Have food prices gone up?

[Desperado40]

AIBU to think that food prices have gone up a lot since Christmas? I was shocked how much I had to pay for the last two big shops. I think I will have to start cutting down on amy non essential treats and meal plan better for much cheaper options a few times a week. Has anyone else noticed the price hikes this year?

Our Tesco shop has gone up considerably and our family income has reduced down to 30k due to covid . We were doing okay but I've recently been quite low thinking "this is it" for our future.

Yes they’ve massively increased. I’m surprised it’s not been in the press.

I also always go over the 95 item limit with Tesco and have to put stuff 'back'. I'm trying not to go into any supermarkets, but we needed to do a mid week top up for a few items that we had to put 'back'.

It’s been happening since well before lockdown and brexit but has accelerated over the last year.
I used to struggle to get my online shop up to the minimum amount 2 or 3 years ago —and have to add some vodka— Now just buying the basics it’s over the minimum every time.

Meat and veg are victims of shrinkflation....or they have ran out. It’s actually saving me money the supermarkets being out of stock of so many items. I can’t get out to the shops so just making do with what I have. Meals get a bit boring and grim but at least I have food.

I've definitely noticed prices increasing but have also noticed that special offers advertised on TV etc are not actually available in store so you end up buying a more expensive equivalent. We can absorb the increase but I know many people will struggle. I volunteer at a Foodbank and demand for help is definitely on the up.

I noticed things going up in the autumn. It's not just that the normal price has gone up, but a lot of things that used to be on offers, eg 2 x Cravendale milk for £2.70, seem to be full price in most supermarkets now.

I'm dreading the day when I have to pay full price for Lurpak spreadable, it's got shocking expensive but up to now I've been able to get it on offer at least somewhere.

And it's not just food, cleaning materials seem to have got expensive too.

Yes, definitely. I have a "favourites" list for my online shop that is pretty standard, and I am conscious of 10p here, 10p there, which sounds like nothing but obviously adds up. We tend to pick up yellow stickered things when we see them and freeze which is useful now there are far fewer special offers in the supermarkets.

*I find the rabid anti lockdown , let's get on with normal in the face of all evidence to the contrary crowd, the most doommongering of all , and I hate that term as usually it is applied to people with realistic concerns,
I agree. If there had been no lockdown the virus would have gone unchecked resulting in more deaths including those with other conditions who couldn't get into overflowing hospitals. That would hardly have been beneficial to the economy. The other reason for the increase in prices and reduction of availability of vegetables is the lack of EU farm workers. Both Brexit and covid will have affected this.

Bold fail there but you will probably work it out.

Squirty cream has gone up from 99p to £2 in Spar! I am appalled.

I think supermarkets are still limiting offers too. There's quite a few things in Tesco that were permanently BOGOF or in some kind of deal for ages but don't seem to be at the moment.

@nomorecrumbs

Squirty cream has gone up from 99p to £2 in Spar! I am appalled.

Maybe people have been using it more in lockdown

I'm in Australia, food shopping has gone up a lot her over the past 6 months

You could well be right @Ch3rish, I wasnt paying full attention so my apologies if I have misled anyone.

I noticed that the majority of the offers especially BOGOFS ended when the restrictions started and there was a rush on supermarkets. Now the slots are more available for delivery and the stores seem pretty well stocked, the offers never reappeared. I shop in Tesco and get items I regularly buy when there's a clubcard price wherever possible but as PPs said, I always waited for the bit lurpack tubs to be on offer - they nearly always were but things I regularly use like those, a particular coffee etc don't seem to be on offer much, if at all now. Lurpack is getting bloody expensive!!

@Magicpaintbrush

Finding it particularly difficult to afford fish at the moment, unless it's processed and covered in breadcrumbs. Or mackerel, which is okay until you choke on a bone. Fresh fillets of anything are super pricey now. It would cost about £8 for two packs of fish fillets these days.

I'm lucky enough to live near the coast, and there's an excellent fish fishmonger on the harbourside. It's a few miles away, so I haven't been since before Christmas, but usually their fish is significantly cheaper than the supermarkets. Even late last year I could get 3 small plaice fillets for £1.20 or £1.50, depending on how good the catch had been.

I was outraged at the weekend.
In M&S - I don't food shop there that often, I got to the dine in for £10, carefully chose my food (beef lasagne, which I am still yearning for), then started looking for the wine. The "deal" no longer includes wine
I plonked all the meal deal food back and bought a pack of sausages with a yellow sticker for 50p.

I know they've been doing dine in for £10 for years, and at some point they had to but the price up or offer the choice of a box of fish fingers or a pack of pasta - but NO WINE???!!!

I've had Covid, and not drunk alcohol for over a month - but NO WINE???!!! It's the principle.

bumblingbovine49
I'd say a worldwide pandemic has caused supply chain issues rather than lockdown but we won't ever be able to prove that so it is a pretty pointless argument

Not true, and very easily proved. The lockdown caused supply chain issues i.e. people not at work in factories making things, not at work assembling things, or growing things, or creating things, not at work packing things, shipping things, etc.
It was clearly not the virus that caused supply chain disruption, it was the global response to it.

I also predict that we will have a post pandemic boom in the economy (like the 1920s after the war and the 1918 pandemic)

Possibly, but if so, it will be hand in hand with high inflation while debt outstrips GDP. Inflation is of course the only reasonable option available to us to deal with the massive debt burden to GDP in the western economies. Debt default would be unpalatable.
It is also possible that we have a massive deflationary crash before any boom. But don’t rely on the “pent-up demand” myth.

Of course that was followed by the 1930s which were not so economically rosy and then another war,,,,,,. Etc etc
Indeed. Watch Taiwan. Global powers are shifting.

Haha @BottleFlipper perhaps so all these lockdown couples getting creative while I just want some for my coffee!

Have definitely noticed price increases here (NI) and shortages here have been significant since brexit. Also, we would tend to buy quite a bit if supermarket value ranges for basics and I have definitely noticed these disappearing. I have stopped buying some of the treats that we would normally buy to compensate - I count myself lucky that we have that wiggle room in our budget.

Yep they have. Before xmas our cat food cost £4 now it is £5.20. Our fave ready meal was £6.50 now it’s £7.50. Etc. As far as I can tell they have kept the basic essentials the same price so as not to squeeze those with the lowest food shop budget but anything organic / ready meal type is definitely going up.