The price of food is out of control!

[KillingEvesbestmate]

Would it be cheaper to shop every day or every two days? Just wondering instead of doing one big food shop a week?

For me yes, it is slightly, just because everything fresh goes off so fast. We couldn’t get through our fruit and veg quick enough so I was having to chuck loads. Now I do several smaller shops of fresh stuff to supplement an online shop which helps, but is hugely inconvenient!

I’ve been finding the same thing fresh food goes off so quick now fruit doesn’t last past two days if you are lucky and veg is same.
We do a big weekly shop but we still end up going in twice a week on top of weekly shop for fresh food and bread.

Where are you shopping? And how are you storing it? Mines fine fine for a week plus.

I mean, some soft fruit and salad you need to be careful. But the rest? Seriously?

Ive started to get the tins, flour, sugar etc delivered, and buy the fresh stuff as and when I need it locally. Otherwise I've got fruit and veg going off or, more and more often, delivered already gone off.

It really is out of control. I find the cost of living frightening now. Energy, food, mortgage rates etc. My husband and I earn £45k a year each and genuinely are struggling.

I shop once a week in Lidl. Almost never chuck fruit and veg. I do make sure we use the likes of salad first. I plan ahead and meals at the end of the week have the longest life ingredients.

I have alot of different frozen veg and frozen fruit for yoghurts etc. Less waste. I prefer fresh fruit but it’s so expensive and doesn’t last. We still get bananas/apples and tangerines fresh.

Good idea.

Ive still got bags of the 5p Christmas veg in good condition wrapped in newspaper in a box in the shed. As long as it's stored correctly it'll last ages.

Where do you buy your fruit and veg? Mine - mostly from Asda - never goes off quickly. Do you take it out of any plastic wrapping as soon as you get it home?

We do hello Fresh (around £50pw) for Dinner, food is free for me at work when in the office, and DP makes a salad with protein at his work he around (£20pw) and I do a couple of light snack shops (protein yogurts etc) a week but stick to £15pw for that. Now the kids are at it's easier in some ways but I hate budgeting so much like this so I feel you OP, we are ok £90k PA like you OP.

Saying I've not done a "big shop" in 3years and have found it better financially. You can always buy toilet rolls, detergent etc in bulk.

*the kids are at uni was meant to say

I shop most days which does mean you can take full advantage of a ticketed items but the flip side is you have to walk past the bakery items (Lidl) planning meals definitely saves but doesn’t suit me as I’m not keen on deciding too far ahead

Also Asda! If it comes online it’s very poor. I often send stuff back because there are no decent dates for fresh items like milk, without fail there’s something gone off amongst the fruit, a mouldy blueberry or peach in the punnet for example. At Xmas I had 2 bags of tangerines and both had 1 completely rotten fruit in, as in shrivelled and grey. I’m not renewing my delivery pass when it comes round, the quality gets worse every time. Our local store is awful and run down, I don’t know if online comes from there or another one.

Ive tried all the big supermarkets, online and in person, and so far Tesco seems the best for fresh and fruit and veg, but still needs a couple of fresh top ups

Lots of fresh fruit and vegetables is coming from the other side of the world and/or is greenhouse grown. These never taste good or last long.

They also cost a fortune.

Winter is boring with just apples, pears, bananas and oranges so I use frozen fruits for some things to give a difference.

I think we need to go back to eat more local grown and in season.

Since Brexit nothing seems to have had the shelf life it used to. Especially salmon which somehow smells worse now, presumably because less fresh. I'm going for more tins, especially baked beans.

I shop every day.

It means I only buy what we are going to eat, having checked what we already have. We don't really have much in the way of food waste.

I bought some oranges from Sainsbury’s just last week. Went to eat one today and covered in mould. They usually last weeks and weeks.

I wish I lived near a large supermarket so I could just get what I needed each day. Food does go off a lot quicker I’m finding lately.

I think the same - especially fruit. And where did all the satsumas go at Christmas? I only managed to find a bag of six once!

Salad quality has been worse since Christmas. Maybe because there isn't the same turnover in the shops in January?
In particular I've had tomatoes that were soft and wrinkled to the touch on the day of delivery and green pepper that was very wrinkly and a bit unpleasant to taste as well.

It feels expensive because we have been getting poorer.

Productivity flat since 2007 in the UK. We will be poorer than Poland soon.

I am really missing satsumas and looked into this problem. Apparently UK supermarkets have slimmed down their citrus range to save money and tend to stock sweet clams from Morocco/Spain. Where did you get your satsumas from? I want them yellow with baggy skin.

People need to learn to eat seasonally. It's cheaper, so much tastier and likely better for you and the environment too.
We should be eating parsnips, apples and pears right now, not tomatoes, peppers and strawberries. Save them for the summer months.
https://hubbub.org.uk/how-to-eat-seasonally-in-the-uk-a-month-by-month-guide

Yes, where have the satsumas gone! Also the nice big oranges that the skin is easy to peel.

Loads at Tesco,they're delicious this year , we're eating them daily.