AIBU TO BE SHOCKED BY THIS INCREASE?!

[Kate0902900908]

So I’ve just gotten over the fuel increase, made some changes and become more aware of the energy I’m using both at home and car.

Went to Lidl today. I buy 2 tubs of cream cheese a week, Lidl Goldessa Classic Cream Cheese 200g. It’s been 65p for as long as I can remember. Today shop assistant was sorting shelves and organising labels ect. New label £1.19. I asked if that was the price of the 65p cream cheese to which she said Yh, it’s not changed yet it’s 75p now but will be £1.19.
HOW? How? Can something almost double in price? Also when I was it 75p 😵‍💫

I noticed the other cheeses all being marked up too some by 80p-£1. Add this increase to even 1/3 of a shop and it’s going to be unmanageable!
Has anyone else noticed prices on things they buy almost doubling?
What is the plan to keep costs down?
Where do we go from Lidl’s own soft cheese 😭

It’s very easy. Check kefir facebook groups, there are always people giving away kefir grains for free as they grow quickly and a lot. Easy to post too.

Yes and no. House prices were cheaper but interest rates were higher. Neighbours did watch each other's kids but you couldn't get a job and expect a neighbour to watch your kids in the garden all day. No free hours at nursery either but food was the big expense back then which changed significantly.

On a slightly different note I'm very impressed at how accurately people remember prices, maybe being old without perfect recall saves me from alot of shocks. I can't ignore the total at the end though.

I think which supermarket you use can just be geography. I can walk to Lidl, Tesco would be about a 12 mile drive, 24 mile round trip so that would wipe out alot of savings.

There used to be a woman who went to our local supermarket who brought her 3 teens with her and got them to block off access while she put EVERTHING from reduced into her trolly then went round the corner sorted what she wanted and then put the rest back.

I could never quite decide if I admired her cheek or detested her selfishness!!

I buy ‘real’ soft cheese because it’s cheaper - Marscapone / Ricotta / Cottage cheese etc. Have you shopped around yet? If not might be worth a try. Marscapone or ricotta is 90p to a £1 for 200g and you can mash it with flavour / herbs /spices so it often tastes better.

Thank you @Swedalia

I think about this a lot, too. And the welfare of animals raised for meat must also be shocking when you can buy meat products as such low prices. It's not sustainable in the long term.

There’s just been an interesting programme on R4 about food costs. For small scale producers of high quality products it’s very likely they will go out of business. One example was a man who sells products related to legumes etc. They sell high quality baked beans which previously cost £1 a tin but due to price rises in production and canning (particularly canning) the cost was rising to £2 per can.

Its easy to see how one can individually reduce expenditure if you have a decent budget but maintaining a similar standard of living is simply impossible.

The Dutch farmers are going ape.

This week we switched from lurpak spreadable unsalted butter, to Tesco spreadable lightly salted butter. We used lurpak because it was the only unsalted spreadable butter we could find, but can't justify the cost at nearly £5 a tub.

We did try switching to normal unsalted butter last week but the weather is so shit up here in North Wales at the moment that it wasn't even close to spreadable even when left out on the countertop all day.

The trouble is that those with smaller houses probably won’t have the storage space to buy in bulk. The most we have room for is 24 pouches as we don’t have much cupboard space and we have no garage etc.

For me it's the continuing price rises of cat food. It just seems to be going up week on week. I have 11 of the fuss pots to feed and it's costing me a fortune.

They must be the crap off the floor! Doubt they contain any meat!

I shop in the evening to hopefully grab a bargain and stock up the freezer when I can. Also use a lot of pulses and lentils which I buy in bulk

It's more the lack of workers in the UK. Either because of covid and having to isolate or because of us leaving the EU. Majority of farm workers were from the EU and had the right to remain and work in the UK. There was a farmer on last night saying his crops went to waste. So because we don't have as much available it pushed the prices up.

Another farmer last year had nobody to pick strawberries for strawberry season. Rather than them go to waste he threw the farm open to the public and allowed them to come and pick them for free. He couldn't charge them because it's not that type of farm. But could be an option for some. Not everyone drive's though to be able to get to farm's out in the stick's. I don't and there's not much public transport in rural areas.

This must be a regional thing, as I live near Washington DC and our shelves are fully stocked. I've noticed that some fresh produce is more expensive than it used to be, but fruit and veg has always been expensive here. When I first came here in 2006, I went to the supermarket to buy a pepper, and they cost $2.50 each! I've started shopping in International grocery stores, where produce is much, much cheaper and there's more selection.

Also quite a lots of modern slavers went out of business since you can't just travel willy nilly for work so... Yeah. Apples will be more expensive soon. And other things

I have noticed the price of everything rising. As the OP stated it isn't just by 10pc but 50+pc.

What happens to hospitals and schools who have a very tight budget but will still be expected to provide a service?

Jesus, have a word with yourself. That's that posters dinner.

Why are the subsidies being phased out? Is it due to Brexit?

John McDonnell is calling for a price cap on basic foods. Don't know how that would work, but it seems essential if we don't want people literally starving.

What happens to hospitals and schools who have a very tight budget but will still be expected to provide a service?

Due to supply chain issues with laundry supplies this is happening:
In an internal email circulated to staff last month at Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust, one senior official said both the trust and the NHS were “currently experiencing severe issues with the supply chain for linen deliveries,” adding that the situation is “currently very serious”.
The email reads: “Please follow good Infection Prevention and Control practices, but only change linen if essential. For example, always change bed linen between patients, but do not change inpatients’ bed linen daily if at all possible.

School meal providers are already cutting costs - phasing out beef roast dinners for gammon as it's cheaper etc. www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/62028452

Heinz Baked beans. £1.65 a tin in a small Tesco this morning. None available in the big Tesco. My eldest is autistic, they are his main diet and he will notice any change even if I poured different ones in a Heinz tin. He can tell the cheese has changed just by sniffing it. Seems like a small problem but it’s huge for us!

The gov’t either pay the difference or they lose out. You can’t arbitrarily cap prices on a physical commodity that‘a in short supply.

Look how well that’s working out for us in energy. Europe is utterly fucked this winter with natural gas potentially being cut off.