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.

It will get to the point where no one can afford to buy certain products. They will just sit on the shelf or be shoplifted. They need to have a complete rethink about the cheap cuts of meat that get put into animal food currently. People can no longer afford prime cuts of meat.

Most people in a cutting food costs thread are not going to be buying a chicken for £18, or even £12. I paid £6 for one in Lidl at the weekend.

Medium. I buy the largest they have (by weight so depends what you can get) & that's about £11ish

Branded toothpaste, and other dental goods such as dental floss and interdental brushes are cheaper in Home Bargains than the supermarket

My point is how prices have risen so sharply across all price ranges.

Can you really buy a free range chicken in Lidl for £6? We don't have one near me.

I just checked and it's just over £5 per kg, so that's a good price. I'll have to go to Aldi for my chickens from now on! I go once a month for household bits anyway.

I also rate Home Bargains for loads of stuff, especially snacks and bird food (diverse!). I have one near to work which I can wander to, so that's useful. They do Astonish cleaners in there too, which I like.

We keep most vegetables in the chiller drawer of our fridge They only last a few days longer but better than 24 hours !

We eat cheaper meals (pasta and rice) now and consume less meat.

Hmm... I'm not sure about some of the critical political posts as the massive price increases definitely started long before Labour came in to government!

However, if you are genuine: shop in Ald/Lidli. I'm sure their chickpeas are fine (not sure why you can't stomach some brands). If you have a local Asian or Caribbean supermarket go there for rice and huge bags of spices. Batch cook and freeze additional portions. Use veg peelings to make stock.

Make your own bread to get something more nutritious than you would in a supermarket. This recipe is basically foolproof, you can swap in other types of flour and it still works- I tend to use half white, half a malted wholegrain seeded mix: https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/basic_white_bread_18916

Get some packets of seeds and start planting lettuce/rocket/radishes etc, in a few weeks you'll have salad you can pick all summer. Grow your own fresh herbs rather than buy pricy supermarket packets.

Lidl does interdental brushes at a good price too.

It's just my wife and I in the house but the cost of living crisis is crippling us. I do the weekly shop on a Sunday, and I'm buying cheaper and cheaper stuff every week. It'll be gruel and switched eggs before long.

Yes. I got my preferred Oral B twinpack for £2.49 today, it's £4.49 i n Sainbury's & usually £3.49 in HB, but was on special.

I love the co-op at teatime. Can pick up bargains of couple bags of shopping for c.£15 which lasts 2-3 days for a family.

Meanwhile the luxury pet food market keeps growing.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/worklife/article/20240214-human-grade-luxury-pet-food-market

I buy the more expensive items when they're on offer and stock up then so I don't run out and have to buy full price. Sometimes I'll have really cheap weeks where I'll eat cheese toasted wraps and salad vegetables etc or buy a loaf of bread and have baked beans and scrambled eggs etc with it. Probably not very healthy but I will try to buy cheaper fruit to make sure I'm still getting that nutrition. I struggle with cooking so find having a bowl of salad vegetables each night easy. I find cereal and porridge good ways to have milk.

Outrageous that we should have to live like this.

Is it cheaper than buying from the supermarket? If so I guess the future is eating dog food 👍

Glad you can get there & try them. I find them as good as a Sainsbury's free range- well, no complaints from the meat eaters- & the large feeds DH & my 3 boys (adult portions).

Astonish is fantastic. I use the bathroom cleaner & floor cleaner, both excellent. I picked up Toilet Duck for £1.09 today too in HBs & a Clearasil cream much less than half the RRP that the local Boots charges. If folk have the time & one nearby it's so worth it.

Yes these are great ideas and we eat a ton of pulses. Both on their own and to bulk out meat. Although I have to say that they crave animal protein in a way that they didn't before. We've never been massive meat eaters so perhaps their bodies are just signalling what they currently need. But it's mainly the massive volume of food that threw me. I made 1kg of oat bran flapjacks yesterday as snacks - cheap and nutritious per gram but they'll be gone within days 😩

Since about nine months ago we've started to get Text Alerts from our bank saying we're Overdrawn, and this is still sometimes a week or even a fortnight before payday for us. That hadn't happened to me for years. What a fucking shite state of affairs to be in, me nearly 60 and my Mrs at 53. We shouldn't be living like that and it shouldn't be like this as you say.

I eat once a day at noon. Meat is once every couple of weeks. It's nothing I recommend. I drink tea throughout the day.

How? To do what?

I hear you, We are much older and both restarted work after we thought we had finished!
So many things are just not an option any more.

I too make flap-jacks every week. Often topped with 100g of melted chocolate so more of a treat that keeps them from asking for constant chocolate biscuits.

I'm in the market for an ice-cream maker. The cost of decent ice-cream without horrendous UPF in is astronomical. My theory is that it can't be that hard! I'm looking on FB Marketplace.

Posted already but too late to edit. So just to add we do a "free week" once a month where we basically don't buy anything but eat what's in the freezer or have an on toast or omelette or baked potatoes tea. I love sweet things so I bake a cake a week and eat my way through it. Take a packed lunch to work. I can do all of these things but it's grim. I never thought I'd be weighing up whether to splash out on beef mince for chilli or just resignedly buy pork mince.