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!

Ah, but it's along the same sort of lines...

ooh can someone please PM me the £30 meal plan?
We really need to cut down our food spending as it is starting to become ridiculous the amount of our weekly shop.

I agree, prices have gone up. A year ago my average shopping bill per week for the 5 of us was around £70 per week from Aldi/Iceland.

Now it's more like £80-£90.

Inflation and rising oil prices have really had a double whammy on rising prices.

If you factor all the other things caused by the recession such as no/minimal pay rises, tax increases and austerity measures then it's a perfect storm really.

Hopefully things will start to improve soon. I'm lucky DP managed to find a job recently or we'd be up shit creek.

Sorry for not name checking but somebody further up has mentioned how they used to enjoy food shopping and now they just feel dread, I feel exactly that.

About 3 years ago we could spend what we spend now and have a kitchen full of food including different cheeses, a selection of fruit, squash, alcohol, nice meat, good quality dried pasta and various treats. Now despite meal planning, cooking from scratch, buying what we can from basics ranges and cutting out the "unnecessary" we really struggle to do our shopping on our allocated budget & often have to go back later in the week to restock.

It is also made more difficult because DP has a skin problem aggravated by certain foods which means that there are some cheap meals that I can't cook because he can't eat dairy (cow) or much pastry or flour based things. He also has to buy the more expensive & sensitive toiletries. I dread it when he buys shaving gear plus shampoo and body wash because I know that that will be the best part of fifteen quid gone before we start the rest of the shop!

I am so bored of cooking the same old things like chilli and spag bog because I know they are affordable & will do us several meals. I am also fed up that my DP seems to think that I ought to be kind of food fairy and make a limited budget stretch to a gourmet daily food offering.

Eeyore - are you serious? Would you eat a "fresh fish" that has been in the fridge for a year like you would eat a packet of year old pasta?
One of us is a donkey ;)

Its hard, isnt it?

I have;
1 dc with sn (fussy eater - sensory issues)
1 dc who is just plain fussy
and
I have allergies/intolerances

So we cant all eat the same thing every night

Dh and I will be eating lots of soup, jacket potatoes and pancakes over the winter!!!

Erm. no. I said I bought reduced eggs. I bought them on the date of their 'display until' date but the 'use by date' gives them another week. What on earth has fish got to do with it? Or donkeys?

I can't believe how much my food bill has gone up during the summer holidays, we are going through fruit so quickly and any home made baking is gone immediately.
I live in an area where the organic foodbox is the norm but not for me, I love to find a bargain and hate wasting food.
I think the following ways are really good ways to save money, and make life less complicated.
I roughly do a meal planner over a three week basis, (just like school dinners) so all the meals are different but well arranged so that if you get a massive bag of potatoes then that week will include numerous dishes with that being the bulk, it also lets you work out how often you might want to eat meat/fish/salad/pasta etc. Plus if you've got fussy eaters like I have you just stick to your guns and they either eat it or go hungry (I always include a favourite in there, like a roast or macoroni cheese). Although I have my meal planner organised for three weeks I do the online shop with tesco weekly. However to ensure that I know I'm saving some money too, I also go to Lidl which I really rate, pricewise their fruit and veg is amazing, always seems fresher and juicy (always buy loose its cheaper), and depending on what you eat their juice, cheese, bacon, milk, yoghurts, bread, tins, cereal are all cheaper. If you like things like chorizo, parma ham, smoked salmon, serrano they are miles cheaper.
The german little sausages are amazing in taste and price, good for sausage and mash/toad in the hole/hot dogs.

I always get my toilet roll there too, v.cheap - always makes me laugh when people buy posh cushioned toilet roll.

I pick up the other bits we are missing from Tesco, + nappies etc.
I still have a lot to learn but enjoy cooking and trying to save money at the same time.
I recommend bbc goodfoods website for recipe idea, the numerous pasta dishes alone are worth checking out for cheap filling meals.
ps. always get fresh herbs from either growing them yourselves, asking friends (sharing or begging) or taking them from gardens/parks.

Like someone said, with rising oil prices like we've been having the cost of food is just going to keep on going up.

Its not just the cost of red (agricultural) diesel - which has gone up 25% since this time last year - but fertilisers as well which are massively oil intensive (so have also gone up around 24% since last summer).

So unless supermarkets start taking less profits (ha bloody ha) then prices are going to go up - farmers' profits have already been cut to the bone.

Mind you as someone else said higher up the thread land prices are also massively out of kilter with anything that makes sense. Say you wanted to borrow money from the bank to buy 20 acres and set up a market garden growing veg - quite rightly the bank would laugh you out of the door, no matter how good a grower you are. Any decent bit of land you'll just be outbid by someone with a well paying job buying it to put a pony on it.

im stuggling not helped that oil is now 53 p a litre on a good day 59 is mor eoften rising in September to 70-80 p a litre minimum delivery 500 litrres and that is a month -6 weeks in winter

So expensive to feed 3 kids when they are off school. I work and my teenagers eat all day long, or so it seems. Holidays I can spend up to £150 a week for 5 of us, includes everything from washing stuff to shampoo. during term time I cut down to about £110-£120. DH buys wine, and I go to bakers and farm shop once a fortnight but that is on top. If we have no cash, we just have to cut back.

Fruit & veg - I think I spend over £30 on fruit & veg a week let alone feed my family for that amount. I always notice they budget plans do not meet the 5 let alone 7-8 a day we are meant to eat of fruit & veg. Fruit & veg of varied colours seem to be the most expensive - aubergines, blueberries, yellow peppers etc...

Lamb has become a luxury item I think this is ridiculous, I don't understand how it could have gone up so much in price.

Yes lamb is so dear, it is crazy! We used to eat it twice a week, now it is once or twice a month. And we are pretty comfortably off.

I spend £100 a week online, and then an additional £15-20 a week on top up shops. A year ago spending that much would have bought me whatever I wanted, now if I do that the bill comes to £140 a week plus top ups which is just ridiculous when there are only 3 of us eating (4 soon once DS2 starts weaning!).

That spend includes very little in the way of toiletries, we buy no formula or nappies and we buy wine separately. Bonkers.

Another one here agreeing with online food shopping being a suprisingly good way of keeping an eye on costs. It costs me £3.50 to have my food shopping delivered on a Tuesday evening, I live in the arse end of nowhere so it's cheaper than the cost of diesel to get there and back, plus the fact that I don't lose 3 hours of my time traipsing around.

It tells what the best deals are so you don't miss out if it's something that you are buying anyway, plus it means that you can make the most of the bulk buy offers that you might struggle to carry home on the bus etc (it's amazing what you can store under the bed when you run out of space in the kitchen cupboards!)

Although I think the thing I like best is that you know exactly how much you've spent and there's no nasty suprises when you get to the till, I often find myself taking something out of my 'shopping basket' because I've realised I can manage without it for a bit longer. Plus if you've ordered something and they don't have it in stock then they will provide you with an alternative for free.

I use T*sco btw.

I think as some other posters have mentioned, the problem we're having (and seeing with friends and family) is that if you are already pared down to the cheapest food (no luxuries like impulse buying, batch cooking, value brands are the only ones you buy, strict meal planning) it's impossible.... literally impossible.... to cope with some of the price rises we're seeing.

Example: our tesco and asda have stopped selling some of the value ranges we've relied on in the past (own brand marg, for example - nowhere to be found in either local store now, it's brand or nothing). And there's nowhere lower to go.

You can't cut back when there's nothing to cut back on.

Our answer is to cut it out, tbh.

I don't bake homemade cakes any more, butter is too expensive. We've not bought ready made ones in years, so it is a shame I can't even afford to "waste" the butter on a "cheap" vic sponge for us. I just can't stretch to the "luxury/surplus" ingredients on the list when the basics take us to the limit each week.

Has anyone noticed the price of flour? We've done homemade bread for a coupleof years (to save money) but bread flour is making me rather worried. Are we just going to have to start cutting out eating our 2 loaves a week? It's what DH and I eat at work - since we can't afford lunch out - what can we do then...???

Chestnutx3 - " Fruit & veg of varied colours seem to be the most expensive - aubergines, blueberries, yellow peppers etc... "

I think though that all of the above have to be considered luxuries in the UK climate - even 15 years ago I can't imagine anyone except the very wealthy would have expected them to be affordable.

Oh I have all three growing in my greenhouse/patio. Sainsbury's often have 2 aubergines for 99p.

Chestnut: Fine to grow on a patio small scale, but not really that realistic commercially other than for a very short season - also with blueberries (as with all soft fruit) there's the cost of picking of course . . .

I suppose what I'm saying though is that a lot of people have very high expectations now of what they should be able to afford - so for example out of season tomatoes and cucumbers are the norm not an unaffordable luxury as they would have been not that long ago.

Just for example dd's school sent home a suggestions list for fruit that children could bring as snacks - it included things like fresh pineapple, blueberries, nectarines. To me those are things that would be a special treat for a birthday maybe, not an everyday snack (to be fair, dd is perfectly happy with an apple or some carrot sticks!)

Of course none of that helps people who are already at the most basic of basics and can't even afford beans on toast :(

I'm using all the smartprice cleaning products and I havent noticed a difference in their performance, if you clean daily you dont need these powerfull cleaners.

SP;
Multisurface cleaner
Disinfectant
Cream Cleaner
Bio washing powder
Thin bleach for tannin stains
Wirewool soap pads
Rubber gloves
Toilet cleaner
White dishcloths
Wax furniture polish
Dishwasher tablets.

I still use shiny sinks and aldi shower daily cleaner and the comfort white fabric conditoner is on offer in asda, £8 for two five litre containers which will last me at least two years as I only use half the amount anyway.

Sainsbury's sell a pack of peppers for £1.35 [basics]. Obviously it depends on the colours. Tomatoes [basics] are 70p, a mixture of sizes. I just examine each pack till I find one with lots of cherry toms in it. They also sell basic courgettes. Packs of stirfry veg at £1 is pretty good value as well. I also buy basic tinned sweetcorn [23p] and basic dried mixed fruit. They also do bags of frozen spinach [£1], great for putting in curries and a good vegetable source. 1 bag does quite a lot of servings.
Someone mentioned flour, a big bag of flour [plain or self raising] is approx. 50p this week. Again this is basics. [not sure if you can make bread with this though]. It is fine for scones and pastry though.

We find that growing our own veg means that we don't buy many vegetables during the summer - we grow more expensive vegetables, and buy cheaper ones like potatoes and onions. When the fruit trees get going, we won't buy fruit either. I also buy a lot of cheap fruit from the market (or from neighbours), stew it and freeze it or bottle it to eat on porridge and for pudding in winter.

If you like blueberries particularly, they're a lot cheaper frozen, and I wouldn't be surprised if they were more nutritious. The reason shops push blueberries so much is that they have ludicrously long shelf-lives, so you can ship them from Argentina without them rotting.

By the way, I notice that people say they aren't making cakes because the butter's too expensive. You might want to try baking margarine instead - even Delia Smith says she uses it and the taste is comparable. We never used anything else growing up, and I still agonise over the waste of money henever I put butter in a cake.

I think Takver has a good point that for some people, more expensive food like nectarines and blueberries has become normal, while some others are already living on the most basic of basics.

I am using mysupermarket and am finding it really useful!

I find this threat very interesting. I moved to the UK 3 years ago and have recently thought I am spending more money than before, but thought this might be my own perception of things.
I do buy home brand things whenever I can but I try to eat healthily with fresh fish and meat etc and it is expensive.

I have a great recipe for chocolate cake using canola oil. You would NEVER know it does not contain butter. Actually it doesn't contain eggs either so I suppose it's technically vegan. Anyway; it's delicious and everyone requests it and I can throw it together using just what's in the cupboard. I went through a vegan phase a while ago and did lots of baking without butter or eggs; they are really not necessary and you can definitely make lots of yummy things without them. Victoria sponge might be a challenge .

Porridge oats are very versatile. I don't actually make porridge as whenever I've tried it's come out too lumpy, but a large bag can be bought quite cheaply and can be added to loads of things to bulk them out. Eg:

1: Add to flour when making bread.
2: Obviously flapjacks and crumbles.
3: Bulk out mince when making bolognaises and burgers.
4: Add to flour when making pies.
5: Make oatcakes.

Offal is cheap as well.