The cost of branded groceries

[LidlOrAldi]

I've always been an own brand / make the most of offers sort of shopper who kept a rough eye on what I was spending but since January this year, I have kept a spreadsheet of all my grocery/cleaning/ toiletries spending. I've just been looking at my spending and we are currently averaging £92 a week for a family of 2 adults and 2 teens, everything has gone up, I'm sure when I worked it out about 18 months ago it was around £75.
I shop online every week for my elderly in-laws, they like some branded things like Kellogs cereals and Heinz Beans..............£1.40 for a tin of beans has shocked me!!! I couldn't afford to buy branded even if I wanted to!

yeah it's blatant price gouging. I always think, why do some people pay these prices??

It's high inflation, and why interest rates keep rising.

The difference between branded goods and own brands is staggering. I rarely buy branded goods anymore.

I used to buy Hellmanns mayonnaise. The largest jar, yesterday, was 59p per 100g. Sainsbury's own largest jar was 22p. Hellmanns is definitely not almost three times more delicious.

Heinz soup is so expensive now too. Think about 1.40 a tin.

DH likes Kellogg’s crunchy nut cornflakes, they were £5.50 for the 1kg box in Tesco the other day
Needless to say they stayed on the shelf!

Yep I've also traded down on almost everything.....in fact im just trying to think what branded stuff I do still buy!!!

Hellmans is not negotiable! Every other brand just tastes like oil to me. Shudder.

I buy unbranded almost everything but I put my foot down at cheap mayonnaise. The absolute best imo is the Winiary mayo (often in the Polish aisle). Sometimes it's on offer for £1 less so I get 5/6 jars then and haven't paid full price for years.

Hellmans is not negotiable! Every other brand just tastes like oil to me.

If you've ever made mayonnaise at home with fresh ingredients you'd never want to buy Hellmann's again

I agree with you @Ifailed

agree it's price gouging. totally ridiculous and invariably the supermarket version tastes the same.

I always thought - generally - that unbranded stuff was the same product with a different label, no?

If people want to pay twice as much for the same stuff as Lidl/Aldi then good luck to them.

I see a lot more adverts for Heinz on TV so maybe the penny is dropping amongst consumers.

Most of the food I buy is branded, cereals, beans, soup, crisps, treats, tinned sweetcorn, mayo… if I buy different it wouldn’t get eaten. We do have own brand ketchup. I tend to price watch and get it when it’s on a cyclical offer. It means the shopping bill is high but at least there’s no waste.

I was just thinking the same thing the other day. I was always a ‘Heinz or nothing’ shopper and stopped when I realised a can of beans is 3 times the price of a supermarket’s 🤯 yes there’s a taste difference, but not that much - now pay for the really nice Stoke’s ketchup (if I’m going to pay, it can at least be on something slightly less pumped full of sugar) and own brand beans, soup etc.

ambrosia is the other one - have had Ambrosia custard and rice pudding since I was a kid but no way can I justify their prices. Supermarket own or I make them myself now.

I always thought - generally - that unbranded stuff was the same product with a different label, no?

I used to think broadly so. However for the past couple of months I have been taste testing various versions of Fruit and Fibre (I like to live in the fast lane, me) and have had to conclude that Kellogg’s is by far the nicest. (Aldi a close second, then Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Waitrose, Morrison’s. I would not buy Morrison’s again, it tasted like cardboard.) Have had similar conclusions with tinned tomatoes, coffee beans, vodka, sandwich pickle and tinned sardines. The brands were definitely superior.

The thing I have found strange since Brexit is how affordable a lot of M&S stuff has become - their baked beans are 50p a tin and are really decent. They often have tins of soup for 50p and basic biscuits are three for a pound!

Nearly £4 for a jar of Horlicks (the one you make with hot water) in Sainsbury's yesterday. Added a couple of decent teaspoonfuls to the water and it tasted like dishwater. Added another four heaped teaspoonfuls and it was just about palatable. That jar will only last about a week in our house. Never buying it again at that price. We're just doing without some stuff because it's unaffordable now.

We usually get everything in Lidl, but fancied a couple of branded things. I spent £40 on two small plastic bags of shopping. No meat or fish, no treats apart from the Horlicks and some salt and vinegar peanuts, no alcohol or expensive cleaning stuff. Gravy granules were about £4 as well. Wasn't even a large jar.

I'm not going back. Will just do without.

I’m quite impressed you get it that low, OP. I shop at Lidl, meal plan, veggie most of the time and shop to a list. It was £50 yesterday just for me for a week. 2 bottles of wine in there, so I guess £40 for food, so £92 for 4 people is impressive.

It's becoming extortionate... although I second the winrary mayo a d fairy washing up liquid is a better investment, more expensive but lasts so much longer

We’ve recently moved to Sweden, when I first started visiting here I thought supermarket prices were outrageous, they’re now fairly similar to UK prices. I think the only branded things we buy is marmite and alcohol.

I still do my mums online shop for her, some of the prices are so high, toilet roll seems to have gone up a lot.