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.

[IfNotNowThenWhen]

morebeta-
"In a panic, central banks printed vast amounts of money after the financial crisis to save the banks and fund the Govt deficits. This fed directly into much higher fuel and basic food commodity prices."

Why did printing money feed into higher fuel and commodity prices Beta?

[fuzzpig]

I sent DH looking for tuna in the coop and they didn't have any today :(

Re: the value cheese. It's quite normal for bigger packs to be cheaper per kilo, in lots of products and within same brand etc. I guess due to different packaging to product ratio etc. It's annoying though as sometimes I feel pressured, in a way, to buy the bigger one as it is better value - but then, if you aren't going to use that amount, it's not really saving money because it might go off if it's a perishable product.

[MrsPennyapple]

We also grow some of our own veg, but having done it for a couple of years now, we've learned that unless you REALLY LOVE doing it, it's not worth growing stuff that's cheap to buy anyway. Someone else already mentioned buying a sack of potatoes, that costs about £7 around here, and they are far better than what we grew last year. Onions are only about £1 for five or six, so it really isn't worth the time, effort and garden space growing them ourselves. However, we like leeks and they are often £1 each or more in the supermarket (no decent grocer here). We must have saved ourselves £50 just through growing leeks this year. And I'm using more of the green part, rather than throwing it out - I hate to think of how much food I've wasted by doing that.

The rest of the groceries are difficult as we have no Aldi / Lidl etc here. I am starting to compare prices more between the two supermarkets we do have, but it's difficult when the prices change week by week.

[GrendelsMum]

Mrs Pennyapple - I totally agree. We've got one of Bob Flowerdew's books and he says if you're limited in space and time, only grow stuff that's expensive to buy - soft fruit, salad crops, fennel, aubergines, asparagus, rhubarb - or tastes much better fresh, like tomatoes.

[Pixel]

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

Oh great. I don't agree with Halal slaughter and am already incensed that food is not labelled as such so that I can avoid it, it's pushing the prices up as well. Talk about adding insult to injury.

[marriedinwhite]

They would never have done the same with Kosher - my family had to go to quite significant lengths to get kosher stuff - apart from limited resources within about 5 miles - that meant coming to London (80 miles). Wonders why that is. And I agree I don't need to eat Halal meat either.

[Mehrida]

I got stung for tuna as well. We only have a Tesco Metro.

Just to let OP know she's not alone!

[andubelievedthat]

ICeland and"poundland>thank the lord! ,And you are skint when toilet paper is the newspaper ! esp. one picked up on the bus, i.e. Metro

[nkf]

Growing your own veg is very expensive. You are basically growing meals for slugs and squirrels.

[Schnullerbacke]

Great thread!

I read the other day that cheese can be made to last longer if you add a cube of sugar to it. It will absorb the extra moisure and thus keeps the cheese for longer. Sugar cube should be changed every day.

[Dereksmalls]

I never pay full price for anything, bulk buy madly when staples are discounted and use the freezer much more. I bought some reduced peppers yesterday, chopped them up and lobbed them in the freezer the second I got home. Have started doing that with chillies too, takes the heat out of them a bit but they are always available when I need them.

I very rarely stick to a shopping list if what I need isn't reduced, it has to be an absolute essential for that. My main shops are Aldi and Waitrose (freezer is full of reduced price free range pork from the offer last week), I was in Lidl the other day but left without buying anything when I realised I was still going to have to go to Aldi - the only things Lidl is better for is goat's cheese and chocolate raisins.

My kitchen cupboards took like those of a mad woman though, with my huge piles of spelt pasta (reduced at the Ethical Supermarket) and Belvita biscuits...

[sarahtigh]

it is not worth growing potatoes carrots onions etc they are always relatively cheap but raspberries normally £2 for about 250g can be trained along a fence easily blackberries can be picked for free probably within walking distance of everyone as abundant in city waste ground too and they freeze quite well, rhubarb is worth growing and salad

tomatoes taste better but you can only effectively grow 5 sprays bunches per plant so by the time you factor grow bags etc not really cheaper but they do taste about 10 times better so do strawberries though pick your own then making jam/ freezing is probably as good

[acsec]

I shop in Lidl, I find everywhere else much too expensive.

[Moominsarehippos]

Even Tescos prices have really jumped (see what I did there?). I saw lots of (non own branded) things today that were quite a bit dearer than Sainsburys.

[colleysmill]

Anyone else who shops in lidl notice the 3p price rise in bread this weekend? Valve loaf here risen (ha ha!) to 50p.

I remember the days when Tesco valve bread was 17p - and its not that long ago really.

Mind you I still love my lidl