What have you stopped buying due to a price increase?

[heartbroken22]

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

We bought two tubs of Nordpak for £2.10 yesterday, if yours is still the old price, the increase is on its way :(

We already shop at Aldi and Lidl anyway but I am always looking for cheaper alternatives. We eat a lot more pasta based dishes than protein based ones which wouldn't be our preference really.

I'm really trying to loose weight too, I was considering going back to weight watchers or slimming world but I can't justify £6 per week to stand on the scales!!!

I use an App called "too good to go" which is worth doing we've had some good bits on there. I would recommend that the Tony Carvery box for £3 is amazing.

I also used to give a lot more to charity but now I am eBaying/ selling stuff as we need the money. We seem to get a charity bag for one thing or another every day!! Everything I put on eBay is selling too I think people are using these platforms more. It is time consuming but I feel I need to do it.

I also used to have 3 standing orders to local charities, the local foodbank (£20 per month), then the local hospice (£20 per month) and out local community hub that was our library £15)
We can't carry on doing this unfortunately with everything going up so I know give them all £5 a month because my theory was that anything is better than nothing but that's a saving but the thing with the foodbank is we could well end up visiting it ourselves never mind sending stuff in!!!

If people pay for childcare amd don't already do it there's the 20% off Tax scheme with HMRC for every £8 you pay in they give you £2 so that saves 20% of your bill so if you have little ones in full days of childcare this is a great saving.

It's a very worrying time for people isn't it?

Flowers is the first that springs to mind. I know they also involve air miles, so probably not a bad thing overall.

Butter!

Hardly ever go to Waitrose now they took away the free newspaper and instead get the choice of two measly offer vouchers - such a con. Most of their basics are more expensive.

Ive kept doing Tesco Click and Collect since the pandemic. It stops me impulse purchasing and for £1.50 all the picking is done, I just put into carrier bags.
I only ever pick a day when I have to go into the office as I drive past Tesco on the way from work, so no extra petrol.

We're buying less meat and what we are getting is cheaper cuts, less snacks, less alcohol, no takeaways or eating out, we got free tickets to a music festival recently and packed a picnic rather than buying food there. We do eat fish but cheaper types and I buy a salmon almost whole from Morrisons at half the price. Yes it needs skinning and filleting, but it outweighs the amount saved.

Kenco Coffee, Lurpak, Branded crisps, ice lollies and ice creams, eating out, quilted and coconut toilet roll

Just to add I always shop around for pet insurance if I've not claimed. Moneysupermarket & comparethemarket are quite good at looking at comparison quotes.

I bet gyms & restaurants are taking a big hit. I've noticed a lot of offers coming through my email for eateries, cinema, sky TV, personal care, I think these will suffer. Although I'm sure sky can afford it!

Everyone who has cancelled (rather than switching) pet insurance, what is your plan if things go wrong? I'd think very careful as if you are struggling to afford the premiums you're certainly not going to find it easy to get the cash together for large vet bills. Self insurance is a valid option for a lot of pet owners, but generally those who can come up with their own cash at short notice. As another has said also be careful when you switch that you are not going to have exclusions added.

I don't say any of this to be critical, it can be a huge expense but just at least have some sort of plan in place before you suddenly need one (and then have the additional worry and emotional cost of a sick pet).

Hairdresser...now do my own cats and gone back to box dyes.

Meat...cost me over £8 for a 900g joint of beef yesterday in aldi where as 6 month ago it would have been about £5. Am buying more frozen foods as it is cheaper and keeps longer. Especially frozen stir fry packs etc.

Not buying treats. I don't drink or smoke but usually like to have a decent biscuit and chocolate in the house but not currently.

Not having the work done on the house and going through a make-do & mend time as I don't want to stretch my outgoings too much.

Day trips with dd are now free things or repeats of local animal Place that we have annual passes for.

Oh and I've also messaged some of our friends and said please can we not do Christmas presents this year because it gets out of hand doesn't it?

I've messaged 3 friends and between them there is 10 children. Realistically that's at least £100-£150's worth of gifts isn't it?? So I've said please can we just do cards and 1 friend said "it's a shame she's sad about it as they don't have much family so enjoy our gifts (as we do theirs!) So I'm worried I've upset her, the other 2 were like "we've been thinking the same thanks for being so understanding of people's situations etc"

Our internet is due for renewal in August. When we last renewed we were all WFH so went with some super duper thing BT offered at £55 a month. I hope to get that down to £25/£30 but because where we live is rural our options to change provider are limited.

mobile phones are due for renewal in September. Usually we would all get new handsets but this year we are swapping to sim only.

Hoping those two will take us from £180 a month down to around £70.

hoping to build up a decent amount of credit over the next few months with our electricity. Thankfully, our oil tank was filled just before prices went daft so we should be ok when it starts to get cold and may only need one 500l top up.

shopping is now with Tesco online so I don’t have to drive there and no impulse buying. Food wise, we are pretty much the same each week. We could cut back but I’m hanging off at the moment. I do need to research slow cooker meals for winter though. I really need to be a bit more prepared instead of having the oven on every night etc.

I love a bath but have stopped those so just shower now. DH has a shower at the gym.

Good points, but would you normally take your cat to the hairdresser?

Haircuts. I have curly hair, and I can do a curl cut pretty easily.

For pet insurance, we left a void in winter when the cats don't budge from the house, and brought it back in spring when they start spending time outdoors.

You don’t need pine nuts, use a substitute.

Alcohol. Branded food (except red sauce). Less driving. General snack food. All subscriptions except prime.

Do you mean the Yoga company will close down?

If someone is struggling to pay their bills they’re not going to worry about that.

It also depends where it is.
In many parts of the country there are many many wealthy people around who will still be able to pay for their Yoga sessions.

Ayone looking to save money on phones I highly recommend Giffgaff. I am not fussed about the latest tech so I bought a reasonable handset a year back for less than £100. I have the £6 per month goody bag that cover sthe costs of all my calls, texts and internet when I'm away from home. If I ever go over the internet limt ( hardly ever) I can just start to use next months goody bag early, or switch for a month to the next expensive package. I just had an email to say the goody bag can be used in the EU too so no roaming charges if I stay under the limit.

£6 per month is a bargain.

A lot of fruit. No more soft fruit, now buying cheap apples and pears but tbh they taste of nothing and texture is awful.

Not buying meat at all unless it's reduced by at least a third.

No more nice cheese. We have two or three small producers locally and it was a weekly treat to buy a small piece of good cheese from one of them. Not now, and I feel bad about it.

Trying to persuade DH to ditch alcohol - we have a couple of bottles of wine a week, but that's £10-£12 we could be using on something else.

Things like biscuits, stopped buying the more expensive wrapped chocolate varieties and now just the odd packet of Aldi digestives or custard creams.

Diesel. My car currently has an eighth of a tank. We used to go out at the weekends, maybe a 20-30 mile drive for a walk and a picnic, visit a garden or gallery, buy a coffee. That's stopped, so not only are we not having a jaunt at the weekends, but the businesses supplying the coffee, ice cream, the places we would have paid entry fees into are not getting money from us and I'm sure from many others.

So many other things. I expect life to become a bit more of a drudge over coming months.

Funny ive just taken out pet insurance and weve had our dog almost 2 years. He hurt his foot a few weeks ago and cost £110 for 5 min appointment and painkillers was scared hed broken it and the bills that could follow. Not worth the risk.

Definitely cut out day trips and non essential car journeys
i work from home so having a few days in summer holidays with kids at home instead of holiday clubs to save money

Reviewing all direct debits and streaming services

Supermarket sandwiches. Pre-made salad boxes. Pretty much anything you can buy the components for cheaper and I just need to stop being lazy.

Shopping at tesco I also pay more attention to which items are on clubcard special price offers - particularly crisps/snacks/packed lunch stuff.

We have cancelled Sky. I use Vinted a lot, to buy and sell. We also reviewed our bank account, we were paying 🤦‍♀️ £17 per month, basically for the convenience of breakdown cover, travel insurance and mobile phone insurance. We looked at buying travel and breakdown separately (we don’t need mobile insurance) for both it was £65! So a saving per year of £139. We also moved internet providers from sky who were £33 to one that’s faster and better for £20 a month.

its been interesting to read everyone’s things that they have cut back on.

We are doing quite a few of these, using Lidl and Asda as much as possible. The air fryer is a godsend and we are stocking up at CostCo on non perishables.
I don’t ever buy a coffee now, but will have one if I can use a voucher. O2 Priority have a free weekly coffee and Nero once a month. Feels like a treat now, where as I wouldn’t have thought anything about buying one a few times a week 😬