Just had to put a food shop on the credit card, fed up!

[whatsausername]

We don’t get paid until next Thursday. I’d ran out of essentials like coffee, hand wash, toothpaste, chips etc. Needed the usual packed lunch stuff too. £78 in Asda. I have £82 in the account until payday but need to keep it in as direct debits due day before payday.

I just feel bleugh. We both work full time and having to put a weekly food shop on a credit card is just soul destroying.

anyone else feel like this?

It’s soul destroying and I’ve noticed a lot of
shrinkflation too . I think a lot of people are buying supermarket home brands too.

Is it the same every month or just this month?

You are not alone OP.
Are you able to pay off credit card bill before it accrues interest?
I do that frequently and helps me feel more in control

Yes it’s annoying , but at the risk of sounding like im being sarcastic ( I’m not ) at least you’re not in your overdraft !

How many are you buying for?

£78 in essentials and packed lunch stuff seems excessive unless you're feeding a huge family. That's more what is expect for a full shop.

Where do you shop?

I don’t know anyone who can get a full shop for 75 quid. Not with dc to feed.

Plenty of people do a weekly shop for £75?

If this is a weekly shop for the OP then fine, her post just made it sound as if it was a top up shop.

The trouble is there’s no sign of the cost of living becoming manageable . Most people can survive / get by for a couple of months but long term it’s dire and so stressful juggling funds all the time . I’m lucky I’m older and immune to pricing but if this happened when i was younger , well

£75 doesn't come close to covering a full shop any more, especially if you have teenagers, lunchboxes etc. We spend around £100 and ita gone within a few days. Both work full time and are counting our pennies by pay day. It is soul destroying when you work but can hardly afford the basics to get by any more

We do our main monthly shop around payday (usually £250-£300ish where we get our meats dinners etc and keep everything in our chest freezer) but then the weekly shop is usually £50ish for packed lunch stuff for our DS, and both DH and I (we all take packed lunches to work). This consists of cold meats, snacks, fruit, drinks. Today was a spur of the moment shop because of running out of those things I mentioned and decided to get next weeks packed lunch stuff too in hopes I can avoid supermarket now until payday.

My DS & DH get their haircut this weekend at the local barber which is cash only so need to keep funds back for that, which is why I decided at the checkout to put the shop on a CC. Soul destroying.

coffee = not essential
hand wash - a bar of soap would suffice
toothpaste - fair enough
chips - I would buy potatoes and make my own

in terms of lunch bits why buy drinks just send them with water.

I only drink coffee. It would be essential to me.

Soap and handwash are often the same price.

What a world we live in where people in full time employment have to decide if coffee is an essential or not! It is 100% essential for me.
I hear you OP. It's just so miserable to be middle aged, worked hard for decades, and unable to get to payday without getting the credit card out.
I've cancelled the gym, we never eat out any more, UK camping holidays only. It's 'fine'... but it's miserable.

Although it's an awful feeling realising you can't afford what you usually spend, £50 on packed lunches for 3 people is a huge amount, and I struggle to see how that much can be essential. Drinks aren't needed, either take a refillable water bottle or add cordial if you aren't keen on water.

If this post was more for a vent then sure, vent away. But if you're genuinely interested in bringing the spend back in like with what your budget allows then I'm sure lots of us would be happy to advise.

Pasta salads, meat and salad sandwiches, wraps, fruit are all fairly easily to have in order to keep costs down as long as you aren't having 6 slices of ham each time. Even multipacks or crisps, yogurts or cake bars shouldn't cost so much that you're spending £50 on pack-up. You could make a big flapjack for a couple of quid at the start of the week and there'd be plenty for the three of you as your lunch snack. Same with making cupcakes or a big sponge cake.

Are you buying all expensive branded items?

75 quid is no way a weekly shop. Might be for a couple, definitely not a family.

And yet here I am.. with a family... You cut your cloth. Some people don't have any more than that to spend, so they manage.

Why wouldn’t you put it on a credit card? Do you usually use cash?

I always put the food shop on a credit card. I get cash back which is 1% so it actually earns me money.

i find credit cards much easier to manage money. Just set up a dd to pay the full amount each month.

The fifty quid on a weeks packed lunches for three people sounds excessive to me.

What do you buy?

A bar of soap gives me the absolute ick I won’t lie.

the hand wash was 74p im not gonna whinge about that

the coffee was a staggering £7+ for the big big jar. But life is hard enough before I start sacrificing my Nescafé coffee in the morning.

Same. There’s never anything left for anything nice!

She said it was a full food shop. And that she needed extras such as pack lunch stuff and hand wash. That's how I read it anyway.

Since I retired I portion my monthly income apart from DDs into weekly pots in Monzo so I don't overspend. I realise you can run out of essentials but weekly planning helps.

Everything seems so expensive
I know you can budget and batch cook and eat apples instead of fresh berries etc but sometimes I just feel sick of it and think why on earth should I have to

£50.00 for packed lunches for a week for two adults and one child! what are you eating?

Loaf of bread, tub of butter spread, block of cheese or a pack of wafer thin ham would make everyone a sandwich. You can get a multipack of 24 bags of own brand crisps for £3.70. Asda do their “Garden Gang” range of fruit for around 80p a pack, a few of those and everyone gets two pieces of fruit each. You could add an own brand yoghurt for a portion of dairy if you went for the ham. Everyone takes a refillable bottle of water or squash for their drink. You could have saved a fair bit of money here.

I won't comment on putting shopping on a credit card but why not have a jar of coffee if you work full time and your only luxury is a jar of coffee then you have it.
We are a family of 5, older teen boys. Our food bill is more than our mortgage but my husband loves coffee, I love kettle chips and my boys have weekly shopping treats.
We don't drink, smoke or have an active social life so if I want crisps at £2 a packet I will. Life is too short to deny yourself a little treat ❤️