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.

We tend to shop online so I can see how much it’s going to cost & remove items if needed. We’ve also started having it delivered every 8 days instead of every 7.
We buy things like washing powder, dishwasher tablets and toilet rolls from our local Aldi.
I’ve definitely noticed an increase in the last couple of months (in addition to the obvious increases over the last few years) and am finding it harder to stay within budget.

I thought that at the weekend OP

I aim to feed two adults for £55 a week. I normally get a good mix of meat, fish, dairy, fruit & veg for that.

I gave up on shop bread two years ago and make my own. Buying a sack of flour from a local mill means a large loaf of wholemeal costs me about £1. I cook from scratch, buy own brand and don't waste anything. With summer coming, soon we will have salads from the garden which will help a little, but it's definitely getting more expensive.

I think the coping depends on where you started from.

Some people can cut back on take aways and eating out, bringing lunch in to work etc, cancel gym memberships and subscriptions, downgrade cars and holidays, have fewer or no pets, work from home etc. If you don't have those things to cut back on then it's far tougher.

Of course you can. If you're providing them with enough calories for their daily needs, and always have things like toast and cereal available, that is fine.

If teens want to buy extras, they can do so with their pocket money.

Food inflation has gone up by more than 30% in just the last five years.

My salary has gone up by about 4% in that time, and my job security has collapsed in that time, particularly in the last 6 - 12 months

That's very harsh.

That’s another thing Pocket money , Whatever they do costs a fortune these days ..

Not getting everything in a supermarket helps. I appreciate that might be difficult for a lot of people though. We've become accustomed to getting everything in one place. Bulk buying dried foods so it's a once a month or so thing. Get inventive with storage in the house, not everything needs to fit in the kitchen.

Meat, buy better quality from a butcher and look at the meat deals. Better quality meat means you need less of it to make a meal and can bulk it out with other stuff.

Part of the problem is we're time poor these days.

The Government didn’t say the economy was doing brilliantly. LSE, the independent institution which tracks the economy has indicated productivity figures have grown since 2024 and that continued growth will benefit the economy. The unemployment figures are down to levels not seen since 2016. GDP is growing faster than the current European average and faster than the US.

None of this will immediately see supermarket prices fall, because on the other side of the improved economy there is a major catastrophic event, outwith the government’s control, which has inflated the cost of oil and other products reliant on passage through the Strait of Hormuz. We haven’t seen the worst of that yet and it is set to continue. The improved economy won’t feel like it’s benefitting you, but it is.

In order to save money, we have switched to cheaper alternatives, doing more of our weekly shop at Aldi and look for products on offer. We also find sticking to a strict list helps.

Just asked AI about the causes of this inflation and there's a lot of reasons - it's far too simplistic to say it's just Trump and Putin.

Rachel Reeves has made lots of mistakes - the huge public sector pay rises have not helped. Then there's been decades of poor handling of the energy sector - Net Zero has been a disaster when we should have invested in nuclear. You've also got Brexit, poor interest rate decisions by the Bank of England, government overspending during the pandemic etc etc

The thing is though that we are working more, paying more tax and yet need to pinch the pennies.

So is this a genuine thread about how to cut your food spending or a political post?

I think establishing the causes for the inflation helps target the ares where you can save.

Oat biscuits with some raisins and nuts, or peanut butter biscuits are easy to mix
in big batches, then freeze wrapped in baking paper.

I’ve just bought 5 jars of coffee for £4.99 each. That’s what I used to pay for them about 3 years ago. Now £8.25 in Sainsburys. Fucking rip off merchants, they are £6.75 in B&M. Still bad enough.

I've replied to lots of food and food price comments on this thread but in this case was replying to someone saying it's all down to Trump and Putin.

The thread is free to go in any direction the people commenting want it to go.

Not dissing the bread making but I'm so curious about where you live where you have a 'local mill'? I can only imagine telling my DP that I'll be back in ten mins because I'm just popping to the mill for a sack of flour.

Coffee and olive oil are the two worst items for inflation for me.

For coffee I've been bulk buying 3in1 packets from Home Bargains and even coffee in a bag bags from Asian supermarkets, just to try and keep the price manageable.

I bought flour from windmill's tourist shop. It was a novelty, it certianly wasn't cheap 🤣

A medium size free range chicken in Sainsbury's is about £18 at the moment, in Waitrose yesterday they were £22.

My cousin in Australia can buy one for £8.

Something is going really wrong here.

Nobody is saving money buying meat from a butcher. A kilo of braising steak is a kilo no matter where you buy it. You can bulk it out just the same.

Bulk buying is a good option, even from the supermarket.

How many grams? A tin of chickpeas is 45p.

We are managing fine with the food shop but only as we are very fortunate to have fairly low outgoings so have money for spends, holidays etc so increased food bills means less spending on those things. I am very aware how lucky we are.

The price increases are bonkers though and I have no idea how some families are coping.

Due to to health reasons I can't eat cheap filling things like pasta, rice etc or many beans/pulses. End up eating a lot more meat or cheese than I'd like to keep the meals low carb which makes it expensive

It's crazy. I shop online but am finding it increasingly hard to stay within budget. We have pretty much stopped doing any sort of top up shopping and buy all we need for a week in the online shop. By day 7 the fridge and cupboards look very sad! We eat a cheap meal twice a week (pasta or jacket potato). We also don't eat meat or fish every day. I batch cook and freeze portions. Lots of porridge. Buy things like dishwasher tablets from Lidl. Stock up on favourites when on offer. Buy minimal upf and branded stuff. At this rate our food bill is going to match our monthly mortgage.

Are you sure? Whole Organic chicken is only showing at £10/Kg on Tesco online and free range corn fed £7.50