What have you stopped buying due to a price increase?

[heartbroken22]

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

Yes, a Cost of Living topic would be really useful. Or if not a whole topic, a couple of sticky (I think that’s the right term!) threads at the top of Chat with information on current deals/tips etc.

I've stopped buying supermarket chicken - not because of price but because about a year into lockdown it plummetted in quality. 50% of all the chicken breasts I bought were rubbery & disgusting. Does anyone know why this was & where I can buy decent chicken breasts?

We always shop at Lidl, so that helps. Branded items are a mug's game. We have got top the point where we don't need to run the car much. Feel very fortunate about that.

One thing I have done finally is get a Tesco clubcard. We shop there for a few specific items we can't get in Lidl, and it's a joke how expensive things are.

I should probably ditch the pet insurance, too.

Oh just seen there’s a Credit Crunch topic - didn’t realise. Thank you :)

Nothing.

Car, showers and anything possible in house that uses electricity. No garden fancies either.

Please don't cancel your pet insurance.
My 12 year old cat has had chronic diarrhoea for the past couple of months and it has cost a fortune.
£40 for first visit and £28 for follow ups (I think he has had 6 visits).
At least £100 worth of meds.
£90 for a blood test.
£140 to get his poo analysed.

So about £600 of costs and the excess was £100 with probably more costs to come.

Suddenly the £10 a month insurance doesn't seem so expensive (animal friends).

I am thinking of swapping my 2 year old ragdoll from PetPlan to a cheaper insurer, she has never been ill so nothing will be excluded and her premium has gone up a lot this year.

My other change is that I got a Tesco credit card and put all of my spending on it and pay it all back at the end of the month. You earn clubcard points on all transactions and double on Tesco purchases and I'll save my points until I need to get a new phone.

I agree about not cancelling pet insurance unless you have absolutely no choice. My insurance recently paid out over £6,000 for my cat. She'd never been ill in her life before that. Thank goodness I didn't cancel.

Alcohol!

why do you buy sliced cheese? Surely it's cheaper to buy a block and grate it yourself or even slice it?

@JinglingHellsBells

Two examples for you to consider:

1. If you have arthritis in both hands (like my dad), the convenience of being able to safely/painlessly make yourself a cheese sandwich/cheese on toast outweighs the cost. When you work it out, the difference in cost (for the same Tesco lighter mature cheddar) is minimal: eg. 50g grated/sliced is 35p, block is 31p.

1. I like Emmental - 16 slices/400g from Aldi is £2.59 (or £6.48 per kilo). It’s not even remotely possible to buy it cheaper than that in block form from anywhere near me.

I would just have to forgo treatment.

A lot of the above, especially food and petrol.

I'm a keen gardener and normally enjoy a visit to a good plant nursery or garden centre. However, plants have really increased in price lately, probably because many come from The Netherlands. I am starting a new flowerbed and will fill it by splitting existing plants, taking cuttings and finding self sown seedlings. I know it sounds like a first world issue but it all adds up.

@Gingerkittykat

you have to appreciate a lot of people either can’t or don’t want to fork out so much on investigations and treatments for a 12 year old whose ailments are probs due to old age.

I wouldn’t.

@Anotherselfemployedcleaner There are numerous examples here where suggested changes may not apply to people with food allergies, intolerances, digestive illnesses, immobility, disabilities etc etc.

I didn't think to post with a 'BTW if you are disabled in some way, you won't be able to grate cheese' , just as many posters didn't say 'If you have IBS you won't be able to eat a lot of veggies and swap meat for pulses etc, or use a bike instead of driving...'

But thank you so much for pointing out my shortcomings.

Aldi Sumatra ground coffee is really good at 2.5, the best I have had.

Probably alcohol. It is not an essential. A glass of fresh orange is just as nice at the end of the day.

Cutting down on domino's - 2 Iceland pizza will do.
Hardly ever eating out now.
Trying to go into the food shops for specific products rather than looking around.
Haven't bought any kids clothes for a while. Just a few summer dresses for me which were 70 percent off.
Not buying those portions of xheescase etc, a 50p pack of biscuits will do.
Shoping in aldi if I can.
Not sure where else I can cut back. Need to look at my finances to see what TV subscriptions I can cancel.
Randomly am thinking of joining the gym near me. Need something to keep me fit!

Lurpack!

My kitty had giardia (despite being wormed) which was hard to treat as it cleared and then came back as the parasites are so hard to kill. He is otherwise healthy and happy. He is my DD's childhood cat and has slept on a special pillow beside her since he was tiny and losing him would devastate her.

I had to make the choice to have a previous cat PTS as I couldn't afford his treatment. I never want to be in that position again so make sure I am insured now.

The cost of lurpak sent us reeling and into Aldi.

Hi

you cancelled Sky. Do you have any other way of recording tv? I'm tempted to cancel Virgin, but would miss the recording facility.

& who have you moved to for your Internet? I'm with talk talk but it's not great. Supposedly fast but often get no signal.

Tia

@JinglingHellsBells

You’re welcome! 😁and yes, that’s a cheesy grin)! As you bought up the issue of cost re. sliced/grated cheese, I tagged you - perhaps you might find it useful to know if someone in your family has or develops problems with using their hands?

I did make two points, the second to reinforce that if you consider cost per kg, it SOMETIMES works out cheaper to get what you might believe is the more expensive option.

Agree with Lurpack! £6 a tub! That could be 2 meals.

These posts have all, (I think), been about the rising costs of things that people have previously afforded, but now have to cut back on, or do without altogether.
Something more insidious is happening too, which is reported on from time to time, and not always as straightforward to spot, and that is grocery items being made deliberately smaller, but the price stays the same!
It’s referred to as ”shrinkflation”, for example a bar of chocolate going from 150g to 120g.
Very sneaky, but just as widespread as rising prices