What have you stopped buying due to a price increase?

[heartbroken22]

?? Don't buy as many eggs as we normally did or chicken...

Those missing butter - double cream currently cheaper per large carton than a 250g block of butter. Making your own butter yields a lot more than 250g and it's RIDICULOUSLY easy (if you have a hand whisk & an old muslin square).

Certain branded items, just trying out different things to see what we can swap. I always used to be Heinz only for ketchup but switched to morrisons and it's fine. Also morrisons weetabix. Did try their pasta sauce though and that was awful so won't get that again. Try and buy mostly in lidl although even those prices are creeping up.

Don’t feel guilty about this at all. Maybe your friend should feel guilty that she has tried to somewhat pressurised you into continuing when you can’t afford it anymore or just don’t want to. These things do get out of hand and obviously do go on for many years. Perhaps suggest she spends the money she would have spent on your children to buy an extra gift for her child if it is mentioned again.

@Fifi0102 Danpak in Lidl, just the same as lurpak!

And also wonderfully delicious 🤤

Butter.

I am down to all supermarket own foods where before I had a mix of brand and own brand.

For anyone struggling with food bills, I can really recommend going more veggie to save money. (I'm not doing it for that reason BTW).

We've had some lovely meals made with a tin of chick peas, a sweet potato, spinach or cauliflower, (or any leftover root veggies) some spices, with brown rice.

MUCH cheaper than meat.

I have always added Puy lentils, carrots and peas to any mincemeat for shepherds' pies and get 2 batches (each serving 3-4 people) for the price of 1 pack of meat.

I also recommend Direct Line for pet insurance. We had to have our gorgeous boy pts yesterday aged 9 but he had health problems since 6 months and the insurance covered all sorts of tests, medication, ct scan, X-rays and an op. We had the lifetime plan with a limit per condition of £8k which covered most things and it was just about to go up to £117 a month so cheaper than some are paying for healthy dogs. There’s no way we’d get another dog without insurance.
Like many others, unnecessary journeys in the car are going (no driving 20 mins each way to the nice ice cream parlour for a treat anymore) and we’re planning weekends more carefully as we’d often get lunch out or a takeaway lunch one of the days. I’ve been using Vinted too and got some great swim stuff for dds for our holiday (which might be the last for a while once we have to pay for youngest dd & eldest starts school!).

I haven’t had pet insurance for years. We put £250.00 a month away, after some good years, the balance was £7000.00. Any excess to that was used for holidays. We have 1 dog with a health condition that rendered him uninsurable. He has cost us thousands but acting as our own insurers has made it affordable.

I've really cut back on my car usage...
Case in point, woke up this morning just REALLY fancying a McDonalds mcmuffin. A year ago I'd have hopped in the car without a thought. But today I thought about it. Thought about driving to work tomorrow, and went without.

To be honest, since the first lockdown I've been living on a shoestring anyway so it's not much different.

Apart from energy... I don't have a boiler so used to rely on immersion heater on for an hour during low tariff time for hot water for the day. This is now on only every 3 nights instead of every night. It's cheaper to boil the kettle to wash up.

I have a smart meter, and even a 5 minute shower will cost me 20p (yes, when you're on Universal Credit, you log these things).

Check local supermarket for 'yellow stickers' (especially stuff you can just chuck in the freezer, including bread), batch cook and I just don't go out anymore (pub etc). My only luxury these days is a Sunday lunch.

And I'm sorry @StaunchMomma but who has a 'old muslin square' lying about the place? That made me laugh. The time and effort involved in making butter makes me think you're just better off buying it. But each to their own.

Slightly unusual and also due to the difficulty of seeing a dentist I try and do most minor dentistry myself. Mainly preventative with extra cleaning but I can now replace fillings and repair chips myself.

I ditched my daily takeaway Cappuccino some time ago and am on track to saving in the region of £600 p.a.

There was very little I could cut back on as I'm already frugal - no subscriptions, no unnecessary car journeys, always take a packed lunch, mindful of energy usage, don't buy branded, no take-aways/coffees, etc - but the only things that have changed are:

Instead of baking something in the oven, eg a shop bought fish pie, I'll take it out of the foil and cook it in the microwave

I take it easier when driving. My car is a bit sporty and I used to drive it accordingly, but now I'm taking fuel economy into account more

Only use the hot tap if I really need to (gas combi boiler), and showers are shorter to save gas

Meat, fish, good chocolate.

Pine nuts, olives, smoked salmon were cut years ago. Alcohol too.

Driving. We’ve just stopped basically.

we live next to DC school so never have a school run as such.

I have a corporate bus pass for work £30 p/m which I might stop as I’m not sure it is saving me money any more.

we have stopped driving out to the beach after school and stuff. Also grabbing food when out - got cod & chips x2, scampi x2 & a large chips on Friday. £32. Not doing that again.

@HeelsAtDawn - And look at your local library online.
I can download and read a whole range of magazines, from across the world via my library app.
And of course books al, free too. ( tho I don’t mind charity shop books at a £1.00 each).

I'm not buying oatly barista and have gone back to cows milk also swapped from lurpack to cheaper spreads. I've also changed jobs to a work from home one to reduce fuel and child care costs. We are already veggie so can't cut out meat. We are having less day out too. Stressful times ahead.

I use local charity shops for clothes as much as possible - my local wildlife santuary has a shop where everything is £1, so a great saving if you aren't too fussy. I've got some nice things from there and I donate anything I no longer need to them. Saves me money, helps a local charity and saves on waste. Fast fashion is a real problem and I long for the likes of Primark's demise

The Innocent 750ml smoothies. Absolutely delicious but not for £5+ a bottle.

We are now a packup everyday household, me and my husband used to buy lunches at work but we now make them, I had a coffee machine sat gathering dust, so that has come out, had a good clean and I use that everyday now I stead of buying coffees. Being really mindful of the food shopping budget too l.

We've also cut right back on using the car, and also days out, anywhere we go now is either free, or we have a pass for and take a picnic, but it's not very often.

In the US (Florida), where at least produce is affordable. Otherwise, we plan meals around whatever is on sale. We don't eat beef, lamb or pork, but fish and chicken are going up fast, too! If sales are extra cheap (asparagus, blueberries, broccoli this month) I use a vacuum sealer and can freeze them a long while. Have to blanche vegetables first, berries just clean, freeze and seal up. If I find dry goods (rice, lentils, flour) inexpensively, I buy them now, while they are still affordable, and vacuum pack them into(reusable) canning jars. I seal and freeze what DH and I will use for a meal, so no waste. Here, I am what is generally referred to as a "prepper", and put something aside every week, for future needs. Our prices are going up just as yours are-shockingly. I worry about retired friends, on very limited income, while grocery costs seem to double every week. We are definitely sinking into a serious economic downturn here, and we have been prepping for months. We have curtailed unnecessary spending, because I don't want to look back and say "I shouldn't have spent that money on shoes/purses/junk, because now I wish I had more food in the house".

Walking much more often rather than car.

Own brand washing powder (don't have sensitive skin)

Do my own eyebrows badly and spreading appts for colour and cut far more apart than before.

The one that really hurts is fewer holidays. Only had one this year (UK) and that may be it.

Depending on where you shop, you can buy the bits to make one, and they really hit the spot! We got all the stuff in Aldi for four, for the same price as buying one in McDonald's 😳

For those looking for cheaper insurance I've signed up with napo pet who included free vet video consults and behavioural vid consults too. Worth a look although I believe they are quite a new company and I have not needed to make a claim as yet. I just couldn't afford Petplan this time round.