Grocery bill increase

[MooseBreath]

Just been reviewing this month's spends and I'm gobsmacked by the price of groceries lately. If anything, we've been cooking more from scratch, so it should surely be cheaper?

I don't know if it's Brexit, Covid, or supermarkets taking the piss. Has anyone else noticed this?

Yep

Yep, I spend roughly the same amount each week yet I'm getting significantly less items for my money than I was a few months ago. Also struggle to do a week's shop some weeks because the meat all seems to have sell by dates only a few days into the future.

Also are more of you at home more of the time?

We are saving money on school lunches, petrol, coffees, sandwiches, meals out, drinks at the pub but we are spending much more on food shopping, wine to have at home, heating and electric.

I'm not spending more, I cook a lot and now have more time to cook up all the leftovers.

I suppose it all depends on what ingredients you buy. I tend to buy meat when its on offer and seasonal fruit and veg.

Yep, my son loves apple juice, we only buy the Asda brand but I liked the pressed stuff (never concentrate) and it has gone up by 30p as have things like blocks of cheese and cheese slices. I have noticed it is all th e stuff that I consider family staples that have gone up.

DH and I are home, but have been since the start of the first lockdown. We now have an 8-month-old who is eating, but he mainly has what we do, and certainly not in vast quantities.

Yep definitely 20p or 50p increase on many products which adds up massively in my weekly shop. I think its a brexit/shops taking the piss combo

Supermarkets have been taking the piss throughout covid. There are barely any offers anymore and lots of prices have been rounded up, and that's been the case since around last March.

Definitely.
And not just a penny or two here and there - big price jumps on all sorts of stuff.

Actually I found that prices went up massively at the start of the pandemic last year. People were desperate for shopping delivery slots and I think the supermarkets took advantage. I have used Ocado for years and found that from March onwards last year my shopping bill went up by about a third. Some of that was DH eating lunch at home but he doesn't eat that much! I haven't noticed a recent price increase, its just never gone down since last March.

Pennylane - Why not just buy it and freeze it.

I spend a lot, but then I have 6 people at home full time. And they all have expensive tastes.
The supermarkets have got a captive market really - there's very little alternative, so they can charge what they like. And they are! When did cereal become £3 a box?

I just assumed that Covid & brexit together have finally provided some cover for supermarkets to raise prices. They have faced rising prices for years that they have resisted passing on (the UK has a very competitive supermarket sector and relatively low food prices as a result). Supermarkets have been struggling, we are now getting a few years worth of food price inflation in one go.it doesn't make it any easier though. I feel for families on tight budgets but you can still get quite a lot of food for your money if you choose carefully.

I went to Tesco today and thought all of the prices had gone up

You beat me to it. I was just going to create a thread asking how much people spend on food. I shop at Tesco once a month and buy fresh stuff from my village every Friday.

I think our food shop has gone up from around £200 per month to about £250 per month.

Yes, however I switched to Aldi as I was shopping in Asda and spending £180 a week. First week I went to Aldi, I spent £75! Can't really fault Aldi for quality.

I'm glad I'm not going mad - I have thought the exact same thing! I'm aware there are more meals being prepared at home but at a much lower cost to buying breakfast/lunch when working every day.

Average weeks shopping is nearing £200 for 2 adults and a toddler!

The best current rough estimate I've seen is that most food will go up about 6-8 percent because of Brexit alone.

That means something that costs £5 will be 40p more. This quickly adds up. For a family with a £400/month shopping bill, that's £32 more a month, or about £385 more a year. For a large family with a £600/month shopping bill, that's about £575 more a year.

That doesn't count Covid prices/supermarket rises--just Brexit alone. (Sourced from Bloomberg, whom I trust.)

Food bill and heating bills are way up from where they were when we were all at work. Snacks - esp kids- all day makes a big difference

20-30p extra on pretty much everything soon adds up. And yes, £3 for a box of cereal - it's basically animal fodder, isn't it?

Not just that, smaller packages for the same price.

Usually just 5 or 10g less but still, bit cheeky

We’ve switched to Aldi too. I’m kicking myself for not doing it sooner, it’s saving me a small fortune.

I think for us we'd normally shop here and there, stocking up on things on offer. Within walking distance we have Asda, Sainsbury's, Iceland, Lidl, Aldi, M&S and a 24 hour Tesco. I don't feel right about popping in 3 to 4 times a week and raiding the reduced section any more so I'm spending £2.50 on Organix cereal bars for DS instead of buying the £1.39 Aldi ones, for example.

I'm also not sure it's much cheaper cooking from scratch if you use meat at the moment. I make a simple spag bol but at the moment if I go to our closest (Sainsbury's) the mince is £5.50, passata £1.50, spaghetti £1, and garlic bread slices £1.50 (plus the herbs and grated cheese on top) so a portion costs almost the same as a spag bol ready meal. Nicer, but not cheaper.

Our food bill has definately gone up but then it's balanced out by us not going anywhere or doing anything and so it works out ok.

I agree I do use Aldi too but the salad and veg and fruit doesn't stay fresh for as long so I buy that in other places.

It happens every January as the supermarkets try to recoup the money lost from the Christmas special offers.

Think it's a bit worse this year though, probably for all the reasons you suggested.