to think the price of shopping is getting rediculous?

[Ilovesunflowers]

Especially tuna. Noticed a pack of 4 was nearly £9 in my local supermarket. I use a lot of tuna and it used to be a cheap meal (pasta, tuna and veg).
Bread is crazily expensive. It's hard to keep costs down for shopping now.

[ladymariner]

My friends sister bought a beef Wellington in M&S at Christmas and paid ££55 for it!!!!! I kid you not......it's a different world, I tell you

[HollyBerryBush]

It can be done, but you really have to have your wits about you and your eye out for a bargain.

I tend to do one mega shop on pay day of all the heavy duty stuff like loo rolls (2 packs of 16 so thats a fortune) cleaning fluids, toilettries and so forth plus any tins, packs of pasta, rice, sacks of spuds so thats the thick end of 200 quid.

milk, bread, is bought daily.

fruit/veg weekly

meat daily, I am your reduced shelf hover-er and I will clean a shelf out and freeze it, often getting a months worth at a time - but we are utter carnivores

[ladymariner]

I, on the other hand, am an ardent Aldi/Lidl fan.....I've saved loads since switching to them. Their large chickens are massive, £4.69 each, and we get a roast dinner from it, then pick it and get another 2 meals from the rest of the meat such as a curry and a chicken pasta bake.

[cheddarcheeselover]

We spend £60-£80 a week for four o us, including all cleaning and toiletries.
Shop online so its easy to compare prices, and always buy the things that are on offer, and bulk buy things on offer that keep/can be frozen. We also meal plan to the last slice of ham, so there's no waste. We eat well though imo.
next weeks plan is tues- make HUGE pot of bolognaise with mince and split it into 3, so on tues we have spag bol, on wed it gets turned into chilli and on thurs it's a lasagne. fri chicken stir fry, sat sausages, sun roast chicken, which on monday will be turned into a double potion of curry, half into the freezer for another week.
careful meal planning has cut our bill alot.

[wannabedomesticgoddess]

We are carnivores in a big way too Holly.

Its so hard to keep the costs down with meat, but the slow cooker helps with cheap joints.

[FamiliesShareGerms]

Remember some prices are artificially inflated so that they can be cut for a "special offer" at a later date. Maybe why the tuna was so expensive, OP?

[cheddarcheeselover]

oh and we buy value tuna!

[bubbles1231]

I've starting shopping at Aldi am saving £30 per week. Tesco shops used to cost £100, it's £70 at Aldi.
Ther are some things that Aldi don't do, so we have compiled a short list of those. TBH we can do without them anyway
We to get meat locally, and don't eat much of it, but bulk out with veg.
We have hens so that gives us a regular eggy meal. Cost of hen food has skyrocketed lately but still cheaper than buying eggs.
As has dog food (up from £26 a bag to £31 for 15kg) .Our local feed merchant is offering their own brand dog food for £9 per 15kg. It's for working dogs but the analysis is identical to what we use already.

[ouryve]

Where the hell do you shop that Tuna is £2.25 a tin?

[JollyRedGiant]

My shopping is always more expensive in Tesco than Morrisons. I did a month shopping in Tesco for every shop and noticed a huge difference in our bank balance.

Now I just go to Tesco once a month to pick up things I can't get in Morrisons.

[FreePeaceSweet]

I switched to Aldi about a year ago. Our fortnightly shop was around £80 (no meat and certain other items as we buy in bulk from Costco). I have no problem with the fruit and veg as I just tend to buy whatever 6 items are on for 39p. I have noticed the cereals have jumped up in price drastically. For instance their version of Special K which tastes identical was 99p this time last year. Now its £1.49. Still cheaper than Kelloggs at £2.09 but I noticed Aldi's version is 500g whereas Kelloggs is 600g so really not that much in it. I love Aldi and prefer a lot of their stuff over big brands (seriously, try the Choco biscuit bars. They are amazing and you get 9 for £2. I have to hide them from the kids and dh). But I think Aldi are now relying on their reputation as a high quality yet cheap as chips store rather than still supplying huge discounts on essential items. Things like continental cheese and meats cannot be beaten. No chance. But milk, yogurt, sugar and eggs are no cheaper than the big four. We spent over £100 last week for the first time ever and we were consciously avoiding luxury items and things like pistachios, dips, and bread sticks. Aldi works out cheaper overall but not by much. Our old shopping bill was around the £100 so it is gradually creeping up. :(

[JollyRedGiant]

Actually I have some free time this week so I might do Lidl and Morrisons one after the other on Wednesday. Hard work with a 21mo though.

[ouryve]

As for crops, last summer - I had unlimited strawberries, until the wasps found them (used a fortune in netting to keep the birds off), about 2lb of only just ripe tomatoes from my plastic greenhouse around Halloween (factor the cost of the now knackered by wind, snow and HDNL drivers greenhouse into that) unlimited thyme, sage & rosemary (first winter that's not died so I've had to start again), a few ropey leeks planted the year before, which finally got big enough to be worth digging up, just before they flowered, 2 teeny tiny summer squashes (I usually get loads of squashes and courgettes), 600g of blueberries (had to re-pot both plants at a cost of £3 for a bag of ericaceous compost) and 5 sodding kg of backbreakingcurrants.

So the moral of that is, if you want to leave off the land, so long as you can bend over and pick them for several hours a week, throughout July, and had a primary school aged slave to help you, plant a blackcurrant bush.

[ouryve]

live off

[whateveritakes]

Still don't get why processed crap is so much cheaper. Those burgers had ingredients from all over the EU, made somewhere else with somebody's labour and a tonne of packaging yet they are much cheaper than buying plain British mince to make your own. How?

[wannabedomesticgoddess]

Processed crap uses poorer quality meat. Sometimes even mechanically recovered meat. Bulks things out with fillers, and relies on additives for flavour instead of the food itself.

[fuzzypicklehead]

The Moneysaving Expert forums are great for pointing out glitches, price errors, and bargains. I always check there before I physically walk into a shop, as there are random bits you can stock up on for nearly nothing. (Once I picked up stacks of custard pots for the kids lunches and a pricing glitch meant I paid about 1p each.)

Also, doing your online shop through the Mysupermarket website usually saves me 20-25% on my weekly shop (even after delivery costs) by telling me when I can pick up a better deal.

[HollyBerryBush]

A lot of things do contribute to food prices, not just supermarket greed.

Firstly we can all see the price of petrol rising, that reflects the cost of oil. Planes boats cars = shipping. So the manufacturers and freighters have to bear those costs also.

Secondly harvests - a few years ago it rained a lot in South America so coffee went through the roof. Ok you could have bought lesser brands grown elsewhere in the world but to me coffee is a luxury, I want to drink nice coffee.

Wheat at the moment is through the roof due to poor harvests. As my baker said to me, I can buy substandard German flour or I can continue to import Canadia, do you want nice bread or not? he had a point. Nice bread is another thing I insist on - I don't buy value bread, or freeze bread, bread must be fresh and always kept at room temperature - t'is Hollys Law! but wheat prices also impact on pasta

Ground nut (peanut) is used in most cooking processes - again most of this is grown in Africa, dependent upon where, you are faced with crop failure, civil wars and so forth - thus the price is reflected.

Rice, again, tends to come from countries that experience vast changes in weather conditions - the bulb of Africa, South America and Thailand. labout is cheap but shipping isnt.

Even looking at animals - you have to feed them - price of feed is reflected. Also to maintain herds you need vets, drugs, innoculations, shipping licences.

A large proportion of our meat is slaughtered in France. Again there is a large proportion of abatoirs in France that are halal - there is a big EU trade in halal meat. Again, the majority of meat in schools, hospitals, public sector canteens has come via this route. It is more labour intensive

[Moominsarehippos]

We spent almost double DOUBLE this week buying food (not luxuries, booze, etc). It doesn't add up! I bought some meat/fish to replenish the (small) freezer but that couldn't have accounted for it. I know I will still need to pick bits up during the week too.

Just had the gas bill (over 4x the price of the last one - ok its been cooooold), and the phone bill (I never use the sodding thing!).

Every thing has just gone up so much and I am earning so much less now - no bonus, raise, pension arrrrrrr... Not a happy bunny!

[mademred]

We have started using farm foods for frozen foods, also pick up 18 loo rolls for £4, not bad qaulity either.we are slowly trying their own brands and to be honest its nice.only use asdas little angel nappies, and only try and get the offers in each shop if they are a good deal.

[VisualiseAHorse]

Well, I just did our bi-weekly Asda delivery, and it cost me £111 (including delivery charge). That includes baby milk (can't wait till he can drink cows milk!), loo rolls, laundry liquid etc.

When I was younger, I use to raid the shelves in the evenings, when prices had just been cut. Remember getting a huge beef steak for about £2.00. It's a great way to fill your freezer. You can even freeze crossaints and doughnuts - just warm them in a low oven for a few minutes to freshen them up!

[nkf]

I think you might be over shopping. That is some pricey tuna you have there. The credit crunch threads on MN are brilliant for ideas on how to get the most for your money. One thing I have found is using the freezer more. I never throw food out any more and I'm ashamed to say that I used to. Fruit and veg can be very cheap.

[Titchyboomboom]

My top tips which work for us (possibly not anyone else!)

Shop at Aldi
Shop at lidl
Grow veg (one year I had 20 tomato plants in pots which made a ton of sauce, onions, parsnips, lettuce, salad, potatoes, herbs to give food flavour) I only have a small gravel garden with pots and raised beds but started growing with carol kleins book and never looked back. Also nowhere near self sufficient but a start
Shop offers and almost out of date and freeze / make up a meal out of it. I like co op late at night for reductions

I don't tend to buy many brands or frozen food, but love fresh and tinned. Frozen convenience seems crazily expensive

[sarahtigh]

i shop mainly at ASDA but buy meat from butchers much cheaper go to aldi / farm foods about once a month and top up weekly in co-op/village shop for milk as ASDA too far away to make saving economical

we spend about £80 a week all in for myself DH and DD but that also includes cleaning stuff washing powder shampoo etc ( it would be less if DH did not eat crisps and chocolate bars so much he loves his snacks)

food prices have gone up due to failed harvests increasing fuel prices etc

most people spend 10-15 % of take home pay on food, however in 1930's etc most people would have needed to spend over 50% on food, so though it is now more than past few years as a percentage of pay it is still a lot lot lower than ever before in history

if you do not want cheaper tuna think of something else instead, make sure you do not waste food, how much do you throw away?

nearly all meat and fruit veg is cheaper in fruit/veg/ butchers shops

[Virgil]

As well as bulk buying stuff on special offer (although I do appreciate you have to have the cash for that), its well worth buying a store cupboard item each week. It's so much easier to make cheap meals if you have bits in the cupboard like pearl barley, lentils, plain and sr flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, spices, herbs, tomato purée etc etc. Once the store cupboard is nice and full buy an extra tin of something each week eg an extra tin of tomatoes, kidney beans or chick peas, a bag of value pasta or some risotto rice. It also helps to have some complete emergency meals in the cupboard eg basics chicken noodles which you wouldn't want to eat unless you had to but they are 13p so well worth having a few packets in the back of the cupboard. Im sure my full larder is why I can do a full shop for 4 for £50.