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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To be shocked at the rising price of food?

463 replies

AbsentmindedWoman · 13/10/2017 18:11

I do a fair bit of my grocery shopping at Aldi and Lidl, but dip into all the big stores very regularly as well for certain items I like when they are on offer to stock up, and also for yellow sticker bargains.

My bill has gone up by about a quarter in the last six months or so for the same products. Aldi and Lidl don't seem all that cheap anymore - although to be fair I don't know what doing my 'main' shop at Sainsbury's or Tesco or Morrisons.

I'm a little shocked at just how quickly the prices are going up. I knew they were going to rise but kind of expected a much more gradual increase. Silly me.

Has anyone else felt like this? Or does anyone else feel alarmed at not knowing when prices will level out and slow down?

OP posts:
BreakingDaddy · 14/10/2017 16:15

I earn 36K a year and I live in small Western town, I see no difference whatsoever in the quality between the so called big supermarkets and the so called "poor people" supermarkets.

People can think what they like, we have a post swimming tea of Angus burgers, chips, salad and coleslaw with banana chocloate monkeys for afters, we eat well.

Christ, look at the time......

MomToWedThorFriday · 14/10/2017 16:19

All I'm saying is that my shopping has roughly stayed the same for as long time, some things have even gone down, such as bread, pasta and cheese.

Same here. I’m sorry others are finding it different and struggling, but I was spending £55-65 a week to feed 4, 5 years ago and now I’m spending £65-70 a week on feeding 5 - one of whom is now on adult portions. I don’t think prices have risen as much as people seem to think here, except butter, which definitely has.

Doramaybe · 14/10/2017 16:44

Re the Aldi etc. versus other posher supermarkets quality debate, well my dears it is EU regulation that keeps food at all outlets safe and well regulated now.

When Brexit happens that will no longer be the case. You have been warned!

Rufustherenegadereindeer1 · 14/10/2017 17:43

Just bumped in to a friend at Sainsbury's

Where we spent a stupid amount on tea for tonight and tomorrow (and chocolate and booze and some plastic pumpkins...)

Her husband had done the aldi shop and she was topping up...she reckoned about £70 all in for the four of them for the week

GladAllOver · 14/10/2017 17:54

Yes doramaybe I'm looking forward to the chicken that is brought up in such filthy conditions that it has to be dunked in chlorine.

scaryteacher · 14/10/2017 18:11

Ta1k It's seasonal here for veg, as I refuse to pay for the imports, unless the furthest the things have come from is Spain. We have lots of butternut squash, leeks (stock response from dh when asked what he'd like for dinner is 'something with leeks') carrots and broccoli. Celeriac is as cheap as chips here, and the peppers are normally from the NL as are the tomatoes in the depths of winter.

Ta1kinPeece · 14/10/2017 18:13

Just about to pick kale and leeks and carrots for supper
lunch tomorrow will add in squash and spuds !

scaryteacher · 14/10/2017 18:14

I forgot to add that the potato counts as a veg here with them being sold specifically for steaming, chips, boiling, mashing. No all purpose King Eds or red spuds here.....and the potatoes all taste the same here too, which is dull.

scaryteacher · 14/10/2017 18:18

I love kale, especially with some balsamic, and I got a massive butternut at €1.29 a kilo, which will soup nicely, if there's any left after I've roasted it and done the Nigella recipe with Roquefort and pecans/walnuts. Walnuts grow in Belgium as we had a walnut tree at our last rental, as well as a medlar tree. The bloody landlords wanted it back and we had to move before the medlars were ready; I have one load in vodka, and had bought cheap brandy to do them with this year. last year I made medlar cheese with them, a bit like the membrillo from Spain.

Ta1kinPeece · 14/10/2017 18:26

scary
I have more cavolo nero kale than I can eat Smile but it will last on the plants till March
The spuds are in a clamp in the polytunnel - I lift as I need
Carrots stay in the ground till I need them
Squash are in the polytunnel till I need them
French beans were frozen when I had a glut

I'm well aware of what food comes from where.
Many people are not

BriechonCheese · 14/10/2017 19:05

Food prices probably have been too low for too long, if you take them in isolation.
But if mortgages are doled out based on income (and more recently) detailed evaluations of affordability and out goings then that means banks etc. have fixed in their mind what is acceptable to spend on food. If families suddenly have to pay 20-30% more on food a year it's going to leave a heck of a lot of people in a precarious position if the rest of society doesn't change to accommodate that. And of course these are businesses, why should they accommodate prices going up in other industries.

Now maybe food prices have been rock bottom for ages but here's the thing, no one is going to ask to pay more for their food - so people get used to a comfortable price for them and adapt their outgoings accordingly. They spend £400 pcm on food which means they can afford x house, y car and z on utilities.
I almost hear the crash coming.

And as for the "I call bs" are you suggesting we mere women are on here lying about the prices we pay for butter but you come wading in with your daddy sized 10s and we all have to listen? Go and whistle sunshine.

Also I found what I thought was a great deal on butter a couple of weeks ago, it was only when I put it on the belt to pay that I noticed it had added extras that had never even seen a photo of a cow let alone been inside one.

scaryteacher · 14/10/2017 19:19

Ta1k I was so chuffed to have a walnut tree in the garden was all...we got two per year if we got to them before the squirrels! When I said to the owner of the house we had to vacate how I'd used the medlars, she just looked blankly at me. We had loads of apples and pears as well...I had more stewed pears with cinnamon in the freezer than I knew what to do with.

Easilyflattered · 14/10/2017 19:28

Schools do heart and kidney dissections, until quite recently the local abattoir used to donate offal for free, for the good of education. There's now a charge, because there are ethnic minorities who will actually cook up more offal, so there's the demand.

I've no problem with the cooking up of offal or that ethnic minorities want to buy it, I'm just saying that people in this country used to eat stuff that has fallen out of favour, because we're used to cheap food. Some of us, myself included, might need to rethink their shopping.

Rufustherenegadereindeer1 · 14/10/2017 19:29

I agree cheese

HJaWoo · 14/10/2017 19:33

What's ridiculous is the mortgage on my house bought in 2004 (so not really that long ago) is about the same as my food bill. I don't know how people that rent on min wage afford to eat!

OlennasWimple · 14/10/2017 19:44

I'm trying to think of somewhere that I've visited recently or know people who have been where the food is cheaper than the UK (in the supermarkets, not eating out). I genuinely can't think of anywhere

Ta1kinPeece · 14/10/2017 19:58

Olennas
You are right
UK food is stupidly cheap
due to a mix of free market economics and open borders
both of which will be royally shat on by Brexit
when it happens, which it has NOT YET

but the UK is in that rainbows end of EU standards and US prices
with the best of both
it will not last

US food is cheap and unethical
mainland EU food is ethical end expensive

once the Bulgarians go home, Brits will start to pay realistic prices for their food
which will be great for the NHS obesity programme Wink

riseandfall · 14/10/2017 20:42

once the Bulgarians go home, Brits will start to pay realistic prices for their food which will be great for the NHS obesity programme

that made me laugh

scaryteacher · 14/10/2017 23:16

Ta1k I am not sure that all European food is ethical, given some of the rumblings about farming practices here in Belgium and across the borders in the NL and Germany.

HelenaDove · 14/10/2017 23:25

As chicken has been brought up i have two relatives who used to work for 2 Sisters and i have it on excellent authority that Aldi Morrisons and Co Op are not and never have been supplied by them.

safariboot · 14/10/2017 23:27

"Very few companies work on spot currencies, and most will have 18-month hedges in place, so any price rise due to their very large European sourcing won’t be felt overnight,” says Clive Black, an analyst at Shore Capital.

Basically supermarkets use various financial means so that they're not affected by short-term fluctuations in their costs. But those means only work for so long. When they run out, the supermarket feels the hit and the prices have to rise. You will notice we're now approaching 18 months since the EU membership referendum which is when the value of the pound went down and stayed down.

HelenaDove · 14/10/2017 23:29

Sorry i meant Asda I dont know about Aldi.

HJaWoo · 14/10/2017 23:30

Is food really that cheap in the us these days? Most things seemed more expensive when I was over thete last month. Californian avocados in ny were way more expensive than the Peru ones I by in Lidl. Same with grapes and just about everything.

Doramaybe · 14/10/2017 23:34

I shudder at having to buy US food imports or anywhere other than EU frankly.

I know EU is not perfect, but it does have rules and regs for food beyond anything I recognise outside of that bloc.

It may be protectionist, it may be lots of things, but I have faith in the safety of EU food. My choice if I buy crap, but it is still regulated and has all the info on the packet/bottle. So it is a choice.

Post Brexit I doubt we will read labels the same way anymore. Just gasp.

Doramaybe · 14/10/2017 23:41

And there will be tariffs for everything EU produced. Huh, get used to this idea, it is on the way. Food prices WILL rise due to the high pound and import taxes and tariffs.

I hate the idea of non regulated food. I know we import from NZ etc. for lamb and stuff but they are careful too. It is the US and China, etc. that I would worry about.

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