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?

I've found bread has gone up by about 30p, even for the value loaves. I've always bought the more expensive milk as we don't drink a lot so buy the ones that stay fresh for a week once opened, they have stayed the same price but fresh milk seems to have risen. I tend to buy the fruit and veg thats on offer as there's usually quite a few bits so haven't seen much of a change there, same with cheese etc- switch up what brands etc I get by what's on offer so haven't noticed a huge difference yet.

I’ve cut way back on the amount of meat I buy and have started bulking out curries, stews and the like with chickpeas, beans and lentils (mainly the dried ones, soaked and cooked rather than tins). So instead of two chicken breasts in a meal I’ll use one and then use the other the next night. I’ve also started using a lot more frozen veg instead of fresh in cooking, particularly things like peppers and onions. I’ll Chuck a handful of lentils and and an extra carrot into a spag bol so it makes two meals instead of one, and a chunk of chorizo goes a long way when you mix it with butter beans in a casserole. I’m still spending about the same but not getting as many nice things - no nice ham, no fancy pasta (it’s strictly Basics now), but if I’m honest, when I’m serving up I tend to give my DP and DS most of the meat. It’s not the end of the world, but it’s just a bit more shit, at a time when we could all do with something a little bit nicer.

Thanks Leave voters.

Depends on what you are buying if you are getting inseason products i spent £50 today for 3 of us for the week so a slight increase by about £2 for us i bought pineapples, kiwi, grapes, apples as this weeks fruit as was cheaper then the others, veg each item was under 60p so not meat wise we only buy chicken and fish and also the increase is because we all at home so buying more bread products

Mine has gone up a lot too but I thought it was because I am trying to be healthier, so more fruit, and I have changed from aldi to a morrisons delivery. Still it's about 20 quid more expensive a week. I can wait to go back to strolling around aldi. I am spending about 75-85 a week on average for 2 adults and a hungry toddler.

Have more savvy shoppers than me figured out that certain items are more expensive?

Yes, more is spent at home, and some prices have gone up. Light bulbs which used to cost about 75p cost £5 or more for two.

But there is less petrol used, and nothing whatsoever is spent on food or drink outside the home.

So it might actually be cheaper- except that we eat more!

@hammeringinmyhead

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.

£1.50 for passata Aldi and Asda both do a sub 35p version. I’d wager there are cheaper options.

Another Aldi convert - went in to try the wine and now I’ve tried everything!

Pre-Covid I got an Asda delivery with Tesco top ups. Decided not to continue with Asda at the start of lockdown as I could get to shops easily and safely and thought my slot could be used better elsewhere.

I had noticed Asda’s prices gradually creeping up month on month for about a year before lockdown though

Loving finding and trying new things in Aldi. Some great, some not so much but on the whole I love both the taste and the price point.

Not really noticed overall bill going up as always cooked from scratch anyway and took own lunch to work.

Only thing I have changed is trying to always have 10 days worth of food in as have known a few friends get the dreaded notification from track and trace and finding themselves stuck with empty cupboards

My shopping costs have decreased quite a bit since I discovered the Olio app - it's a food sharing site but they have Food Heroes that collect unsold food from Tesco and some other shops - then give it away.

Today I picked up 4 large loaves of Tesco bakery bread, a cheese straw, 3 chocolate croissants, 2 almond croissants, a small farmhouse granary loaf and a loaf of sliced white. Totally free. Obviously this relies on you being mobile but I don't go out of my way. I also get lots of veg and salad.

I do a mix of Aldi, Waitrose, M&S and sainsbos - but I'm a total yellow label addict so pretty much if it's fresh in our house, it's reduced. Aldi is for stuff I know I can't get reduced. Anything else is whatever I can find.

However I am conscious I am fortunate that I trained as a chef so am pretty handy using up pretty much anything I get

Agree - we are spending a bloody fortune on food.

Yep! But I am eating soooooo much.

@Sceptre86

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.

The concentrate is just as good as the other. I watched a programme on it as I always assumed concentrate was bad. Should save some money there.

During first lockdown went to a greengrocer wholesalers warehouse, they also sell to the public. Their veg. is fresh and lasts well and is cheaper. Bought a sack of potatoes as an experiment £12. That lasted us months. They did need a wash being muddy, but none of them made shoots within days, after six months there were no shoots. We kept them in the garage so I had to bring them in a bowl full at a time. Did think about buying a sack of carrots but to be honest could not eat that many carrots but if your family likes carrot type soups it might be worth it. Bought another sack at christmas time, they are still absolutely fresh and will see us through the winter.

If you have the space and use a lot of veg. fruit it is worth finding a wholesaler. A friend has a bookers card they bulk buy meat and save a lot of money that way, so if you can get one.

We’ve had to cut down as now we aren’t buying meat from M&S on Ocado. Because they’ve become absolutely shit. They send everything with sell by date for one or two days hence why I have to do two shops. So upset we need to rely on them because they really have taken advantage. So we still have to shop on top of this if we want nice salads/fruit/meat that’s fresh.

@Marmite27 I buy Cirio passata to make my own pasta and pizza sauces. It's £1.70 for a 680g jar. I used to wonder how something as basic as sieved tomatoes could vary so much in price until I tasted the cirio compared to Tesco passata. Sometimes I've been sent the Waitrose essentials one as a sub. The cirio is worth every penny. The texture and the flavour is so much better. Other passata is like tomato juice in comparison. Thin, slightly bitter rather than quite sweet, and lacking depth of flavour. I'm usually a supermarket own brand convert on a lot of things but some things are worth paying for. I've switched to Waitrose own brand tea instead of Tetley to compensate

At Asda a large tin of tomatoes is cheaper than a small one, go figure. But a small box of teabags works out cheaper than a large family box.

@DfEisashambles is it because of missing offers? Or have they really up this that much?
At the beginning of lockdown chicken went up in wholesale because there were issues in factories AND massive takeaway demand. It dropped back down. Wodlnder if some shops uoped it bud didn't bring it down

@SchrodingersImmigrant
I’m ashamed to say we have take away about 3 times a week too. I do try get the offers but my usual shop now is more noticeably expensive so we’ve cut back on lots of favourites.

I've noticed this too. I could easily feed us for £60 a week at the start of lockdown. Now it's nearer £80 for the same stuff give or take.

When I see families of 4/5 shopping for £100 or less per week it makes me wonder how they do it

[quote DfEisashambles]@SchrodingersImmigrant
I’m ashamed to say we have take away about 3 times a week too. I do try get the offers but my usual shop now is more noticeably expensive so we’ve cut back on lots of favourites.[/quote]
Eh, don't be 😁 everyone copes differently.

Thanks. Yeah I was curious if it's just offers or not. If it's just notlrmal than that's ridiculous. Wages rose at that time, but not taht much. And yes. Even covering the extra fotlr ppe etc should bring it up THAT much

@SchrodingersImmigrant agreed.

When I can I won’t be relying on deliveries anymore, I’ll be off to Aldi to see what the fuss is about

I find cooking from scratch costs a lot more. I do two types of weekly food shops, one where I meal plan and have all my recipe ingredients listed down to go shopping with, and the other being seeing what takes my fancy at Aldi or Tesco and planning the weeks meals from that. The former is definitely more expensive (£20ish more per week).

I wouldn’t say that this is unhealthier either, sure you could just frozen pizzas and chips, but for example Aldi do a chicken that’s ready to bung in the oven, this does us for at least 2 meals. Tesco do the stir fry for about £3, we add chicken to this.

However, this does get a bit boring, every so often I like to find a recipe and buy all the ingredients to make something special. On Friday I bought some beef short rib for the butcher, I made a spicy braised beef stew and on Saturday night I made pulled beef bbq burgers with the leftovers. Luckily we can afford to treat our selves to these luxuries, but I do have sympathy for those who are on a strict budget and are finding themselves getting less and less for the same money each week.