To be seriously worried that the cost of food is getting so scarily high

[thebird]

I am not extravagant I buy shop own brands where I can, I try to shop on a budget, I cook from scratch and have given up buying extras like wine (well just the odd bottle to keep me sane) but still each week the cost of my food bill goes up and up. I know inflation is running at around 4-5% but I cant understand this as many basic items have increased almost 30-50%. When the hell is it going to stop or I really will be living on beans on toast every night(and even they've gone up lots!

My policy, which saves me tonnes of cash, is:

1. Buy only ingredients (no processed foods - anything with an ingredients list is banned)

1. Get shopping delivered to avoid petrol cost and temptation

1. Don't eat meat

1. Buy fruit and veg from Saturday market, if possible

I use Eco cloths (bought half price ) and a tiny amount of Method .
When the bottle is half full I top it up with water
Lots of cleaners are pretty toxic and make my asthma worse.
I am probably coming across as being a bit miserly but Im not really

Ocado do a delivery pass for about £6 a month if you shop regularily-as many orders as you like. Well worth it as nearest Supermarket 6 miles away

Veg box -no delivery charge.

I use microfibre cloths for everything cleaning wise.
I buy then from the car care section of Asda, you get 6 for about £3 they huge and last ages.
I only use water and a bit of washing up liquid for most cleaning jobs, the microfibre picks everything up!

We always eat 5 or more pieces of fruit and veg a day. Just buy what's on offer. Melons are a pound in asda at the moment. Frozen veg is cheap and ok if cost cutting. We grow raspberries blue berries White berries tomatos and carrots lettuce etc its so easy.

Tinned tomatoes is cheaper than spaghetti sauce today's we have had cereal with slice banana. Lunch sandwiches with ham and slices of tomato and nectarines because they were a pound in asda. So it's no where near half way through the day yet and we've had 3 already. I often buy my fruit and veg at the Market as well. Or often if you go to the coop at the end of the day it's reduced. It's so easy.

I've never eaten an aubergine or seen anyone eat one. I'm mid-30s.

We don't eat 5 a day. Can't afford it. DCs usually get fruit at GPs. I buy apples for the £1 bags and bananas - we used to eat a lot more of the fruits on offer but a lot of them have shot up in price lately, apples and bananas are the ones that work out cheapest for us (and I consider us lucky since DCs will eat pretty much any fruit and veg put in front of them, thank god).

archieleach Delivery costs are too high.

I wouldn't shop online because the supermarket is a 20 - 30 min walk and I can just carry most of it back twice a week, OR i call in on the way home from work and get off the bus a few stops early (i have one of those granny bags on wheels those days - oh the shame! DCs think it's hilarious).

MrsB I also water down most things in this house too, most of the time no one notices. I switched the Heinz ketchup to Tesco value about 4 years ago - no one noticed. I then did it with beans. Again, no one noticed.

I just kept doing that and the only things people noticed about were Cola and toilet roll. But since we don't buy cola now anyway (too expensive, not good for teeth) that's not a problem.

A really good tip for loo roll, actually - crush the rolls so they're not round. People use a lot less of it when they can't go wweeeeeeeee and pull it off in a long strip. That's cut our consumption in half since starting to do it with all the rolls brought in from the shops.

Delivery is cheaper than the bus fare here and it means I don't have to carry it!

also - with online shopping you miss out on the woops items.

i know it might be different if you're paying petrol costs which i don't, but, if you shop at certain points in the week you can get dented tins, bread on its sell by date, and so on for 20p, 10p, etc - you can't do that online.

so i honestly wouldn't save any money by buying online and arranging deliveries. i realise this is our circumstances though and not typical of some households.

Also I call in to asda on my way home from late shifts and buy bread and bakery products buy the dozen at 10p a go.

Hahahaha ! Love the toilet roll tip

The trouble is gaaagh the whoops items for me are extra things I buy or DCs put in the trolley -they soon add up and before I know it I have overspent.
I would love a trolley on wheels but I cant justify getting one !

twinkly - I dont think its that odd never having eaten or seen anyone eat an aubergine. Its quite a posh food isnt it really and not something peoples homes I know would have in a meal. I agree with gaahh you just dont see many people eating them suppose it depends on your area.

I have got a trolley on wheels. It is quite a trendy one though. Yes, I am turning into my Mum.
I don't drive, don't want to do online shopping and found it hard going carrying shopping for 3 people over a mile home. It cost £12 but have saved on taxi fares .

Twinkly, I can quite believe that Jelly has never seen anyone eat an aubergine, I don't know anyone but me who eats them and I don't know anyone who buys them. I asked some of my neighbours the other day if they would like some courgettes (I have about a million and the kids were getting a bit fed up of them) and only 1 of them even knew what they were but didn't want any because they had never eaten one.

No-one else I know uses chard or kohl-rabi or runner beans or any of the other stuff that I grow either, except for the potatoes, carrots and things like that. Also can't imagine anyone eating 8 different fruit and veg portions every day either. It would cost far to much. Some days at the height of harvest time, we might manage 6 or 7 different veg, if I made veg pasta bake for lunch and green bean and corn casserole for tea or something similar, but not fruit. As I say, berries and the like far to expensive. Apples, bananas and tangerine type things in here and even then no more than 2 pieces a day, usually just one. However, I do try to make sure that we get 5 a day using things like basic veg, beans/pulses, a glass of basics orange juice etc. Even things like raisins, carrot or banana in cakes helps towards a portion.

A weekday delivery from Asda costs 3.50 and Sainsbury deliver free if you spend over a certain amount. Bus to Asda here costs about 1.50 and still leaves a half hour walk, taxi home is over 7pounds, so well worth getting it delivered. I can't get to a Sainsbury from here without taking 2 buses, spending about a fiver to get there and well over double that to get home. It's a shame that I can't get whoops stuff but, tbh, our Asda only takes a very little off anyway, you almost never get anything decent (unless you go on Hogmanay and then it's stupid stuff like a 3kg steak pie for 50p) and a 6kg pork roast for a fiver.

Can't remember whoo asked but I used to make my own soap powder but it's hard to get borax so I don't do it now, I just use about 1/2 of the recommended dose.

Wasn't it Anthea Turner's programme who showed you how to make washing powder and washing up liquid?

Really could do with finding these sorts of things out. I can not cut back on my food budget anymore than I already have. So now it's cleaning products that are on my hit list.

Bleach is out, so am just using soapy water and/or lemon juice. It's the washing powder and comfort that's killing me at the moment.

Does anyone use those washing balls? are they any good?

I'd love the recipe for home made washing gel.

I don't know if there is a alternative to persil/ariel and so on, maybe making your own is the way to go, washing balls on the other hand are disaster, they are not laundering,and clothes come out of machine not smelling fresh.
I did also try washing powder for Aldi, I can't remember the name, that made mine and DD'S knickers come out in shreds, not joking it had holes all over it, talking over false economy, had to go and buy new knickers,they cost me a lot more then box of Ariel.

There are instructions for making washing powder on moneysavers.com. Try the old style board. A lot of people use soda crystals either for pre soak or to top up washing powder. I save a little by never using fabric conditioner. I haven't used it for 20 years, I don't feel the need. Once the clothes are washed they are clean. Drying in sunlight whenever possible makes washing even cleaner [especially whites].

Boots sell Borax >I used to make my own cleaning products but eco cloths and method watered down about the same. I do use white vinegar alot though to descale kettle and get rid of limescale.
Obviously having a veggie box I eat at least 5 portions of fruit and veg-most is in soups or veggie/casseroles

Breakfast-scrambled egg /toms or porridge and banana glass of orange juice=2 portions

Lunch- homemade lentil soup(onions,carrots,pots ,sometimes a leek or celery)plus
apple or 2 satsumas =2 portions

Dinner-beef/veg casserole pots carrots or peas =2 portions
I eat fruit for pudding so probably a pear or melon =1 portion

I think if you cook from scratch you end up chucking in onions,carrot,or whatever veg is lurking and needs using up.
Add in the grapes from a nice glass of red and you have 8 portions
However can hardly justify the cost ofanymore

I also occasionally run the machine without powder/liquid -there is always some residue left in there !

With the liquid for clothes washing. I decant it from the big bottle into a hand wash dispenser and then squirt it 4-6 times into the drawer in the washing machine. I'm still on my first bottle of liquid! Amazing.

Do people find the veg boxes worth having?

See, MrsBaggins, that must be where I am going wrong. I can't drink anymore so am missing out on all those portions of grapes Our Boots used to have borax, but they don't have it any more, I don't know why, and the next nearest one would cost me about a tenner in bus fares to get there, so it kind of negates the savings.

I agree it's much easier to get veg when you cook from scratch because you can sneak stuff in. Also think that frozen peas are a godsend, I put them in tons of stuff like scrambled egg rice, balsamic pasta salad and the like. Today I made mashed boiled eggs in cheese sauce on toast for lunch and added about 1/2 a bag of basics frozen peas.

Recipe I use for soap powder is 2 parts soap:1part soda crystals:1 part borax. For the soap you can either use soap flakes or just grate up a bar of soap (fairy household soap works well). You only use a couple of tablespoons of the mix each wash so it is quite cost effective.

The washing gel is easy to do!
Grate a 100/125g (depending on the soap, some are 100g some are 125g) bar of soap into a large saucepan
Add 1.5 litres boiling water (this is one full kettle full near enough)
Put on hob and whisk until the soap is dissolved.
Take off heat and add 100g borax/borax substitute, and 100g of soda crystals, stir thoroughly, put back on hob for a few mins stirring to ensure that all the powders are dissolved.
At this stage I pour the contents into a washing up bowl as I find it easier for the next stage.
Add a further 4 litres of boiling water and mix thoroughly.
The mixture will gel in 24-48 hours, depending on the soap used- you will need to keep whisking it as it tends to solidify on top and be runny underneath!.
Once mixture is cold decant into bottles (I use 3 empty 4 pint milk bottles) but make sure you leave a good size space in the top of the bottle as you will need to shake it before you use it.
Use about 50-60ml on each wash (I use a dispenser and put it in the drum)

This mixture will do around 75 to 90 washes, and depending on what soap you use costs around £1 to make