Since COL what do you still have to buy regardless of its price/what cut back on/how much is your food shop

[MakeMineAdoubleChocolate]

Hi everyone

I find prices have increased so much in the last 6 months. I usually shop with Asda and the local OneStop or Co op.
I feel like the prices have gone up every couple of weeks and even asdas own brand are becoming much more expensive.

We are a family of 8, 6 kids and 2 parents. And spend between 200 and 240 a week on our food shop that includes nappies, toiletries and cleaning products.

The things I cannot live without are nuts, I find KP has gone up so much but Asdas own peanuts/coated crispy nuts and pistachios are fine. But for 200g of Asda own coated nuts are now £2.20. Beginning if the year they were a good 50p less.
Asdas chocolate peanuts are also lovely.

I had to give up a lot of luxuries because even though I love them so much, I would prefer to get more important things.

Even birds eye prices are getting bad.
I only buy pringles if they're on sale and walkers sensations too.

I barely buy walkers now as find that asda own cheese and onion are better.

I stopped buying day, surf etc and find asda tropical laundry gel fine.

So , what have you had to cut back on, what do you still buy because you love it so much and how much is your weekly shop and the size of your household, please?

I can’t live without Lurpak! So expensive! Have started buying cheaper supermarket own brand sauces, crisps etc!

Anybody else???...

Tampax

I now bulk buy them on Amazon but with two of us using them in the house we get through them so quickly as the packets have definitely shrunk.

We've tried different brands but they really aren't as good.

Eggs. They're so expensive now but I still buy them once in a while.

Gluten free items. I’m still coeliac and there isn’t necessarily a choice between the same taste v different prices. It’s more a case of better taste v awful taste so you end up doing things like buying bread for £3 because it actually tastes nice.

I still buy a free range chicken even though it is £10+. I feel strongly that the animal should have a decent life before I eat it, and I think that's worth the money for me. I just try and eat a bit less meat / less expensive things on other days so the cost evens out.

Try Aldi Norpak, it's literally the same but about £2.70 for 500g

I’ve had to cut back on everything. It’s shit. I only eat once a day now in order to make sure DS is fed. CBA anymore, there’s no point to life.

I agree with Tampax - they were £3.59 when I bought them earlier this week, I’m sure a few months ago they were at least £1 cheaper.

Ive swapped Lurpak for Aldi’s own brand but it’s not as nice. I won’t swap Walkers crisps though, they’re staying.

Have you tried the aldi own brand tampons? They're great!

No words for this, I’m sorry you’re struggling so much x

Sorry @Idratherbepaddleboarding sounds really tough. I hope things pick up soon.

I find it really frustrating that supermarket prices are still rising so once adjusted to new prices, further adjustments need to be made.

I did an Aldi shop this weekend, it cost £185 for a family of 4! There were 3 bottles of wine in there (£15 ish) but nothing else extravagant....I can't really cut back much more to be honest, we normally spend about £130pw but we were running low on the basics this weekend.

Try Aldi Norpak, it's literally the same but about £2.70 for 500g

It's not the same at all!

explain to the food bank you need help every week to get something set up

Literally every product we buy is shop's own brand, unless a brand is on a really good offer. However, do my best (subject to availability) to buy free range in a cardboard box.

I've become fairly good about managing our budget. When it's just two of us, £40 pw is sufficient. DD is back home with us now, so I can just about feed three of us for £50pw. We all have three meals a day (well DD sometimes skips breakfast and has a cereal bar is she's starting work at 6am) plus at least two snacks. This includes cleaning products and some toiletries (I buy rest at work using staff double discount when it's on). Doesn't include alcohol.

@ifonly4 wow 40 to 50 a week is amazing. When it was just 5 of us, hubby and I and then 3 kids, it was 80 to 90 max. And then because of cost of living, more babies means more nappies and more mouths to feed its gone up now to 200 or 250, but actually when I look at your spending, I think its not too bad , because you're 40 for 2, which is probably like 20 each, people, and if I say 8 people by £20, that's £160, but then I also buy a lot of fruit and things like crisps, lots of bread as we go through a loaf a day, squash as well as fruit juice and I do like the odd fizzy drink, plus things like nuts and raisins, icecream that hubby loves, cleaning products, toiletries, nappies and wipes it all adds up. I stick with mostly asda brand as their crisps/own biscuits are nice and they do good fresh meat not badly priced. I buy things like their own ketchup and maybe,I buy mostly their own seasonings, but I am not so keen on their own cereal brands. I really do love kelloggs. Which krave itself has gotten smaller in pack but still same price!....
I only buy pringles or walkers sensations if they're own sale. And same with ben and Jerry's, £5 for one is ridiculous. So I wait til I see they're on offer and then buy two sometimes.

Yes unfortunately lurpack is a distant memory now.

Clothes conditioner.

Waitrose own brand plain crisps are good i think 1 10 for 6.

I haven't really changed what I buy. Less lamb and salmon maybe?

Still buy smoked salmon and lamb chops though. Butter but I've always bought own brand. Fresh double cream, eggs, cheese - they've all gone up a lot but we still get them. Maybe just not as many cheeses! Don't really get fruit but lots of veg and salad stuff. Tampax. I suppose I've cut down on variety more than anything. Hadn't really considered how fortunate we are in that respect.

Never really bought crisps or cakes, breakfast cereals, squash etc. I tend to buy ingredients and things for meals so we can't really cut back.

We spend about £70-£75 pw. Three adults (Inc a 17 yo girl). The only thing I've really noticed is that I used to spend £75 a week in Sainsburys before swapping to Lidl because it was cheaper. Now I still spend £75 pw!

That includes cleaning stuff, laundry detergent, loo roll, alcohol and stuff for lunches.

We could cut back further if we needed to.

One thing I won’t cut back on is decent quality toilet paper! Fortunately I like some that Tesco make so cheaper than Andrex but I really dislike the cheaper brands - too thin!

Weirdly I have actually switched up some brands. I now buy Persil or Ariel powder when it’s on offer because the cheap stuff if now not cheaper enough to bother, and persil cleans better and I can use less.

ditto Napolina tomatoes, they are richer, I only need 1 can instead of 2, so work out cheaper.

felix cat food because they lick the plates clean rather than get fussy about flavours and only eat the jelly - it’s a few pounds more than own brand but they eat every morsel so works out the same.

I spend between 120-180 a week at Asda for 3 adults, 2 boys and 3 cats. If I do a lighter shop I need to go back for top ups. I can get 10% off with my blue light card in store but it’s actually cheaper to do a strict menu and pay 50p for click and collect than it is to go in the shop. We buy fresh meat, eggs,,lots of veg and salad. I’ve cut back on wastage, use my freezer a lot more and we aren’t fussy eaters which helps as I can just buy what’s good value/on offer.

I've stopped buying salmon, instead I buy rainbow trout from Waitrose.

I've stopped buying meat from supermarkets. I find Tesco's meat is pumped up with so much water that it's worse value than buying meat that looks more expensive, from our butcher.

We've halved the amount of crisps & biscuits we buy. I make a cake early on Sunday mornings and we have slices of that instead. And home made cheese straws. Much nicer.

I don't buy brands except Lea & Perrins & Tabasco.

And I've just made twenty jars of damson jam and bramble jelly - free wild fruit - worked out about 12p per jar, so I won't buy any jam until next spring.

It's extra work but our food is actually tastier and probably healthier. At least my DS hasn't moaned yet. 🙂

theres a few things that have eaten into my budget more - most mentioned upthread. The way I’ve worked round it has been accidental as a few months back I decided to cut out UPF and most of the replacements have been cheaper (so I don’t get lurpak I get salted butter and make sure I leave it out before use! And no one in the family has complained but we are not big butter eaters). I don’t buy as many snacks, cakes and kids cereals - get oats and make biscuits and cakes. However, my dd has some eating issues so still have to buy some overpriced junk for her!

also agree that our local butcher and fishmonger is cheaper overall as I buy exactly what I need and can get cheaper cuts that are good quality rather than from the supermarket where I was getting poor quality high end cuts

I haven't changed the way I shop as I've always been frugal but I am spending a lot more than 18 months ago. We eat well but not fancy, I like to buy seasonal food.

I have been tracking my shopping (groceries, alcohol, cleaning products and toiletries) for a while. My spending since 1 Jan 2023 equates to £98 per week.

We are a family of two adults and two older teens. I cook from scratch, dh works from home and we use leftovers for lunch. Teens take food from home to school and college. I have Asda Tesco Morrisons Aldi and Lidl nearby, I use Aldi and Lidl the most.