To be shocked at the rising price of food?

[AbsentmindedWoman]

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?

"Some of you should try and do a weekly shop almost anywhere else in western Europe, you won't be moaning about prices then.
Even in glorious socialist Norway most people have to drive to Sweden for their food shopping as prices are so high.
Food is still cheaper than almost any point in history. Buy basic ingredients and learn to bloody cook."

Yes, but the difference is that they pay much less for accommodation and public transport, their public services are outstanding due to high taxes and sensible governing. SO much ignorance on these threads. But then the British have neglected educating their masses so no surprise.

Bolshy the farmers I know hope that we will control the UK market via import taxes to support the UK farming industry.

Don't know if it will happen. It ought to. And yes there will be price increases. And food might cost more. But you only have to look at the dairy industry to see the problems that low cost food causes. When it costs more to produce a litre of milk than what we are willing to pay for it there is only one way an industry will go.

We need to pay what food is worth. And think about sustainability. I try and buy meat that is farmed and produced in the UK. Aldi and Morrisons seems to be best for this. And they certainly aren't the most expensive so it is possible to do.

@LellyMcKelly 😂

I have always tried to support uk farmers, frouby, for environmental and animal welfare reasons. Now though? If food bills continue to rise I will have to buy whatever is cheapest. If British farmers voted leave then they can frankly look after themselves, just like I will have to when Brexit adversely affects the industry I work in.

Sdmugedstars Wrong, especially in Belgium.

Frouby Was delighted to find minced English lamb and lamb meatballs on the shelves in Carrefour. I bought the lot.

It's Tuna that gets me!! Cannot believe the price of it!

And it used to be cheap as chips. Tuna bake was always one of our staples when we have a "pauper's month", but it's not a mega-cheap dinner any more.

The Rioja that was £6-6.50 for ages is now £8.50. I felt obliged to buy an inferior (but still perfectly drinkable) brand yesterday. If this carries on, we'll have to start drinking English wine - heaven forfend!

Butter we buy which ever brand is on offer of spreadable. Always one of offer at £1.

Ah well that expains your previous comment about butter prices not having risen and 'butter' being £1. That isn't butter, it's spread. The rest of us are talking about real block butter.

I buy a lot of block butter. Just over a year ago you could buy a 8oz block for 89p. Now you're looking at £1.40 for the identical product.

Spread doesn't even have any butter in it so won't be affected by butter prices.

I've had to cut back on wine though ususally buy from Aldi - Toro something.

I make a special trip to Home Bargains to buy branded cereal, crisps, choc, coffee pop, cleaning products etc. It saves me a fortune. Or I go to Poundland

I buy frozen fruit and veg a lot too (though have stupid small freezer). I'm veggie and could live fairly frugally food wise but the other three are meat eaters and it still saddens me that you can buy a whole chicken in Aldi for £2 something. But I'd be hypocritical as I'd buy it because it's cheap.

Bolshy we are in the building industry so likely to feel the effects of brexit as much as anyone else. Which is why I voted remain.

Of course we all feed our families what we can afford. In my opinion we can't afford not to support UK farmers. Or support the UK economy in other ways. And I did that before brexit. If we look at the UK as a company we need to export more and import less.

One of the impacts of the falling £1 is manufactoring is returning to the UK. Certainly in the area I live. The steel industry was a massive employer locally and for the first time in years the rolling mills and steel plants are setting on again instead of laying off.

And for me the higher cost of things like food produced and manufactures abroad is offset by the growth of this sector. In the building industry the falling £1 against the € means that it's not as attractive for European tradesmen to come to the UK and work to send money home.

The subcontractors that work for us have families to support in the UK. They live in houses here not digs. They have to pay their rents and mortgages in £s not €s. The problem the construction industry will have is finding enough skilled labour as again as an industry it's not been invested in and it has relied on cheap foreign labour.

As I said I voted remain. But I am cautiously optimistic about brexit. For me and my family it might end up being a positive. I appreciate that it won't be the case for everyone but rising food prices might be a good thing. Especially when food waste in the UK is such an issue.

I am 40 next week and don't remember food ever being wasted when I was growing up. The mumsnet magic chicken was alive and well in the 80's, you were lucky to have a couple of pieces of beef in your stew, veg came from the garden or allotment for a lot of the year and bacon was a treat on holidays and high days. Table scraps went to the ndns chickens and your mum made a cake for your birthday.

There will always be the poorest who struggle. But I suspect those noticing the higher prices of prawns and butter aren't actually really struggling.

In the last recession I cut our shopping bill by 2/3s. We didn't really go without. We lost a bit of weight which didn't hurt. We ate better if I am honest. More veg, no processed stuff. I do appreciate the luxury of a kitchen etc. But it's possible for a lot of us to reduce the food shop significantly without suffering from malnutrition.

Nobody is saying we will be suffering from malnutrition though, just that the rising prices are very obvious.

Its a difficult balance. People have been used to lower prices and so the increases will be noticeable. And you can't supplement from elsewhere very quickly. It takes time to plant a productive veg patch. I have a vegetable patch and we grow our own with lots of things which helps enormously in keeping costs down, but I fully appreciate that not everyone has the space to do that. We also have chickens but again it isn't for everyone and the cost of buying the hens in the first place (circa £35 around here) means it takes a good while to make those eggs "free" even if you feed them primarily on scraps.

See all them dick heads who voted brexit!!!!! Fucking £4 for butter in asda last week!

Yes. I only like lurpak and the 1kg spreadable is now £7.20.

I'm pretty sure it was £6 beforr.

Also I do wonder how much of it supermarkets taking advantage and cashing in.

Prices have been kept low for years and the supermarkets have absorbed a number of price rises in order to keep custom.

I feel.as though now brexit can be blamed that they have introduced the full price hike in one go and blamed brexit.

I heard the other day that Tesco had made a huge and I mean huge profits in the first 6 months which is a bit of a turn around.

Also I do wonder how much of it supermarkets taking advantage and cashing in. loads of it!!

blankscreen

I think youre right

YANBU

' It takes time to plant a productive veg patch. '

And a garden. Not all councils have allotments (ours doesn't) and many that do have very long waiting lists. But hey, let's dig for victory, food is more expensive in other countries (that usually have lower cost of living in other areas compared to here), back in the day we only had meat on high holidays, etc.

And a garden. Not all councils have allotments

I did say expat that I fully appreciated that not everyone had the space. My post was saying that it can be difficult to supplement in that way, not that it is always easy.

Having said that, there are lots of things you can plant in pots on a window ledge and every bit counts.

I am 40 next week and don't remember food ever being wasted when I was growing up. The mumsnet magic chicken was alive and well in the 80's, you were lucky to have a couple of pieces of beef in your stew, veg came from the garden or allotment for a lot of the year and bacon was a treat on holidays and high days. Table scraps went to the ndns chickens and your mum made a cake for your birthday

Are you sure you were born in 1977 and not 1917? I am a bit younger but wastage was well and truly alive in the 80s. Think more like loads of convenience foods, meat every day, snacks on demand. Maybe you just had a very frugal family.

Which 80s did you grow up in frouby?! I grew up in the 80s and we ate a lot of processed food because it was cheap and quick. Fray bentos pies, fish paste, angel delight, baked beans. Grew up with a single working parent who didn't remotely have time for an allotment as she had to support her family.
If food rises in price, it's more likely we'll fill ourselves up on cheap, processed crap, not start living the good life. Many areas (mine included) don't have allotments and where they are available there are long waiting lists. Modern houses have postage stamp Gardens so that's a non-starter.

Manufacturing has definitely not returned to my area. It's textile mills round here and I don't think the pound could ever drop low enough to compete with the low wages of workers overseas. We have also lost the skills required to run them tbh. Major employer round here is services, which Brexit does not bode well for.

Maybe we couldn't afford to waste food. My parents were very frugal. My stepdad came from a farming background so knew enough to grow a lot of our own veg. My mum cooked from scratch. We only had a tiny under the counter fridge with a little ice box so no big bags of frozen chips.

I don't remember being particularly different to the rest of our neighbours or family. But a lot were from a mining background or worked in the steel works so my 80s was probably a bit different to other peoples 80s.

Just because your memories are different doesn't mean mine were wrong. We were skint when growing up. We had coal fires until I was about 10. A big council garden. Most families had either chickens or a veg patch and sometimes an allotment.

My mum shopped 3 times a week on the local market because she got the bus home and we didn't have anywhere to put a big weekly shop. We did have chips as a sack of spuds lived in the old outhouse and they were cheap. But it was chips and egg or chips and beans. A fray bentos pie was a treat for the adults. Fish paste was for party sandwiches. And potted meat.

Jam sarnies were for sunday tea with a bit of swiss roll or if there was enough milk left before Monday morning you might get angel delight.

My childhood was pretty normal for where we lived. It's obviously going to vary. But food was meant to fill you up as cheaply as possible. I didn't have prawns until I was teenager. A tin of salmon in the Christmas hamper was the height of luxury to us.

I noticed lots of price rises in Asda last week, a loaf of asda own bread has gone up 9p which is a lot considering it was only 50p in the first place! As others have said, butter has gone up loads, as has fresh veg- I now buy frozen as fresh is just too expensive for the amount we go through.

I bet all the supermarket bosses are loving brexit - they can put their prices up and blame it on that.

Food prices in the UK have been very cheap for years, too cheap really. They seemed at one time to not really go up at all. I lived abroad for almost 4 years and when I came back to the UK food prices were almost exactly the same as when I left which is ridiculous.

I live in a flat and have been on the waiting list for an allotment for 5years. If I had to rely on it for veg I would have died of scurvy by now!