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.

Where are you getting chickpeas from? Just checked and both Sainsburys and Tesco have them for about 65p for a tin?

Start every meal with a bowl of homemade soup then you don't need as much of the more expensive main course. Sunday lunch is 3 courses, soup, a small plate of roast and all the trimmings and a homemade crumble or pie for pudding. You can feed the family for less.

Sainsbury's - they have a range from about 50p to £2.

I just don't like the cheaper ones - they're mushy and full of additives, so go for the cheapest ones I can stomach.

I would appreciate a warning from whichever supermarket, that price of whatever is about to rise so that I can buy 2/3/4 of them, eg. WR own dishwsher tablets, bag cost £4.00 now £4.50. a huge increase.
Of course they will not do this for obvious reasons.

When we had a young family we grew salad in a small garden and fruit bushes,
sacks of potatoes, carrots, onions, delivered from the farm shop, grew runner beans, all in a small space.
I made pastry at least once a week, cheese and onion pie, mincemeat and onion pie, flans made with odds and ends, bits of cheese and a stray spring onion, and in the winter suet dumplings, suet pastry, we were all active and busy, needed the calories and had hearty appetities.
We had a regular bakers in the village which became increasingly expensive
If I was feeding a family now I would have a bread machine again, bake daily.

Pasta is becoming increasingly expensive too I’ve noticed, but 5kg bags of rice
often reduced or even half price.
We would buy from the Turkish shops near us, the prices creeping up but the bread and quality of veg excellent.
I do recall shopping during the long summer school holidays, ten weeks to feed
hungry young teens too young to have holiday jobs yet, lettuce doorsteps a mainstay.

There are so many food items we have weaned ourselves off, our diet has absolutely
shifted and changed but still requires more work.
I make stock and soup more regularly, less meat, more raw food, shop seasonally
on our weekly market, stay out of Waitrose and Sainsbury, shop in Aldi.

Eat less meat.

Bulk out all meals either frozen veg or tinned beans and pulses.

Buy things like rice and spices in bulk from world food stores.

Now they've just gone up to £1.30.
Tesco chickpeas are 45p per 400g tin.

This seems a lovely idea but growing fruit bushes and salad gardens . Baking bread daily doesn’t fit in with 2 parent working families who are also working overtime to make ends meet .

We spend less on other things (going out, clothing) than we used to and more on food. And yes to porridge/pulses/veg stews etc but really food is an area where Im happy to spend (and grateful that we can afford to).

I think eating less meat is a realistic way for my family to cut costs .. Not sure how everyone in the house would feel about it . Carnivorous buggers they are .

If I were really watching the finances I would start with what's on special offer in the fresh stuff and build meals around that. Aldi super six etc, 3 for 2 stuff and freeze meat and fish.

unless I know we are going to use fresh carrots within a couple of days I won’t buy them, rather frozen baby carrots of sliced carrots from Sainsbury, not quite the same as fresh obviously but passable in casseroles or bottom of the slow cooker with a seasoned turkey drumstick, remove cooked fallen off bone drumstick, strip and use meat for turkey supreme, risotto, curry, make soup with residue full of carrotty goodness.
we like grated carrots, in salad, on wholemeal bread with grated cheese which tastes different to a slice? in stir fries, etc.
Our butcher here sells local eggs, we have omelettes, eggy bread, poached eggs,
egg and bacon - Sainsbury do packs of cooking bacon for £1! take your chances -
last one we had was 3 bacon chops, perfect for 3 of us with egg and chips, v tasty.

Shopping cooking feeding a family now is way more challenging and time consuming.
We are all electric here, not by choice, so we try not to use the runaway oven, relying on a large and regular slow cooker and rice cooker, steamer, wok.

I’m going to check out the cookbooks suggested thank you

Cook from scratch with everything

We very rarely buy or eat meat or fish. Don't buy a lot of alcohol in the shopping. Don't buy bottled water, don't buy many snacks. Cleaning products and toiletries we get from places like b&m. We eat quite simple pasta, potatoes, rice. We tend to stick to cheaper fruits like apples, oranges and bananas. Never buy grated cheese or pre cut vegetables. I haven't noticed a massive increase in the weekly shop. I think it depends what your buying.

Rachel Reeves has made lots of mistakes - the huge public sector pay rises have not helped.

When did they happen?

Thanks for all the 'eat less meat' suggestions.

FYI - I've been vegetarian for almost all of this century

I wasn’t suggesting a rural bucolic lifestyle, but time organisation allows for this,
plant, water, pick, eat.
Also, a bread maker timed correctly is merely a matter of measuring, a careful child could do it.
Fruit bushes do not need watching, they just deliver.
Rather than a lovely idea it is for many a practical summer occupation.

As soon as she got in!

It was July 2024 - she gave most NHS staff, teachers, armed forces, and other public sector workers above-inflation pay rises of around 5–6%.

The Bank of England said this contributed to an increase in inflation.

Public sector wage growth has since gone up even faster - 8%. But there are still strikes over wages.

Obviously it's not entirely her fault but she has made things worse.

I haven’t noticed any rises recently, bread and milk for instance hasn’t risen in a year. Sticking to raw ingredients and minimising waste really helps, we spend £50-60 a week and eat well (2 adults). Branded goods tend to be far more expensive

I buy online and you can see it change literally week to week. Ice lollies one week were £1.05, then within weeks £1.15 and then a few more £1.20 then a few more weeks £1.40. I’d say that happened over a 3 month period.

Loo roll was the same, a few weeks would pass and 10p added and another few weeks and another 15p was added.

These are prices that had been stable for a long time.

You can argue no one needs ice lollies….but we need loo roll!

I also spend that amount a week, cook from scratch for most meals but prices are still going up. Not so much on milk and veg, but everywhere else.

I'm a full time working single mum and I bake our bread. Sunday morning, bake two loaves, lasts the week.
Tomato plants don't take much work. Plant tomatoes in pots in April, water once a day in summer - a10 minute wind down when I get in from work. Free tomatoes from June to November

Apple trees don't need anything at all.

Depends on where you live. I'm a good gardener, and pick my varieties wisely, but living in Lancashire, unless you've got a greenhouse you're not going to get tomatoes until end of August, and a lot won't ripen before the frosts if we've not had a sunny summer.

It’s hideous. And I don’t think it’s Putin and Trump. The supermarkets are using our data and algorithms to price and it’s taking the competition element out of it.

There’s absolutely no reason chicken thigh is now the same price as chicken breast except it being more popular recently because people were trying to save money.

Sorry to be argumentative but Sundays are not a non working day in my house. I could go and buy an apple tree today and 3 years possibly may get a few apples. Tbh the price of bread isn’t really the problem.

I try to keep our shopping bill to £500 a month (for our family of 4) but I'm consistently shocked by how supermarket prices have increased. My bill today was £98 and I had three bags of shopping.

Things that have helped us are:

Trying to cut out top up shops. I do one shop a week and it has to last us. Unless I've genuinely forgotten something important, we do without and wait until the next week's shop.

Buying mainly whole food ingredients and cutting out typical snack foods/UPFs. Focusing on meat, fish, eggs, dairy, fruit, veg, pulses and basics like rice and pasta. I don't buy much convenience food.....egg on toast takes less time than microwaving a ready meal and is better for us anyway.

We eat mainly vegetarian but will buy meat and fish on yellow sticker and freeze it for another time. I will always bulk meat out with pulses and/or veg to make it go further.

Meals are usually simple. If DDs want a snack it is fruit, cheese, crackers, yoghurt, toast etc. Breakfast is porridge or Weetabix. Beans on toast is a perfectly acceptable dinner.

Tonight for example I'm making homemade kebabs but with half a pack of mince that I'd bought on yellow sticker and portioned in the freezer and I'll bulk out with grated courgette. The flatbreads I've made myself with yoghurt and flour as I had half a tub of greek yoghurt that was going to go off so I've mixed with self raising flour for an easy flatbread. It means we're cutting out food waste too.