How do you cope with supermarket prices going up and up and up?

[WildEnergySupplier]

Just back from my big supermarket shop and I’m genuinely shocked at how much prices have gone up AGAIN.

It feels like every week there’s another increase - milk, bread, meat, vegetables, even the own-brand basics that used to be affordable. Things that were £2 to £2.50 about 4-5 years ago are now all about £4 to £4.50. It feels like since last summer, the prices have exploded.

I’m really struggling to keep the weekly food bill under control while everything else (energy, petrol, council tax etc etc) is still sky high.

This is despite the government telling us last week how brilliantly the economy is doing!! It certainly doesn’t feel like it to me. And I just heard on the radio that this navel gazing by-election is apparently costing us £5 million, as it will lead to another mayor election.

So many families are worrying about feeding their kids properly and keeping the heating on. How are the rest of you managing? Any clever tips for cutting costs without it feeling miserable? Are your shops coming in much more expensive too? I’d really appreciate hearing how others are coping because I’m starting to feel a bit despairing about it all. Thanks in advance.

I just keep things super simple now. Meat, veg or salad, potatoes.

Once you start with recipes you end up
shopping for ingredients, buying extras like dips and toppings and need twice as many basics like eggs, butter and cheese.

Many more basic meals. Stock up on things like passata and tinned tomatoes. Really try to use everything in the fridge. Go through the veg and make a soup, veg curry, etc.

It is shockingly high.

Whilst it is fine to see things this way, I want more out of life. I work plenty and expect to be able to supermarket shop as I choose and take a foreign holiday at least once a year.

We are becoming too accepting of this new existence, where we are using bloody lentils to satisfy our kids appetites.

Modest living might be easy for some, but I want abundance and freedom, not scrambling to nab yellow stickered items for my freezer or eeking out a chicken to last 4 meals!!

Nothing personal against you @Feis123 but your post reminded me of how bleak things are becoming.

This thread is so worrying and depressing. The amount of people (including myself), working full time ( i work 40 hrs a week), surviving on one meal a day, not having the heating on, and still not keeping our heads above water. When will it end? I'm scared to death. I go into my overdraft every single month.

I suffer serious depression and had a nervous breakdown last year which necessitated a long hospital stay.

I fear this is going to be the straw that breaks the camel's back. I just don't see the point.

I started a thread recently about how Angela Rayner didn't have to pay a fine for an incorrect stamp duty payment, but I got fined £100 for filling my tax return late. (Which I'm going to appeal). All I got was truly reprimanded for not being efficient with my tax affairs.

Sending hugs to everyone else who is struggling.

It’s still possible to eat interesting meals on a tight budget but it takes more effort / learning new ways.

Part of the answer is making sure as far as possible that you’re not the only one responsible for making the meals. Teens should be pitching in, learning to make meals from basic ingredients, as should spouses / partners. Everyone needs to do their bit.

When my children were young, I used to make a big batch of something like curry, then swap portions with another mum who had made a casserole. That kept my freezer full of different kinds of meals.

Completely agree with every single word. What the hell is the point of working your finger to the bone, to then just simply exist?

This sounds awful. What are your circumstances and can you improve them somehow?

@Ihateboris Terribly sorry to read your back story and present circimstances.

Worry is so destructive." I just don't see the point" Yes, I get that totally.

Just some things that may help
This Mum Cooks on Tiktok - particularly her meal plans
disabilityid - if eligible and buy membership can buy discounted gift cards etc
Trolley app - for comparing prices, can ask for alerts.
Not staying loyal to any supermarket, shopping in multiple stores may bring you more offers/coupons. Homebargains etc for toiletries etc. world food eisle in stores can be helpful. Not assuming a more traditionally seen expensive supermarket maybe helpful eg see This mum cooks m&s meal plans.
Mseforum - is a goldmine of information managing budgets, recipes, real world peoples advice. There is a food shopping section.
So sorry that things are tough hope the above helps someone.

I try to tell myself that there's always someone worse off than me, but every day gets harder and harder.

Even with these rises in the UK we spend less on groceries than most other countries. I like to think of it like we are actually lucky to have so much choice that's (relatively) affordable when many in the world live on rice and pulses.

It is ridiculous but it's also really important to get a little perspective.

Of course! (But you’re going to hate me because it’s an old recipe and it’s all in ounces.)

Hungarian chocolate cookies

4oz butter, cut into pieces
4oz self-raising flour
2oz sugar (the browner the better)
1oz cocoa
optional: teaspoon of vanilla, and pecans or glacé cherries

Mix everything together. Rub the butter into the dry ingredients to a fine powdery consistency. (I use a Tala pastry blender to do this.) Keep blending until it can be pressed into a dough. Then take a small handful and mould it and squeeze it into a round compacted ball. Put the ball on a grease proof lined baking tray. Continue until you have about 10-12 balls. Next take a glass of cold water and a fork. Dip the fork in the water and drag it across each of the balls to lightly flatten and score the top, but don’t squish them down completely. Press a pecan or glacé cherry half into the top of each cookie if you wish. Now put the tray into your freezer for 3-4 hours. You want the butter to resolidify so the cookies keep their shape during baking. When they are frozen solid, put them into the oven at gas mark 5 for 20 minutes. Leave them to cool a bit so they don’t crumble.

Sometimes I make the same recipe but I use four tablespoons of oats instead of cocoa.

I do think that keeping chickens would help massively, for the eggs and meat. Unfortunately my garden is too small to do that, but I would start keeping them in the next house.

The someone worse off than me thing doesn't work. It just makes us feel even more shit.
Can you try a few small ways to start an upward cycle? Anything? I do understand.

Keep chickens, grow fruit, eat lentils, starve, be cold. FGS, its ridiculous.

Please can somebody make me love lentils? Thanks

I've started eating Pot Noodles for meals when the fridge and cupboard's bare. 60 next month, married, and work full time as does my wife. What the fuck's going on? Surely for all the hard work we do and taxes we pay, life should be better than this in 2026?

Wait till you get taxed on your pension and have to pay £100 for a check up at the dentists.

We are at the start in a decline of previous living standards. It’s been widely reported.

Of course it won’t be evenly spread.
And will be worse for younger generations.

Thank you 🙏🏼 I’m old enough to remember ounces 😁

Thank you. As they say...."things can only get better ". I'm going to see my friends donkeys later which is guaranteed to make me smile x

Nescafe in Asda & Tesco £8.70

Lurpak in Morrisons £7.50

Not really, no. I'm disabled and have chronic pain. I work but for myself to accommodate when the pain is too much. It is what it is at this point.

I think you are absolutely right. All the more so because we are allegedly living in the 'first world'. Nothing wrong with wanting what you want. I also want the best for my dc, and I don't want them to think that a banana and a cup of tea is a full meal just because it is a full meal for me. All I am saying that when the times were good, we took them for granted, that is all. The scramble for the yellow stickers in a first world food shop is beyond depressing, you are right.

Agree. I never had snacks growing up