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!

True, Ragged. It takes a while to get into the practice of only buying things you can definitely use up. I can't see how it would work for a single person or pensioner at all.

I've found if I take an extra half an hour in the supermarket I dont spend anymore than I did 6 months ago. I change my meal plans depending on what is on offer. Granted, we eat a lot more basic pasta and potato dishes, but if something is 50% off that week or BOGOF we get it, if it isnt the following week we dont.

I spend about £50 a week on food and bits. That includes a lot of fresh fruit - we just have a rule of no more than £1 per bag. So some weeks we have basic bananas and apples, other weeks we get nectarines or oranges. Asda is great for their fruit and veg.

The co-op is fab for meat. They seem to have really early sell by dates, so chuck it in the reduced counter really early. We've had some lovely meat from there for literally pennies. And same with their fruit and veg - punnets of cherries for 50p, huge bags of carrots for 9p!

Yes i agree with Cocyx there about it being a kick up the arse , i felt the same way,i realised i was spending lots at the supermarket and we were all getting fat! so now i have really "slimmed" down my food bill, lots of meals without meat now too, and far less treats all the time.

The problem for many, is we we?d already done the slimming down and where already on the very slimmed down shop/diet, when these increases started hitting, and there?s very little room left for us to manoeuvre.

I shop in cash as well. I take out my weekly allocated money and divide it up for food/petrol/gas/electric. So I am scrupulous - I dont physically have more than my £50 on me so I have to be.

I also managed to get things into a cycle, so one week I buy loo roll, the next washing powder etc.

And I use the kids shampoo and body wash now as its cheaper.

Food is hard, but tastes change. I'm lucky that I dont have another adult to please - what I put in front of the kids they have. So if its omlette and beans 2 nights in a row, its omlette and beans.

I dont buy anything branded at all. My indulgence is 6 cans of coke a week, normally own brand now.

And yes, I am one who doesnt shop fairtrade/organic etc. So if there are 15 eggs for £1.50 in asda, then I buy them. Yes they are caged, but they can feed the 3 of us for 3 days. Same as cheap meat - this week we have smoked gammon slices at 97p for 2. We had paprika potato wedges for 29p today for dinner as they were on special offer as their BB was today. Them with 30p worth of carrots and £1 worth of pizza fed the three of us. Its smartprice basic food, but its food.

yanbu
We don't eat meat, there are only three of us and it's causing us weekly stress trying to keep the food bill below £80. We shop between Lidl and Tesco and buy the value range where possible, I bake scones, biscuits etc and we do not eat processed food as a rule...
With food and then the energy price rises and another baby on the way it is really worrying.

YANBU it is very worrying, I don't think we could cut down our shopping bill much more (we've both lost jobs with the cuts too)

We've stopped eating meat which is making a bit of a difference and mostly buy own brand stuff unless I know it is vile. Over the summer I've struggled to get enough food in the house to meet the demands of constantly hungry kids without giving them crap all the time. What really annoys me is that the best offers are always on the processed rubbish rather than on staples and fruit & veg!

YANBU.
This time last year our weekly food bill (including dog food and some nappies and wipes) was approx £30 (giver or take a fiver) now it is about £50 [scared emoticon]

I think the food has def. gone up, or rather some articles, we as family more or less eat and buy the same every week, today I went to local supermarket the one I use always, and brought home literally four non full bags for £60,and that it suppose to last us until next thursday, well it's not going to.
The only bargain today was fresh fish from the counter, one lot on offer, and one very reduced, which was eaten this evening, (I hope we survive tonight) I only realised recently that fresh fish and meat counter somehow works out cheaper then already prepackaged staff in chiller isle, so definitely worth looking around.
DH makes trip down to "Smithfield's" meat market every 6 to 8 weeks, and buy bulk of meat produce, same staff that you buy in supermarkets, which I then divide and portion, so that works out lot cheaper then buying it in shops or butchers, put it this way it takes a wizard(magician) to feed family of four these days.

I think the food has become more expensive here. It is ok if you only had to budget for food but the other costs have risen alot too such as gas, electricity, petrol as we all know then no pay rises in my job so it is a bit gloom and doom. Plus teenagers who excuse the cliche 'thinks money grows on trees'.

I don't know about food in Canada but my daughter has been there this month and commented on how cheap the petrol was. I was in the states and noticed how cheap cosmetics and household goods are compared to hear. Love shopping in Walgreens.

I, too try to cook from scratch and have been baking as I am off work and it is more economical than buying cakes.

I used to just swan off to Sainsburys and buy pretty much whatever I liked, in terms of food and drink, but have had to start being much more sensible and resisting impulse purchases. I've also started doing some shopping at Aldi, as well as buying more things in bulk when reduced or on offer. It's incredible how much more some things cost; someone else mentioned butter, margarine is also much more expensive, and the bread I always buy has gone up by more than 30%. Still very cheap compared to Norway, though!

Being the pedants that we are, DH and I keep a spreadsheet of our banking/spending. Interestingly enough, we just commented last night when looking at the spreadsheets

Some things are a lot more expensive, but if you stick to basics and plan it's still possible to eat well. Also to buys loads of tinned tomatoes or pasta when it's cheap.

Porridge is brilliant value, all ours love it with a bit of honey.

Home made soup is very cheap, if you use lentils and frozn veg with a home made stock. With some nice home made bread and cheese it makes a lovely healthy meal.

Baked potatoes with tuna or cheese or beans with salad is also cheap.

Macaroni cheese is cheap but not so healthy.

Anything to do with eggs, eg Spanish omlette, normal omelette.

Stews with plenty of beans.

Frozen fish fillets, frozen chicken pieces and frozen veg are all good value still.
Home baking can be cost effective if you only eat it instead of puddings.

Cheap puddings are custard and tinned fruit, milk puddings, natural yoghurt with jam or honey stirred in.

Basic popcorn popped in the microwave with a bit of toffee sauce stirred in makes a good treat.

Will stop now. Getting hungry...

Some very good tips there originalposter, I see many of you mention Aldi, we don't have one near where we are, but there is a Lidl, any one has any experience with Lidl, please share?

Could someone PM me the £30 meal plan? :)

We were at a friend's at the weekend and she did one cost-cutting thing that I have already stolen:- for breakfasts she buys a big tub of Basics natural yoghurt (about 55p) and then puts a bit of vanilla flavouring in it (even proper extract is only about a pound or so and lasts for ages) to have with fruit or cereal. I usually buy vanilla yoghurt for dd2 because she won't eat milk on cereal, so this will save me a lot of money. :)

We're also eating much more porridge than we used to because other cereals are so expensive now. I like it with stewed plums (plums are pretty cheap at the moment too).

We are feeling the pinch too. Lots of stuff that used to be really cheap has gone up - tuna used to be a student staple, but now comes under the heading of treats for us, value brand tomatoes have doubled in price.

I used to be able to put lots of fun stuff in the trolley for £50 (DDs learning pincer grip with blueberries, sigh), now I am scrimping and lucky to get under £60, and it's usually £70. Leeks are now a luxury, and even swede isn't cheap!

We have already cut back loads, and it's no fun any more. Even home baking isn't cheap with value brand butter at £2 a block. :(

Thanks SLM, I come from a long line of Aberdonians, so have thrifty genes.

Also, we don't buy fizzy drinks or squash. We drink water, milk and a little fruit juice. It frees up some money.

theghostnotme makes the point of spending more time in the supermarket. I think that is a good point. Many of us got used to strolling round the supermarket chucking whatever we fancied in our trollies. Times have changed and now we have to spend a little more time and energy to feed our families [which used to be the norm]
Another tip - I get a lot of toiletries from the 99p shop. Pantene, original source etc

Our shopping has gone up by about £20 a week (in the past few months), i seen to be buying less (half a trolly full) and its costing more, there are always lots of offers on but it tends to be on things that are unhealthy, the price of everyday things like, potatoes, cheese, eggs and bread have gone up a lot, we seem to be eating more rubbish (frozen rather than fresh) because its cheeper. I went to buy some apples in Tesco a few days ago and was shocked at the price (almost £3 for a bag of 5/6 apples), the price of fruit and veg seems to be getting higher.

We too stopped buying cereals(fancy type), we tend to eat lot of porridge, and no fizzy drinks nor bottled water in this household, due to the cost.
I also agree with home baking, it's cheaper and better, for relatively little money you can bake biscuits and cakes and at least you know what you put in them.
gone into the kitchen to fetch biscuit, will bake some more tomorrow

Marne
Frozen food is often fresher than 'fresh', especially fish and veg, so it is not rubbish unless it is frozen junk food.

Would someone mind PMing me the £ 30 meal plan please.

Its a case of changing shops or brands I think.

I get a cheese called GoEdam (they do a couple of others, Gouda is one) which is £1 a block.

Asda do bags of apples (this week green, last week red) 5 for £1. Their smartrprice bananas are £1 for about 8. Their blush pears are currently 6 for £1, and necatrines 5 for £1 along with peaches.

Their own brand cereal is also very economical (£1 for 24 weetabix) and they do things like Kingsmill bread 2 for £2. They had those big fridge packs of heniz baked beans for £1 the other day, and today 8 cans of tuna for £5. Their dried pasta is 32p a bag. packs of 12 slices of pastrami are 2 for £3 for sandwiches instead of other hams.

I actually find Asda better value than Lidls or Aldi any day. I spent £48 on a week's food shopping this week for 3 of us, and that with a son who needs soya yogurts and milk due to intollerances.

Our shop has jumped up dramatically in the last few months. It's scarey. I feel like I'm being punished for eating healthy foods like fruit and veg! And now we're having to buy nappies again the bill is even higher still so have been getting a few frights at the till.

Don't get me started on the ever increasing cost of gas and electric!