wash powder, i stock up when they have deals, my understairs cupboard i stocked last august, its still going strong! i also bulk it out with tesco value (blue and white) wash powder, that has saved me a fortune!!

Definitely, my weekly bill at tesco this week was £60, and that was just food for 2 adults and a toddler, used to be able to do it for under £50. Bread is very expensive at the moment. Have stopped buying expensive cuts of meat like chicken breast, only beef we have is minced and we eat veggie at least twice a week, so I think we are paying more for less really. Would rather eat veggie than compromise on animal welfare on meat. Gas bill has just gone up as well, with that and petrol prices it's really tight DH drives a lot for work and the amount he can claim for petrol hasn't gone up. We are batch cooking and freezing, any leftovers are lunch the next day, when we have time we will buy a whole chicken and that will last 3 days and cost the same as 2 chicken breasts. Nappies are own brand, washing powder is own brand..
Being forced to think carefully about what we eat has meant that we have got out of a bit of a food rut and some of the food we have discovered has been delicious, so its not all bad.

hugely.....we used to do a weekly shop for (family of 5 and 1 cat) around £50 with maybe another £20 through the week and £8 on milk and eggs (milkman delivers).

We were spending over £130 a week at one point so switched to budget supermarkets and git it back to where it had been. Now the budget supermarkets are creeping up as well and our milk bill is now over £10 a week and we usually buy more in the week as well. We are probably spending about £110 a week now.

We do have 1 in nappies and I'm on a gluten free diet and the cat has suddenly taken a dislike to dry cat food and is eating her weight in puches per day, so that bumps things up.

trice I've got into the habit of making a vat of soup on Monday and live on that during the week in the evenings. Lentils, Minetrone with kidney beans and Butternut squash with green beans & chickpeas. Last 2 can have any old veg thrown in to stop waste and bulk up.

We are ruthlessly meal planning and living on porridge oats in this household. Fuel bills and food bills are completely blowing our budget.

I'm still managing to be overweight though.

Russia's wheat harvest, lots of it burnt last year

Basics have gone up a lot. Pasta, potatos and flour noticeably

Definitely higher. I never needed to plan my shopping before but it has to be done now.I also need to get rid of other debts. I'm thinking of going online to check the prices make sure that my bill comes under £70.00 per week.(2 adults 1 kid) Then some how print the list and use that list while shopping. While at the shops see if I can save further. Welfare and organic food has dropped off the list.
Still need night pants and washing machine on nearly every day due to work and wet sheets. God help those who can't afford to do that much laundry & buy night pants

Definitely higher than they were a couple of years ago, but this is a combination of rising food prices and higher expectations. I feel as if I should be able to afford free range or fairtrade, and so of course my bills will go up.

When you look at 'cheap eats' style cookbooks or online recipes from 5+ years ago the things they consider cheap seem very strange. Tins of tuna? Corned beef? Cheese? Those are not cheap at all.

Well put it this way. My morrisons family pack curry is usually £5. It has now gone up to £6. What's that 20% increase.

I know you don't EAT either of these things, but the two price increases I've really noticed are:

Persil Small & Mighty (and I think the bottle size has reduced from 28 washes to 20)

My favourite loo roll, which was £1.99 for a 4-pack for years (it's very thick so you use less!), jumped to £2.13 just before Christmas and is now £2.30. Also noticed that it costs the same in Wilkinson as it does in Waitrose
Can anyone recommend a good, CHEAP, washing detergent BTW? I've tried own brands but haven't found a good one yet...

I done a shop at Iceland this week and was really surprised at some of their prices compared to the supermarkets will definatley be going there again!

Off the top of my head the things I can remember are:

(sorry my pound sign doesnt work so the $ sign is for pounds)

2 loaves Kingsmill bread $1.50
Large jar of Chivers jam $1
Pack of 4 toilet rolls $1
2 x 4 pints milk $2
6 free range eggs $1
or 12 caged hen eggs $1
Large bag frozen chips $1
Litre of ice cream $1
Various desserts $1
25 Wash box of Daz $3.25, although Asda have it for $3 atm

They had loads of things for $1 or $2

If anyone works somewhere that you can get a Costco card from that's well worth the yearly fee too (I go monthly). I save quite a bit on dog food (tinned and dried)

cheese, huge block for around $4, I cut it into smaller pieces and freeze it

Tattie scones $1.19 for 24, around 80p for 6 in the shops, again I just freeze them

Gghvh

I have gone on an economy overdrive this month due to impending fuel bills.

Have shopped in Aldi and Asda only. Still cost me £200 so far this month.

well i've not been very savvy, but have noticed of late the prices are stilly - on the w.e we did a trip to asda and spent £45 on basically 'one eats' meals - there was a lot of veg/fruit, but only one packet of mince for meat. To be fair it did include £5 on dog food, and £3 on porridge, but it's still rediculas. it's now £1.80 odd for 4 loo rolls, the same packet when I first became a single mum was £1.20.

The costs are rocketing and there's only DS & I most of the time. I have been reducing my waste (read that as the dogs no longer getting our left overs) freezing more in the plastic tubs as 'ready meal's using the slow cooker, adding lemon/herbs etc to things to make it more tastier.

DP and I have also discussed that if need be we will only buy one big joint of meat a week for £6-£10 or something and make it last 3-4 days with the others being veggie days. it's a little hard as I do prefer meat from the butchers but even they have got silly prices now so we can't afford to be choosey.

I am finding it going up a lot. I am spending £100 a week on a family of 4. Admitedly we have special diets to cater for but once upon a time this was half the cost it is now.
The kids favourites are only brought when on offer and Bread and Milk has to be stored in the freezer becuase there are times where I can't afford to go and buy some so I use it in an emergency.

Meat is brought from my Butcher but he gives me great deals otherwise we would all be veggie.
I am bulking out more and more with lentils, rice and Pasta.
At the moment I am seriously considering giving up my Cat becuase im struggling to afford to feed her and buy her litter box stuff.